Film & TV source books
SOME MUST WATCH.
New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, [1941]. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii 9-319 [320: blank]. original brick red cloth, spine stamped in pale orange, fore edge untrimmed, bottom edge rough trimmed. First U.S. edition. A noir thriller filmed in 1946 as The Spiral Staircase, directed by Robert Siodmak.
CLEAN BREAK.
New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc., [1955]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Clean Break is the source for the 1956 Stanley Kubrick film "The Killing." The script for this classic film noir was written by Kubrick and Jim Thompson, it starred Sterling Hayden, Elisha Cook, Jr., and Mary Windsor. "White is rather neglected at present but for unadorned action, suspense and vigorous storytelling his novels have seldom been surpassed." - St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, pp. 1049. Hubin, p. 858. Silver and Ward (eds.), Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd edition), pp. 154-155. Selby, Dark City: The Film Noir, pp. 117-122. Johnson, The Dark Page II, p. 204.
MIAMI BLUES.
New York: St. Martins Press, [1984]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The first Hoke Moseley novel . Filmed in 1990 starring Fred Ward as Hoke Moseley with Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
THE WOMAN CHASER.
[Chicago: Newsstand Library Inc., 1960]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Newsstand Library # U137. Paperback original. Filmed in 1999.
THE CONCRETE FLAMINGO.
London: [Cassell & Company Ltd, 1960]. Octavo, boards. First British and first hardcover edition. Hardboiled mystery novel. Originally published in the U.S. as a paperback original titled "ALL THE WAY." Filmed in 1959 as The 3rd Voice starring Edmund O'Brien.
THE SEIGE OF TRENCHER'S FARM.
New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1969. Octavo, , cloth backed boards. First U. S. edition. Basis for the film Straw Dogs. Hubin, p. 865.
TUCKER'S PEOPLE.
New York: L. B. Fischer, 1943. Octavo, pp. [1-12] [1-2] 3-496 [497-498: blank], cloth. First edition. The author's first novel. A novel of crime and the numbers racket which also frames contemporary social commentary. "...the reader is confronted with a terrible, blinding vision of the whole of modern society mirrored in the microcosm of the New York Underworld. It is a tragic picture, one of the slow, relentless destruction of man's natural self by economic insecurity-of a world in which men are dehumanized and demoralized by the steady pressure of economic necessity." - book review, New York Times, 25 April, 1943 by Thomas Lyle Collins. Filmed in 1948 as Force of Evil with John Garfield. Selby, Dark City: The Film Noir, 141. Silver and Ward (eds.), Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd edition), pp. 105-106. Johnson, The Dark Page I, pp. 280-281.
TWINS.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1977]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Basis for the David Cronenburg film.
AFTER-DINNER STORY.
Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, [1944]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Collection of six stories, including the classic "Rear Window," basis for the Alfred Hitchcock film (1954). Queen's Quorum #97. Hubin, p. 431.
AFTER-DINNER STORY.
Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, [1944]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Collection of six stories, including the classic "Rear Window," basis for the Alfred Hitchcock film (1954). Queen's Quorum #97.
THE DANCING DETECTIVE.
Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1946. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Story collection. The short story "Two Men in a Furnished Room" was the source for the noir film The Guilty (1947).
DEAD MAN BLUES.
Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott and Co., 1948. Octavo, boards. First edition. Story collection. The story "Fire Escape" was filmed as The Window in 1949 and The Boy Cried Murder in 1966, the story "If the Dead Could Talk" was filmed as Obsession in 1954 and again in 1984 as Cloak and Dagger, several other stories were also filmed in Japan and Argentina.
DEADLINE AT DAWN.
[New York]: Graphic Publishing Company, Inc., [1949]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition thus. Graphic #16. First Graphic edition. Abridged from the hardcover. First paperback edition is an Armed Services edition.
THE PHANTOM LADY.
New York: Pocket Books, Inc., [1944]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First paperback edition. Pocket #253.
SIX TIMES DEATH.
New York: Popular Library, [1948]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First trade paperback edition. Popular Library 137. First published in hardcover as After Dinner Story, published in an Armed Services edition in softcover, this is the first trade paperback edition, also first with this new title.
BLACK ALIBI.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1942. Octavo, original black cloth, spine panel stamped in gold, top edge stained red. First edition. A suspense thriller, the third of Woolrich's "black books." Basis for the 1943 film noir The Leopard Man produced by Val Lewton, directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Dennis O'Keefe and Margo. Hubin, p. 879. Johnson, The Dark Page, p. 288.
THE BLACK ANGEL.
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1943. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The basis for the 1946 film noir starring Dan Duryea, June Vincent, and Peter Lorre. Hubin, p. 879. Johnson, The Dark Page, p. 294.
THE BLACK CURTAIN.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1941. Octavo, original red cloth stamped in white and black, top edge stained black. First edition. The second of the "Black" books, a noir suspense novel. Filmed in 1942 as "Street of Chance" with Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor and Sheldon Leonard. Also adapted successfully for the CBS radio program "Suspense" and produced for "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (1962). "Faulty it may be, but THE BLACK CURTAIN is surely one of the best suspense novels ever written on the overworked theme of amnesia" - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, pp. 860-861. Johnson, The Dark Page, p. 286.
THE BLACK PATH OF FEAR.
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran and Co., Inc., 1944. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Basis for the 1946 film noir The Chase, starring Robert Cummings and Peter Lorre. Hubin, p. 879. Johnson, The Dark Page, p. 296.
BEAU IDEAL.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1928. Octavo, pp. [1-10] 1-373 [374: Epilogue], original dark blue cloth, front ruled in blind and stamped in gold, spine stamped in gold, top edge stained blue. First U. S. edition. Sequel to BEAU GESTE and BEAU SABREUR. Adventure in the French Foreign Legion, the story of John Geste and Otis Vanbrugh. Filmed in 1931 by RKO Pictures.
DELUGE: A ROMANCE.
New York: Cosmopolitan, 1928. Octavo, cloth. First U.S. edition. "Geological upheavals result in widespread flooding, but southern England is elevated to make the Cotswolds a tiny archipelago. The inhabitants' struggle for existence is described with a cold realism not previously seen." - Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 2-149. "...one of the very best catastrophe stories." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2439. A film based on this novel was released in 1933 with the setting changed to New York.
THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS.
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951. Octavo. Cloth. First edition. The precedes the British edition that has textual differences. Runner-up for the 1952 International Fantasy Award. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 3-199. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 5.
THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS.
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The precedes the British edition that has textual differences. Runner-up for the 1952 International Fantasy Award. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 3-199. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 5.