Film & TV source books
SPIES...
New York, London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1929. Octavo, pp. [i-ii] iii-vi 1 [2] 3-307 [308], fly leaf front and rear, ten inserted plates of film stills, original blue cloth, front and spine stamped in orange. First U. S. edition. The 1928 silent thriller Spies (Spione), a UFA production, was directed by Fritz Lang, his first film after Metropolis. An under appreciated film production which was adapted by his wife from her story. The film starred Willy Fritsch and Gerda Maurus.
SPIONE. ROMAN ...
Berlin: August Scherl G.m.b.H., [1928]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-206 [207] [208-212: ads], eight inserted plates with sixteen movie stills, original decorated green cloth, front panel stamped in gold, spine panel stamped in brown and gold, top edge stained yellow, white ribbon marker. First edition. Signed on the half title page by Gerda Maurus, the film's leading actress and a lover of filmmaker Fritz Lang. Von Harbou co-wrote the screenplay for the film with her husband Fritz Lang. This novel was published in conjunction with the film release. An espionage thriller.
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.
London: Mayflower, 1970. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. Sherlockiana. Novel based on a screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond. Photo-cover from the film.
THE WICKER MAN.
New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., [1978]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. "A suspenseful occult mystery with a well-orchestrated twist ending, although its one-dimensional characters betray its origins as a script for Hardy's 1972 film of the same name." - Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror (1999) 6-156. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 4-134.
ENIGMA.
London: Hutchinson, [1995]. Octavo, boards. First edition. A novel about code breaking at Bletchley Park during WW II. Made into a film.
FATHERLAND.
New York: Random House, [1992]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First U. S. edition. Alternate history novel in which the Nazi Germans have won WW II. The story takes place in 1964 and involves a murder of a high ranking Nazi and a criminal conspiracy. Made into an HBO film (1994).
BLACK SUNDAY.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1975]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The author's first book. Filmed in 1977 by John Frankenheimer starring Bruce Dern, Robert Shaw and Marthe Keller. A terrorist plot to blow up the super bowl.
BLACK SUNDAY.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1975]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The author's first book. Filmed in 1977 by John Frankenheimer starring Bruce Dern, Robert Shaw and Marthe Keller. A terrorist plot to blow up the super bowl.
RED DRAGON.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Filmed twice, the first by Michael Mann in 1986 titled Manhunter and again in 2002 titled Red Dragon. Barron (ed.): Horror Literature 4-135. Jones and Newman (eds.): Horror: 100 Best Books #84.
VIOLENT SATURDAY.
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1955. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Author's first novel. Basis for the hard boiled film, directed by Richard Fleischer from a screenplay by Sidney Boehm starring Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.
VIOLENT SATURDAY.
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1955. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Author's first novel. Basis for the hard boiled film, directed by Richard Fleischer from a screenplay by Sidney Boehm starring Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.
THE PUPPET MASTERS.
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Filmed in 1994 with Donald Sutherland. Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-205. Pringle: Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels #4.
THE PUPPET MASTERS.
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Parasitic slug "masters" from outer space "attach themselves to human hosts and control their every thought and action ... Speaking through a host, a master offers mankind a life of contentment, peace, and security of surrender, and the offer appears genuine ... [The novel] allegorizes modern anxiety about the preservation of freedom ... Heinlein anticipates that moment when a man must make the fateful choice between security and freedom." - Berger, Science Fiction and the New Dark Age, p. 106. "Fast-moving tale of paranoid (anti-Communist?) fears run wild. Well handled, a classic of its type." - Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, second edition (1995), p. 291. Filmed in 1994 with Donald Sutherland. Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-205. Pringle: Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels #4.
ROCKET SHIP GALILEO.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, [1947]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. This is the author's first book, preceded by a pamphlet printing a convention speech. "A pioneering novel that began American mainstream science fiction for children and combined young protagonists, gadgetry, current science, and adventure in such a way that even today the book retains interest."- Anatomy of Wonder 5-62. Basis for the 1950 film Destination Moon in which Heinlein also contributed to the writing of the screenplay.
ROCKET SHIP GALILEO.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, [1947]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The importance of this book cannot be overstated, as it is the first published novel (in book form), by one of the major, if not the most, important science fiction writer of post-war America. Heinlein established himself in the field of science fiction during the golden age of Astounding Science Fiction (starting in 1939), he would later introduce a generation of baby boomer children to this literary genre. After World War II, Heinlein's career expanded the reach of the genre by being published in the 'slick' magazines of the period (Saturday Evening Post and others) and he also began a series of juvenile novels to be published by the mainstream firm of Charles Scribner's Sons. Their reach was wide, especially into the library marketplace were many young children would encounter them. This title is "...the first US juvenile sf novel to reflect the new levels of characterization, style and scientific plausibility now expected in the field", "...it was the first in a series that represents the most important contribution any single writer has made to children's SF..." Clute and Nicholls: The Science Fiction Encyclopedia (1994), p. 554-557. "A pioneering novel that began American mainstream science fiction for children and combined young protagonists, gadgetry, current science, and adventure in such a way that even today the book retains interest." Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 5-62. George Pal's 1950 film Destination Moon is loosely based on ROCKET SHIP GALILEO. Heinlein co-authored the screenplay and served as a technical advisor to the production, along with German rocket expert Hermann Oberth. Destination Moon, the first of Pal's many sf films, "has great historical importance: its commercial success initiated the sf film boom of the 1950s, after a decade that had contained almost no sf cinema at all. It has interest in hindsight, too, in the partial accuracy with which it anticipated the actual Moon landing of 1969. To this day, Destination Moon stands as a film obvious made by people who knew about science..." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Science Fiction Encyclopedia (1994), p. 324.
ROCKET SHIP GALILEO.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, [1947]. Octavo, illustrated by Thomas Voter, cloth. First edition. The importance of this book cannot be overstated, as it is the first published novel (in book form), by one of the major, if not the most, important science fiction writer of post-war America. Heinlein established himself in the field of science fiction during the golden age of Astounding Science Fiction (starting in 1939), he would later introduce a generation of baby boomer children to this literary genre. After World War II, Heinlein's career expanded the reach of the genre by being published in the 'slick' magazines of the period (Saturday Evening Post and others) and he also began a series of juvenile novels to be published by the mainstream firm of Charles Scribner's Sons. Their reach was wide, especially into the library marketplace were many young children would encounter them. This title is "...the first US juvenile sf novel to reflect the new levels of characterization, style and scientific plausibility now expected in the field", "...it was the first in a series that represents the most important contribution any single writer has made to children's SF..." - Clute and Nicholls: The Science Fiction Encyclopedia (1994), p. 554-557. "A pioneering novel that began American mainstream science fiction for children and combined young protagonists, gadgetry, current science, and adventure in such a way that even today the book retains interest." - Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 5-62. George Pal's 1950 film Destination Moon is loosely based on ROCKET SHIP GALILEO. Heinlein co-authored the screenplay and served as a technical advisor to the production, along with German rocket expert Hermann Oberth. Destination Moon, the first of Pal's many sf films, "has great historical importance: its commercial success initiated the sf film boom of the 1950s, after a decade that had contained almost no sf cinema at all. It has interest in hindsight, too, in the partial accuracy with which it anticipated the actual Moon landing of 1969. To this day, Destination Moon stands as a film obvious made by people who knew about science..." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Science Fiction Encyclopedia (1994), p. 324.
THE PEOPLE: NO DIFFERENT FLESH.
London: Victor Gollancz, 1966. Octavo, boards. First edition. Sequel to PILGRIMAGE: THE BOOK OF THE PEOPLE (1962). This title and PILGRIMAGE are the basis for a made to TV film, The People (1972). See Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 3-93.
THE RATS.
[Arvada, CO: Centipede Press, 2015]. Octavo, cloth. First U. S. hardcover edition. This copy sent out for review, no limitation page. This edition has a long introduction by Stephen Jones original to the volume.
MIDNIGHT COWBOY.
New York: Simon and Schuster, [1965]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Basis for the 1969 film with Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The author's first novel. A crime novel set in the Boston underworld. Filmed in 1973 with Robert Mitchum in the title role.
THE GLASS CELL.
Garden City, New York: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Review slip laid in. Filmed in 1978 as Die Glaeserne Zelle (The Glass Cell).
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.
New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., [1955]. original black cloth stamped in green. First edition. The first of Highsmith's four books featuring Tom Ripley, a charming con man, thief and murderer, for whom "something always turned up." "Tom Ripley is one of the best of Highsmith's complex creations." - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights: The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, p. 359. Basis for the 1999 film starring Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow. Keating, Crime & Mystery: The 100 Best Books 52.
GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1947. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 1-275 [276-280], original beige cloth, front and spine stamped in green and gold. First edition. Presentation copy inscribed and signed by Hobson on the front free end paper, dated Feb. 5, 1947, in advance of the release date. Our research found a publication date of February 27, 1947, however we could not verify that with the Hobson archives at Columbia, but still in all likelihood this copy is from copies given to the author prepublication. Novel concerning anti-Semitism in contemporary America after World War II. First published in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1946. It became a bestseller for Simon and Schuster and sold over two million copies, it won the Jewish Book Council award for best Jewish novel. Basis for the film starring Gregory Peck directed by Elia Kazan which won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture of the Year. The author's second novel.
FALLEN ANGEL.
New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1945. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Mystery novel. Source for a film noir of the same title, directed by Otto Preminger with Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Bruce Cabot and John Carradine.
BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH.
New York: William Morrow & Company, 1946. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Basis for the classic noir film Out of the Past, directed by Jacques Tourneur from a script by the author. The film starred Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas.