Film & TV source books
MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE.
New York: Simon and Schuster, [1946]. Octavo, illustrations by William Steig, cloth. First edition. Signed inscription by Hodgins dated in 1947 on the upper corner of the front free endpaper. Made into a classic film in 1948 with Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas. Remade in 2007 titled "Are We Done Yet?"
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.
FINDER'S KEEPERS.
New York: William Morrow & Company, 1940. Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1-2] 3-279 [280-282: blank], original yellow cloth, spine stamped in brown, top edge stained red. First edition. The author's seventh mystery novel. Features Humphrey Campbell. "Between 1936 and 1946, Homes published 12 detective and suspense novels set primarily in the valleys and foothills of north-central California. Each is distinguished by clever plotting, semi-hard-boiled realism, fast-paced action, witty and remarkably good dialogue, and some of the finest and most vivid descriptive passages in mystery fiction." - Pederson (ed.): St. James Guide To Crime and Mystery Writers (4th ed.), p 533.
FORTY WHACKS.
New York: William Morrow And Company, 1941. Octavo, pp. [1-8] [1-2] 3-246 [247-248: blank], original light green cloth, spine stamped in black and red, top edge stained red. First edition. The author's eighth mystery novel. Features Humphrey Campbell. Basis for the 1944 film "Crime by Night," starring Jane Wyman and Jerome Cowan. "Between 1936 and 1946, Homes published 12 detective and suspense novels set primarily in the valleys and foothills of north-central California. Each is distinguished by clever plotting, semi-hard-boiled realism, fast-paced action, witty and remarkably good dialogue, and some of the finest and most vivid descriptive passages in mystery fiction."- Pederson (ed.): St. James Guide To Crime and Mystery Writers (4th ed.), p 533.
ROGUE MALE.
London: Chatto and Windus, 1939. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 1-270 [271] [272: printers statement], original lavender cloth, spine stamped in white. First edition. The story of a British man who hunts a European dictator (read: Adolf Hitler), he gets the man in his cross hairs but does not shoot. He is captured, tortured, and escapes, back to England, where he is hunted by the dictator's secret agents. "This is a nightmarish novel, filled with breathless chases, fascinating detail work, and images that will haunt you for days after reading." - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, pp. 382-384. Filmed in 1941 as Man Hunt with Walter Pidgeon, later filmed as a television movie.
A CASE OF NEED.
New York and Cleveland: An NAL Book, The World Publishing Company, [1968]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Author's first book of fiction. Edgar award winner for best first novel. Filmed in 1972 as "The Carey Treatment," directed by Blake Edwards, starring James Coburn. Hubin, p. 420.
RIDE THE PINK HORSE.
New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, [1946]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Corrupt ex-Senator has his wife murdered and his one time personal secretary goes to Santa Fe to settle matters. A triangular chess match occurs between the Senator, the Secretary and a Police Officer from Chicago who is also on the trail. Hubin p. 421.
NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS.
New York: Random House, [1954]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Humorous novel about an inductee into the Air Force. Made into a feature film with Andy Griffith in the starring role.
DR. MABUSE: MASTER OF MYSTERY: A NOVEL ... Authorized Translation by Lilian A. Clare.
London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., [1923]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-324, original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in red. First edition in English. Exploits of a super criminal whose weapon of choice is hypnosis. A translation of DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (Berlin: Ullstein, 1920), which appears to be Jacques' only book about the sinister doctor (Jacques shelved a sequel in the 1930s). A very popular silent film based on the novel, directed by Fritz Lang from a script by Thea von Harbou, was produced in 1922. There were many filmed sequels by Lang and others. "The new [German] fantasies of the 1920's often feature exalted, superhuman characters who rebel against discipline and the order of the world, who acknowledge no law, and do what they please. Power is their aim, the manipulation and control of their fellow beings, and a feverish spirit is apparent in these books, of which Norbert Jacques' DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER is perhaps a typical example." - Franz Rottensteiner, "German-Language Fantasy Since 1900," Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature, pp. 2403-2404 Bleiler (1948), p. 160. Reginald 07762. Hubin (1994), p. 435. Not in Bloch (2002; 2010).
BLADE RUNNER 2: THE EDGE OF HUMAN.
New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland: Bantam Books, [1995]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First U. S. trade edition. In the urban jungle of future Los Angeles blade runner Rick Deckard hunts a mysterious sixth replicant everyone wants dead. A direct sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 film, with some interpolations from the original Philip K. Dick novel. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1986-2009.
THIS ISLAND EARTH.
Chicago: Shasta Publishers, [1952]. Octavo, quarter cloth with boards. First edition. Basis for the 1955 film starring Jeff Morrow. While not a great film, it is a science fiction classic, the sequences on the planet Metaluna are highly imaginative. Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-222.
THE TUNNEL.
New York: The Macaulay Company, 1915. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 11-322 [note: text complete despite gap in pagination], original pictorial dark green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First U. S. edition. Translation of DER TUNNEL (1913). A science fiction novel of remarkable dramatic power and energy which describes and glorifies a giant engineering project to bore a submarine railway tunnel connecting the United States with Europe. "THE TUNNEL shows what it means to sweat and toil for a great dream. Compared to the dramatic impact of Kellermann's book, other novels about similar titanic undertakings are pale things indeed." - Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2316-9. " ... a fiction classic dealing with technology and technicians; the gigantic project of a tunnel between Europe and America is an epic struggle of deep impact" - Rottensteiner, "German SF" in Anatomy of Wonder (1987), p. 382. Kellermann's novel was translated and published in Britain and America in 1915. Both Germany and Britain produced film versions in the 1930s. Bailey, Pilgrims Through Space and Time, p. 157. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1214. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 45. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 660. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 126. Bleiler (1978), p. 112. Reginald 08124. Lexikon 1, pp. 148-9. See Bloch (2002) 1686.
SCHINDLER'S LIST.
New York: Simon and Schuster, [1982]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First U.S. edition. This book (first published as Schindler's Ark) won the Booker Prize and was made into a moving Oscar award winning picture by Stephen Spielberg; the story of Oskar Schindler and how he saved numerous Jewish lives during the holocaust of WWII.
FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON.
New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., [1966]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Review slip laid in. The novel won the 1966 Nebula award; the earlier short story won the 1960 Hugo award. Filmed twice, the first as "Charly" in 1968 starring Cliff Robertson who won an Oscar for the title role, and again in 2000 as "Flowers for Algernon" in a made for TV film. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-597. Survey of Science Fiction Literature II, pp. 802-06.
FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON.
New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., [1966]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The novel won the 1966 Nebula award; the earlier short story won the 1960 Hugo award. Filmed twice, the first as "Charly" in 1968 starring Cliff Robertson who won an Oscar for the title role, and again in 2000 as "Flowers for Algernon" in a made for TV film. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-597. Survey of Science Fiction Literature II, pp. 802-06.
FIRESTARTER.
London: Macdonald, 1980. Octavo, Hardcover. First British edition. Barron (ed.): Horror Literature 4-167.
FIRESTARTER.
London: Macdonald, 1980. Octavo, Hardcover. First British edition.
HEARTS IN ATLANTIS.
[New York]: Scribner, [1999]. Octavo, two-part boards. First edition. Five interconnected narratives spanning the last four decades and affected in some way by the Sixties and the Vietnam War. Filmed in 2001 from a screenplay by William Goldman.
JUST AFTER SUNSET: STORIES.
New York London Toronto Sydney: Scribner, [2008]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The story "Cat From Hell" was a segment in the film Tales From the Darkside: The Movie (1990) and "Harvey's Dream" was made into a short film (2007) titled Paul's Dream and also "El Seuno de Harvey" (2005).
'SALEM'S LOT.
[London]: New English LIbrary, [1976]. Octavo, boards. First British edition. Vampire novel set in a sleepy Maine town. Filmed twice as made for television films. Barron (ed.): Horror Literature 4-172. Jones & Newman: Horror: 100 Best Books #72.
HIDEAWAY.
[London]: Headline, [1992]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Precedes the U.S. edition. Made into a feature film in 1995.
MR. MURDER.
[London]: Headline, [1993]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The British edition precedes the American edition. Suspense novel involving a serial killer. Produced as a made for TV film in 1998.
MR. MURDER.
[London]: Headline, [1993]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The British edition precedes the American edition. Suspense novel involving a serial killer. Produced as a made for TV film in 1998.
BINARY.
New York: Knopf, 1972. Octavo, Hardcover. First edition. Last novel with the John Lange pseudonym. Filmed in 1972 under the title Pursuit (title changed for television release), directed by the author.