Hardboiled America : Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters of Noir

by Geoffrey O'Brien

Paperback, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

813/.5209

Genres

Mystery

Fiction

Nonfiction

Collections

pd, mc

Publication

New York : Da Capo Press, 1997.

Description

Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, David Goodis ... these are a few of the masters of noir responsible for the great lurid paperbacks of the thirties, forties, and fifties. With titles like The Big Sleep, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, and Street of the Lost, with racy cover lines like "My gun-butt smashed his skull!" and "Ruthless terror ripped away the mask that hid cold fear," and with some of the most extraordinary cover illustrations ever to grace American literature, these paperbacks held the ingredients of American nightmares. In Harboiled America--lavishly illustrated with 135 paperback covers, and expanded with new material on Thompson, Goodis, and others--Geoffrey O'Brien masterfully explores the art, history, and ideas of the American paperback.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member wdlaurie

This book gave a good overview of the history and trends in pulp fiction. I'm a graphic designer and collector of Dell Mapbacks, and I really enjoyed this book. The only drawback is that the lovely images of the paperbacks throughout this book are in black and white. This book would have been so

much more fascinating to see the covers in full color.

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LibraryThing member datrappert

I am of two minds about this book. When O'Brien is talking about specific authors, his insights are often right on target. More than once he stated something that I have thought myself, such as that it is pretty amazing that a writer as depressing as David Goodis could have his "testaments of

deprivation and anxiety" published by a mass market publisher and sustained a career. His observations about other writers are just as sharp, but it's a shame he doesn't take on a broader selection.

Then there is the other part of the book, the story of the origin and growth of paperback publishing in the United States and an exploration of the place of hardboiled literature in America from the 1920s through the 1950s and into the present day. Parts of this narrative sink into academic gobbledegook that will tie your brain in a knot if you read it more than once.

There are also a nice selection of paperback covers, many of the related to the discussions of the authors and artists in the book. These alone aren't worth buying the book for (although this is the updated version and some of the covers are in color). If it is covers you want (and a very good narrative about the growth of paperback publishing), turn to Richard Lupoff's THE GREAT AMERICAN PAPERBACK.

All in all, I did enjoy reading this and it has pointed me to a few writers I haven't read yet. And that's the purpose of reading a book like this to begin with, isn't it?

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LibraryThing member EdGoldberg

The only way to describe the writing in this book is 'pedantic'. While the author covers many hardboiled mystery authors, most of the prose were dense and I got little meaning out of them.

Additionally, the photos of old paperback book covers were of very poor quality...almost illegible.

Use tis book

for the list of paperback books in the back and for its bibliography of relevant books on the subject.

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