Product Details
Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks And The Masters Of Noir

Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks And The Masters Of Noir
By Geoffrey O'Brien

List Price: $17.95
Price: $16.15 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

37 new or used available from $6.94

Average customer review:

Product 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.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #145871 in Books
  • Published on: 1997-03-21
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 214 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Geoffrey O'Brien is the author of Floating City: Selected Poems 1978-1995, The Phantom Empire, Dream Time, and other books. Executive editor of The Library of America, he also edited The Reader's Catalog.

Customer Reviews

A great book is back in print5
Hardboiled America is a key book for both mystery fans and paperback collectors. As a collector I first purchased the book for its reproductions of classic paperback covers. Hardboiled America's strong point, though, is its provocative and detailed coverage of niche authors. I credit O'Brian for introducing me to many of my favorite books and writers.

When first published, few of the authors discussed in O'Brien's book were in print. Thankfully, with the resergence of interest in noir fiction in the past decade and a half, books by the likes of Jim Thompson, David Goodis, and many others are easy to find. This is a relief, as readers of Hardboiled America will be inspired to seek out the work of numerous authors discussed within.

Superb review of the genre by an excellent writer.5
I first read O'Brien's book several years ago (in an earlier edition) on the recommendation from a collector who is also a fan of Jim Thompson. O'Brien is insightful, informative, engaging and right on in his assessment of an era of paperbacks and pulp noir that will never be truly recreated. What a wonderful work of literary criticism, beautifully illustrated and classically rendered. A treasure for the noir lover! I have it right next to my first edition original of The Killer Inside Me.

Rip Off Version - Buyer Beware!1
I'm Pi$$ed off coz I like this book but my friend's copy (which came out the printing b/f this one) has the exact same cover, etc. but has a section filled w/ Color Renditions off all the pulp covers! THIS RIP OFF version has those pages in Lame B&W and is even MORE EXPENSIVE! What the hell? Refund me.