Episode 12 Four Favorite Vintage Paperbacks 2022
Episode 11 - James M. Cain and Double Indemnity
SHOW NOTES
COLLECTING JAMES M. CAIN IN PAPERBACK
I personally like the vintage (Random House) editions of the 1970s with their photographic covers. The current paperbacks (quality paperback size) use graphics instead of noir photos. These editions make for excellent reading copies. You can frequently find a collection of Cain's paperbacks for sale on
eBay or Etsy, but patience and regular visits to your local used bookstore will result in a good collection of Cain's works.
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Vintage 1978 paperback cover |
Later novels are easy to find, but not in paperback. Some never had paperback reprints. Plus, they can be pricey even though they really shouldn't be.
I highly recommend Sixy Years of Journalism by James M. Cain (edited by Roy Hoopes). His newspaper essays are writing are so very funny. Read the essay on Southern California and you'll be laughing your ass off. This is a side of Cain that is not nearly as well known as it should be.
SPECIAL GUEST RICHARD BREWER
My co-host on this episode is a long-time mystery reader. We first met while working at the Mysterious Bookshops back in the 90s. He is also an audiobook director having recently completed the novels of Raymond Chandler as audiobooks. Check out his Facebook page. The Chandler audiobooks (narrated by Scott Brick) can be found here.
Richard mentioned the Raymond Chandler series he directed for Audible. You can find those recordings here. He recently finished narrating a Bart Hall western-noir book for Audible called Under Tower Peak. The anthology Culprits: The Heist Was Only the Beginning that Richard and Gary Phillips edited can be found here.
Episode 10 - Daphne Du Maurier & My Cousin Rachel
Daphne Du Maurier is best known for the film adaptations of her novels. Her bestselling novel Rebecca was made into a very popular Alfred Hitchcock film starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontane. The novel itself has never been out of print, but most people remember the movie and not the original novel which is much, much different than the film. Daphne has been unfairly (and inaccurately) labeled a "woman's author" and a writer of "gothic romances". Nothing could be further from the truth. She was an unsentimental author who wrote of the power struggles between men and women, especially in marriage. She had an uncanny ability to create suspense and mood along with a gift for storytelling. If anything her novels are anti-romances as the woman doesn't get her man and there are no happy endings to her novels.
In this episode of the Paperback Show, we look at Daphne Du Maurier's life and writings paying attention to the paperback versions of her works. We also feature a discussion of her masterpiece novel, My Cousin Rachel, a brilliant, nasty novel that tells the story of neurosis and jealousy from a young man's point of view. Author Greg Herren joins me in the discussion. In fact, it was Greg who got me to read Du Maurier because, frankly, I thought of her as a romance novelist like everyone else.
NOTES
COLLECTING DAPHNE DU MAURIER IN PAPERBACK
It's relatively easy to find inexpensive paperbacks of Du Maurier's major novels (Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel), but a bit harder for her other novels. Fortunately, if you just want to read Du Maurier there are lots of book club hardbacks out there if you look. My favorite paperback series is one published by Avon in the 1970's. Prices vary on these online and you'll find that book scouts have scoured your local paperback bookstore, so if you see one under $5 grab it. Penguin editions are also somewhat pricey, but not too much so. The early Pocket Books editions of Du Maurier are collectible and expensive, but they are beautiful and still hold up to reading. I thoroughly enjoyed the NYRB trade paperback, Don't Look Now and Other Stories (edited by Patrick McGrath who wrote a bang-up introduction). You can find a full list of her novels by googling or there's one at the end of Margaret Foster's wonderful biography.
SPECIAL GUEST GREGG HERREN
Greg is an award-winning author who lives in New Orleans. That's where I met him at a Horror Convention several years ago which I attended with my partner, Lisa Morton. It was over a long lunch that Greg shared his passion for the novels of Daphne Du Maurier and especially My Cousin Rachel. His comments stayed with me and broke the ice of my preconceptions about Du Maurier. I eventually started reading her and am now addicted.
You can find out more about Greg in his Wikipedia entry and there's a fine interview with him at Lambda Literary. My thanks to Greg for taking the time to talk to me.
Episode 9 Dan Marlowe - Neglected Gold Medal Crime Novelist
Dan J. Marlowe is a master crime novelist who deserves to be part of the pantheon of crime writers like Jim Thompson, Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake), and Patricia Highsmith. Why has he been forgotten? Probably because he wrote his major crime novels for a paperback publisher (Gold Medal) and never had a hardback publisher. Also, there's never been a major motion picture or tv series made from one of his books. It's primarily because readers don't know about him and there have been few reprints of his best novels.
Episode 9 of the Paperback Show introduces listeners (and hopefully readers) to this compelling novelist whose life reflected his novels (minus the killing). We offer a short biography of Dan J. Marlowe and then a wide-ranging discussion of his masterpiece, The Name of the Game is Death (date) with crime novelist, graphic novelist, and generally cool guy, Duane Swierczynski. Thank you, Duane, for sharing your time with me (and our podcast audience).
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Author Dan J. Marlowe |
NOTES
Biographical and critical information for this podcast came from an outstanding book on Dan J. Marlowe: Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe (2012) by Charles Kelly. This is an excellent book that will leave you with a feeling of having lived Marlowe's life. Mr. Kelly (a veteran news reporter) is an authority on Marlowe and a very good writer himself. There's a shorter version of the biography archived at Allan Guthrie's website (he's a very good mystery writer). It's called, "Mystery Man: Dan J. Marlowe".
Jon Warren's The Official Price Guide to Paperbacks was also a good source for tracking Marlowe's novels and their publishers. And Josef Hoffman's article, PLAYING WITH FIRE: DAN J. MARLOWE, AL NUSSBAUM, AND EARL DRAKE, was indispensable in figuring out the connection between Nussbaum and Marlowe.
COLLECTING DAN J. MARLOWE
Fortunately, collecting and reading Marlowe is not that difficult or expensive. Black Lizard paperbacks reprinted several Marlowe novels including The Name of the Game is Death. These are fairly easy to find and is probably the best place to start. Gold Medal printed a lot of copies of his books, so they are not rare. The Gold Medal editions of Marlowe (the originals) can be pricey. Expect to pay $20-$70 for most of them depending upon the condition. I've found several of his paperbacks in "good" condition at etsy.com and occasionally there are lots of Marlowe's Gold Medals at ebay.com for reasonable prices. You just have to be patient and do some comparison shopping. Look out for scalpers though.
If you just want to read Dan J. Marlowe and believe me he can become addictive, Simon & Schuster has a page dedicated to their ebook reprints which are ridiculously cheap. This may be the way to go to get your feet wet so to speak.
SPECIAL GUEST DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI
I discovered Duane's hard-boiled crime novel Wheel Man when it came out in 2005 and have been reading his excellent novels ever since. He lives in Los Angeles and is a frequent shopper at the Iliad Bookshop where he overhead me recommending Wheel Man to a customer. I'm delighted that he agreed to join me on the Dan J. Marlowe podcast. Thank you very much, Duane.
You can get a link to all of Duane's links at https://linktr.ee/swierczy. He also has a newsletter which you can find at https://gleefulmayhem.substack.com and a cool twitter pageThe main Wikipedia page for Duane has a list of his works which include non-fiction (This Here’s A Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book Of American Bank Robbery sounds wonderful) and all of his novels and a ton of his work in comics/graphic novels.
Dan J. Marlowe Paperback Covers Gallery
Gold Medal s1184 (1962) |
Gold Medal revised (1973) |
Black Lizard (1988) |
Italian paperback (?) |
Gold Medal (1969) |
Black Lizard (1988) |
Digit Books (?) |
Avon (?) |
Gold Medal (1974) |
Black Lizard (1988) |
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Gold Medal (1968) |
Gold Medal (1974) |