Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters of Noir (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780306807732)

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.

Author: Geoffrey O'Brien
ISBN-10: 0306807734
ISBN-13: 9780306807732
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Language: English
Published: 03/22/1997
Pages: 214
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.77lbs
Size: 8.99h x 5.93w x 0.56d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 09/15/1997 pg. 108