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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s The Postman Always Rings Twice
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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America) Hardback - 1997

by Horace McCoy; Kenneth Fearing; William Lindsay Gresham; Cornell Woolrich; James M. Cain; Edward Anderson

Disturbing, poetic, anarchic, punctuated by terrifying bursts of rage and paranoia, and powerfully evocative of the lost and desperate back alleys of American life, these underground classics are being made permanently and widely available for the first time in a groundbreaking two-volume collection from The Library of America. This volume includes "The Postman Always Rings Twice; They Shoot Horses, Don't They?; Thieves Like Us; The Big Clock; Nightmare Alley"; and "I Married a Dead Man".


From the rear cover

This adventurous volume, with its companion devoted to the 1950s, presents a rich vein of modern American writing too often neglected in mainstream literary histories. Evolving out of the terse and violent hardboiled style of the pulp magazines, noir fiction expanded over the decades into a varied and innovative body of writing. Tapping deep roots in the American literary imagination, the novels in this volume explore themes of crime, guilt, deception, obsessive passion, murder, and the disintegrating psyche. With visionary and often subversive force they create a dark and violent mythology out of the most commonplace elements of modern life. The raw power of their vernacular style has profoundly influenced contemporary American culture and writing. Far from formulaic, they are ambitious works which bend the rules of genre fiction to their often experimental purposes.

Details

  • Title Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)
  • Author Horace McCoy; Kenneth Fearing; William Lindsay Gresham; Cornell Woolrich; James M. Cain; Edward Anderson
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 990
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Library of America, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • Date September 1, 1997
  • ISBN 9781883011468
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 1950's
    • Chronological Period: 1950-1999

Media reviews

Citations

  • Kirkus Reviews, 07/15/1997, Page 1074
  • Library Journal, 09/01/1997, Page 224
  • New York Times, 11/30/1997, Page 24

About the author

Robert Polito, editor, is a poet, biographer, and critic whose books include Doubles, Hollywood & God, A Reader's Guide to James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover, and Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson, for which he received a National Book Critics Circle Award and an Edgar Award. He directs the Graduate Writing Program at the New School in New York City.
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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot...
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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)

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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)

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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)

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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Thieves Like Us, The Big Clock, Nightmare Alley, I Married a Dead Man

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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)

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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)

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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot...
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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)

by Robert Polito; McCoy, Horace; Fearing, Kenneth; Gresham, William Lindsay; Woolrich, Cornell; James M. Cain; Edward Anderson

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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s & 40s (LOA #94): The Postman Always Rings Twice /...
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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s & 40s (LOA #94): The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big ... Nightmare Alley / I Married a Dead Man: Vol 1

by Polito, Robert

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