WILLEFORD

Tucson: AZ: Dennis McMillan, 1997. First Edition, November 1997. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, with protective mylar cover.. The definative work on Willeford, Small print run of about 2,000 copies. The gold foil-stamp on the endpapers of the book were made from Charles Willeford's bookplate. From Dennis McMillan, the Publisher --" WILLEFORD" is the first extensive critical appreciation of the life and writing of Charles Willeford (1919-1988), author of MIAMI BLUES, THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY and COCKFIGHTER. From his early Depression-era experiences as a teen-age hobo, through his twenty-year enlistment in the Army and Air Force (including his role as a tank commander with Patton s Third Army, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge), his years of struggle in the paperback original jungle, to a final triumph with his series of crime novels about Miami homicide inspector Hoke Moseley, this book tells his story. Don Herron provides the fascinating background to all of Willeford s books, from PROLETARIAN LAUGHTER (1948) through the fifth Hoke Moseley novel, left unfinished at the time of his death. The stories behind HIGH PRIEST OF CALIFORNIA, PICK-UP, WILD WIVES, LUST IS A WOMAN, THE HOMBRE FROM SONORA, and OFF THE WALL are detailed here for the first time. Herron includes much previously unknown information on lost books such as THE WHIP HAND, and on the unpublished novels which Willeford turned to for the substance of the Hoke Moseley series. Lesser-known literary facts of Willeford s forty-year career are also chronicled; from his assistant-editorship of ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, to a twenty-year stint as mystery reviewer for the Miami Herald. Willeford s other artistic endeavors are treated in depth, including his acting career, starting with stage plays in the 1940s, and culminating with a major part in his movie COCKFIGHTER, directed by Monte Hellman, and starring Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton. Herron also relates Willeford s long-term avocation as a prankster, recording many of his hilarious routines, to which he himself fell victim more than once! WILLEFORD also features the most complete bibliography of Willeford s ever assembled, both primary and secondary, as well as his longest interview - over one hundred pages of never-before-published conversations with the author of MIAMI BLUES. 480+pgs. . 1st Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.