About this title: Cornell Woolrich published his first novel in 1926, and throughout the next four decades his fiction riveted the reading public with unparalleled mystery, suspense, and horror. America's most popular pulp magazines published hundreds of his stories. Classic films like Hitchcock's Rear Window, Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black, and Tournier's Black Alibi came chillingly to the screen from his work. And novels like Deadline at Dawn, Rendezvous in Black, and Night Has a Thousand Eyes gained him the epithet "father of noir. " Now with this new centenary volume of previously uncollected suspense ...
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Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780786715534ISBN:0786715537
Description: Fine. Unread publisher overstock copy! ! Pages are crisp and clean! Very light shelf wear to cover. Orders shipped next business day. Tracking number provided. read more
Description: Good. 0786715537 Book could have shelf wear, or a bump, or sunfade to edges. These are new unread books from the publisher with one of these conditions. See are feedback as customers are satisfied in how we grade our books. Has remainder mark. Fast shipping and customer service is our number 1 priority! read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780786712915ISBN:0786712910
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Small tear & rub on dj, lite soil on edge, tiny dent on abt 40 pgs, else fine. 1st edition. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 394 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Stated First Edition
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: An Otto Penzler Book/Carroll& Graf Publishers
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780786712915ISBN:0786712910
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Hard Cover. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" Stated First Carroll & Graf Edition. Ex-Library with usual markings and additions. Light wear. Binding tight, pages clean. DJ in mylar. (Store Display-Mys/Det) read more
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Excellent Copy. Text is crisp, clean and unmarked. Binding is tight. Dust Jacket is clean and glossy. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 394 p. Otto Penzler Book. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780786712915ISBN:0786712910
Description: ISBN 0786712910. Hardback. Bookclub Edition. Fine Condition book in a Fine Condition Dustjacket. Tight, bright, attractive copy with no markings to the book. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780786712915ISBN:0786712910
Description: ISBN 0786712910. Hardback. Bookclub Edition. Fine Condition book in a Fine Condition Dustjacket. Tight, bright, attractive copy with no markings to the book. Copy Number Four. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780786712915ISBN:0786712910
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. As new, unread condition from a collector's estate. Collection of previously uncollected suspense fiction. Scan available. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780786712915ISBN:0786712910
Description: Good. Used Condition-GOOD can be a well cared for Book that is in great condition to a Book that may show some signs of wear. GOOD Books sometimes are permanently marked; have some spine or page creases; exibit signs of aging or an ExLibrary copy. ** Sometimes grease pencil or permanent marking on cover. May contain limited notes and or highlighting. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. ** SHIPS FROM USA-Domestic Delivery takes 5-14 days ** read more
Description: New. 0786715537 SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! NEW Book! May have remainder mark. Most orders ship within 1 BUSINESS DAY with ORDER CONFIRMATION. Great Book at a Great Value! read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Perseus Books Group
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780786715534ISBN:0786715537
Description: New. Cornell Woolrich published his first novel in 1926, and throughout the next four decades his fiction riveted the reading public with unparalleled mystery, suspense, and horror. America's most popular pulp magazines published hundreds of his stories. read more
"Cornell Woolrich writes better novels than short stories. Even "Rear Window" needed Hitchcock's touch to make it come alive. The stories in this comp aren't particularly terrible - they just didn't make a big impression on me. In fact I just finished the book and can't remember a single story in it. It seems like Woolrich kept his A-list material for his novels."
"Ever since I read his novel I Married a Dead Man in the Library of America collection Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s, I've been in love with Cornell Woolrich. Often called the "father of noir" (which is a bit strange as he didn't originate the genre), Woolrich was quite possibly its best little-known-anymore writer of atmospherics. His plots aren't always 100% credible, though this is a feature of noir and not a bug. (Even Chandler once remarked he wasn't sure who killed a character in his first novel The Big Sleep).
Anyway... what atmospherics. Woolrich has an undeniable gift for the race against the clock mechanisms, and some of his strongest writings are stories that focus on just this aspect of the plot. "Three O'Clock" from another collection may be just about the most suspenseful story written. It should rank up there among the best short stories. His most famous story, "Rear Window," the basis for the Hitchcock film is partly that kind of story. We get the set up and the patient stalking of the murderer, but the narrative really kicks into high gear once the killer is on to our hero's detective work.
The collection under consideration doesn't contain any familiar Woolrich stories, the book made up of previously uncollected work drawn from the author's long association with the pulps. Rather remarkably we end with "New York Blues," quite possibly the last story ever finished by Woolrich, previously published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1970. It's classic Woolrich. A taut thriller about a man holed up in a hotel room, waiting for someone to come and get him for a murder. We don't realize until quite late in the story that it's the police, so palpable and threatening are these pursuers made out to be. One suspects a mob hit, only to be thrown by the later developments and the twist near the end.
Ah, the twist. While some authors overuse such a device (see O. Henry for the embodiment of this trait), Woolrich sometimes delivers on this and sometimes doesn't. His irregular track record here keeps us on our toes. Then when he does deliver the twist, it's hard to predict what it'll be or how it will shake things out. The final twist in "New York Blues" is so unreal that I almost suspected it was a hallucination.
Because so many of these stories do delve into a panicky, fear-induced almost visionary quality. Characters read bad news on plate glass window fronts and in whistles out in the street. Eyes are everywhere watching them, ears pressed to cheap hotel walls. The paranoiac style is dialed up to eleven but the truism "just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you" is never more true than in a Woolrich special.
A few of the stories are ambitious clunkers. I actually balked on recommending the book to a friend after about four or five stories in due to these. Let me formally revoke the dis-recommnendation. While the opening story, "Cigarette" is a breathless race against time to track down a poisoned smoke, and its follow up, "Double Feature" wrings the tension out of a cold-blooded killer sitting next to a detective's girlfriend at the theater, the book moves on to "Blue is for Bravery" and "Death in the Yoshiwara."
These two disappointing numbers star upstanding heroes and suffer for it. It was on the weakness of these two stories specifically that made me worry for my reputation after I'd recommended the collection. Not just weak stories, the plots are ridiculous confections of sock-o action antics driven by superhuman protagonists who ultimately save the day and get the girl. It's all so rote and commonplace that I worried for the rest of the collection. More clunkers like this and I'd start to wonder if my Woolrich love was misplaced.
Redemption came in a nasty little piece called "You Bet Your Life." A compulsive gambler named Fredericks taunts the narrator's friend Trainor into taking an odd bet. The gambler insists that any man can be goaded into murder given the right opportunity. He and Trainor then lay out a thousand bucks a piece on this philosophical speculation. Taking another thousand dollar bill, Fredericks cuts it in half, slips one half to one man (chosen by Trainor from among a crowd) and one half to another. A letter is then sent to each man telling him where he can get the other half of his bill. It's a neat trick and one week is given to see it to its fruition. Showcasing both Woolrich's bleak side (one suspects he would have sided with Fredericks in this bet) and his flair for the countdown tale, "You Bet Your Life" is a life saver for the collection.
A couple less than perfect stories mixed in with some real humdingers like "Through the Eye of a Dead Man" (with its child narrator) round out the collection. By the book's end, I was won over completely, though I fervently pray that someday someone will put together a real collection of greatest hits. Woolrich was immensely prolific (as most good pulp authors were), though his name recognition is slight outside of noir aficionados. His contributions to the field of suspense and crime writing were immense even if they weren't distilled down into a handy single character a la Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple. A thick volume showcasing his short story prowess with an accompanying collection of his novels (most are fairly short affairs), much in the way Library of America did for Hammett and Chandler, would go a long way to putting this situation to rights.
Recognized in his lifetime in ways that he wouldn't be in death (and oddly enough vice versa), Cornell Woolrich is an under-appreciated genius of shadows and pulse-quickeners. Night & Fear may not be the ideal collection, but it is a decent start for anyone looking for satisfying, thrilling reads."
"Woolrich is a fantastic hard-boiled fiction writer in the vein of James Cain. His works have been adapted into film noir classics and Hitchcock thrillers. He seems to have been a major influence on Ian Fleming as well."
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