About this title: The story of Melvin Purvis, the once-iconic G-man and public hero destroyed not by villains but by the jealousy of his boss, J Edgar Hoover By the end of 1934 Melvin Purvis was, after President Roosevelt, the most famous man in America. Just thirty-one years old, he presided over the FBI's remarkable sweep of the great Public Enemies of the ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: 1ST,
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Date Published: 10/2005
ISBN-13:9781586483012ISBN:1586483013
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 363 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Edition: 1ST,
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Date Published: 10/2005
ISBN-13:9781586483012ISBN:1586483013
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 363 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
Description: New. 1586483013 Dust Jacket has very little shelf wear. No remainder mark. Pages are clean with no markings, no creases and no dog-ears. Hardcover. read more
Description: Good. 2005-Hardcover----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: New. Advance Reading Copy. NEW NEW NEW; never read; never sold. Nothing more to say. ISBN: 1586483013. NEW NEW NEW; no remainder markings; nothing else to say. 2005. Advance Reading Copy. read more
Description: Very Good. 1586483013 Public Affairs hardcover w/dj, 2005, 1st edition/1st printing, dj price $26.00, carefully read-only slight wear...Near Fine/Fine...Not a remainder or ex-lib junk. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781586483012ISBN:1586483013
Description: New in new dust jacket. Book and dust jacket are in MINT condition. No flaws. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 363 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: hardbound
Publisher: PublicAffairs, New York
Date Published: (2005)
ISBN-13:9781586483012ISBN:1586483013
Description: Good plus or better, bottom corners slightly bumped. Clean, bright and tight otherwise. Lightly edgeworn, lightly rubbed jacket. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: BBS / PublicAffairs [2005], New York
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781586483012ISBN:1586483013
Description: Near Fine in Very Good jacket. First edition. 363+ pages, photo-illustrated, index. Near Fine copy [spine ends lightly bumped] in otherwise Fine Dust Wrapper with [what looks like, although it may not actually be] some ring-staining to a portion of the rear panel. read more
Description: Good+ in Good dust jacket; 2005. 1586483013. Lightly used, mild signs of handling-unmarked. Nice, used copy. DJ improved with new, clear mylar cover.; Hardcover; BBS Public Affairs; NY; 1st Edition, 1st printing; Large 8vo 9"-10" tall; 363 pages. read more
Description: Near Fine/Very Good hard cover. 8vo, boards, 363pp, illus. edgewear, rubbing, cup rings stains back, dust jacket. slight shelfwear cover. clean, tight, bright, text. hard cover. read more
Edition: Stated 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs, New York
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781586483012ISBN:1586483013
Description: Photo Illustrated. Fine in Fine jacket. 6.5 x 9.5 hard cover book. Tan lettering on the black and brown dust jacket spine with a photo illustrated cover. FBI hero Melvin Purvis's war against crime, and J. Edgar Hoover's war against him. 363 pages. Stated 1st Edition. Tight binding. Clean. Fine/Fine condition. read more
"Very interesting biography of a great man by his son. This just confirmed my view that J. Edgar Hoover was a manipulative, petty, insecure little man who abused his power."
"So, my main reason for picking this up was how good Johnny Depp looked in his John Dillinger clothes from the film "Public Enemies". And how good Christian Bale looked tracking him down. There. I said it.
But, this book is really interesting. It's written by the son of Melvin Purvis (the Christian Bale character) to give credit to his late father. It was a great read, although sometimes a little TOO detailed (I don't need to know the name of every agent involved on cases). Poor Melvin Purvis became this sudden hero after he caught Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, and J. Edgar Hoover just couldn't stand it. Hoover constantly cut down his former favorite employee until Purvis finally resigned from his position a year after Dillinger was killed.
And man, that Hoover was C-R-A-Z-Y. I realize this book was written with a bias for Purvis, but Hoover's own letters and actions condemn him. He was such a grasping, jealous, warped guy. He only hired FBI agents who were a certain height and good looking. If you were really qualified and intelligent but not so handsome you didn't get hired. One of the things he did to knock Purvis - which was hard to do since Purvis was an excellent agent- was send an agent to his Chicago office with white gloves who checked the cleanliness of the inside of drawers. Then he wrote a very critical report on how Purvis' office was a mess. You can't make this stuff up! I told you - crazy. Despite the public's great desire for information on Purvis, Hoover repeatedly refused to offer anything at all to reporters and wouldn't let Purvis himself speak to the press at all after he realized how popular the young, handsome agent had become. Even long after his resignation, Hoover kept tabs on Purvis, just waiting for Purvis to publicly defend himself or say something bad about the FBI, which he never did (and he was a popular public speaker). Purvis seems every bit the gentleman, Hoover the snivelly guy in the shadows waiting for him to screw up.
I particularly liked the chapter on Little Bohemia - the lodge where Purvis almost catches Dillinger (yep, it was in the movie, everyone was looking good). I loved that after the big shoot out, the owner of the lodge left the bullet holes and everything as it was and it became a HUGE boom to his business because everyone wanted to see where the action had been. And when these criminals went down (like Dillinger and Floyd) 10,000 people would flood through the morgue to see their bodies, wipe up the blood on the street with their bandanas as souvenirs.
Anyway, this was an interesting, if somewhat sad read. It's so tragic how Melvin Purvis was aggressivley pushed out of history by Hoover, and how he really didn't deserve that. And it really was sad how he died by a gunshot wound from his own gun. There is a strong case that it was an accident, but we'll never know for sure.
I thought this was a good read, and I wish that more people today could know about Melvin Purvis and his contributions. Stupid J. Edgar Hoover. Whatever good he did, it just doesn't justify how he mistreated Purvis."
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