RARA-AVIS: aldrich / fearing / chandler
michael david sharp (msharp@umich.edu)
Mon, 23 Feb 1998 11:41:13 -0500 (EST)
Sorry to bother y'all w/ an only barely hard-boiled question. I
asked a
while back if anyone knew/liked the work of Ann Aldrich/Vin
Packer (wrote
many many PBOs for Gold Medal in the 50s and 60s). Someone
claimed that
her book *Take a Lesbian to Lunch* is exceedingly rare and
valuable. I
own it, and have my doubts that it's worth more than, say, $50
tops. Now,
I know how to determine value of most old pbs, the vintage
stuff, but an
early 70s PBO -- this has me baffled. Suggestions for how one
might
determine the worth of such a book would be greatly
appreciated. The only
thing I can imagine would drive this book's price through the
roof is the
possibility that it had a really small printing run or was
pulled for its
smart, journalistic, non-exploitative account of lesbians in
America. I
looked in to the book and in its debunking of cultural myths
about
homosexuality (and heterosexuality, frankly) it is Way ahead of
its time.
Recently read both Fearing's *The Big Clock* and Chandler's
*Lady in the
Lake*. Loved them both, though I'm a little tired of the "the
body isn't
who it's supposed to be" conceit (in the Chandler). *Big Clock*
is pure
noir, w/ that same multi-perspectival approach used by
Thompson
(*Kill-Off*) and Brown (*Lenient Beast*). Very . . .
interesting that the
woman who gets killed is supposed to be a "lesbian" (as well as
a easy lay
for men), and that what precipitates her being murdered is her
accusing
the killer (one of her lovers) of being a "fairy." Anyone have
an opinion
on whether there was supposed to be some validity in the
accusation?
That's all. More on Highsmith, please. MDS
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael D. Sharp Email: msharp@umich.edu
Department of English Lang. and Lit. Phone: (313)
761-8776
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Fax: (313) 763-3128
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.