Re: RARA-AVIS: Willeford

Mario Taboada (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Sun, 02 Aug 1998 01:18:58 +0000 Mark Sullivan, on the availability of Willeford's books:

<<I just can't afford the collectible prices (if you can
find them at all) for the paperback originals that have never been
reprinted, much less, Off the Wall, his "true life novel" about Son of
Sam.>>

To make it worse, the ones that were reprinted by Black Lizard, such as
Cockfighter, Pickup, The Burnt Orange Heresy, didn't remain in print
that long and often weren't displayed in the mystery section. I found my
copy of Cockfighter at a shop in Los Angeles, shelved with an odd
assortment of true crime and current affairs books. Carroll and Graf
reprinted "The Woman Chaser" (a weird psychosexual novel) but they
stopped at that, at least to my knowledge.

Besides Willeford, there are quite a few of the very best crime writers
who are hard to find, among them Fredric Brown, Howard Browne, William
Campbell Gault, Cornel Woolrich, Norbert Davis (his novels were never
reprinted), E. Richard Johnson (reprinted by IPL but quickly out of
print), David Goodis (though his original paperbacks sold in large
quantities and are easy to find), Leigh Brackett, Bart Spicer, Charles
Williams (again, these sold a lot originally, so there are plenty of
copies, but few reprints), Chester Himes, and so on.

I have noticed that the English do better by their best writers than we
do here in the U.S.

Regards,

MT
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