Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Hardboiled Omnibus
Mark Sullivan (ANONYMEINC@webtv.net)
Tue, 1 Sep 1998 18:28:53 -0400 (EDT)
I also have a copy of Hardboiled Omnibus that I've had forever.
It was
one of the first things I read in the genre after Chandler got
me
hooked. I got it from a long-gone used book store outside DC
called X
Marks the Spot, which specialized in mysteries, particularly
hardboiled.
It's proprietor, generally known as X, recommended the Omnibus
(the 1952
Pocket Book edition, $1, but this was a couple of decades ago)
as a good
place to start. My reading list in classic hardboiled came from
X;
Leigh Brackett, Anthony Boucher, Raoul Whitfield and Henry Kane
were
high on his list. I'm most thankful to him, though, for turning
me on to
the Paul Pine books by John Evans/Howard Browne. For years,
every time
I saw X, I asked if he had gotten in a copy of A Taste for
Ashes, then
only available in its original hardback. Of course, the answer
was
always no, and I expected it to stay that way. A week before he
closed
the store though, X answered yes. It was the classic
doubletake, I
almost didn't register what he had said, taking a no answer for
granted.
He sold it to me for $20, which, at the time, I thought was
pretty
expensive (hey, I was making just over the $3-something minimum
wage at
the time), but I paid it and never regretted it.
Mark
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