> As for defunct
> publishers, I've had a lot of fun with Blue Murder
(not related to the
> equally defunct website). I'd love to see a complete
listing, if
anybody has
> such a thing.
>
> Al
>
Al, I think this is a complete list for both series of Blue
Murder but I can't be completely sure:
Simon & Schuster: No Good from a Corpse - Leigh Brackett
The Tiger Among Us - Leigh Brackett 13 French Street / The
Red Scarf - Gil Brewer The Burglar - David Goodis The Night
of the Hunter - Davis Grubb Build My Gallows High - Geoffrey
Homes The Big Heat - William P. McGivern The Red Right Hand -
Joel Townsley Rogers Cutter and Bone - Newton Thornburg The
Diamond Bikini - Charles Williams Rear Window and Other
Stories - Cornell Woolrich Sleep With Strangers - Dolores
Hitchens Sleep With Strangers - Dolores Hitchens
Xanadu: The Big Clock - Kenneth Fearing Whatever Happened to
Baby Jane? - Henry Farrell Straw Dogs - Gordon M. Williams
Somebody's Done For - David Goodis Solomon's Vineyard -
Jonathan Latimer Texas By the Tail - Jim Thompson Scarface -
Armitage Trail Scorpion Reef - Charles Williams Shock
Corridor - Michael Avallone The Big Enchilada - L. A. Morse
Manhattan Love Song - Cornell Woolrich*
(* I'm not sure that this one was published - it was listed
on inside covers as on of several forthcoming titles but I've
never seen it around, or any mention of it.)
Let me add a few other defunct publisher suggestions. Maxim
Jakubowski, Blue Murder editor, first entered noir publishing
with the Black Box thrillers for Zomba (whoever they were).
This series was responsible for alerting a whole generation
of nascent noiristas
(including me) to life beyond Hammett, Chandler & Cain.
Each omnibus volume would reprint 3-4 novels by authors such
as Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Cornell Woolrich, Horace McCoy
& W. R. Burnett. I think these volumes are quite pricey
on the net but you can still come across them in 2nd hand
bookshops in Australia so I'd think the UK would be even
better a place to look. Although not defunct, UK publishers
Allison & Busby published the excellent American Crime
series in the 80's with large runs of books by authors such
as Chester Himes, Richard Stark & Ross Macdonald. Not
part of the American crime series but contemporary to it and
packaged similarly are the great Brit hardboiled novels of
Ted Lewis such as Get Carter. And thinking of Black Lizard,
you can't go too wrong by going back to the source of much of
their material - Fawcett Gold Medal novels of the 50's &
60's. Some of the hipper authors are a bit pricey but you
would still be able to get reasonably priced reading copies,
especially if you didn't mind buying alternative cheaper
editions as much of this stuff has been reprinted. In a less
defunct vein, Prion are publishing a whole series of books
that have been the basis of famous films and there seems to
be a heavy noir/hardboiled theme predominating (Thieves Like
Us, The Asphalt Jungle). Hopefully some useful info.
Rene
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