NOTHING MORE THAN MURDER sold 750,000 copies. Not sure about any of the
others. I know Arnold Hano at Lion said that Thompson didn't sell very well,
but not selling well 50-odd years ago is a very different thing from not
selling well these days. A standard Gold Medal print run was 200,000 copies,
for instance, whereas an equivalent first print run these days might be
20,000.
Some interesting comparative sales figures, according to George Tuttle:
Bruno Fischer's HOUSE OF FLESH: 1,800,212 copies
Charles Williams' HILL GIRL: 1,226,890
Gil Brewer's 13 FRENCH STREET: 1,200,365
David Goodis's CASSIDY'S GIRL: 1,036,4997
http://noirfiction.info/what2.htm
Al
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Vorzimmer" <jvorzimmer@austin.rr.com>
To: <rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2010 4:14 AM
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Jim Thompson: Where'd He Go?
> The truth lies somewhere in between. No one copy of any of his books sold
> even near a million copies, but he certainly wasn't unknown in the 60s.
> I'll tell you Jim Thompson was as well-known or as little-know (depending
> on your perspective) as he is today. If you asked a 1000 people selected
> at random in the 60s, you would have gotten about the same response as you
> would today. Take this from someone who A) Has read all of Thompson, B)
> Read his biographies and C) Has been an avid reader since the 60s.
>
> And, yes, millions of paperbacks are in landfills. Back in the 40s, 50s
> and 60s, paperbacks were thought of as disposable literature--read and
> throw it away--like magazines.
>
> Jeff
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