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W.R. Burnett

W.R. Burnett’s Followers (44)

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W.R. Burnett


Born
in Springfield, OH, The United States
November 25, 1899

Died
April 25, 1982

Genre
Mystery & Thrillers


William Riley "W. R." Burnett was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for the crime novel Little Caesar, the film adaptation of which is considered the first of the classic American gangster movies. Burnett was born in Springfield, Ohio. He left his civil service job there to move to Chicago when he was 28, by which time he had written over 100 short stories and five novels, all unpublished.

Burnett kept busy, producing a novel or more a year and turning most into screenplays (some as many as three times). Thematically Burnett was similar to Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain but his contrasting of the corruption and corrosion of the city with the better life his characters yearned for, represented by the paradise of the ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.86 · 3,700 ratings · 358 reviews · 61 distinct works • Similar authors
The Asphalt Jungle
3.92 avg rating — 2,380 ratings — published 1949 — 14 editions
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Little Caesar
3.70 avg rating — 398 ratings — published 1929 — 5 editions
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High Sierra
3.97 avg rating — 180 ratings — published 1940 — 40 editions
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Nobody Lives Forever
3.72 avg rating — 75 ratings — published 1943 — 4 editions
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Adobe Walls
3.34 avg rating — 58 ratings — published 1953 — 13 editions
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Vanity Row
3.78 avg rating — 37 ratings — published 1952
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Αντίο, Σικάγο
3.39 avg rating — 38 ratings — published 1981 — 12 editions
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Captain Lightfoot
3.33 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 1954 — 12 editions
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The Cool Man
3.30 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 1968 — 12 editions
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4 Novels by W.R. Burnett: L...
4.17 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 1984 — 3 editions
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More books by W.R. Burnett…

Polls

June 2021 - Crime

Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain (1893) 160 pages
 
  9 votes, 29.0%

The Asphalt Jungle by W.R. Burnett (1949) 230 pages
 
  7 votes, 22.6%

The Godfather by Mario Puzo (1969) 448 pages
 
  6 votes, 19.4%

The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum (1980) 566 pages
 
  5 votes, 16.1%

 
  4 votes, 12.9%

31 total votes
More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

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