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The Big Book of Noir
Noir is big, so The Big Book of Noir jam-packs its pages with articles, interviews, excerpts, opinion, and gossip that chronicle its history and explore noir in all its forms: movies, detective stories, television and radio shows, comic books, and graphic novels.
- GenresAnthologiesNonfiction
386 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1998
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About the author
Lee Server
36 books18 followersLee Server specialises in books on popular culture and literary history.
He is the critically acclaimed author of such as 'Danger Is My Business: The Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines' (1993), 'Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback' (1995) and the biography 'Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care' (2001).
He is the critically acclaimed author of such as 'Danger Is My Business: The Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines' (1993), 'Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback' (1995) and the biography 'Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care' (2001).
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 16, 2013
The Big Book of Noir edited by Ed Gorman, Lee Server and Martin H. Greenberg
This big collection of short articles, memoirs and interviews makes an excellent reference volume for the bookshelf or a terrific read straight through. Its bulk is split between film and fiction. The film coverage centers on directors, but it's sprinkled with enough material on screenwriters and actors to keep the essays varied and fresh. Subjects include Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak, Marc Lawrence, Daniel Mainwaring, Abraham Polonsky, Phil Karlson, A. I. Bezzerides, Orson Welles, John Huston, Leigh Brackett, William Faulkner, and others. It's a rich resource, uncovering hidden noir treasures and revealing new insights on classics.
The fiction section is primarily focused on the noir of past decades. When it does devote a few pages to the contemporary scene, the cut-off is the late 90s (the volume was published in 1998). It is a golden harvest of paperback original era authors and publishers. The influence of Hammett and Chandler ever looms in the shadows, but the bright pool of the lamppost illuminates the work, and sometimes the lives, of Cornell Woolrich, Frederic Brown, Gil Brewer, Harry Whittington, John D. MacDonald, Arnold Hano, Mickey Spillane, Ross Macdonald, Charles Williams, Peter Rabe, Donald Westlake, Chester Himes, Donald Hamilton, Patricia Highsmith, Charles Willeford, Lawrence Block, and publishers Lion, Dell, Gold Medal, Lancer, Série Noire, etc.
Ron Goulart ably handles the lone essay on noir in comic books, as the big book winds up with four fascinating treatments on radio's dark gold and television's adoption of noir's torch, left languishing by that time at the movies.
The writers who wrote all the material for The Big Book of Noir is another long list of experts in the genre. I'll be treasuring and revisiting this one for a long time. Five Stars.
This big collection of short articles, memoirs and interviews makes an excellent reference volume for the bookshelf or a terrific read straight through. Its bulk is split between film and fiction. The film coverage centers on directors, but it's sprinkled with enough material on screenwriters and actors to keep the essays varied and fresh. Subjects include Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak, Marc Lawrence, Daniel Mainwaring, Abraham Polonsky, Phil Karlson, A. I. Bezzerides, Orson Welles, John Huston, Leigh Brackett, William Faulkner, and others. It's a rich resource, uncovering hidden noir treasures and revealing new insights on classics.
The fiction section is primarily focused on the noir of past decades. When it does devote a few pages to the contemporary scene, the cut-off is the late 90s (the volume was published in 1998). It is a golden harvest of paperback original era authors and publishers. The influence of Hammett and Chandler ever looms in the shadows, but the bright pool of the lamppost illuminates the work, and sometimes the lives, of Cornell Woolrich, Frederic Brown, Gil Brewer, Harry Whittington, John D. MacDonald, Arnold Hano, Mickey Spillane, Ross Macdonald, Charles Williams, Peter Rabe, Donald Westlake, Chester Himes, Donald Hamilton, Patricia Highsmith, Charles Willeford, Lawrence Block, and publishers Lion, Dell, Gold Medal, Lancer, Série Noire, etc.
Ron Goulart ably handles the lone essay on noir in comic books, as the big book winds up with four fascinating treatments on radio's dark gold and television's adoption of noir's torch, left languishing by that time at the movies.
The writers who wrote all the material for The Big Book of Noir is another long list of experts in the genre. I'll be treasuring and revisiting this one for a long time. Five Stars.
March 21, 2008
Nice collection of essays by a variety of writers about vintage crime film and fiction, with a brief detour into comic books (via an essay by veteran science fiction writer Ron Goulhart) and "noir TV"(mostly a tribute to Johnny Stacatto, which should be on DVD but isn't). The interview with novelist Buzz Bezzerides (who hated Mickey Spillane's book Kiss Me Deadly, and therefore ignored it when writing screenplay for the absolutely fantastic film adaptation of same) alone is worth whatever you pay for this book.
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July 26, 2011This book isn't bad, but it's more for the 'film buffs' folks that like the evolution of the noir genre. Good facts, and it'd be great for someone that likes the genesis of the true crime/CSI shows that are on today, the writers behind it, and some films/directors to check out.
February 16, 2012
Very illuminating collection of essays and interviews about and with the makers of film noir and crime fiction.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews