Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Author of the Week: JIM THOMPSON




The Killer Inside Me has just been released as a movie starring Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, and Kate Hudson. So it seems only timely......


Sally Owen
The Mysterious Bookshop
sally@mysteriousbookshop.com


JIM THOMPSON



With the recent release of his best novel, The Killer Inside Me, new readers of crime fiction will undoubtedly discover Jim Thompson (1906-1977). As one of the masters of the noir novel, he is one of Stephen King’s favorite writers and a powerful influence on three generations of crime writers. Although only moderately successful in the United States, he has been revered for a half-century in France, where he has been a best-seller, and in Hollywood, which has made numerous films based on his books, most successfully with The Grifters.

Thompson, Jim, The Nothing Man, N.Y., Dell, 1954. First edition. PBO. Fine in wrappers, some creasing to spine. $175.00

Thompson, Jim, Nothing But a Man, N.Y., Popular Library, 1970. First edition paperback. Fine in wrappers. $200.00

Thompson, Jim, Texas by the Tail, Greenwich, Gold Medal, 1965. First edition. PBO. Fine in wrappers. $125.00

Thompson, Jim, Cropper’s Cabin, N.Y., Pyramid, 1958. Paperback reprint. Fine in wrappers. $20.00

Thompson, Jim, Ironside, N.Y., Popular Library, 1967. First edition. PBO. Very fine in wrappers. $75.00

Thompson, Jim, Bad Boy, N.Y., Lion, 1953. First edition. PBO. Near fine in wrappers, ink shadow on front cover, some general soiling and rubbing. $250.00

Thompson, Jim, Heed The Thunder, N.Y., Armchair Detective, 1991. First edition thus. Fine in boards without dust jacket as issued. Signed and with a new introduction by James Ellroy, lettered 1/26, in slipcase. $125.00

Thompson, Jim, Heed The Thunder, N.Y., Armchair Detective, 1991. First edition thus. Trade edition. Very fine in dust jacket. $19.95

Thompson, Jim, Heed The Thunder, N.Y., Armchair Detective, 1991. First edition thus. Trade edition. Dusty, else about fine in dust jacket. $10.00

Thompson, Jim, Child of Rage, Los Angeles, Blood & Guts, 1991. First edition thus. Fine in fine dust jacket. Signed and with an introduction by Gerald Petievich, numbered 1/500, in slipcase. $125.00

Thompson, Jim, Child of Rage, Lakewood, CO, Centipede Press, 2008. First of this edition with a new introduction by Ed Gorman. Very fine hardcover without dust jacket, as issued. $50.00

Thompson, Jim, Now and On Earth, N.Y., Modern Age, 1942. Ex-library copy of author’s first book. No indication of later printings. Very good in a very good dust jacket. Book features some fraying to extremities and indications where dust jacket was glued to boards, library stamp on front-past down, bottom edge. Dust jacket has corresponding flaws to flaps and a watermark and wrinkling to back panel. Still, a very uncommon copy in any condition. $3,500.00

Thompson, Jim, Nothing More Than Murder, N.Y., Harper, 1949. First edition. A spectacular copy of the author’s third book. Fine in fine dust jacket with just a bit of rubbing to extremities. Clean, tight and bright. $2,750.00

Another copy. First edition. Near fine in about fine dust jacket. Sunning to spine and edges. Wraparound crease at bottom of jacket, two very small chips at top of dj spine. $1,750.00

Thompson, Jim, Nothing More Than Murder, N.Y., Harper, 1949. First edition. Lacks front endpaper, else good-very good. $85.00

Thompson, Jim, The Undefeated, N.Y., Popular Library, 1969. First edition of this novelization of the John Wayne motion picture. Bookseller’s stamp, else very good. $85.00

Thompson, Jim, Hardcore, N.Y., Donald Fine, 1986. First edition thus. Collects novels The Kill-Off, The Nothing Man and Bad Boy. Introduction by Roderick Thorp. Very fine in very fine dust jacket. $45.00

Thompson, Jim, After Dark, My Sweet, Toronto, Popular Library, 1955. First Canadian edition. Faint color bleed on front cover, else fine in wrappers. $150.00

Thompson, Jim, South of Heaven, Greenwich, CT, Gold Medal, 1967. First edition. PBO. About fine in wrappers. $100.00

Thompson, Jim, South of Heaven, Greenwich, CT, Gold Medal, 1967. First edition. PBO. About fine in wrappers. Cocked, bookseller’s stamp on first page, else clean and bright. $75.00

(Thompson, Jim), Jim Thompson: Sleep with the Devil by Michael J. McCauley, N.Y., Mysterious Press, 1991. The first full-length biography of Thompson. Very fine in dust jacket. $19.95

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