Collects:
CRIME NOVELS: AMERICAN NOIR OF THE 1930s & 40s
"The Postman Always Rings Twice" by James M.?Cain
"They Shoot Horses, Don t They?" by Horace McCoy
"Thieves Like Us" by Edward Anderson
"The Big Clock" by Kenneth Fearing
"Nightmare Alley" by William Lindsay Gresham
"I Married a Dead Man" by Cornell Woolrich
990 pages 978-1-883011-46-8 Library of America volume #94
CRIME NOVELS: AMERICAN NOIR OF THE 1950s
"The Killer Inside Me" by Jim Thompson
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith
"Pick-Up" by Charles Willeford
"Down There" by David Goodis
"The Real Cool Killers" by Chester Himes
892 pages 978-1-883011-49-9 Library of America volume #95
This adventurous two-volume collection presents a rich vein of modern American writing too often neglected in mainstream literary histories. Evolving out of the terse and violent hardboiled style of the pulp magazines, noir fiction expanded over the decades into a varied and innovative body of writing. Tapping deep roots in the American literary imagination, the novels in this volume explore themes of crime, guilt, deception, obsessive passion, murder, and the disintegrating psyche. With visionary and often subversive force they create a dark and violent mythology out of the most commonplace elements of modern life. The raw power of their vernacular style has profoundly influenced contemporary American culture and writing."