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Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, David Goodis ... these are a few of the masters of noir responsible for the great lurid paperbacks of the thirties, forties, and fifties. With titles like The Big Sleep, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, and Street of the Lost, with racy cover lines like "My gun-butt smashed his skull!" and "Ruthless terror ripped away the mask that hid cold fear", and with some of the most extraordinary cover illustrations ever to grace American literature, these paperbacks held the ingredients of American nightmares. In Hardboiled America -- lavishly illustrated with 135 paperback covers, and expanded with new material on Thompson, Goodis, and others -- Geoffrey O'Brien masterfully explores the art, history, and ideas of the American paperback.

Fiction --- American literature --- American fiction --- Illustration of books --- Noir fiction, American --- Paperbacks --- Popular literature --- Realism in literature. --- History and criticism. --- Illustrations. --- Publishing --- History. --- Realism in literature --- Neorealism (Literature) --- Magic realism (Literature) --- Mimesis in literature --- Bibliography --- Paper backs --- Paper-books --- Paper-bounds --- Paper-covers --- Paperback books --- Paperbooks --- Paperbounds --- Soft-covers --- Softbound books --- Softcovers --- Books --- History and criticism --- Illustrations --- Publishing&delete& --- History --- Paperback editions