Unknown
Man No. 89 is Elmore Leonard’s 13th published
novel. It was originally published in the U. S. in 1977 by Delacorte Press, and
in the U. K. by Martin Secker & Warburg. The edition that caught my eye is
the recent U. K. edition published by Phoenix. It is a collage of sorts, with a
muted water color-like wash, and, even better, it features a 1970s Mercury
Cougar. The cover image is by Tim Marrs.
The opening lines:
“A
friend of Ryan’s said to him one time, ‘Yeah, but at least you don’t take any
shit from anybody.’
“Ryan
said to his friend, ‘I don’t know, the way things’ve been going, maybe it’s
about time I started taking some’”
Unknown
Man No. 89 is a follow up to Elmore Leonard’s 1969 novel The Big Bounce. According to the
Wikipedia entry for Unknown, it was
optioned for film by Alfred Hitchcock—it would have been his 54th
film—but was never made.
This
is the eighth in a series of posts featuring the cover art and miscellany of
books I find at thrift stores and used bookshops. It is reserved for books I
purchase as much for the cover art as the story or author.
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