Thrift Shop Book Covers: "Unknown Man No. 89"

Unknown Man No. 89 is Elmore Leonard’s 13^th 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 54^th 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.

Library of America Scheduled to Release Elmore Leonard Omnibus

This is kind of cool news. Library of America is welcoming the work of Elmore Leonard to its series of high quality hardcover omnibus editions. It is includes four of Mr Leonard’s early novels: Fifty-Two Pickup (1974), Swag (1976), Unknown Man No. 89 (1977), and The Switch (1978). Its scheduled release date is August 28, 2014.

Library of America traditionally publishes classic American literature—Walt Whitman, Sherwood Anderson, Edith Wharton, etc.—and over the last several years it has begun publishing genre writers from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, including work by Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, Leigh Brackett, Richard Matheson, David Goodis, Cornell Woolrich, Jim Thompson, and Charles Willeford.

2013 -- The Year In Reading

2013 marked my reentry to consistent blogging, and it was also my most productive year as a reader in the past five or six.  To date I have finished 53 books (and I will probably finish another 2 or 3); the majority were novels, but the total includes a tolerable number of nonfiction works, too.  The nonfiction tended towards history, which included a number of interesting titles including Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer and Manhunt by Peter Maas.

The year also marked a return to a genre I enjoyed (loved?) as a boy—adventure.  Specifically the British writers of the 1960s and 70s featuring such stars as Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley, and Jack Higgins.  This said, I didn’t read many “new” authors, but mostly stayed with the old reliables.  In fact, I only increased my fiction writers read by five—Craig Thomas (Wolfsbane), Alfred Coppel (The Eight Day of the Week), Shepard Rifkin (The Murderer Vine), A. Bertram Chandler (Star Courier), and Billie Sue Mosiman (Wireman).

What I lacked in new writers I made up for in my long time favorites.  A full fifteen of the novels I read, or approximately 28 percent of my total reading, was limited to four writers.  I read or reread six titles by Jack Higgins, and three titles each by Jack M. Bickham, Ed Gorman, and Bill Pronzini.  And I really enjoyed every one of the novels by each of my most frequently read writers of 2013.

In the old days of this blog I put together a listing of my favorite five books read for the year, and I decided it would be fun to do it again this year.  It was difficult to pare the list to five, and there were three or four that were cut from the list by a less than scientific methods.  With that said, my five favorite novels read in 2013 are—

5.  The Name of the Game is Death by Dan J. Marlowe.  This is the first title to feature Marlowe’s recurring character Earl Drake, and it is a real piece of hardboiled candy.  It was originally published by Gold Medal in 1962, and earlier this year it was released with its sister novel The Endless Hour in a nifty trade paperback by the never disappointing Stark House Press.  Read the Gravetapping review.

4.  Dark Passage by David Goodis.  This is Goodis’ most well-known novel.  It is dark, a little twisted, and a bunch of fun.  It was originally published in 1946, and it has been reissued a number of times. It is currently available in an omnibus hardcover edition by The Library of America, which includes four other Goodis titles.  Interestingly, the plot is similar to the television show “The Fugitive” and United Artists Television settled a copyright lawsuit with Goodis’ estate.

3.  The Beardless Warriors by Richard Matheson.  I was reading this title for the first time when Richard Matheson passed earlier this year, and it is a truly masterful piece of storytelling.  It is the story of a young man ordered to the frontlines as a replacement soldier during the Battle of the Bulge in Europe.  He is transformed from a green recruit to a seasoned combat soldier in a matter of days, and what frightens him and the reader alike is how easily he takes to killing.  This is a masterpiece by one of the most consequential authors of his generation.

2.  Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard.  This is a collection of short stories written by Mr Leonard.  The title is from the story the television series “Justified” is based, and amazingly the pilot for the television series and the story are almost identical.  I devoured this collection in little more than one sitting, and as I read it my main thought—nobody writes like Elmore Leonard. 

1.  The Murderer Vine by Shepard Rifkin.  When I sat down to compile the best of list there was no doubt what the number one would be.  It is a perfectly executed crime novel, and an even better piece of civil rights literature.  Read the Gravetapping review.

Four Elmore Leonard Trailers

Elmore Leonard recently turned 84. 84! This guy has been around for a long time. He started out writing westerns and really made his mark--as far as sales go--in the crime genre. I tend to enjoy his earlier work better than his later work, which is not to say that his later work is bad. But his early stuff, including the westerns, is marvelous.

So here, for your viewing enjoyment, are trailers to four films based on Mr Leonard's early work...

1967. Hombre



1971. Valdez is Coming



1972. Joe Kidd



1974. Mr. Majestyck

"Saint with a Six-Gun" by Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard is known as a crime writer, but at the beginning of his career he wrote some pretty good westerns, both novels and short stories. In fact, many knowledgeable readers argue that some of Leonard’s best work was in the western field. My reading of his is work is not nearly complete enough to make that judgment, but I do know that of the Leonard stories and novels I have read, my favorites tend toward his western fiction.

I recently read his short story “Saint with a Six-Gun” and that notion was reinforced. Lyall Quinlan is a dreamer—he wants to be a lawman, but he is the type of guy who isn’t taken seriously. He is young, skinny, and just plain green. When the local Marshal brings in a known outlaw for murder Quinlan shows up at the right time. The badman—Bobby Valdez—is locked up in the jail and Bohannon, the Marshal, wants to go to his weekly poker game, but he needs and extra hand to help guard the prisoner. He happily gives the duty to Quinlan—only “temporarily, you understand.”

Quinlan takes his duty seriously and doesn’t sleep a blink that first night, or any other night on that long week between Valdez’s sentencing and scheduled hanging. The only major problem is the boy begins to not only understand Valdez, but also actually like him and feel a touch of empathy. A situation that will very likely spell trouble for everyone involved, especially one Lyall Quinlan. “Saint with a Six-Gun” is nearly a perfectly executed short story. It is written in Leonard’s patented sharp and sparse prose with a touch of subtle humor and enough humanity to populate a full-length novel. The characters have the feel of flesh, from Quinlan’s naïve devotion to Bohannon’s and Valdez’s cynicism.

The story is told in third person, but it has an intimacy that attracts the sympathies of the reader to the story and its participants. The plot is pretty basic, which is exactly what Mr. Leonard intended as he leads you down the expected path until the moment he pulls the rug out. It is surprising and humorous with a mild jest at justice—the poetic kind.

“Saint with a Six-Gun” was originally published in the October 1954 issue of Argosy. It is currently available in The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard, and Blood Money and Other Stories.