These stories are where Chandler honed his art and developed his uniquely vivid underworld, peopled with good cops and bad cops, informers and extortionists, lethally predatory blondes and redheads, and crime, sex, gambling, and alcohol in abundance. In addition to his classic hard-boiled stories–in which his signature atmosphere of depravity and violence swirls around the cool, intuitive loners whose type culminated in the famous detective Philip Marlowe–Chandler also turned his hand to fantasy and even a gothic romance.This rich treasury of twenty-five stories shows Chandler developing the terse, laconic, understated style that would serve him so well in his later masterpieces, and immerses the reader in the richly realized fictional universe that has become an enduring part of our literary landscape.

    Bridge, an inspired novel set in the years around World War II that testified to the sapping ennui of an unexamined suburban life. India Bridge, the title character, has three children and a meticulous workaholic husband. She defends her dainty, untouched guest towels from son Douglas, who has the gall to dry his hands on one, and earnestly attempts to control her daughters with pronouncements such as "Now see here, young lady ... in the morning one doesn't wear earrings that dangle." Though her life is increasingly filled with leisure and plenty, she can't shuffle off vague feelings of dissatisfaction, confusion, and futility. Evan S. Connell, who also wrote the twinned novel Mr. Bridge, builds a world with tiny brushstrokes and short, telling vignettes.

    Many of them have appeared only in foreign magazines while others were printed in small limited editions which have gone out of print. Miller's genius for comedy is at its best in "Money and How It Gets That Way" -- a tongue-in-cheek parody of "economics" provoked by a postcard from Ezra Pound which asked if he "ever thought about money." His deep concern for the role of the artist in society appears in "An Open Letter to All and Sundry," and in "The Angel is My Watermark" he writes of his own passionate love affair with painting. "The Immorality of Morality" is an eloquent discussion of censorship. Some of the stories, such as "First Love," are autobiographical, and there are portraits of friends, such as "Patchen: Man of Anger and Light," and essays on other writers such as Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Sherwood Anderson and Ionesco.Taken together, these highly readable pieces reflect the incredible vitality and variety of interests of the writer who extended the frontiers of modern literature with Tropic of Cancer and other great books.

    Originally released by Scribner's in 1959, it was the immediate follow-up to the author's best-known novel, The Philadelphian. Like its predecessor, Pioneer received rave reviews, spent weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and was made into a popular movie (1962's Follow That Dream starring Elvis Presley). The similarities end there, for with the new novel Powell chose satirical comedy over high drama with frequently sidesplitting results. Pioneer, Go Home! relates the adventures of the Kwimpers, a motley clan of New Jersey Pineys who break down on the side of a southern highway project and decide to claim squatter's rights. Call them hicks or bumpkins, if you like, but these Kwimpers are a heap more resourceful than most folks give them credit for and at least ten times as stubborn! When the government orders them to vacate, Pop Kwimper gets his dander up and the die is cast. Hilarity ensues as the family defends its humble homestead against a massed onslaught of conniving bureaucrats, Mother Nature, and the mob. This warm and witty satire of little man versus Big Gummint features a fast-paced story, a wonderful cast of characters, and dozens of memorable, laugh-out-loud moments. You can't help but cheer for the heroic Kwimpers as they thumb their noses at the authorities, make a living off the land, and stand up to gun-happy gamblers. Meantime, young Toby Kwimper (he has the strength of a giant because his heart is pure) and the babysitter, the remarkable Holly Jones, find the time to fall in love though it takes Toby some time to realize that Holly is real growed up. Fish and fishing are recurring themes in many of Richard Powell's novels, and there's plenty of both to go around in Pioneer, Go Home!.

    The actions of each individual who played a conspicuous part in the day's work are minutely traced but Mr. Tourtellot never loses the main thread of his narrative and the wealth of detail he has included gives substance and color to an exciting story."— J. C. Miller, New York Herald Tribune Book Review "Tourtellot does not let his 19th of April float up in the spring air unconnected with a past or a future. He has built in very skillfully the story of the months before that day and then sends its echoes rolling on through time—and into distant states and nations....No other book generally available performs an even remotely comparable job....Makes full use of old material, adds a good deal that has come to light in the intervening years and, standing firmly on its own base, presents magnificently for the general reader and the specialist this immortal opening chapter of our beginnings as a nation."—Bruce Lancaster, The Saturday Review "The result of thoughtful examination of the evidence and clear writing."—Walter Muir Whitehill, New England Quarterly "An absorbing and vital history, containing much newly published information about a crucial week in the history of the United States. "—J.M. Goodsell, Christian Science Monitor

    Addams' name is on the cover, but only a handful of the pages are his work - mostly its a collection of Ripley and Barnum style oddities that served as inspiration for his macabre creations.

    By 1877 the United States had ground through four years of depression with no end in sight. The mood of the nation was explosive. As labor sought to unite against the great corporations, violence and lawlessness spread through the cities, accented by race riots, lynchings, government corruption, scandal in high places, and the shocking growth of teenage gangs. The summer of 1877 produced a climax: a nationwide railroad strike accompanied by rioting coast to coast. Mr. Bruce's moving account of these events portrays a nation trying to cope with an industrial depression before it had learned about the problems of industrialism. The upheaval was perhaps our closest brush with class revolution in America. "A taut narrative that is relieved by flashes of an appropriately sardonic humor. Mr. Bruce has resisted the temptation to let his spectacular story turn into a mere hour-by-hour re-creation of mayhem and emotion. All along the way he thoughtfully assesses just what this year meant in American history."-Eric F. Goldman, New York Times. "The author goes to the sources in scholarly fashion but reports it in a popular style...An informative and readable book."-C. Vann Woodward.