"As True and Direct as a Birth or Death Certificate": Richard Wright on Jim Thompson's Now and on Earth
1994; Volume: 22; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/saf.1994.0015
ISSN2158-415X
Autores Tópico(s)Fashion and Cultural Textiles
Resumo"As True and Direct as a Birth or Death Certificate":Richard Wright on Jim Thompson's Now and on Earth Mark J. Madigan Mark J. Madigan University of Vermont Notes . I am grateful to Librarians Roger E. Stelk of the University of Nebraska—Lincoln and Martha Day of the University of Vermont, and Thompson's biographer Michael J. McCauley, for helping me to locate a copy of Now and on Earth with the dust-jacket intact. 1. Charles T. Davis and Michel Fabre, Richard Wright: A Primary Bibliography (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982). Also see Keneth Kinnamon, A Richard Wright Bibliography (Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press, 1988); and John M. Reilly, "Richard Wright," Black American Writers: Bibliographical Essays, Vol. 2, ed. M. Thomas Inge, Maurice Duke, and Jackson Bryer (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978), pp. 1-46. 2. Now and on Earth was reprinted by Dennis McMillan Publications in 1986. The limited edition of 400 copies included an "Appreciation" of Jim Thompson by Stephen King. 3. The bulk of Thompson's fiction was originally published by Dell, Fawcett Gold Medal, Lion Books, Popular Library, and Signet. Reprints have been published by Donald I. Fine, Mysterious Press, and Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. Film versions of Thompson's work include: The Getaway (1972), directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw; Alain Corneau's Serié Noire (1979), based on A Hell of a Woman; Bertrand Tavernier's Coup de Torchon (1982), based on Pop. 1280; James Foley's After Dark, My Sweet (1990), starring Bruce Dern, Jason Patric, and Rachel Ward; Maggie Greenwald's The Kill-Off (1990); Stephen Frears's The Grifters (1990), starring John Cusack and Angelica Huston; and Roger Donaldson's remake of The Getaway (1994), starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. A made-for-television production of Thompson's novella, "The Frightening Frammis," directed by Tom Cruise and starring Isabella Rossellini, was aired in September 1993 as part of the series "Fallen Angels." 4. Michael J. McCauley, Jim Thompson: Sleep With the Devil (New York: Mysterious Press, 1991), p. 10. 5. Jim Thompson, Roughneck (1954; repr. New York: Mysterious Press, 1989), pp. 162-63. 6. Bromfield wrote of Now and on Earth, "I was deeply impressed by its extraordinary quality of life. It is a remarkable transcription of a world which seldom finds its way into fiction." The novel also carried blurbs by Millen Brand ("It's a knock-out. Jim Thompson has written one of the head-on books of the year"), Alvah Bessie ("Jim Thompson's book has an immediacy of communication rare in any novel. This man is a serious writer; he is concerned with the origins of human character. His people are warm, human, and alive"), and Mary Louise Aswell, literary editor of Harper's Bazaar and wife of Wright's agent, Edward Aswell ("I was really moved and excited by Jim Thompson's book"). Wright's, Brand's, and Bromfield's quotes were also showcased on a paper band wrapped around new editions of Now and on Earth. Printed in black on canary yellow, the band's headline read: "Famous Novelists Who Acclaimed Jim Thompson's First Novel Now and on Earth." I have been unable to locate Wright's reader's report for Now and on Earth in his papers at the Beinecke Library, Yale University; nor have I been able to find the editorial files of Modern Age Books, which was in business from 1937 to 1942. 7. Jim Thompson, Now and on Earth (New York: Modern Age, 1942), p. 208. 8. McCauley, p. 66. 9. McCauley, p. 68. 10. Michel Fabre, Richard Wright: Books and Writers (Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1990). 11. Michel Fabre, The World of Richard Wright (Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1985), p. 93. 12. American Stuff: An Anthology of Prose and Verse by Members of the Federal Writers' Project (New York: Viking, 1937); Richard Wright, Uncle Tom's Children (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938). Always to Be Blessed was never published. 13. Richard Wright, Native Son (1940; repr. New York: Harper Collins, 1993), pp. 2-5. 14. McCauley, pp. 71-72. 15. A. M. Rosenthal, "High U. N. Aide Quits; Helped...
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