Hard Case WOUNDED, SLAIN by Goodis
Next year, the intrepid rights hunters at Hard Case Crime will put David Goodis back into print with THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN, which has never been published since it first came out in paperback in 1955.
Editor Charles Ardai said the acquistion wasn’t easy. “Today the book is only available from dealers who usually charge between $50 and $150 for a copy! Then we went hunting for the Goodis Estate, which wasn’t easy to track down for a variety of reasons. But to make a long story short, after months of work we were finally able to find them and persuade them to let us publish this long-lost Goodis novel.”
Goodis is perhaps best known as the author of DARK PASSAGE, which became the classic film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, which was adapted for the screen by Francois Truffaut. His other novels include THE MOON IN THE GUTTER, NIGHTFALL and THE BLONDE ON THE STREET CORNER.
In other Hard Case news, the winner of its “Paint My Dame!” cover contest with FHM magazine has been announced. The winner was Gigi Valiant, whose painted form will adorn Hard Case’s December title, THE PEDDLER. You can see Gigi – both in the flesh and on the canvas – after the jump.
[...] • Rod took a between-the-pages look at Hard Case Crime’s efforts to get the rights to David Goodis’ THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN. Well, they don’t really say what they went through – just that it was tough, followed by “to make a long story short,” thus ending the story. I guess words are precious when you work for a company called Hard Case, because you never know when some dame will stick a shiv between your ribs. [...]