David Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and '50s (Library of America) (79 page)

1967

David Goodis dies at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia on January 7. Death certificate lists “cerebral vascular accident” as cause of death. Funeral on January 10, at Rosenberg’s Raphael-Sacks Funeral Home, and burial in Roosevelt Memorial Park. Goodis wills his personal effects and the bulk of his $220,000 estate in trust for his brother Herbert, along with $30,000 to “our faithful family employee” Camelia Edmonds. Novel
Somebody’s Done For
published posthumously by Banner.

This volume contains five novels by David Goodis:
Dark Passage
(1946),
Nightfall
(1947),
The Burglar
(1953),
The Moon in the Gutter
(1953), and
Street of No Return
(1954).

Goodis’s second novel,
Dark Passage
, was published eight years after his first,
Retreat from Oblivion
(1939). In the interim he had devoted himself to writing prolifically for pulp magazines and radio.
Dark Passage
was originally serialized in
The Saturday Evening Post
(July 20–September 7, 1946); Warner Brothers purchased movie rights even before the novel was serialized.
Dark Passage
was published in hardcover by Julian Messner (New York, 1946). A second edition, tied to the 1947 release of the film version starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, was published in the same year by World (Cleveland). A hardcover edition appeared in England from Heinemann (London, 1947). In 1948 an American paperback was published by Dell (New York) in their “map-back” series devoted chiefly to crime novels. The text published here is that of the 1946 Julian Messner edition.

Nightfall
was also published by Julian Messner, in 1947, and in England by Heinemann in 1948. It was reprinted in paperback by Lion Books (New York) under the title
The Dark Chase
in 1953; Lion issued the book again in 1956 under the restored title
Nightfall
to coincide with the release of the Columbia film version. The text published here is that of the 1947 Julian Messner edition.

Starting with
Cassidy’s Girl
in 1951, all of Goodis’s novels were published as paperback originals.
The Burglar
was published in February 1953 by Lion Books, whose editor-in-chief was Arnold Hano. The text published here is that of the 1953 Lion edition.

Gold Medal, a paperback imprint of Fawcett, published
The Moon in the Gutter
in November 1953, the fourth Goodis novel to appear from the house under the editorship of Richard Carroll. The text published here is that of the 1953 Gold Medal edition.

Street of No Return
, another Gold Medal title, appeared in September 1954. A second Gold Medal edition, textually identical but with a different cover appeared in 1961. The text published here is that of the 1954 Gold Medal edition.

This volume presents the texts of the original printings and typescripts chosen for inclusion here, but it does not attempt to reproduce nontextual features of their typographic design. The texts are presented
without change, except for the correction of typographical errors. Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are often expressive features and are not altered, even when inconsistent or irregular. The following is a list of typographical errors corrected, cited by page and line number: 4.7, tary; 30.15, patched her; 36.32, wrapping; 55.28, beside; 65.6, street; 87.23, Maybe; 122.26, Amercan; 147.13, Parry‘s; 153.30, State Park; 206.34, a extremely; 211.2, worth while; 215.10, that,’; 227.35, slipt; 242.2, hand.; 270.19, windup; 276.27, me?’; 283.33, more.; 288.31, Vanning; 289.19, right.; 290.21, approximeately; 290.37, button beside; 313.29, said.¶; 316.1, Isn’t is,; 320.29, cigarete; 324.20, smile “I’m; 330.7, of a; 330.19, shoved; 333.1, frabric; 334.12, youself; 362.10, three forty; 362.18, gray; 394.23–24, of quaking; 403.25, Ciy look; 405.28, though Baylock; 443.24, with gun.; 451.25, Charlie; 458.10–11, pitch black; 485.4, solemly.; 489.27, tonight?”; 497.21, Ukranians; 499.11, safe,; 503.4, poor; 510.13, door step; 515.29, internationally minded; 516.1, asked; 516.10, this his; 540.11, said “I; 543.15, newpaper.; 543.29, same from; 550.8, was “Of; 560.20, “what; 569.10, said.; 570.37, told me; 571.25, tall bony; 574.20, Street the; 575.3, Channing the; 588.6, it.”; 590.2, matter of fact; 596.22, anwer; 608.19, he heard; 612.17, it.; 615.22, watcha; 642.9, Scotch grain; 651.10–11, Of maybe; 679.35, his eyes.; 680.24, no no; 687.4, shrugged,; 689.17, Its; 693.18–19, saying.; 696.34, have here; 716.17, “All right.”; 718.15, hesistated; 750.10, is was; 753.40, made it; 754.9, “Goddam; 786.19, Whitney.

In the notes below, the reference numbers denote page and line of the present volume; the line count includes titles and headings but not blank lines. No note is made for material found in standard reference works. For additional information and references to other studies, see Philippe Garnier,
Goodis: La Vie en Noir et Blanc
(Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1984); David Goodis,
Black Friday & Selected Stories
, ed. with introduction by Adrian Wooton (London: Serpent’s Tail, 2006); David Goodis,
Street of No Return
, introduction by Robert Polito (Lakewood, Colorado: Millipede Press, 2007); Woody Haut,
Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War
(London: Serpent’s Tail, 1995); Geoffrey O’Brien,
Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters of Noir
(2nd edition, New York: Da Capo, 1997); James Sallis,
Difficult Lives: Jim Thompson—David Goodis—Chester Himes
(New York: Gryphon Books, 1993); and
David Goodis: To a Pulp
, written and directed by Larry Withers (On Air Video, 2010). A range of material relating to Goodis can be found at www.davidgoodis.com. The editor would like to thank the Philadelphia Historical Society, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and especially Lou Boxer for his generosity and insight.

29.25–27
Every Tub
. . .
Out the Window
] Recordings by the Count Basie Orchestra; all were released on the Decca label, 1937–38, with the exception of “Lester Leaps In” (featuring Lester Young), which was released by Columbia in 1939.

35.18
Shorty George
] Recorded by Count Basie for Decca in November 1938.

36.18
Buck Clayton] Wilbur “Buck” Clayton (1911–1991), trumpet player for the Count Basie Orchestra, 1937–43.

45.14
Holiday for Strings
] Instrumental hit (1944) by David Rose and His Orchestra.

49.17–18
Is your trip really necessary?] Variations of the phrase were used by the American and British governments as slogans during World War II.

104.35
Sent for You Yesterday And Here You Come Today
] Count Basie recording, featuring Jimmy Rushing as vocalist, recorded in February 1938.

176.2
Kasserine Pass] Site of a battle fought in Tunisia in February 1943, in which American troops were routed by German forces commanded by Erwin Rommel.

199.19
Jimmy Kelly’s] Cabaret, formerly a speakeasy, at 181 Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village, billed as “The Montmartre of New York.”

202.9
The Book of Knowledge] Multivolume series originally published in England in 1908 as
The Children’s Encyclopedia
, and in the United States as
The Book of Knowledge
from 1912.

202.11
Horney and Menninger] Karen Horney (1885–1952), German-American neo-Freudian psychoanalyst, author of
The Neurotic Personality of Our Time
(1937) and
New Ways in Psychoanalysis
(1939); Karl Menninger (1893–1990), American psychiatrist, founder of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, and author of
Man Against Himself
(1938) and other works.

229.38
Noro Morales] Norosbaldo Morales (1912–1964), Puerto Rican pianist and bandleader; his hit rumba recordings included “Serenata Ritmica” (1942).

246.33
Rover Boy] The Rover Boys were protagonists of a long series of boys’ adventure novels beginning with
The Rover Boys at School
(1899).

264.20–21
Charlie Chaplin . . . the Klondike] In
The Gold Rush
(1925).

264.25
listening to Bob Hope] Bob Hope appeared on NBC radio’s
The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope
from 1938 to 1948; under different names the show continued broadcasting until 1955.

265.8
Theodore’s] French restaurant formerly located at 4 East 56th Street.

290.18
Governor Winthrop desk] Slanted-top desk of eighteenth-century origin, named for Governor John Winthrop, seventeenth-century governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

295.36
Van Johnson] Movie star (1916–2008) whose films included
A Guy Named Joe
(1943) and
Week-End at the Waldorf
(1943).

357.19
Guy Lombardo] Canadian-American bandleader (1902–1977), associated from 1924 onwards with his band The Royal Canadians.

366.36–367.2
Betty Grable . . . Dick Haymes] Grable and Haymes co-starred in the Technicolor musicals
Diamond Horseshoe
(1945) and
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim
(1947).

369.2–3
the library, the big one on the Parkway] The Parkway Central Library at 1901 Vine Street, which opened in 1927.

524.11
Marin] John Marin (1870–1953), American artist best known as a landscape painter in oils.

621.36
Tenderloin] Philadelphia red-light district centered on Vine Street from 8th to 11th streets.

649.22
Jeffries] James J. Jeffries (1875–1953), world heavyweight champion from 1899 to 1905. He came out of retirement in 1910 to contend unsuccessfully with Jack Johnson.

698.28
when Bob Hope comes on] See note
264.25
.

753.25–26
Firpo . . . Dempsey] World heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey defeated Argentinian challenger Luis Ángel Firpo on September 14, 1923, at the Polo Grounds in New York.

776.5
Ripley] Robert Ripley (1890–1949), creator of the newspaper series
Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
, dedicated to odd and exotic information, which evolved subsequently into radio and television programs.