Robert Polito

This adventurous two-volume collection presents a rich vein of modern American writing too often neglected in mainstream literary histories. Evolving out of the terse and violent hardboiled style of the pulp magazines, noir fiction expanded over the decades into a varied and innovative body of writing. Tapping deep roots in the American literary imagination, the novels in this volume explore themes of crime, guilt, deception, obsessive passion, murder, and the disintegrating psyche. With visionary and often subversive force they create a dark and violent mythology out of the most commonplace elements of modern life. The raw power of their vernacular style has profoundly influenced contemporary American culture and writing. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-Up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers

Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s (LOA #95)

Pulp crime fiction novelist Jim Thompson is dissected by Polito, revealing the tormented yet surprising man behind the work.

A Biography of Jim Thompson

Savage Art

Manny Farber

Collects the full body of film writings by the late critic and B-movie champion including his weekly reviews for The New Republic and The Nation, offering insight into his influence on the early careers of such filmmakers as Samuel Fuller, Raoul Walsh, and Anthony Mann.

The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber

Farber on Film

An invaluable road map for the epic poem of our time

A Reader's Guide to James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover

A collection of classic stories exemplify the best of American noir fiction from the 1930s to the 1950s.

11 Classic Crime Novels of the 1930s, 40s, & 50s

American Noir

Hollywood & God is a virtuosic performance, filled with crossings back and forth from cinematic chiaroscuro to a kind of unsettling desperation and disturbing—even lurid—hallucination. From the Baltimore Catechism to the great noir films of the last century to today’s Elvis impersonators and Paris Hilton (an impersonator of a different sort), Robert Polito tracks the snares, abrasions, and hijinks of personal identities in our society of the spectacle, a place where who we say we are, and who (we think) we think we are fade in and out of consciousness, like flickers of light dancing tantalizingly on the silver screen. Mixing lyric and essay, collage and narrative, memoir and invention, Hollywood & God is an audacious book, as contemporary as it is historical, as sly and witty as it is devastatingly serious.

Hollywood & God

This title, first published in 1987, comprises of three essays which examine Lord Byron’s poetry. Some of Byron’s most famous poems are examined, including Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. This title will be of interest to students of literature.

Three Essays on Byron's Poetry

At the Titan's Breakfast

John King

Zachary Lazar

Adam Peterson

David Macey

Chris Tarry

Michael Thurston

Andrew McKay

Shane McCrae

Meghan O'Rourke

Alex Stein

Jeffrey Yang

Sesshu Foster

Tamas Dobozy

H. L. Hix

James Richardson

Cole Swensen

Tom Sleigh

Judith Skillman

Josh Billings

Jeffery Allen

Sarah Barber

Dan Beachy-Quick

Priscilla Becker

Callista Buchen

Drew Calvert

James Capozzi

Kelly Cherry

Ruth Curry

Weston Cutter

Steve Davenport

Laura Engel

Avital Gad-Cykman

Kathleen Graber

Myronn Hardy

Henry Israeli

Jeanne-Marie Jackson

Yahia Lababidi

Laurie Lamon

Kevin Lutz

John Marvin

Diane Mehta

Kathryn Nuernberger

Fani Papageorgiou

Elahzar Rao

F. Daniel Rzicznek

Craig Teicher

Jacob White

Wyatt Williams

Paul-Victor Winters

Marion Wyce

The Rat's Nest

Robert Polito

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