Robert Polito, Goodis scholar and editor,
to speak at Free Library of Philadelphia
on April 19
Robert Polito | David Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s (A)
When: Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 7:30PM
Where: Central Library
Cost: FREE
No tickets required. For Info: 215-567-4341.
2012 Philadelphia Book Festival
An editor, poet, and critic, Robert Polito is Director of Writing Programs at The New School and the author of National Book Critics Circle Award winner Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson, which untangled Thompson the author from his trademark psychopathic characters and grim tales of failed lives. Polito's new book is a landmark volume that collects five great novels from the height of noir cult favorite David Goodis's career. Born in Philadelphia, Goodis made a distinctive contribution to American hard-boiled crime fiction with his jazzy, passionate novels of mean streets and doomed protagonists, including Retreat From Oblivion and The Moon in the Gutter.
Robert Polito (left) with Goodis film producers Larry and Sharyn Withers at GoodisCON 2007
Robert Polito visits the room where Goodis wrote at his parents home on North 11th Street in Philadelphia
Library of America to release
Goodis anthology
edited by Robert Polito
The Library of America will release on March 29 the long awaited "Goodis, Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 1950s" edited by Robert Polito, director of Writing Programs at The New School.
This volume contains five Goodis classics: Dark Passage, Nightfall, The Moon in the Gutter, The Burglar and The Street of No Return. Tour the noir geography of David Goodis as he writes about San Francisco, Manhattan, the American West, Philadelphia's docks, working class Philadelphia, working class Atlantic City and Philadelphia's tenderloin.
The volume is a study in Goodis' progressing inner torment Dark Passage and Nightfall were written before Goodis returned to Philadelphia after an unhappy stint as a Hollywood writer and a failed marriage. The Moon in the Gutter, The Burglar and The Street of No Return were written in a second floor bedroom in Goodis' parents' home on North 11th Street. These three Philadelphia novels are progressively gloomy. The characters are progressively hopeless. As Goodis advances in his career, his books address deeper and deeper psychological themes.
Polito includes a detailed chronology of Goodis' life, from his parents' occupations and residences, through Goodis' education, his publications, his disastrous marriage, his hushed romance, his brilliant descent into paperbacks, and his demise. Polito provides notes explaining the contemporary cultural references in the five novels.
I won't tell you about the plots. Get the book.
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Indigo
David Goodis
Philadelphia's Noir Prince
“After a while it gets so bad that you want to stop the whole business. You figure that there’s no use in trying to fight back. Things are set dead against you and the sooner you give up the better. It’s like a mile run. You’re back there in seventh place and there isn’t a chance in the world. The feet are burning, the lungs are bursting, and all you want to do is fall down and take a rest.”
----First paragraph of David Goodis’ first novel Retreat from Oblivion (1939).
David Goodis surrounded by Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. Notice the lines of B&B's clothing and Bogart's real hairline. Photo courtesy of April Feld Sandor.
So began the writing career of David Goodis. Typical Goodis. A statement of frustration, introducing a tale of gloom, depression and despair. Noir at its blackest.
David Goodis was Philadelphia’s noir prince. After graduating from Temple University in 1938, Goodis moved to New York where he wrote advertising copy, radio scripts and thousands of words for pulp magazines. In the mid-1940’s he was in Hollywood as a screenwriter. He crashed and returned to his parents’ home in Philadelphia, where he churned out novels and short stories, depicting the bleakness and darkness of lives in free fall.
Who was David Goodis and why did he write as he did?
Goodis film probes 'dark tendencies' and hidden lives
Click for details.
NEW
Brian Greene interviews
Larry Withers on "To A Pulp."
http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/pages/noir_zine/profiles/to_a_pulp.php
Brian Greene is a freelance writer from North Carolina. He writes regularly for Shindig! music magazine from
the UK, and he is working on a biography of the late British crime writer/cult figure, Ted Lewis.
New: The Burglar revisited
New: 2011 Goodis Memorial and Tour
New: 2010 Goodis Memorial and Tour
New: Truffaut and Goodis
New: Mike Dennis reviews The Blonde on the Street Corner
New: Mike Dennis reviews Cassidy's Girl
New: Jay Gertzman on A Moribund Segment of Goodisville
A mile outside the City Between Two Rivers, January Cold came in, formed four walls around them and closed in on the Thirteen. Gathered to remember the Prince of Noir, they read from his works, told tales, and raised his Shade from the bleak grave.
On January 25, 2009, just hours before the 42nd anniversary of the death of David Goodis according to the Hebrew calendar, 13 militant Goodisheads gathered at Roosevelt Cemetery to remember Philadelphia's Prince of Noir.
Introduction to 2009 Goodis Memorial
Portions of Goodis' writings selected for ceremony
Larry Withers' You Tube on the ceremony
Duane Swierczynski's blog on the ceremony
You Tubes by Duane Swierczynski
Duane Swierczynski's blog on "Relics of a Noir Writer"
Peter Rozovsky's blog on the ceremony
Louis Boxer's photos of the ceremony
In September 1966, David Goodis' mother died. Harold Silver sent David Goodis a basket of fruit. David Goodis sent the following note to Harold Silver. (Photos by Louis Boxer)
Design by Michael Gabriel
Click to:
NoirCon 2010, a celebration of International Noir writing and film.
NoirCon 2008, a celebration of Philadephia Noir writing and film.
GoodisCON, a conference celebrating the 90th anniversary of the birth and the 40th anniversary of the death of David Goodis.
Death Certificate of David Goodis
D.G.'s envelop authorizing The Fugitive law suit
Louis Boxer's album of David Goodis photos.
The Soul of David Goodis.
Goodis' cousin reveals the key to David's personal mystery.
David Goodis in Hollywood
Jeff Weddle's new book,
Bohemian New Orleans describes
D.G.'s failed screenplay of Four Steps to the Wall, prison novel by Jon Webb.
The final destruction of Goodisville
Louis Boxer revisits Dark Passage
Cullen Gallagher: Critical Perspectives on David Goodis
Cullen Gallagher: Fire in the Flesh
Cullen Gallagher: Of Missing Persons
Philadelphia Weekly: Stranger than Fiction--Philadelphia Noir (David Goodis)
Free David Goodis downloads for your E-Reader
In the early 1980's, Goodis' biographer, Philippe Garnier, traced the scenes of Goodis' Philadelphia stories. His conclusion: "I find it very difficult to image springtime in Philadelphia." Philippe Garnier, Goodis, vie en noir et blanc, Editions due Seuil, 1984. Video on Philippe Garnier.
Joe Chauncy: David Goodis on the Black Dahlia MurderBlack Dahlia Murder Analyzed by David Goodis
NoirCON 2012
www.noircon.info
November 8 to 11
Register now.
Email me: aaron@microbrewjournalism.com