American Pulp [Paperback]

Edward Gorman (Author), Bill Pronzini (Editor), Martin Harry Greenberg (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997

The best American crime stories ever published anywhere in the world, the true "pulp fiction" of yesterday is available now in a single, inexpensive volume. This is crime fiction at its absolute best--written by such masters as David Goodis, Ross Macdonald, Craig Rice, Leigh Brackett, Mickey Spillane, and Richard Matheson, among many others.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Or American Digest, since editors Gorman and Greenberg (Love Kills, p. 595, etc.), joined by veteran Pronzini (A Wasteland of Strangers, p. 914, etc.), contend that the true high-water mark of short noir fiction was the period from 1950 to 1970, after Black Mask and its ilk had already been killed off by inexpensive paperbacks and TV, and digests like Manhunt and Pursuit reigned supreme. In evidence they offer a monster collection of 35 stories running the gamut from ironic anecdotes (Evan Hunter, Mickey Spillane, Donald E. Westlake, John Lutz, James Reasoner, Frederic Brown, John Jakes) to hard-boiled whodunits (Marcia Muller, Robert J. Randisi, Richard S. Prather, Craig Rice) to substantial novellas (Talmage Powell, Norbert Davis, Leigh Brackett, Richard Matheson). The real revelation is how many of these alleged actioners (like those by Vin Packer, David Goodis, Wade Miller, and Herbert Kastle) work most effectively as mood pieces in the manner of Poe, their great progenitor. A bargain--only $12.95 for 560 pages of the stuff your mother warned you to keep away from. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers; First edition (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786704616
• ISBN-13: 978-0786704613
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,564,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I feel cheated, January 27, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: American Pulp (Paperback)

"Pulp" stories/fiction/magazines are defined by a specific era and form of American literature. In the Introduction, the editors state this, that the period was from about 1920 to about 1950, then proceed to say most of the stories were cliched and godawful. OK, that's fine, but surely you've collected some of the cliche-lite, not-so-god-awful ones, right? Wrong! The collection of stories is from the 50's to the late 90's, AFTER the pulp era. Are there Victorian novels written in the 60's? Surely there were many that appeared Victorian, but that is after the period is defined. I was looking for stories from that era, the godawful and the brilliant.

Look at this quote on Amazon...

"Ingram
Collects the best American crime stories ever published, culled from the pulp magazines of the thirties, forties, and fifties and featuring such titles as ""Dime Detective,"" ""Black Mask,"" and ""The Shadow."" Original."

What the hell?!?!? This has NOTHING to do with this collection. There a handful of stories from the 30's through the 50's, and a ton from the 80's and 90's. Totally misleading and disappointing - not the collection I had hoped for.

Would it have been detestable to gather up a few dozen great stories from that era and actually publish a definitive American Pulp collection?

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars My God Does This Book Suck, September 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: American Pulp (Paperback)

This anthology has a number of stories from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, which are well outside the range of time when anything which could reasonably be called pulp fiction was published. Some of these stories are bad beyond belief. The editorial introductions lack all discernment, and the editors can't seem to tell the good from the unbelievably horrendous. Some of the stories are good, notably the one by David Goodis, but overall the quality is low. The book seems to have been thrown together to capitalize on the movie Pulp Fiction. You'd be well advised not to waste your time or your money on this.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Misleading title, September 17, 2008

By 

Simon Portner (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Pulp (Paperback)

OK, so the title is misleading, these aren't really pulp stories. Does that mean they're not good? Not at all, these are excellent crime stories. If what you're looking for is low-rent pulp fiction, then look elsewhere, because these are good stories by good authors. If you really want to read bad fiction, then I just don't know what to tell you.