Rain in the Doorway [Hardcover]

Thorne Smith (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0848821653 | ISBN-13: 978-0848821654 | Publication Date: August 2002

James Thorne Smith Jr. (1892-1934), was an American writer of humorous supernaturnal fantasy fiction. Best known today for his creation of Topper, Smith's comic fantasy fiction (most of it involving sex, lots of drinking, and supernatural transformations, and aided by racy illustrations) sold millions of copies in the early 1930s. Smith drank as steadily as his characters; his appearance in James Thurber's The Years With Ross involves an unexplained week-long disappearance. Smith was born in Annapolis, Maryland the son of a Navy commodore, attended Dartmouth College, and after hungry years in Greenwich Village working part-time as an advertising agent, Smith achieved meteoric success with the publication of Topper in 1926. His other works include: The Stray Lamb (1929), Turnabout (1931), The Night Life of the Gods (1931), Topper Takes a Trip (1932), The Bishop's Jaegers (1932), Rain in the Doorway (1933), Skin and Bones (1933) and The Glorious Pool (1934). He died of a heart attack while vacationing in Florida.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Amereon Ltd (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0848821653
• ISBN-13: 978-0848821654
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,440,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply absurd...just the way I like it!, February 8, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (OHIO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rain in the Doorway (Mass Market Paperback)

That one man could be at once this melancholy and this hilarious is much of Smith's genious. If not for the gut-splitting humor he would be down-right depressing...but boy, is he not! This is theatre of the absurd at its best. Be prepared to laugh uncontrollably and make a total fool of yourself (if anyone can see you).Thorne Smith was the "racey" writter of my father's youth and my "sibs" and I learned the value of a good laugh at dad's knee.Thorne Smith is the best, I search for more.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps His Best, April 8, 2008

By 

Lynn Walker "owlcroft" (Ritzville, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rain in the Doorway (Dodo Press) (Paperback)

Smith is remembered today (if at all) for "Topper", which in turn is probably known from the TV show and, for old-timers, the movie. In fact, Smith was a side-splitting humorist, and even the Topper tales are much better than the screen versions (or does that not need saying?).

This little gem of a novel is very possibly his finest work, the madcap nature of it more compressed and condensed than his usual, and more zany: it must remind one of the style of the Marx Brothers.

And, as has been noted, the book is not just funny, but bitingly funny: it has things to say, and it delivers them as cyanic acid at the heart of rich sweets. Fantastic, funny, insightful--a wonderful (literally) book.