Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson (Paperback)

~ (Author) "When Jim Thompson was courting Alberta, he would tease her with the line that he had been born in jail..." (more)
Key Phrases: Jim Thompson, New York, Oklahoma City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jim Thompson was one of the greatest crime novelists ever, leaving behind a legacy of hard-boiled classics like The Grifters and The Getaway. Robert Polito has written the definitive biography of this brilliant American original. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A series of Vintage reprints and Hollywood films like The Getaway and The Grifters have helped develop a wider popular and critical following for crime author Jim Thompson (1906-1977) than he sustained while alive. More twisted, sadistic and nihilistic than Chandler or Caine, Thompson's trademarks were his fiendish first-person psychopaths and lowlifes and his grim tales of failed lives and thwarted crimes. Polito, director of the writing program at Manhattan's New School, here untangles the man from his two-volume autobiography (Bad Boy and Roughneck), revealing a maverick alcoholic who was dogged by spells of depression and missed opportunities throughout his hand-to-mouth career. The son of a corrupt Oklahoma sheriff who lost his money speculating in oil, Thompson had his first alcohol-induced nervous breakdown as a hotel busboy in Ft. Worth while still in high school. He oscillated between low-wage jobs, hack journalism and literary circles for the rest of his life; joined the Communist Party in 1936; briefly became director of the Oklahoma Writer's Project; and struggled to publish novels that were often either too dark or slapdash for the mainstream. He enjoyed his most prolific period under editor Arnold Halo at Lion Books in the 1950s, eventually landing in Hollywood as a part-time film and television writer. This meticulous study adroitly evokes the rise of pulp adventure and crime magazines like Saga and True Detective, where Thompson honed his style, and the seedy underworld of hoboes and grifters who formed the models for his "savage art." Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; illustrated edition edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679733523
• ISBN-13: 978-0679733522
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #138,465 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Detail and Research, June 28, 2000

By	R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I didn't think it was possible to write a full-scale biography of Thompson because of his scattered, secret life. But Polito has pulled off the seemingly impossible. He gathers together unexpected facts from obscure sources in places all over the country. He combines this with excellent, insightful analysis of this tortured writer's work. When I first read Thompson's novels back in the mid-'80's, it felt like my brain was being turned inside out. I was so astonished I went out and bought every one. Now thanks to Polito we can begin to understand the sources of the horror and the humanity of his novels.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Bio on Thompson, May 28, 2001

By	Tribe (Toledo, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

If there was ever an American original, it's Jim Thompson. His dark and deranged world-view, expressed in a series of cheap paperbacks in the fifties and sixties, revels in the that part of the American psyche that we ignore and are afraid to look at. Polito's detailed bio explains where Thompson came from, and the events that molded him into the premier writer of American noir. Even if you aren't interested in Thompson and his work, this is an exquisite biography.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent scruitny of a dark and edgy writer., May 8, 1999

By A Customer

Since I read a Jim Thompson novel for the first time, I though he was truly one of America's most gifted and important writers. A literary heir to the likes of Chandler and Cain, he was, like them, able to raise the mystery genre to a whole new level of American literature. Of course, whether you like Thompson's work or not, is entirely subjective, but if you admire him as much as I do. "Savage Art" by Ron Polito is an important key to understanding Thompson and his work. Like most independent geniuses, Thompson led a hard and often lonely life which he put into his writing. HIs characters wear masks so much that they often don't know who they are. Polito picks up on this recurring theme and uses it to explore Thompson's turbulent life and use of masks. This book made me appreciate Thompson even more and I've reread all of his books since finishing "it. This bio is truly a key to understanding and appreciating Thompson's work to it fullest extent.