Okay, this is getting pretty ephemeral - and I haven't read the book in question -, but I want to get this out of the way before I move onto more important things, such as Ellroy's Blood's a Rover, which I just finished reading.
This is the Swedish cover for the novelization of King Vidor's spectacle Solomon and Sheba (1959). The writer is Jay Williams and the Swedish publisher is B. Wahlströms; the year is 1960. I can't remember anymore where I picked the book up, but it must've been cheap or, perhaps, free. Due to the language, I'm throwing the book away after this, since I have neither use nor space for it.
I'm sure that amongst the pulpsters Jay Williams is best remembered for the Danny Dunn books (some of which were translated in Finnish in the early seventies), but he seems to have written quite a lot some other books.
The Swedish cover is nice and pulpy, but the original American cover is pretty bland. I don't know who the Swedish artist is, as there's no name given in the book. (By the way, be sure to check the Wikipedia article on the co-author of the Danny Dunns, Raymond Abrashkin. I didn't know he was the writer for Little Fugitive, the rare American cinéma vérité film from the fifties. Jay Williams seems to have a small part in it! Weird history of pulpish writing!)
2 comments:
Not cinema verite, Juri...that requires, among other things, no script. Fake cv, maybe.
When you say the language leaves you with no use for the JW novel, is that crude translation, or offensive language? I faintly remember the Danny Dunn books, but don't think I've ever read anything else by JW.
Todd: I can't read Swedish well enough to read a whole book, that's all I meant. Crude translations or offensive language never made me any harm.
As for cinema verite, I'm not sure if a film has to be non-script to qualify. But yes, The Little Fugitive (which I haven't seen, to be sure, at least I don't think I have) isn't really cinema verite (also because it came out before the cinema verite movement), but it's partially improvised and shot on location with non-amateur actors, so there are features one identifies with cinema verite.
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