Five noir novels of the 1940s & 50s - Robert Polito

In 1997 The Library of America's Crime Novels: American Noir gathered, in two volumes, eleven classic works of the 1930s, 40s, and
50s--among them David Goodis's moody and intensely lyrical masterpiece
Down There, adapted by Franois Truffaut for his 1960 film
Shoot the Piano Player. Now, The Library of America and editor
Robert Polito team up again to celebrate the full scope of Goodis's
signature style with this landmark volume collecting five great novels
from the height of his career. Goodis (1917-1967) was a Philadelphia- born pulp expressionist who brought a jazzy style to his spare,
passionate novels of mean streets and doomed protagonists: an innocent
man railroaded for his wife's murder (Dark Passage); an artist
whose life turns nightmarish because of a cache of stolen money
(Nightfall); a dockworker seeking to comprehend his sister's
brutal death (The Moon in the Gutter); a petty criminal derailed
by irresistible passion (The Burglar); and a famous crooner
scarred by violence and descending into dereliction (Street of No
Return). Long a cult favorite, Goodis now takes his place alongside
Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett in the pantheon of classic
American crime writers.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.