Friday, August 29, 2014

Paperback 807: Night Has 1,000 Eyes / William Irish (George Hopley) (Cornell Woolrich) (Dell 679)

Paperback 807: Dell 679 (1st ptg, 1953)

Title: Night Has 1000 Eyes
Author: Cornell Woolrich, writing as William Irish, writing as George Hopley
Cover artist: Tommy Shoemaker

Yours for: $15

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Best things about this cover:
  • Pretty classic stuff here—from the highly regarded suspense / crime writer so prolific his pseudonyms had pseudonyms, to the sensational paranoid title, to the panicked sideglance of our barefoot bridge walker. This book is the broken, bruised, beating heart of the vintage paperback era.
  • Book is warped and well read, but tight and complete. The collector in me likes a fine copy, but the pulp enthusiast in me loves a book in distress.
  • I really want to capitalize "has" and put a comma in that "1000."
  • I see your "Thriller" and raise you to "SUPER-THRILLER"!

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Best things about this back cover:
  • Mostly dull, but I like the way the left margin follows the contours of the moon.
  • Whoa. "1000" has become "a THOUSAND"! This *is* super-thrilling!
  • Everything in red is balderdash. Fantastic, turgid, red balderdash.

Page 123~

I don't know what my lips said, but my heart said to him, it's human not to be able to bear knowing when you are to die.

I often don't know what my lips said.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

4 comments:

DemetriosX said...

Thanks for the earworm Rex. Now I'm gonna have Bobby Vee singing in my head all day, and I only know 6 words of the damn song.

Great cover, though.

Anonymous said...

The best part is - when the page loads, I can only see her to about her knees. There's no context. When I scroll down to read, then I see where she is - ON A FUCKING BRIDGE! So much suspense.

Har, "suspension" bridge.

Jean said...

Oooh, now that is a great cover.

Hugh Candyside said...

The back cover has it "Night has a Thousand Eyes." Isn't the front cover missing the indefinite article?