Savage Art
A Biography of Jim Thompson
by Robert Polito
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The first comprehensive biography of the author of "The Grifters" and "The Killer Inside Me" includes 40 photographs. This book traces Thompson's involvement in the Wobblies and the Communist party; the "true crime" magazines and pulp fiction houses where Thompson's work was initially published; and his experience in Hollywood with Stanley Kubrick and others. In 1977, Thompson died a poverty-stricken alcoholic. Most of his books are now back in print, and four of them have recently been filmed.
Editions of Savage Art
 |
ISBN |
Binding/Format Hardcover |
Publisher Random House Inc |
Date 1995 |
Price $3.23 |
 Good |
 |
ISBN |
Binding/Format Paperback |
Publisher Random House Inc |
Date 1996 |
Price $5.60 |
VG+ |
Publisher Notes
Robert Polito recounts Thompson's relationship with his father, a disgraced Oklahoma sheriff, with the women he adored in life and murdered on the page, with alcohol, would-be censors, and Hollywood auteurs. Unrelenting and empathetic, casting light into the darker caverns of our collective psyche, Savage Art is an exemplary homage to an American original. A National Book Critics Circle Award winner. 57 photos.
Media Reviews
"Polito not only takes Thompson's measure as a man and a writer, but makes you feel what it must have been like to be this quiet, raging man in a biography nearly as dark as it subject's own fiction."
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