Turnabout by Thorne Smith - 1947

New York: Pocket, 1947. first thus. Mass Paperback. Good. First printing of this edition. Excellent condition, with light wear. Prior owner's name on the half title page. Otherwise, pages are clean and unmarked, tanning. Pocket mass paperback, first printing July 1947, Pocket #447, 277 pages. 12mo (4.5"" x 6.5"") Turnabout (1931). Thorne Smith pits two thoroughly modern married people in a classic battle of the sexes. After listening to the nearly endless bickering and childish jealousy of a young man and wife (Tim and Sally Willows), an ancient Egyptian idol decides to play a trick on the two by causing them to switch bodies. Like Thorne Smith, Tim works in an advertising agency, and several scenes are set there, drawing on the author's experience. After the wife forcefully impregnates her husband, things take a decided turn for the worse as they separately try to deal with the object of the former wife's affections - a deplorably predictable square-jawed philanderer by the name of Carl Bently. The scene in which Tim, trapped in his wife's body, exacts an icy revenge on the unfortunate interloper is one of the unforgettable moments of Thorne Smith's peculiar humor. Both a film (1940) and a short-lived 1979 television sitcom starring Sharon Gless and John Schuck (canceled after six episodes) were based on Turnabout, as to some extent was the last broadcast episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, ""Turnabout Intruder"".