Because the Night (Original handwritten manuscript for the 1984 novel) by James Ellroy - 1983

N.p.: N.p., 1983. Original handwritten manuscript draft for the 1984 novel. With Ellroy's profuse and expectedly surgical corrections to his own text throughout, and with substantial content that did not make the published edition. With a letter of provenance from Ellroy's then-editor and publisher Otto Penzler, tying the manuscript directly to its source.

According to Penzler, Ellroy's manuscripts would always begin as completely handwritten documents, before being typed, edited by both Penzler and Ellroy, and then generally retyped and re-edited once more.

In addition to early unpublished content, the manuscript reveals the extremely fastidious nature of Ellroy's process, as well as his preference for writing out and editing his research, outlines, and finished novels by hand. As an object, the manuscript is an almost overwhelming testament to the process that results in what has been accurately described as the author's "dense, baroque style," or what Scott Timberg of the Los Angeles Times in 2006 famously called "a heightened pastische of jazz slang, cop patois, creative profanity, and drug vernacular."

Ellroy's fifth novel, and the second in his L.A.Noir trilogy that featured LAPD robbery-homicide detective Lloyd Hopkins. Because the Night centers on the investigation of a triple murder at a liquor store that strangely involves no theft, leading Hopkins to believe that the crime was a "thrill kill."

Black, blue, and red ink manuscript. 461 leaves, each numbered at the top left, standard notebook paper stock, rectos only. Housed in a large black post-style clasp binder.

Further provenance information available on request.