James Crumley Archives - The Vintage Contemporaries Bibliography

James Crumley – The Last Good Kiss (1988)

Bibliographical Description

88.11.W056: Crumley – The Last Good Kiss: A Novel

128 leaves, pp. [8] 1 2-14 15 16-26 27 28-34 35 36-46 47 48-55 56 57-68 69 70-82 83 84-99 100 101-117 118 119-130 131 132-139 140 141-148 149 150-160 161 162-181 182 183-199 200 201-216 217 218-226 227 228-238 239 240-244 [4]

First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, November 1988

Contents: π1a author photo with blurbs, π1b ‘ALSO BY JAMES CRUMLEY’, π2a title, π2b imprint, π3a dedication ‘for Dick Hugo, | good old detective of the heart’, π3b blank, π4a epigraph, π4b blank, 1-244 The Last Good Kiss, χ1a about the author, χ1b- χ2b ‘Also available from Vintage Contemporaries” blurbs

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; display typography by Anne Scatto; interior author photo by Lee Nye.

Copies: JDP 1.6

Blurbs

(front cover) The last good mystery. – Rolling Stone
Tough, hard-boiled, and brilliantly suspenseful, The Last Good Kiss is an unforgettable detective story starring C. W. Sughrue, a Montana investigator who kills time by working at a topless bar. Hired to track down a derelict author, he ends up on the trail of a girl missing in Haight-Ashbury for a decade. The tense hunt becomes obsessive as Sughrue takes a haunting journey through the underbelly of America’s sleaziest nightmares.
For fans of private eye novels, this is right up there with the best! – People
What Raymond Chandler did for the Los Angeles of the Thirties, James Crumley does for the roadside west of today. – Harper’s
Potent…utterly right! – Wall Street Journal
The Last Good Kiss carries more weight than any private-eye story since Ross Macdonald’s The Chill. – Rolling Stone
One of the sternest voices in narrative fiction today. – Detroit News

James Crumley – One to Count Cadence (1987)

Bibliographical Description

87.06.W035: Crumley – One to Count Cadence

176 leaves, pp. [8] 1–3 4-25 26 27-46 47 48-58 59 60-76 77 78-92 93 94-115 116 117-150 151 152-165 166 167-194 195 196-221 222 223-251 252 253-272 273 274-300 301 302-311 312 313-323 324 325-333 334 335-338 [6]

First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, June 1987

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by Lee Nye.

Copies: JDP 1.1

Blurbs

(front cover) A stunning narrative talent…one of the best novels of the year. – The New York Times Book Review
The time: late summer, 1962. The place: Clark Air Force Base, the Philippines. Sergeant Jacob “Slag” Krummel, a scholar by intent but a warrior by breeding, assumes command of the 721st Communication Security Deteachment, an unsoldierly crew of bored, rebellious, whoring, foul-mouthed, drunken enlistees. Surviving military absurdities reminiscent of those in Catch 22 only to be shipped clandestinely to Vietnam, Krummel’s band confront their worst fears while finally losing faith in America and its myths. Powerful, scathingly funny, and eloquent, One to Count Cadence is a triumphant novel about manhood, anger, war, and lies.
James Crumley is the James Jones of Vietnam. – Chicago Sun-Times
A brawling, romantic novel about the hell of war, the value of friendship, the difficulties of loving and how to be a man despite the price of it all. – Washington Post
A gutting, eloquent first novel. – Kirkus Reviews
A compelling study of the gratuitous violence in men…carefully molded, without a slack line, a fuzzy character or blurred incident. – The New York Times

James Crumley – The Wrong Case (1986)

Bibliographical Description

86.01.W017: Crumley – The Wrong Case

First Vintage Books Edition, January 1986

144 leaves, pp. [10] 1–2, 3-272 [6]

Contents: π1a blurbs and author photo, π1b “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, π2a half-title, π2b blank, π3a title, π3b imprint, π4a dedication, π4b blank, π5a epigraph, π5b blank, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-272 The Wrong Case, χ1a blank, χ1b about the author, χ2a blank, χ2b blank, χ3a blank, χ3b blank.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by Lee Nye.

Copies: JDP 1.1 (presumed)

Blurbs

(front cover) An exceptionally good example of the private-eye novel. Crumley writes about damaged people seen through a haze of jaded romanticism. – Newsweek
Milo once had a thriving divorce-case business in the small town of Meriweather, in the Pacific Northwest, but because of liberal new divorce laws has taken to drinking and staring out the window. He’s up to his third drink of the morning when an attractive young woman walks into his office and asks him to find her brother. He takes on what seems a routine missing-person case in hopes of getting to know her better, but finds himself involved in what is most definitely The Wrong Case. Everyone is a victim, one way or another, of a crime that took place long before the novel begins.
An excellent example of new variations within an old genre. Crumley’s story is a strong one, and the revelations continue until the last page. – Texas Monthly
A very good study in fatalism and self-destruction. – Hartford Courant
Crumley is a vivid writer. He makes Milo much more vulnerable, more involved in this sordid case than Hammett or Chandler would have done. It is this kind of style that imprints itself on the reader’s memory. – Newsweek

James Crumley – Dancing Bear (1984)

Bibliographic Description

84.09.W002: Crumley – Dancing Bear

First Vintage Books Edition, September 1984

120 leaves, pp. [8] 1-2 3-5 6 7-229 [4]

Contents: π1a blurbs and author photo, π1b “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, π2a half-title, π2b blank, π3a title-page, π3b imprint, π4a dedication “For the Dump Family Singers | — Orris, Nelon, Young Eugene, Ma, | and Little Shorty”, π4b blank, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-228 Dancing Bear, χ1a blank, χ1b blank, χ2a about the author, χ2b blank.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Marc Tauss; interior author photo by Lee Nye.

Copies: JDP 1.1 (presumed)

Blurbs

(front cover) A taut, stirring, highly original thriller. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
His friends call him Milo. No one has ever called him Bud except his father, long dead, and now Sarah Weddington, stirring painful memories and offering him his first case since he abandoned his private practice and took a job marking time on the night shift for Haliburton Security. The case seems almost too easy, hardly worth the large fee, just to satisfy this old woman’s curiosity. But things are soon exploding all over the place and Milo is turning up grenades, machine guns, a kilo of marijuana and a bag of coke…and suddenly Milo is on the run.
Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross MacDonald have been looking for a successor. Now they have him. – Boston Phoenix
James Crumley is a first-rate American writer…pyrotechnically entertaining, sexy, compassionate. – The Village Voice
[Crumley’s] themes are as American and contemporary as they can be, and he explores the American West and its mythology as well as anyone. Dancing Bear is a terrific book, a novel of incomparably degenerate grace and relentless vitality. – St. Louis Dispatch
Completely unnerving…intelligent, despairing, moving. – The Chicago Sun-Times