Add this copy of The Burglar to cart. $20.00, very good condition, Sold by King Crab Books LLC rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Saint Paul, MN, UNITED STATES, published 1988 by Simon & Schuster.
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VG+ 152 p. 1988 trade paperback edition from Simon Schuster Blue Murder. VERY GOOD PLUS, unread but with bump to spine head. Kevin O'Brien cover art. Basis for the 1957 film, for which Goodis wrote the screenplay.
Add this copy of The Burglar to cart. $30.00, like new condition, Sold by King Crab Books LLC rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Saint Paul, MN, UNITED STATES, published 1988 by Simon & Schuster.
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152 p. 1988 trade paperback edition from Simon & Schuster Blue Murder. FINE, unread. Kevin O'Brien cover art. Basis for the 1957 film, for which Goodis wrote the screenplay.
Add this copy of The Burglar to cart. $53.15, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1988 by Simon & Schuster.
Add this copy of The Burglar to cart. $65.00, good condition, Sold by The Book Den rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Barbara, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1953 by Lion #124, 1953. First edition..
Add this copy of The Burglar to cart. $65.00, fair condition, Sold by King Crab Books LLC rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Saint Paul, MN, UNITED STATES, published 1953 by Lion.
Add this copy of The Burglar to cart. $87.04, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1988 by Simon & Schuster.
Add this copy of The Burglar to cart. $95.00, good condition, Sold by Brenner's Collectable Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Manasquan, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1953 by Lion.
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Good/Very Good. Vintage Paperback PBO Lion #124. Solid First Printing of this Paperback Original Pulp Noir. February, 1953. $.25 cover price. Square and tight with moderate page toning. Inside of covers are more heavily toned. A couple of long creases and mild edge-wear. Still fresh and bright with no chipping or tears. A very presentable copy a great price.
Add this copy of The Burglar to cart. $100.00, good condition, Sold by King Crab Books LLC rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Saint Paul, MN, UNITED STATES, published 1953 by Lion.
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G+ 158 p. 1st edition paperback original from Lion (#124), 1953. GOOD PLUS, moderate to heavy wear and a couple stains to back cover that affect last handful of pages also.
Add this copy of The Burglar (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) to cart. $106.21, like new condition, Sold by Book Forest rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from San Rafael, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1991 by Vintage Books USA.
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Like New. Text block, wraps and binding are in like new condition, without markings of any kind. Supporting Bay Area Friends of the Library since 2010. Well packaged and promptly shipped.
The noir novels of David Goodis (1917 -- 1967) should receive widespread attention with the publication of a new Library America volume of five novels Goodis wrote in the 1940's and 50's. David Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s (Library of America) As I work through the LOA volume, I have been enjoying reviewing each individual book in more detail than would be possible in a review of the single volume of five novels.
Written in 1953 when Goodis had left Hollywood and moved back to his native Philadelphia, "The Burglar" was published only in an inexpensive paperback edition. It was the sort of book sold in bus stations or at newstands for a short, entertaining read. Like some other art, Goodis' books were not written or sold with the expectation that they would one day be found of long term value. In 1957, a movie version of "The Burglar" was released directed by Paul Wendklos with stars including Dan Duryea and Jane Mansfield and with the screenplay by Goodis himself.
Goodis' novel is set in Philadelphia and Atlantic City in the late 1940's. For a short book, "The Burglar" includes a considerable number of well-developed characters and addresses several important themes in addition to the robberies and murders of a crime story.
The primary character, Nat Harbin, 33, is the leader of a group of four robbers who live together in an old house in a shabby area of Philadelphia. Harbin's confederates are two slightly older men, Baylock and Dohmer, and a young woman in her early 20s, Gladden, whose relationship with Harbin is developed in the course of the book. As the book opens, Goodis' gang of four meticulously pulls off a heist of $100,000 in emeralds from a safe in a wealthy Philadelphia home. Tensions break out among the four members, and the loyalty and cohesiveness of the group is severely tested. A major source of the tension involves Harbin, who falls heavily for a wealthy woman named Della whom he meets, apparently by chance in a cheap restaurant. Della invites Harbin to live with her in an idyllic home in rural Pennsylvania. The group appears to be about to dissolve.
The search for love, and its elusive character, is a major theme of "The Burglars" as Goodis creates a poignant, surprisingly thoughtful love story. The major theme of the book, however, is loyalty. Although I doubt that Goodis was aware of the connection, the emphasis on loyalty in "The Burglars" reminded me of the American philosopher Josiah Royce who put the virtue of loyalty at the heart of ethics. When Harbin's parents died during his adolescence, he was taken in by a thief named Gerald Gladden who treated him kindly and taught him the trade. When Gladden died in a robbery, Harbin took responsibility for the care of his young daughter, then six, whom he called simply "Gladden". Gerald instilled in Harbin the value of loyalty in addition to the tools of theft. Here is how Goodis describes Gerald's teachings to young Harbin:
"This big thing, Gerald would say, this thing of being honorable, was the only thing, and actually, if a human being didn't have it, there wasn't much point in going on living. As matters stood, life offered very little aside from an occasional plunge into luxurious sensation, which never lasted for long and even while it happened was accompanied by the dismal knowledge that it would soon be over. In the winter Gerald had a mania for oyster stew, and always while he ate the stew he would complain the plate would soon be empty and his stomach would be too full for him to enjoy another plate. All these things like oyster stew and clean underwear and fresh cigarettes were temporary things, little passing touches of pleasure, limited things, unimportant things. What mattered, what mattered high up there by itself all alone, Gerald would say, was whether things are honorable."
In Goddis' novel, Harbin has to examine both his personal relationship to Gladden and his relationship to his fellow thieves and assess them in light of his passion for Della. These themes are developed in the context of a noir story which includes as well passages of acute description of run-down Atlantic city hotels, furious storms, and poor Philadelphia bars and restaurants.
"The Burglars" is a thoughtful, difficult novel in the unprepossessing guise of a throwaway paperback. The Library of America did a service in publishing its volume of Goodis novels.
