Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Vintage Movie Classics

Vintage Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) has recently launched a new book series called Vintage Movie Classics. With this series they will bring back into print classic novels that inspired Hollywood movies. This month they launch the series with four paperback and e-book releases and will follow up with four more this Fall.

I was really excited to learn about this new series! I asked Vintage Books for some more information about the new series so I could share it here on this blog. Here is what they shared with me:

Vintage Books: For film buffs, the “classics” are the movies that can be watched and rewatched countless times, each viewing revealing something new—sometimes even a completely different meaning as viewers mature and times change. But even after countless viewings, have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite films? From its earliest days, Hollywood has turned to literature as the inspiration for some of its greatest movies. Now, with Vintage Movie Classics, film buffs can return to the source of some of their all-time favorite films. This spring Vintage Books will launch a new series of titles—Vintage Movie Classics—and re-issue four novels that were the basis of classics movies. The first four in the series are…



9780345805751 - paperback - $14.95 retail
9780345805768- ebook - $9.99 retail


CIMARRON (published in 1929) moves the action to the Oklahoma Land Rush, an explosive and lawless background against which criminal lawyer Yancey Cravat and his well-bred wife Sabra persevere to make a prosperous life for themselves. CIMARRON was twice made into a motion picture, most famously Wesley Ruggle’s 1931 take, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and was the first film to be nominated for the coveted Big Five Academy Award categories—including nods for stars Richard Dix and Irene Dunne. Edna Ferber’s great-niece and biographer, Julie Gilbert, contributes a new foreword.



9780345805737  - paperback - $14.95 retail
9780307809018 - ebook - $9.99 retail 
(not all e-book retailers have this edition live yet)

SHOW BOAT: Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Ferber’s SHOW BOAT (published in 1926), brings to life the adventurous world of Mississippi show boats, the grittiness of turn-of-the-century Chicago, and the majesty of Broadway in 1920s New York during an era of immense change. The basis for the revolutionary Broadway musical of the same name, SHOW BOAT went on to be filmed three times over three decades—including MGM’s 1951 blockbuster directed by George Sidney and starring Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, and Ava Gardner. Film historian Foster Hirsch contributes a new foreword.


9780804170802  - paperback - $14.95 retail
9780804170819  - ebook - $9.99 retail

ALICE ADAMS: Booth Tarkington’s 1921 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel follows the daughter of an impoverished family in a post-World War I Midwestern town. When she finds herself being pursued by a gentleman of a higher social class, Alice’s desperate attempts to keep her lower station a secret reveal the strength of the human spirit and its incredible ability to evolve. Filmed in 1935 by George Stevens, Alice Adams returned Katharine Hepburn to public favor and netted Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress. Film writer and Hepburn biographer Anne Edwards contributes a new foreword.


9780804170673 - paperback - $14.95 retail
9780804170680 - ebook - $9.99 retail

BACK STREET: From bestselling author Fannie Hurst, BACK STREET (published in 1931) tells the melodramatic and heart-wrenching tale of Ray Schmidt, a beautiful and talented dressmaker, whose devotion to a married man relegates her to the shadowy “back streets” of a life she’ll never have for herself. An instant success upon publication, BACK STREET has been filmed three times, memorably in a sudsy 1961 Ross Hunter production starring Susan Hayward, John Gavin, and Vera Miles; as well as the 1941 “weepie” starring Margaret Sullavan and Charles Boyer. Film historian Cari Beauchamp contributes a new foreword.


Future Releases include:

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R. A. Dick
The Bitter Tea of General Yen by Grace Zaring Stone
The Bad Seed by William March
Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds


What do you think of this new series? I love that they are bringing these novels back into print and the packaging is quite stunning! And I also think it's great that these will have added content with  forewords by notable film historians and biographers.

7 comments:

  1. This is terrific news. I'd be willing to try one or two of these books. Good job finding out about this.

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  2. Very happy about this. Like many old movie buffs, I usually search for the original novels of films I've enjoyed, but sometimes finding them is difficult. Great idea.

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  3. What an amazing idea! I can't wait to check out The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Bad Seed. Will they be coming in the fall?

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  4. This is a stellar idea. I am so excited and will review some of my faves on my website. I've done some classic movie reviews since I focus on all things vintage and mostly WWII and movies with great clothing and swing dancing! I'll be looking for these. What's great is they should be PG for kids, too?

    ~ Tam Francis ~
    www.girlinthejitterbugdress.com

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  5. This is such a great idea. I'm looking forward to reading The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

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