Ben Hecht: 10 books

It was a day in the spring of 1921. Dismal shadows, really Hechtian shadows, filled the editorial "coop" in The Chicago Daily News building. Outside the rain was slanting down in the way that Hecht's own rain always slants. In walked Hecht. He had been divorced from our staff for some weeks, and had...

Unlocking the American Dream At a time when deep divisions headline the national discourse on equality, Reclaiming the American Dream: Proven Solutions for Creating Economic Opportunity for All uses real-world examples to illustrate how America can evolve to include everyone in its promise...

Exotic, strange, and powerful, this thrilling mystery will keep you guessing until the end. "The five illustrations contained in the following pages are the work of the new phenomenal black and white artist, Wallace Smith. In making the drawings Mr. Smith chose to illustrate the spirit...

A novel of satanic decadence in the tradition of J-K Huysmans, FANTAZIUS MALLARE is the tale of a deranged recluse who declares war on reality. In his world of hallucination and twisted eroticism, Mallare needs a woman to worship him as a god; aided by Goliath, his deformed dwarf servant he entices a...

Fantazius Mallare considered himself mad because he was unable to behold in the meaningless gesturings of time, space and evolution a dramatic little pantomime adroitly centered about the routine of his existence. He was a silent looking man with black hair and an aquiline nose. His eyes were lifeless because they paid no homage to the world outside him.

She was crying on the couch. All right. Let her. But she was crying because she wanted something.... His hands grabbed her head and straightened her face until their eyes were looking into each other. "Listen," he said. He was shaking her. "I'm going away." Eyes watched each other....

An old man sat in the shadows of the summer night. From a veranda chair he looked at the stars. He wore a white beard, and his eyes, grown small with age, watered continually as if he were weeping. Half-hidden under his beard his emaciated lips kept the monotonous grimace of a smile on his face. He sat...

Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called the Shakespeare of Hollywood, he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of the most...