Thorne Smith: 34 books

This early work by Thorne Smith was originally published in 1930. James Thorne Smith, Jr. was an American author who specialized in supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. „Did She Fall? ” (1930) is a straight murder mystery whose dialogue shows occasional traces of Smith’s...

Perhaps the best example of Thorne Smith’s acutely sharp social humor played out against a backdrop of the Prohibition. 60 year old Rex Pebble inadvertently discovers that the fountain of youth happens to be in his back yard swimming pool. A magical statue of a nymph by the name of Baggage, an ornamental...

Thorne Smith’s hilarious and ribald comedy about boring and staid bank manager Cosmo Topper who decides to buy a flashy car only to discover it is haunted by its previous owners, George and Marion Kerby.  George’s and Marion’s  mischievous spirits (and a few other ghostly friends and...

Meandering labyrinth of a story about a New York advertising executive who leaves his job in the city to write poetry in a hut by the sea.  Although entranced by the ocean and the miles of sand and the salt marshes, David finds himself caught in the coils of his attraction to two women: ...

James Thorne Smith, Jr. was an American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. He is best known today for the two Topper novels, comic fantasy fiction involving sex, much drinking and supernatural transformations. Smith’s literary debut was „Biltmore Oswald”...

Honestly and openly, sometimes simply, sometimes eloquently, Smith takes the reader on a journey of what it was like to be a young man living early in the 20th century. Through his poetry we learn about Smith's life and the events that consumed him ― the sea, a world war, death, heroes, Smith's...

Another magical, mischievous Thorne Smith classic. Rex Pebble, a man in his sixties, is still caught in limbo between his wife and his mistress of twenty years, Spray Summers. One evening while relaxing beside the 'glorious pool' in Spray's back yard, Rex's life is transformed. As the beautiful statue...

     Peter and Mary were old and forgotten. They lived in an equally old and forgotten house  surrounded by sun-baked mud and old tin cans ― a house so unappealing that field mice avoided it and all who passed quickly lose their appetites. And that's saying something. No magic...

Thorne Smith pits two thoroughly modern married people in a classic battle of the sexes. After listening to the nearly endless bickering and childish jealousy of a young man and wife (Tim and Sally Willows), an ancient Egyptian idol decides to play a trick on the two by causing them to switch bodies....

Mad, Hilarious, Degenerate, or simply Fun Fantasy? Only the reader can decide.  Thorne Smith opens with a fairly normal young executive, Peter Van Dyke, and his young secretary, Jo. Although he is engaged to another, she has far from given up. Laughter ensues as they go from one mishap...

Another magical, mischievous Thorne Smith classic. Though Thorne Smith’s most popular works involve elements of fantasy and science fiction, the clever novel „Turnabout” takes his penchant for incorporating supernatural and magical themes in his work and puts one such plot twist to use as a...

Biltmore Oswald may be seen as the original model for such later comic military characters as Popeye, Sad Sack, Beetle Bailey and Crock. Akin to his successors, Oswald was so hopelessly and shamelessly unqualified as a naval recruit, that the Navy accepted him simply to prove that if the Navy could...

This early work by Thorne Smith was originally published in 1930 and is now being republished with a brand new introductory biography. Smith was an American author who specialised in supernatural fantasy fiction. 'Did She Fall' is one of his novels in the mystery genre.

Thorne Smith’s imaginative novel „Skin and Bones” takes the concept of suffering for one’s art to a whole new level. This classic book contains the humorous and fantastical story of Mr. Quintus Bland, the eminent photographer, whose efforts to perfect X-ray film had, one evening, the unfortunate...