Cornell Woolrich Books In Order

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Cover Charge (1926)
  2. Children of the Ritz (1927)
  3. Times Square (1929)
  4. A Young Man’s Heart (1930)
  5. The Time of Her Life (1931)
  6. Manhattan Love Song (1932)
  7. The Black Curtain (1941)
  8. Black Alibi (1942)
  9. Phantom Lady (As: William Irish) (1942)
  10. The Black Angel (1943)
  11. Deadline at Dawn (As:William Irish) (1944)
  12. Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1945)
  13. The Black Path of Fear (1946)
  14. The Bride Wore Black (1946)
  15. Waltz Into Darkness (As:William Irish) (1947)
  16. Rendezvous in Black (1948)
  17. I Married a Dead Man (1948)
  18. Fright (1950)
  19. Savage Bride (1950)
  20. Strangler’s Serenade (As:William Irish) (1951)
  21. Mari*juana (1951)
  22. Hotel Room (1958)
  23. Into the Night (With: Lawrence Block) (1959)
  24. The Doom Stone (1960)

Short Stories Books In Publication Order

  1. Rear Window (1991)
  2. Mystery in Room 913 (2013)
  3. Too Nice a Day to Die (2014)
  4. Guns, Gentlemen (2015)
  5. Hot Water (2015)

Collections In Publication Order

  1. Rear Window and Other Stories (1942)
  2. Violence (1958)
  3. Beyond the Night (1959)
  4. Nightmare (1964)
  5. The Ten Faces of Cornell Woolrich (1965)
  6. The Dark Side of Love (1965)
  7. Nightwebs (1971)
  8. Angels of Darkness (1978)
  9. The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich (1981)
  10. Darkness at Dawn (1985)
  11. Vampire’s Honeymoon (1985)
  12. Blind Date with Death (1985)
  13. Night and Fear (With: Francis M. Nevins Jr.) (1990)
  14. Tonight, Somewhere in New York (With: Francis M. Nevins Jr.) (2005)
  15. Love and Night (2007)
  16. Literary Noir (2018)
  17. An Obsession with Death and Dying (2018)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. Tantalizing Locked Room Mysteries (1982)
  2. Tales of Mystery (1986)
  3. Kill or Cure (1989)

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Cornell Woolrich Books Overview

A Young Man’s Heart

For the first time since 1930 this early semi autobiographical novel by Cornell Woolrich is available. It’s a tale of love and betrayal in the exotic climes of Mexico in the early 20th century. In an introduction, Francis M. Nevins, the world’s foremost authority on Woolrich, tells the fascinating story of how this book came to be.

Manhattan Love Song

‘Nothing beats a tale of fatalistic dread by the supreme master of suspense, Cornell Woolrich. His novels and hundreds of short stories define the essence of noir nihilism.’ Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

The father of modern noir first wanted to be the second F. Scott Fitzgerald. This 1932 novel brilliantly showcases Cornell Woolrich’s transition from modernist to pulp master, as the reader follows a young Manhattan couples’ tragic fall from grace.

Cornell Woolrich reinvented suspense fiction for the twentieth century. For four decades hundreds of his stories appeared in popular American pulp magazines while motion picture directors as varied as Hitchcock and Truffaut memorably translated his work into such classic suspense films as Rear Window and The Bride Wore Black. He died, alone in a Manhattan hotel room, in 1968.

The Black Angel

‘Woolrich devised and used instruments of psychological torture his stories.’ TIME ‘Nothing beats a tale of fatalistic dread by the supreme master of suspense, Cornell Woolrich.’ The New York Times A novel as hypnotic as it is suspenseful, its atmosphere haunting, its shadows long, this intimate thriller by past master of noir fiction Cornell Woolrich delivers its unfailing angel from her waking nightmare into a chillingly impossible dream. From the 1930s until his death in 1968, Cornell Woolrich riveted the reading public with his pulp noir. Classic films like Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window earned Woolrich the epithet ‘the twentieth century’s Edgar Allan Poe.’

Night Has a Thousand Eyes

‘Cornell Woolrich’s novels define the essence of noir nihilism.’ Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review One of Cornell Woolrich’s most famous novels, this classic noir tale of a con man struggling with his ability to see the future is arguably the author’s best in its depiction of a doomed vision of predestination.

The Bride Wore Black

AMERICA’S MASTER OF SUSPENSE…
FIRST IN THE DEFINITIVE SERIES OF THIS AMERICAN GENIUS No one knew who she was, where she came from, or why she had entered their lives. All they really knew about her was that she possessed a terrifying beauty and that each time she appeared, a man died horribly…
.

Waltz Into Darkness (As:William Irish)

What happens when a decent, moral man falls under the baneful spell of a thoroughly depraved, delectable woman? A top mystery writer, in his first novel, traces the downward course of respectable Louis Durand as he tumbles to his ultimate degraded hell an unforgettable story of suspense, terror, and fascination. This is the story of a man betrayed by his own loneliness and desire for romance. From the romantic beginning to the tragic, logical end, with subtle punishments and cumulative sins between, Louis Durand is trapped by his own passion. Completely credible is the power which his captivating, evil wife holds over him. From the moment Bonnie Castle arrives in New Orleans with murder and deception lying just behind her guileless gaze and little girl beauty Louis Durand is a doomed man. His happiness is based upon a quicksand which soon gives way beneath him. Dragged down by his connivance in crime, tortured by his own doubts, Durand blindly follows his will o’ the wisp wife on the path that leads to murder, personal ruin, and final agony. Waltz into Darkness captures the magnolia scented charm of New Orleans in the 1880s, a nostalgic ‘period piece’ of the days when ladies wore bustles and elaborate gowns, never smoked, never crossed their legs, rarely showed their ankles and were capable of evil which is of no time or place. Filed with memorable scenes, peopled with strongly knit characters, expertly constructed, Waltz into Darkness will keep the reader on the edge of his chair to its final climax.

Rendezvous in Black

On a mild midwestern night in the early 1940s, Johnny Marr leans against a drugstore wall. He’s waiting for Dorothy, his fianc e, and tonight is the last night they ll be meeting here, for it s May 31st, and June 1st marks their wedding day. But she s late, and Johnny soon learns of a horrible accident an accident involving a group of drunken men, a low flying charter plane, and an empty liquor bottle. In one short moment Johnny loses all that matters to him and his life is shattered. He vows to take from these men exactly what they took from him. After years of planning, Johnny begins his quest for revenge, and on May 31st of each year always on May 31st wives, lovers, and daughters are suddenly no longer safe.

Fright

A man. A woman. A kiss in the dark. That is how it begins. But before his nightmare ends, Prescott Marshall will learn that kisses and darkness can both hide evil intent – and that the worst darkness of all may be lurking inside him.

Lost for more than half a century and never before published under Cornell Woolrich’s real name, Fright is a breathtaking noir crime novel worthy of the writer who has been called ‘the Hitchcock of the written word’ and ‘one of the giants of mystery fiction.’

Rear Window

Cornell Woolrich. His name conjures a maelstrom of nerve shattering suspense spawned by the stark, cynical landscape of urban America in the 1930s and 1940s. This collection spotlights thirteen of his most unforgettable narratives, including Rear Window, which watches Hal Jeffries confined with a broken leg to a tiny apartment that only allows him to survey the daily lives of his neighbors across the courtyard?until he discovers one of them is a cold blooded murderer and that he?s the next victim. Other thrillers involve a woman trapped with a psychotic stranger obsessed with knifing his victims on the dance floor; a man who finds his bride buried alive; and a housewife seizing her chance to escape a sad*istic husband, only to find her dream go terrifyingly wrong. With Rear Window, as in the other stories in this volume, Woolrich proves that, like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain, he remains one of the all time masters of the noir genre.

Rear Window and Other Stories

Cornell Woolrich. His name conjures a maelstrom of nerve shattering suspense spawned by the stark, cynical landscape of urban America in the 1930s and 1940s. This collection spotlights thirteen of his most unforgettable narratives, including REAR WINDOW, which watches Hal Jeffries confined with a broken leg to a tiny apartment that only allows him to survey the daily lives of his neighbors across the courtyard?until he discovers one of them is a cold blooded murderer and that he?s the next victim. Other thrillers involve a woman trapped with a psychotic stranger obsessed with knifing his victims on the dance floor; a man who finds his bride buried alive; and a housewife seizing her chance to escape a sad*istic husband, only to find her dream go terrifyingly wrong. With REAR WINDOW, as in the other stories in this volume, Woolrich proves that, like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain, he remains one of the all time masters of the noir genre.

Nightwebs

Cornell Woolrich was a haunted man who lived a life of reclusive misery, but he was also a uniquely gifted writer who explored the classic noir themes of loneliness, despair and futility. His stories are masterpieces of psychological suspense and mystery, and they have inspired classic movies like Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Truffaut’s The Bride wore Black. This collection brings together twelve of his finest, most powerful and disturbing tales.

Angels of Darkness

As Judge Deborah Knott presides over a case involving a barroom brawl, it becomes clear that deep resentments over race, class, and illegal immigration are simmering just below the surface in the countryside. An early spring sun has begun to shine like a blessing on the fertile fields of North Carolina, but along with the seeds sprouting in the thawing soil, violence is growing as well. Mutilated body parts have appeared along the back roads of Colleton County, and the search for the victim’s identity and for that of his killer will lead Deborah and her new husband, Sheriff’s Deputy Dwight Bryant, into the desperate realm of undocumented farm workers exploited for cheap labor. In the meantime, Deborah and Dwight continue to adjust to married life and to having Dwight’s eight year old son, Cal, live with them full time. When another body is found, these newlyweds will discover dark truths that threaten to permanently alter the serenity of their rural surroundings and their new life together.

The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich

I wasn t that good you know. What I was was a guy who could write a little publishing in magazines surrounded by people who couldn t write at all. So I looked pretty good. But I never thought I was that good at all. All that I thought was that I tried to tell the truth. Cornell Woolrich first perceived his personal truth in Mexico City at the age of eight when his maternal grandfather took him to see a traveling French company perform Madame Butterfly. He became aware of color, drama, tragedy and that someday, like Cio Cio San, he would have to die. His life and his writing were filled by the sense of doom that engulfed his young mind. I had that trapped feeling, he wrote in his autobiography, like some sort of a poor insect that you ve put inside a downturned glass, and it tries to climb up the sides, and it can t, and it can t, and it can t. This keen sense of futility permeated Woolrich’s life and stories. It was his special gift to be able to portray those individ uals who lived on the edge of disaster and who were agonizingly aware that they did so. He did so. Steve Fisher used Woolrich as model for the brutal homicide detective in his 1941 novel I Wake Up Screaming. He had red hair and thin white skin and red eyebrows and blue eyes. He looked sick. He looked like a corpse. His clothes didn t fit him…
. He was possessed with a macabre humor. His voice was nasal. You d think he was crying. The stories gathered here and arranged chronologically by the editors Kiss of the Cobra, Dark Melody of Madness also known as Papa Benjamin and Music from the Dark , Speak to Me of Death, I m Dangerous Tonight, Guns, Gentlemen also known as The Lamp of Memory and Twice Trod Path , Jane Brown s Body, The Moon of Montezuma, and Somebody s Clothes Somebody s Life, also known as Somebody Else s Life refute Woolrich s self as*sessment. He was that good.

Darkness at Dawn

From 1934 until his death in 1968, Cor nell Woolrich wrote dozens of tales of love and despair that chill the heart and display his mastery of the genre he all but created. In a title for a story he never wrote, he captured the essence of his tortured world: First you dream, then you die. Introducing these 13 tales, Nevins de scribes the dark world Woolrich so viv idly creates. The dominant reality in his world is the Depression, and Woolrich has no peers when it comes to describing a frightened little guy in a tiny apartment with no money, no job, a hun gry wife and children, and anxiety eating him like a cancer. If a Woolrich protago nist is in love, the beloved is likely to vanish in such a way that he not only can t find her but can t convince anyone she ever existed.

Night and Fear (With: Francis M. Nevins Jr.)

Cornell Woolrich published his first novel in 1926, and for four decades his fiction riveted the reading public with mystery, suspense, and horror. America’s most popular pulps Dime Detective, Black Mask, and Detective Fiction Weekly published hundreds of his stories. Classic films like Hitchcock’s Rear Window, Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black and Mississippi Mermaid, Tournier’s Black Alibi, and Siodmak’s Phantom Lady, as well as dozens of other movies, were based on his work. Novels like Deadline at Dawn, Rendezvous in Black, and Night Has a Thousand Eyes have won him the epithet ‘father of noir.’ Every one of the countless many who have read and loved the work of Cornell Woolrich will welcome and applaud this publication of a new collection of tales the first in nearly two decades by the greatest writer of suspense fiction in the twentieth century. Woolrich lived a life of such deep despair and utter terror that he could do little except put those fears onto the printed page. In the masterfully wrought suspense of this volume’s twenty stories, readers can enjoy works written at the height of Woolrich’s powers, as well as many never before published in book form before now.

Tonight, Somewhere in New York (With: Francis M. Nevins Jr.)

Cornell Woolrich reinvented suspense fiction for the twentieth century. His unnerving tales of the psychological terrors lurking on the underside of the commonplace earned Woolrich epithets like ‘our poet of the shadows,’ the twentieth century’s Edgar Allen Poe, and the father of noir. The twilight years of Woolrich’s career did not soften his vision; they darkened it, as the selections in Tonight, Somewhere in New York, rivetingly show. In addition to nine masterly stories from the late 1950s and 1960s, some of them never before collected, this Woolrich anthology offers two evocative episodes from the autobiographical manuscript on which he worked during his latter years as well as five chapters of the novel he left unfinished at the time of his death in 1968. Page after suspenseful page, this collection amply demonstrates the power of his vision. Again and again, ordinary individuals get caught up in everyday circumstances that spin perversely, murderously, out of control. Unexpected perils lie in wait everywhere in a hotel corridor, in the insistent ring of a telephone, on a street one day in Rome, or inside a black sedan that without wheels would look like a coffin.

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