The Kremlin Letter by Noel Behn

Fourth edition hardcover from 1966 printed by Simon and Schuster

Noel Behn's first novel and spy thriller was made most famous by John Huston's film adaptation from 1970, several years after The Kremlin Letter was first published. The novel and film both tell the story of several American intelligence officers clandestinely fighting against the Russians at the height of the Cold War to capture this eponymous letter. Filled with intrigue, Behn's book is equally as engaging as the movie and definitely deserves a read. Along with beautiful, simple jacket design by Paul Bacon, this edition is particularly amazing and unique because of the marketing strategy employed by Simon and Schuster. As stated on the front cover and on the inside, "IF you can put this book down without reading it to the end, you may return it to your bookseller with the seal unbroken for a full refund." Below are pictures of the seal (which clearly remains intact—I read a different copy), that begins on page 67 and binds the remaining pages of the book. Simon and Schuster were apparently convinced that readers would love the book so much that they offered this free return option if the reader didn't like the first few chapters. I have never seen another book or publisher employ this technique, and I'm guessing for that reason it didn't work very well and wasn't worth the effort. Still, I think it's amazing that they even tried.

The seal pictured from the front

Side view of the seal showing it "unbroken" 

Mr. Arkadin "by" Orson Welles

A more recent printing of Mr. Arkadin

This is a newer copy of the novelization of Mr. Arkadin—Welles' largely unsuccessful 1955 film—that remains more or less true to its film counterpart. Combined with the aura of Harvey Lime and the supposed missing memoirs of arms dealer Basil Zaharoff, Welles created what has been referred to as a sort of Citizen Kane in reverse. The film, which was never totally finished and features Welles sporting an insane fake beard, flopped after being edited down into a few different versions. In an attempt to recoup some of the film's losses, Welles sold Mr. Arkadin in book form. The reason the word "by" in the title of this post is in quotations is because Welles more than likely didn't write any of it himself—his assistant was charged with that task and then signed Welles' name to it. In certain ways the book is better than the film because it is a good, consistent and fully-realized story; on the other hand Welles didn't really write any of the book though.

The Underground City by H.L. Humes

British First Edition from 1958

This is H.L. Humes' first novel, published in America in 1958 by Random House and in Great Britain the same year by Heinemann. It is a sprawling World War II novel (758 pages!) about the French resistance, politics, war, life, and humanity—it is without question one of my favorite books. Humes was a co-founder of the Paris Review, among many other things, and this was the first of two books he published in his lifetime. I have had the extraordinary pleasure of archiving Humes' papers, which are now currently in the process of finding a home, and I think it's fair to say at this point that I know a great deal about the man and his works. 

A note to Humes from the Publicity Department at Random House (image courtesy of the Humes Archive) 

Part of a stellar review clipped from the Chicago Sunday Tribune (image courtesy of the Humes Archive)

Both his novels, The Underground City in particular, are incredibly under-read and unknown despite being very successful upon release. Humes later suffered a breakdown that in many ways he never recovered from in the mid-1960's, and stopped writing for the most part. Both his novels were reprinted 40 years later by Random House at the beginning of 2008, which you should go and buy without question.

An advanced reading copy of The Underground City

Currently in print new edition of The Underground City