The Public Enemy

New York: Grosset & Dunlap. Very Good+. (c.1931). First Edition. Hardcover. (lacking the original dust jacket, but encased in a professionally-made facsimile reproduction of same; see 2nd image posted with this listing) [a good sound copy with only light shelfwear, spine very slightly turned]. (4 B&W film stills) Photoplay edition, actually a novelization of the classic gangster film, hence the true first edition, since there was no prior publication of the story in any form. The copyright notice states the claimant to be Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., and thereby hangs a typically Hollywood story of mutation-through-adaptation. The story began its life as a unpublished novel called "Beer and Blood," the screen rights to which were sold to the studio while its co-authors, Bright and Glasmon, were still trying to arrange a publication deal. As Bright tells it in his memoir, in the middle of working on the screenplay, they were essentially duped into letting the studio arrange for publication of their book -- only to learn (too late) that it had been turned over "to a Benzedrine-driven hack who tapped out a bowdlerized version of the screenplay's plot, bearing not the faintest resemblance to [our novel]; not a single phrase remained." (The movie's screenplay, incidentally, was credited to yet another writer, Harvey Thew. Well, his actual credit was "screen adaptation," with the more prominent "by" credit still going to Glasmon and Bright -- but it's perilous to over-interpret screenwriting credits, which were capriciously bestowed in those pre-Screen Writers Guild days.) Directed by William Wellman, the film made a star out of James Cagney (in his first major movie role) and unsurprisingly he is featured in three of the four stills bound into the text of this book -- but what makes no sense to me is why they chose as the frontispiece photo a two-shot of Beryl Mercer (who played Cagney's simpering mother, in one of the most irritating performances of all time) and Rita Flynn (whose role in the film, as the sister of Cagney's pal Matt, didn't even rate an on-screen credit -- although to be fair, neither did that of Mae Clarke, recipient of the most famous grapefruit-in-the-face in movie history). NOTE again that this book bears a FACSIMILE dust jacket, to serve the dual purpose of protecting the book from further wear and enhancing its appearance on the shelf; its presence has not been factored in to our pricing. .