As a lifelong bibliophile and a fan of your shop, I remember when you were located behind Carnegie Hall, I was pleased to discover this new effort you have embarked upon. I wish you much success.
Dear Otto, I just happened upon this online feature of yours, which - of course - was excellently done. I met you once, ages ago, in your office, located above your bookstore. I had thought that, being a close friend of your cowriting partner, Chris Steinbrunner, with whom you shared an Edgar award, you'd consider me with added interest; but instead you proved distant and uncommunicative, and I found our meeting a failure (upon leaving, I overheard one of your employees commenting to another on a recent personal disappointment in your life, and concluded it was you he was talking about although I caught no specific names - by extension, I considered this an explanation for your reluctance to conversation). S.S. Van Dine remains my favorite author. His "Greene", "Bishop" and "Dragon" murder cases the finest of their kind, and each of these particular entries genuinely scary (and I'm no stranger to vintage horror fiction). "Dragon", in fact, reading like a novel of the supernatural save for it being a "Philo Vance" opus! I have the original Clark Agnew painting that was used for the "American Magazine" cover (this the issue commencing the "Dragon" serialization), the Scribner's first edition, and the initial Grosset & Dunlap reprint. It's my most prized item among my sundry collectibles. Had more to say but the arbitrary word-count has prevented this. Most sincerely, Ray
Interesting video. I believe the only first editions I have of novels are John Gardner's JAMES BOND books from the 1980s, which I got as each one was coming out. I wrote him some fan letters, and was delighted to get some personal replies, before he told me he could no longer do so (he got too busy!) I was amused by your comment about the "boring trivia"-- when reading either Jules Verne or Ian Fleming, I would often skim past sections that got too technical to get to "the good stuff" (the actual plot). I never had this problem when reading Leslie Charteris, maybe that's one reason he became my favorite author! (Simon Templar is also FAR more likable than James Bond.) I was just joking online that it looked to me like Warren William wanted to throttle Gracie Allen in that film. I just saw that Van Dine passed away 2 months before the film came out. Crazy enough, 20th Century Fox was going to do "The Winter Murder Case" as THE SONJA HENIE MURDER CASE, but then re-wrote it to remove the murder and Philo Vance, and released it as SUN VALLEY SERENADE (1941) with Sonja Henie.
Addendum: the serialization of S.S. Van Dine's "The Dragon Murder Case" (1933) was featured in the magazine, "Pictorial Review", and not, as I mentioned, "American Magazine". I have the issue in question, with the spectacular "Dragon" cover, and still managed to screw up its mention! This perhaps being what I get for dashing off my online comments without giving them a bit more time! I also have the October, 1938 issue of "Radio Mirror", which contains the first of six installments of Van Dine's last fully-published novel, "The Gracie Allen Murder Case". The announcement of this on the cover describes it as the "Thrilling and Hilarious new PHILO VANCE Mystery". Rather disheartening - to me, anyway - to see a whodunit by my favorite author, who had some genuinely scary ones to his credit, being touted as being "hilarious"! Paramount filmed it with its original title in 1939, starring Allen but sans her husband and comic partner, George Burns - who is in the book! Warren William reprised his P.V. role, the detective displaying no little annoyance of the comedienne's antics. This understandably! - Ray C.
Bravo! Wonderful information. And what a great voice you have!!!
great
As a lifelong bibliophile and a fan of your shop, I remember when you were located behind Carnegie Hall, I was pleased to discover this new effort you have embarked upon.
I wish you much success.
Thank you for the interesting information. It was useful and provided a great deal of information.
Dear Otto,
I just happened upon this online feature of yours, which - of course - was excellently done. I met you once, ages ago, in your office, located above your bookstore. I had thought that, being a close friend of your cowriting partner, Chris Steinbrunner, with whom you shared an Edgar award, you'd consider me with added interest; but instead you proved distant and uncommunicative, and I found our meeting a failure (upon leaving, I overheard one of your employees commenting to another on a recent personal disappointment in your life, and concluded it was you he was talking about although I caught no specific names - by extension, I considered this an explanation for your reluctance to conversation).
S.S. Van Dine remains my favorite author. His "Greene", "Bishop" and "Dragon" murder cases the finest of their kind, and each of these particular entries genuinely scary (and I'm no stranger to vintage horror fiction). "Dragon", in fact, reading like a novel of the supernatural save for it being a "Philo Vance" opus! I have the original Clark Agnew painting that was used for the "American Magazine" cover (this the issue commencing the "Dragon" serialization), the Scribner's first edition, and the initial Grosset & Dunlap reprint. It's my most prized item among my sundry collectibles.
Had more to say but the arbitrary word-count has prevented this.
Most sincerely,
Ray
I enjoyed the video. Well done and interesting.
Interesting video. I believe the only first editions I have of novels are John Gardner's JAMES BOND books from the 1980s, which I got as each one was coming out. I wrote him some fan letters, and was delighted to get some personal replies, before he told me he could no longer do so (he got too busy!)
I was amused by your comment about the "boring trivia"-- when reading either Jules Verne or Ian Fleming, I would often skim past sections that got too technical to get to "the good stuff" (the actual plot). I never had this problem when reading Leslie Charteris, maybe that's one reason he became my favorite author! (Simon Templar is also FAR more likable than James Bond.)
I was just joking online that it looked to me like Warren William wanted to throttle Gracie Allen in that film. I just saw that Van Dine passed away 2 months before the film came out.
Crazy enough, 20th Century Fox was going to do "The Winter Murder Case" as THE SONJA HENIE MURDER CASE, but then re-wrote it to remove the murder and Philo Vance, and released it as SUN VALLEY SERENADE (1941) with Sonja Henie.
Addendum: the serialization of S.S. Van Dine's "The Dragon Murder Case" (1933) was featured in the magazine, "Pictorial Review", and not, as I mentioned, "American Magazine". I have the issue in question, with the spectacular "Dragon" cover, and still managed to screw up its mention! This perhaps being what I get for dashing off my online comments without giving them a bit more time! I also have the October, 1938 issue of "Radio Mirror", which contains the first of six installments of Van Dine's last fully-published novel, "The Gracie Allen Murder Case". The announcement of this on the cover describes it as the "Thrilling and Hilarious new PHILO VANCE Mystery". Rather disheartening - to me, anyway - to see a whodunit by my favorite author, who had some genuinely scary ones to his credit, being touted as being "hilarious"! Paramount filmed it with its original title in 1939, starring Allen but sans her husband and comic partner, George Burns - who is in the book! Warren William reprised his P.V. role, the detective displaying no little annoyance of the comedienne's antics. This understandably!
- Ray C.