Cullen Gallagher

Just released! 

High Fliers, Middleweights, and Lowlifes: David Goodis in the Pulps

Published by Pulp Serenade Press, August 2024

Legendary noir author David Goodis is as haunting and mysterious a figure as any of the protagonists in his novels. Among the most alluring of the mysteries surrounding him is how did he go from Retreat from Oblivion in 1939, his first novel, a melodrama about several inter-connected couples, to Dark Passage, his second novel and first noir masterpiece, in 1946? The answer is in the pulp fiction stories he wrote between those two books: tales of daring aviators, dashing athletes, and ruthless gangsters. In these short stories, Goodis evolved into the master of noir that he is known today. A critical-reference volume, High Fliers, Middleweights, and Lowlifes: David Goodis in the Pulps includes summaries and commentary on nearly all of Goodis’s identified magazine work published under his own name or under pseudonyms.

Available in Hardcover, Paperback, or as an eBook.

"No serious David Goodis reader should be without these two books of essential bibliographical info collated/authored by nonpareil pulp gum-shoe Cullen Gallagher. The tracking down of every Goodis story constitutes a monumental feat in itself, but to contextualise them in terms of Goodis's evolution into a noirst of the highest quality is something else altogether."—Woody Haut, author (Skin Flick, Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War, and Neon Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction)

"Brilliantly researched and insightfully written."—Charles Ardai, author and Hard Case Crime publisher

"If you’re a David Goodis fan, you really need to read these books. If you’re interested in pulp fiction in general, I give them my highest recommendation."— James Reasoner, author

Just released! 

Looking for Lost Streets: A Bibliographic Investigation of David Goodis's Pulp Fiction

Published by Pulp Serenade Press, June 2024

The pulp career of Goodis has long been shrouded in mystery. Newly discovered evidence sheds light not only on which stories he wrote under pseudonyms, but also the vast network of fellow pulp writers who shared the same pen names. Looking for Lost Streets presents the most complete bibliography of Goodis's short work to date.

Available in Paperback or as an eBook

Just released! 

King Vidor in Focus: On the Filmmaker’s Artistry and Vision

Co-written with Kevin L. Stoehr. Published by McFarland Books, August 2024

Regarded by many film historians as one of the greatest of silent era filmmakers, Vidor is nonetheless one of the most underrated of Hollywood’s “old masters” in terms of his overall career. This book charts the ways in which Vidor’s vast, complex body of work ranges over diverse genres and styles while also expressing his recurring personal interests in spirituality, aesthetics, metaphysics, social realism, and the myth of America. The first book since 1988 to give a comprehensive view of Vidor’s career, it discusses his artistic evolution in a way that appeals to the general reader as well as to the film scholar.

Available in Paperback or as an eBook

Reviews:
• “A first-rate book that should become the standard Vidor reference for years to come.”—David Pitt, Booklist

•“Readers who are seriously interested in Vidor and his films will need to add this book to A Tree Is a Tree, King Vidor on Film Making, and Durgnat and Simmons’s King Vidor, American as the essential starting points for exploring his life and films.”—Charles Maland, Cineaste

• “Film aficionados and scholars will welcome this informative and sympathetic book-length Vidor study,”—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Library Journal

• “The writing is informative, erudite, and comprehensive in several ways, with exhaustively precise details of Vidor’s career. It consciously avoids academic double-speak that mire down so many film studies work and discusses the challenges and obstacles Vidor had to overcome at the price of self-expression... Essential reading for anyone looking to seriously research Vidor’s work.”—William Blick, Film International

• “A first-rate book that should become the standard Vidor reference for years to come.”—Booklist

• “This isn’t merely a breezy film-by-film look at a series of entertainments, it is a thorough discussion of a master filmmakers work from its very beginnings to the very end... Highly recommended for libraries, research centers, film students, and anyone interested in cinema’s rich history.”—James L. Neibaur