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)
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.
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:
• “Film aficionados and scholars will welcome this informative and sympathetic book-length Vidor study”—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
Cullen Gallagher is an artist working in multiple forms of media. As a musician, he works as a composer, performer (guitar/bass/piano/lap steel/drums/vocals), and recording engineer. As a writer and editor, he has twenty years of experience specializing in film and literary criticism. And as a filmmaker, he performs as an actor/director/editor/writer/producer depending on the needs of the project. Currently living in Brooklyn, NY, he holds an MA in Cinema Studies from NYU and a MLIS from Queens College.
His most recent book is Looking for Lost Streets: A Bibliographic Investigation of David Goodis's Pulp Fiction (2024, Pulp Serenade Press). King Vidor in Focus: On the Filmmaker's Artistry and Vision, co-authored with Kevin L. Stoehr, will be published by McFarland Books in August 2024. His non-fiction has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Paris Review, Not Coming to a Theater Near You, Arrow Films and Film Movement home video liner notes, and the anthologies Cult Cinema: An Arrow Video Companion (2016) edited by Anthony Nield, and Screen Slate: New York City Cinema 2011-2015 (2017) edited by Jon Dieringer. His fiction has been published in the anthologies Bourbon & A Good Cigar (2018) and Time to Myself (2018), both edited by Scott Harris, as well as in the webzines Crime Factory and Beat to a Pulp. He blogs about books and movies at Pulp Serenade. Additionally, he's curated film/video programs at the Hamptons International Film Festival, UnionDocs, 92Y Tribeca, SoundUnseen, and Greenpoint Film Festival.