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Monday, February 26, 2007

Monday Morning Wake Up-

I can never resist a good dust jacket or piece of cover art. Here's something from my shelves to wake you up a bit on a sleepy morning after we all stayed up too late watching the Oscars-


The book was published in 1939, and the cover art is by Walter Frame [1885-1957], a commercial artist who did dust jackets, magazine advertisements for RCA radios, and so on. But what about the book itself? Damned if I know... well, "Francis Bonnamy" was the pseudonym of used by Audrey Walz, a prolific murder-mystery writer in the 30s and 40s. Frankly, I've never been able to get past the first paragraph-

"We saw it that Wednesday afternoon just as our horses came over the hill and looked down into the valley where the ranch lay. It was just something shapeless lying on the grass beside the ranch house then, but I think we all felt evil in the crumpled mass that showed directly before us through the jack pines as the trail bent over the last hill. It was as if the light of that brilliant summer day had been cut off, as if the mountains had reached up their red fingers to shut off the sun."

It may just be me, but I feel a dark and stormy night coming on...

7 comments:

Cissy Strutt said...

I'm relishing the phrase "evil in the crumpled mass". Why read on after that gem?

(And thanks everyone for your circumspection. You can talk about it now.)

Joey Polanski said...

Atchualy, that paragraph made me think o certain occasions where some strangr struck up a conversation wit me at a bus stop or sompm, and aftr a few minutes it dawns on me that th prsons bordrline crazy.

Joey Polanski said...

Then theres THIS famous openin paragraph.

Forrest Proper said...

Cissy- That's what I thought.

Joey- It's not nice to talk about our Vice President that way. He's not crazy. He's, um, well... ok, he's tail-wagging, looney-tunes, barking crazy nuts.

But that's no reason to be rude.

Forrest Proper said...

Joey- oops, missed that one. It's amazing what they can do with ladies' behests these days. Just look at Anna Nichol Smith.

Mike said...

Wow, I couldn't even get through that paragraph so you are doing better than me. I was done after the first four words.

Forrest Proper said...

Mike- no kidding. I've always had a problem with anything after Tuesday too.

bleeeech.

Well, Friday is good.

M-T-F-S-S-. ok.