Point Blank (aka The Hunter) by Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake), 2001 UK Alison & Busby pb edition

Signed by both Westlake and director John Boorman

After the digression about a dustjacket in my last post (and there's more to come on that, as I've discovered something very interesting about the artist...), it's back to the business of this blog: selling books. Here's a very rare chance to get a copy of the novel which was adapted into the film Point Blank, signed by both its author Donald E. Westlake, and the film's director John Boorman.

I won't go into the history of the novel, or indeed the film, here, as other places online have that covered. Fans of Westlake should already be acquainted with the excellent website The Violent World of Parker and the blog Existential Ennui (the latter run by a friend of mine, the estimable Nick Jones).

On offer here is a copy of the 2001 UK paperback edition from Allison & Busby, featuring a still of Lee Marvin from the movie on the cover. Aside from a small indentation mark to the front cover, the book is in near fine, unread condition.

I bought the book, and got it signed, at the opening gala of Crime Scene 2005, a screening of the film at the NFT South Bank in London on 30 June 2005, attended by both Westlake and Boorman. A copy of the event's programme notes (1 A4 sheet, folded) will be included with the book.

The book is flatsigned (in red ink, to go with the cover design) on the title page by Donald E. Westlake (using his real name, rather than his pen name Richard Stark) and John Boorman. There is no other copy of Point Blank (or indeed anything else) signed by both these gentlemen currently available on the Internet that I can find, so don't miss out... Click on 'My current eBay listings' on the top right of this blog.

I can't remember a huge amount of detail from the event, other than that Westlake, three years before his death, looked and sounded very tired (mind you, he probably had jetlag, poor bloke). John Boorman spoke warmly of working with Lee Marvin, who was willing to give him, a first time feature director, pretty much carte blanche.

This isn't part of my sale, but I notice that a fellow eBayer is currently selling some wonderful contact sheets of photos from the making of the film. One of them is here.