Word: mario
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...Mario Puzo is indeed "The Godfather of the Paperback Boom" [Aug. 28]. Who else but the expert novelist could write so much yet so little about something he's never personally experienced? If I could do as much, I too would be a millionaire. Hats...
Please tell Mario Puzo that he was not alone in the forests when he was tracking Senecas and Iroquois as a youth. I, too, loved with a passion the novels of Joseph Altsheler, and couldn't take them out of the public library fast enough. Doc Savage, too, of course. But while my friends all know about Doc Savage, most of them have never heard of the Altsheler books. If Puzo wants to set up a small Altsheler memorial from little boys who grew up to be writers, I'm ready...
...were not leaving their desks. June 15, 1978, was a day for executive field rations. Since 9:30 a.m. Webb's ear had been grafted to her telephone, accepting bids for what ended as the most expensive paperback auction in publishing history: $2.2 million for the rights to reprint Mario Puzo's new novel, Fools Die, plus $350,000 to reprint his alltime bestselling saga, The Godfather. The previous record price, $1.9 million, was paid for Colleen McCullough's Australian sheep opera, The Thorn Birds, now playing beach blankets and jammed airline lounges throughout the free-time world...
...paperback success. Authors like John Jakes (The Bastard), institutions like the Agatha Christie estate, romancers like Rosemary Rogers and Victoria Holt owe their millions to the modest little 7-in. by 4-in. volumes that decorate racks at drugstores, airports, supermarkets and book emporiums. No wonder that Mario Puzo's latest effort excited such frantic bidding. With paperback rights, the successful bidder would be able to saturate those ubiquitous wire racks?if Puzo's track record is any guide?with one of next year's biggest blockbusters. Stores would be clamoring for every paperback copy of Fools Die they could...
...book was The Dark Arena, published in 1955. Despite its warm critical reception, Puzo remained obscure. Recalls his old friend, Novelist George Mandel (The Wax Boom): "My vision of Mario then? He used to go to his brother's in a taxi to borrow money for his kids' shoes. My vision of Mario still is him leaving a building, putting a cigar in his mouth with one hand and holding up his other for a cab. Same vision, rich or poor...