Death on Television: The Best of Henry Slesar's Alfred Hitchcock Stories (Mystery Makers) - Hardcover

Slesar, Henry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809315009 ISBN 13: 9780809315000

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989

Synopsis

Henry Slesar wrote more than 40 stories that were chosen for the classic television show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Irony, not suspense, is the key ingredient in the nineteen stories by Slesar offered in this collection. While irony often seems a by-product of cynicism, Anatole France called it "the last phase of disillusion." For Hitchcock and his writers, irony, not just suspense, was the basis of storytelling, along with its two constant companions: humor and pity.

Hitchcock first spotted Slesar’s work in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. The story, entitled "M Is for the Many," became an episode called "Heart of Gold." A lonely, orphaned young man just out of prison calls on the family of his cellmate. They "adopt" him and he is happy for the first time in his life until he learns that their kindness is directed toward finding out where his cellmate hid the money he stole.

In his introduction Henry Slesar says, "Hitchcock always appreciated a good joke. He also appreciated a good story. I have never needed a more gratifying commendation than the fact that he liked the ones in this book."

About this title

About the Author:

Francis M. Nevins, Jr., Professor at the St. Louis University School of Law, received the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award for Criticism.

Martin H. Greenberg, on the faculty of the College of Community Services at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, is the editor or author of more than 100 books.

About this edition

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0809315009
• ISBN 13: 9780809315000
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: Nevins Jr. Professor Francis M., Greenberg Martin H.