Blackboard Jungle - Softcover

Hunter, Evan

3.91

773 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 4871876373 ISBN 13: 9784871876377

Publisher: Ishi Press, 2015

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The author of the book and the producer of the movie that followed it almost certainly did not intend the book would have the result it produced. It was intended as social commentary on the degeneration of today's youth and a warning to parents. They did not know and could not have known that the book and the movie that followed it would lead to a REVOLUTION in society and bring on the Era of Rock and Roll. It is widely agreed that the movie Blackboard Jungle staring Glenn Ford caused the Rock and Roll Revolution. Millions of kids watched this movie and they took up the life styles of the kids depicted in the movie. The dance scenes when the movie opens were brief, lasting only a few seconds, but soon all kids were dancing like that, lifting up their partners and twirling them in the air. Bill Haley did not invent Rock and Roll and his song Rock Around the Clock was not the first song in that style, but it was the song all the kids listened to and followed. Next came Elvis and the rest is history. The opening scene to Blackboard Jungle shows students dancing in the school yard to the sound of Rock Around the Clock. Although this dance sequence lasted only a few seconds, millions of kids watched it and they all started dancing this way. Traditional dances like Waltzes and Tangos were out. Now, everybody was rocking and rolling.

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About the Author:

The Author: Evan Hunter, was born on October 15, 1926, New York City, USA, Evan Hunter was a man of many pseudonyms. Evan Hunter was a fake name. His made-up name came from Evander Childs High School in the Bronx which he attended and Hunter College which he also attended. He wrote more than two hundred books and at least 75 screenplays. It has been reported that he often wrote one book a month and was paid a thousand dollars cash for each book with no royalties. No records survive for which books he wrote or how much he was paid for them. He wrote under the names of S.A. Lombino, Evan Hunter, Richard Marsten, D.A. Addams, Ted Taine, Ed McBaine. Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon and John Abbott. No doubt there were other pseudonyms. It is reported that 100 million copies of his books have been sold. He denied being "Dean Hudson" but he almost certainly was Dean Hudson. This makes it difficult if not impossible to determine what he actually wrote, especially since in that era different publishers had different stock names with many different writers writing under those names. Hunter was also successful as screenwriter for film and television. He wrote the screenplay of the Hitchcock film The Birds in 1963 loosely adapted from a Daphne du Maurier short story. In the process of adapting Winston Graham's novel Marnie for Hitchcock, Hunter and the director disagreed on the rape scene, and Hunter was sacked. Hunter's other screenplays included Strangers When We Meet in 1960, based on his own 1958 novel and Fuzz in 1972, based on the 1968 "87th Precinct" novel of the same name, which he had written as Ed McBain. In addition to his many books, Hunter also gave advice to other authors in his article, "Dig in and get it done: no-nonsense advice from a prolific author, Ed McBain on starting and finishing your novel". In it he advises authors to "find their voice for it is the most important thing in any novel." He was a heavy smoker for decades. He died July 6, 2005 at age 78 in Weston, Connecticut.

Review:

“Shocking . . . Arresting . . . Suspense-packed . . . [The Blackboard Jungle] seems to have been torn raw and bleeding out of [Hunter’s] personal experience. . . . It frays the nerves like a scream for help in a dark alley. Like The Jungle and The Grapes of Wrath, this is a book which shouts that SOMETHING OUGHT TO BE DONE.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A nightmarish but authentic first novel.” —Time

“A raw, frightening commentary on a system for which there are no easy correctives . . . A highly dramatic if devastating demonstration of the unequal job of education.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Praise for Evan Hunter
“Under whichever name he writes, Hunter/McBain delivers the goods.” —People

“He is a flat-out master of his trade.” —Larry King, USA Today

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