FORGOTTEN BOOK: A DOUBLE LIFE

 A Double Life by Manly Wade Wellman (1947)

A novelization of the 1947 film, published by Century Publications, a second-tier publishing Chicago house in the late 1940s/early 1950s.  (Among Century's other titles were Harold Sherman's totally forgettable science fiction novel The Green Man, Sam Merwin Jr.'s novelization of the Johhn Garfield boxing film Body and Soul, and several minor SF novels by Rog Phillips Time Trap and Worlds Within; many of Century's titles -- although not this one -- relied on sexy Good Girl Art covers that belied the books' contents.)  Century had limited distribution and A Double Life (to my knowledge) was never reprinted.  I'm not sure if this was typical of Century's title, but A Double Life measures larger than a typical paperback of the period and smaller than a digest -- four and one-half inches by six and one-half inches.

Took and film are interesting takes on the blurring of the lines between fiction and reality.  Based on a screenplay by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, A Double Life introduces us to Broadway actor Anthony "Tony" John, perhaps the most acclaimed stage actor of the day..  John  is currently starring with his ex-wife in the comedy A Gentleman's Gentleman, one in its second year on Broadway.  Britta, we learn, still love Tony, and Tony still has feelings for her.  What had come between them was Tony's habit of throwing himself into his roles; he could not distinguish himself from the role he was playing.  If the play was a light and sunny one, Tony would be light and sunny; if the lay was dark, then  Tony's personality would become as dark as his character's.  Perhaps a great actor needs to immerse himself in his role, buy the danger of having his life taken over by his fictional construct is great.

Now Tony is looking beyond the run of A Gentleman's Gentleman and is planning to stage the greatest rendition of Shakespeare's Othello ever seen.  But Othello was a vicious murderer, and Tony lives his characters...

I have not seen the film, but my feeling is that Wellman stayed close to the script but that, in going from script to novel, Wellman added more dimension to the characters.  The book, like almost everything Wellman wrote, reads well and I can pictures the actors from the film (Ronald Coleman, Signa Hasso, Edmond O'Brien, Ray Collins, Shelley Winters) as the characters in the novelization.

For several decades I have wanted to read Wellman's A Double Life, but the cost of a copy has always been beyond my meager means.  When I finally had a chance to glom onto an relatively inexpensive copy, I jumped at the chance.  I'm glad I did.  (It also happened to be only book by Wellman that I had not read.  Well, actually, that's a base canard:  there's seven pamphlets in a twelve-pamphlet series Winston-Salem in History that Wellman either wrote or co-wrote and there are unsubstantiated stories of a fantasy tale that he significantly rewrote as a chapbook -- but those don't count as actual books, do they?)

Wellman, of course, is best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, including the Appalachian tales  about John the Balladeer, or "Silver John."  Hw was also a respected regional historian who had been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.  His fictional out put also included westerns, mysteries, sports stories, young adult novels, and general fiction.  He wrote the first Captain Marvel story for the comic book, and ghosted a number of Will Eisner's The Spirit stories.  He was the winner of an Ellery Queen award (beating William Faulkner, much to Faulkner's displeasure), and Edgar Award for non-fiction, a World Fantasy Award, a Phoenix Award, and a British Fantasy Award.  He was given a World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award, was named to the First Fandom Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.  In addition, Wellman has been nominated for a Hugo Award, several World Fantasy Award. a Balrog Award, a Retro Hugo Award, and two Locus Awards.  The Manly Wade Wellman Award has been given annually by the North Carolina Speculative Fiction Association since 2013 for "outstanding achievement in science fiction or fantasy by North Carolina authors."

I am a fanboy, so I can unhesitatingly recommend Wellman's works over many genres.  (And, why oh why, has no one reprinted his 1960 novel Candle of the Wicked, based on the Bloody Benders?)