Paris, the City of Light, the city of fine dining, seductive couture and intellectual hauteur, was until fairly recently always accompanied by its shadow: the city of the poor, the outcast, the criminal, the eccentric, the wilfully nonconforming. In The Other Paris, Luc Sante gives us a panoramic view of that second metropolis, whose traces are in the bricks and stones of the contemporary city, and in the culture of France itself. Richly illustrated with over three hundred images, The Other Paris reclaims the city from the modern bon vivants and speculators; scuttling through the knotted streets, through the whorehouses and dance halls, the knock-out shops and hobo shelters of the old city.

In this collection of stylish and cogent essays, cultural historian Luc Sante offers his incomparable take on icons from Arthur Rimbaud to Allen Ginsberg, Rudolph Giuliani to Robert Mapplethorpe, New York to New Jersey, Buddy Bolden to Bob Dylan, Magritte to Tintin, along with meditations on cigarettes, the invention of the blues, hipness, New Year's Eve, and more.

Before becoming the critically acclaimed filmmaker responsible for such iconic films as Dr. Strangelove and The Shining, Stanley Kubrick spent five years as a photographer for Look magazine. The Bronx native joined the staff in 1945, when he was only 17 years old, and shot humanist slice-of-life features that celebrate and expose New York City and its inhabitants.Through a Different Lens reveals the keen and evocative vision of a burgeoning creative genius in a range of feature stories and images, from everyday folk at the laundromat to a day in the life of a debutant, from a trip to the circus to Columbia University. It features around 300 images, many previously unseen, as well as rare Look magazine tear sheets and an introduction by noted photography critic Lucy Sante.These still photographs attest to Kubrick’s innate talent for compelling storytelling, and serve as clear indicators of how this genius would soon transition to making some of the greatest movies of all time.

Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark's eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose style--and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency--Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover--and become addicted to.

In "The Seventh," the heist of a college football game goes bad, and the take is stolen by a crazed, violent amateur. Parker must outrun the cops--and the killer--to retrieve his cash.

"Parker . . . lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark's noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells. . . . In a complex world he] makes things simple."--William Grimes, "New York Times"

"Whatever Stark writes, I read. He's a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude."--Elmore Leonard

"Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible."--"Washington Post Book World"

"Donald Westlake's Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you've been telling yourself about "War and Peace" and Proust--these are the books you'll want on that desert island."--Lawrence Block

Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark's eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose style--and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency--Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover--and become addicted to.

In "The Handle," Parker is enlisted by the mob to knock off an island casino guarded by speedboats and heavies, forty miles from the Texas coast." "

"Parker . . . lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark's noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells. . . . In a complex world he] makes things simple."--William Grimes, "New York Times"

"Whatever Stark writes, I read. He's a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude."--Elmore Leonard

"Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible."--"Washington Post Book World"

"Donald Westlake's Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you've been telling yourself about "War and Peace" and Proust--these are the books you'll want on that desert island."--Lawrence Block

"Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat, " wrote David Maurer, a proposition he definitively proved in The Big Con, one of the most colorful, well-researched, and entertaining works of criminology, ever written. A professor of linguistics who specialized in underworld argot. Maurer won the trust of hundreds of swindlers who let him in on not simply their language, but their folkways and the astonishingly complex and elaborate schemes whereby unsuspecting marks, hooked by their own greed and dishonesty, were "taken off" -- i.e., cheated -- of thousands upon thousands of dollars. The products of amazing ingenuity, crack timing, and attention to every last detail, these "big cons" richly deserve Maurer's description as "the most effective swindling device which man has ever invented."

The Big Con is a treasure trove of American lingo (the write, the rag, the payoff, ropers, shills, the cold poke, the convincer, to put on the send) and indelible characters (Yellow Kid Weil, Barney the Patch, the Seldom Seen Kid, Limehouse Chappie, Larry the Lug). It served as a source for the Oscar-winning film The Sting and will delight fans of such writers as David Mamet, Jim Thompson, Elmore Leonard, and William Burroughs for its droll, utterly authoritative look at the timeless pursuit of relieving one's fellow man of his surplus cash.

The cult novel of fin de siecle decadence that inspired Oscar Wilde 'It will be biggest fiasco of the year - but I don't give a damn! It will be something nobody has ever done before.' The title page of the first complete English translation of Against Nature (published in the French as A Rebours) included the caption 'the book that Dorian Gray loved and inspired Oscar Wilde.' It was, declared Wilde, one of the best novels he had ever read. It is the story of Jean des Esseintes, the last of a proud and noble family, who retreats from the world in disgust at bourgeois society and leads a life based on cultivation of the senses through art. Des Esseintes distills perfumes from the rarest oils and essences, he creates a garden of poisonous flowers, sets gemstones in a tortoise's gold-painted shell and plans to corrupt a street urchin until he is degraded enough to commit murder. Des Esseintes' aesthetic pilgrimage is described in minutely documented realistic detail and was widely regarded as the guidebook of decadence. This influential novel is now available in a new translation by Theo Cuffe and includes a preface by Luc Sante.

In this superb collection of essays edited by Luc Sante, author of Lowlife, and Melissa Holbrook Pierson, writers as diverse as John Updike, Patti Smith, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic pay to homage the famous and the lesser known actors (some megastars, some lesser lights) who illuminate our Hollywood dreams.
From a side-splitting tribute to Elmer Fudd to an earnest lament at the absence of great fat actors today, O.K. You Mugs is a dazzling anthology that focuses on those remarkable talents who gave some of the most memorable performances in the history of Hollywood. These essays are sure to delight any reader who claims to care about the movies.
Including:
o Jacqueline Carey on Margaret Dumont
o Dana Gioia on Movie Fat Men
o David Hajdu in Elmer Fudd
o Greil Marcus on J.T Walsh
o Patti Smith on Jeanne Moreau
o Charles Simic on Gene Tierney
o John Updike on Doris Day

The acclaimed author of Low Life reinvents the memoir in a cunning, lyrical book that is at once a personal history and a meditation on the construction of identity.
Born in Belgium but raised in New Jersey, Luc Sante transformed himself from a pious, timid Belgian boy into a loutish American adolescent, who eschewed French while fantasizing about the pop star Francoise Hardy. To show how this transformation came about--and why it remained incomplete--The Factory of Facts combines family anecdote and ancestral legend; detailed forays into Belgian history, language, and religion; and deft synopses of the American character.

Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark's eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose style--and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency--Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover--and become addicted to.

"The""Rare Coin Score" features the first appearance of Claire, who will steal Parker's heister's heart--while together they steal two million dollars of rare coins.
"Parker . . . lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark's noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells. . . . In a complex world he] makes things simple."--William Grimes, "New York Times"
"Whatever Stark writes, I read. He's a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude."--Elmore Leonard
"Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible."--"Washington Post Book World"
"Donald Westlake's Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you've been telling yourself about "War and Peace" and Proust--these are the books you'll want on that desert island."--Lawrence Block