Sam Bissell is a young man with everything a young man needs: a lovely wife, an up-and-coming job in a San Francisco advertising agency, a respectable house across the Golden Gate, and a fairly elastic sense of humor. He also finds that he has acquired one thing a young man doesn't need: his wife's best college chum, an utterly ravishing divorcee who moves into the house next door, and just happens to require a male stand-in for her ex-husband during the final stages of a multimillion-dollar will settlement. By the time Sam muddles his way through a wild, wacky week of trying to be everybody's man (including his own), the funniest sex-situation comedy since Some Like It Hot and The Apartment unrolls before your eyes. (Good Neighbor Sam will also be made into a major Columbia Pictures film by David Swift.) Jack Finney's reputation as a writer whose inventive imagination is almost unmatched has long been established by the publication of such entrancing adventure stories as Five Against the House, The Bodysnatchers, and Assault on a Queen. Turning to a completely new genre in Good Neighbor Sam, he has fashioned the kind of once-in-a-decade farce that could easily laugh its way into becoming a classic.

A young married couple moves into a San Francisco aprtment formerly owned by the silent star Marian Marsh. Her ghost still inhabits the place and takes over the wife's body, goes to Hollywood, and tries to re-enter films. The couple meets a film buff, living in Vilma Banky's old home, and he has prints of all the lost films including the complete Greed.

A wealthy, fashionable medical man is murdered in his own home. His long-time mistress, a highly respectable woman, is arrested. As the full tale comes to light — the evidence grows stranger, more lurid, and more exciting — the story makes headlines in the New York newspapers; eventually it becomes a worldwide sensation.This is the story, not of Herman Tarnower, but of one Harvey Burdell, a "society physician" who lived on Bond Street in New York City and died there, in his own study, in 1857. The inquest and the trial of his accused murderer became the biggest news item of that year, a classic of nineteenth-century crime, rivaling the trial of Lizzie Borden. Yet this incredible tale is gone, the eyewitnesses long dead, the story a piece of forgotten news.Until now. In FORGOTTEN NEWS, Jack Finney performs the most remarkable magic of all by taking us back to the cobblestone streets of old New York to find out about Harvey Burdell's strange death, along with several other equally fascinating stories: the cannibals of the South Pacific who ate their way through 300 shipwrecked sailors; ritualized lunacy on the floor of the Stock Exchange; a trapper's strange gift to a President; the tragic wreck of a steamship off the coast of Florida.These amazing tales are illustrated with sharply drawn woodcuts, many taken from actual photographs of the people and places involved. The stories are told in Jack Finney's inimitable style, yet without a word of dialogue or an incident invented.With a novelist's eye for drama and an investigator's passion for truth, Finney re-creates here a compelling and fascinating past, a treasure trove of FORGOTTEN NEWS.Jack Finney has written numerous celebrated books, including The Body Snatchers, Good Neighbor Sam, Assault on a Queen and the illustrated novel Time and Again. Some six movies have been made from his novels.

An extraordinary collection of daring stories...THE THIRD LEVELby Jack FinneySardonic and wry, each of these tales is uniquely plotted by a master craftsman — a man whose style can best be described as haunting.As Finney's young narrator in one of the stories explains: "I've read some of the stuff about Time with a capital T, and I don't say I understand it too well. But I know Einstein or somebody compares Time to a winding river, and says we exist as though in a boat, drifting along between high banks. All we can see is the present, immediately around us. We can't see the future just beyond the next curve, or the past in the many bends in back of us. But it's all there just the same. There — countless bends back in infinite distance — lies the past, as real as the moment around us."It is on these various co-existing bends of time that Jack Finney picks out the tune of his tales — miraculously, enchantingly and meaningfully; in each tale the fourth dimension cements the possibilities that the reader's imagination readily provides.THE THIRD LEVEL includes such stories as the unforgettable OF MISSING PERSONS with its lush pictures of the world of Verne, the compassionate SOMETHING IN A CLOUD that recalls the poignant longing of one human being for another; and the phantasmagorically funny factor determining the events in one small town in BEHIND THE NEWS. Appearing for the first time in book form, these selections were first published in the pages of Collier's, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal and Cosmopolitan.JACK FINNEY is a prodigious writer of short stories, novels and novelettes, which appear in all the major magazines and are widely reprinted in European publications. He is the author of three novels — FIVE AGAINST THE HOUSE and THE BODY SNATCHERS, which have both been made into motion pictures, and a new novel, THE HOUSE OF NUMBERS. He resides in Mill Valley, California with his wife and two children; this is his first published collection of short stories.

Scanned, converted, re-formatted, proofed, custom book cover and eBook creation by Jerry.

Scanned, converted, re-formatted, proofed, custom book cover and eBook creation by Jerry.

If you are the sort of person who is wistful about: Trolleys Balloons (the kind you go up in) The New York El Ice-cream parlors Pre-digit dialing (even better, pre-dial phones) The Marmon roadster… This collection of light fantastic stories will fill you with nostalgia for the older, gentler ways; and, happily, it will assure you that some of those ways are still around. Consider, for example, the story about a brand-new house in a fashionable suburb built from eighty-year-old plans for a Victorian mansion— Or the one about Galesburg, Illinois, a town with a past it has never surrendered. Then meet the unusual young woman who fills her hope chest with power tools… and the coin collector who finds a Woodrow Wilson dime that buys his way into a world just a little bit different from this one (including a different wife)… and the ten-year-old boy (his friends are convinced he's presidential timber) who hypnotizes a dangerous tiger… Will you like these stories? Make this simple test—open the book right now, read the first page of any story, and just see if you're not hooked! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jack Finney's reputation as an architect of the astounding seems to grow and grow. Along with innumerable short stories, his first three novels—Five Against The House, The Bodysnatchers, The House of Numbers—were built on wonderfully bizarre yet convincing plots. His latest, Assault on a Queen (1959), contained such an audacious story line that critics had no recourse but to write: "Ingenious and utterly fantastic…" [New York Herald Tribune] "Highly imaginative and intriguing…" [Columbus (Ohio) Citizen] "A piece of piracy Blackbeard would boggle at…" [Baltimore Sun] It is small wonder then that most people would be surprised to learn that Mr. Finney lives in quiet normalcy with his wife and two small children in Mill Valley, California.

An unofficial collection of the short stories of celebrated author Jack Finney as published in such magazines as Collier's, McCall's, The Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies' Home Journal and Playboy between 1943 and 1965.

SAN QUENTIN I've got to make my older brother understand: He has to get me out of here. It's not the walls, not the monotony, not the guards, not the cell the size of a closet. It is, very simply, a matter of life and death. It's a guard who's been assaulted … and according to California law, it's death for a lifer to strike a guard. That's me they're talking about. I'm the lifer. And as I sit here looking at him, I know he'll do it — for his kid brother. He always was a sucker. "I can hardly endorse the escape plan that gives this book its excitement, but the author has really got the feel of prison life and the facts about what it's like inside." — Harley O. Teets, Warden, California State Prison, San Quentin The House of Numbers draws its grim excitement from San Quentin, and its compelling drama from two brothers in conflict — over a desperate escape plan … and over a woman. Soon to be an M-G-M movie starring JACK PALANCE

This handsome new book combines three Finney favorites in an omnibus edition that brilliantly displays his bold and unmistakable imagination. Certain to delight anyone with a penchant for penetrating imaginary realms of science fiction, fantasy, and adventure.

About Time offers a delightful return to the world of time travel and light comedy that distinguished Jack Finney's all-time classic Time and Again. The protagonists of these twelve stories are well-meaning but at odds with their surroundings and their lives. The time to which they escape—through time travel—doesn't always fulfill their expectations in the way they had hoped, but sometimes, they can still find their dreams.

Starred Review. While Miles's patients start remarking about loved ones not seeming to be themselves, he merely chalks it up to paranoia. However, when he becomes witness to a distinct but subtle change in the personality of some townspeople, he and his friends realize something is afoot. Their fears are realized as they stumble upon faceless corpses and strange pods. But the pod people are spreading fast, and Miles is running out of places to hide and people to help him. Finney's classic tale of alien invasion is recreated anew with more terror than the book or the film. Tabori delivers a performance that will chill listeners with his intensity and sense of urgency. His lightly raspy and mature voice works perfectly through the first-person perspective of Miles. He captures the mood and adjusts his pitch, speed and tone accordingly. By the end of this production, listeners will believe they are listening to Miles himself and not just some narrator. A brief interview with Tabori at the end reveals that he's the son of Don Siegel, who directed the original 1957 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The New York Times Bestseller -- Jack Finney's long-awaited sequel to his classic illustrated novel Time and Again. Simon Morley, whose logic-defying trip to the New York City of the 1880s in Time and Again has enchanted readers for twenty-five years, embarks on another trip across the borders of time. This time Reuben Prien at the secret, government-sponsored Project wants Si to leave his home in the 1880s and visit New York in 1912. Si's mission: to protect a man who is traveling across the Atlantic with vital documents that could avert World War I. So one fateful day in 1912, Si finds himself aboard the world's most famous ship...the Titanic.**From Publishers WeeklyIn Finney's wonderful cult classic Time and Again (1970), Manhattan adman Simon Morley joined a secret government time-travel project, transported himself back to the New York City of 1882, fell in love and decided to remain in the past. This entertaining sequel, which traces Simon's attempts to alter a course of events in 1912 and thereby prevent WWI, lacks the magic and urgency of its predecessor but is diverting nonetheless. Bidding goodbye to his 19th-century wife, Simon first revisits the late 20th century, where remnants of the "Project" propose another experiment to redirect history. Finney (who also wrote The Body Snatchers) makes the most of this creaky premise as Simon, leaping back to 1912, meets Al Jolson, witnesses a dirigible launch, circles Manhattan in a biplane and befriends vaudeville actors. To complete the experiment, Simon must help Major Archie Butt-an aide to President Taft-return to the States from a crucial diplomatic mission. The hitch is that Butt is sailing on the Titanic-and Simon, who joins him on the ship's maiden voyage, must desperately try to stay the hand of fate and keep it from sinking. Like Time and Again, this mind-stretching escapist adventure is studded with period photos and news clippings that function as an integral part of the story. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library JournalYA?A long-awaited and exciting sequel to Time and Again (S.&S., 1986). Finney returns to the secret government project that studies time through time travel. Undercover agents Si Morley and Rubin Prien continue to test Dr. E.E. Danziger's theory: the past still exists and can be reached. In the previous book, Si left the present to marry the love of his life, Julia, and live in the 1880s. Here, he becomes curious about the future and returns to the present to check on it. Sketches and photographs make the time and place come alive. This is a real page turner, loaded with nostalgia, detail, suspense, and a mind-boggling ending, but it is necessary to have read the first book to appreciate it.?Linda Vretos, West Springfield High School, Springfield, VACopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.