2012 Philadelphia Book Festival

An editor, poet, and critic, Robert Polito is Director of Writing Programs at The New School and the author of National Book Critics Circle Award winner Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson, which untangled Thompson the author from his trademark psychopathic characters and grim tales of failed lives.. Polito's new book is a landmark volume that collects five great novels from the height of noir cult favorite David Goodis's career. Born in Philadelphia, Goodis made a distinctive contribution to American hard-boiled crime fiction with his jazzy, passionate novels of mean streets and doomed protagonists, including Retreat From Oblivion and The Moon in the Gutter.

At 5:45 we will screen the 1957 noir classic The Burglar, based on Goodis's novel of the same name.