KING KONG

THE MODERN LIBRARY

Written by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper

Novelization by Delos W. Lovelace

Introduction by Greg Bear
Preface by Mark Cotta Vaz

Introduction copyright 2005 by Greg Bear
Preface copyright 2005 by Mark Cotta Vaz

All rights reserved.



In King Kong - originally written by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper, with the novelization by Delos W. Lovelace - movie producer Denham is out to make a film with the new 8th Wonder of the World - the great ape, King Kong.

Denham takes a film crew and an innocent leading lady, Ann Darrow, out on a freighter ship in the South Pacific ocean and sails to an exotic tropical island in order to search for a mythical legend. There on the island full of dinosaurs, they run into the natives who kidnap the beautiful actress Ann and have put her up to sacrifice to the native's mysterious monster god - the giant gorilla beast King Kong.

This novelization of the original movie from 1933 gave me the feeling of the movie. The Preface by Mark Cotta Vaz explains how the story of the movie King Kong came about. This is especially important as some people like me might think that King Kong had came from a book first, but this is a completely original story that was created to be produced for a movie - with Cooper saying that he had gotten the idea from a dream that he had of a giant gorilla terrorizing New York. From reading the Preface, this story seems more like a biography about Cooper who is living his life vicariously through the character of Denham - especially with a film crew trying to film an unusual wildlife phenomenom. Greg Bear's introduction of the book gives a modern perspective of the story behind King Kong. The fact that the book is printed by Modern Library Classics shows how much of an impact this fictional story of a beast loving a beauty has had on the American popular culture for the movie story to be even considered to be a classic story.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language. 

Johnny Tremain

LAUREL LEAF BOOKS

Written by Esther Forbes

Copyright 1943 by Esther Forbes Hoskins
Copyright renewed 1971 by Linwood M. Erskine, Jr.
Executor of the Estate of Esther Forbes Hoskins



In Johnny Tremain, written by Esther Forbes, Johnny is a young silversmith apprentist who soon becomes involved with the start of the American Revolutionary War.

I have always wanted to read this book after watching the
Walt Disney Productions movie of Johnny Temain when I was a kid. In the book, Johnny appears to me as younger than what he was portrayed in the movie. Johnny was also more of an arrogant, egotistical kid in the book - at least in the beginning - than he was in the movie. I had difficulty liking Johnny as a result of his being so arrogant, as compared to Johnny being a hero to me in the movie. Johnny also does not have any good relationships with the people around him because of his arrogance. Aside from those things, most of the book was in the movie from what I can recall of the movie, as I have not seen the movie since I was a kid. Although, The Liberty Tree song was written for the movie of which the song was about the American Revolution. I was actually surprised at how much of the American Revolution events that was incorporated into the book that Johnny would be involved in, including Johnny being involved with several of the historical characters. Actually having the fictional characters of Johnny Tremain becoming involved in the American Revolution against the British Army Redcoats representing the British crown made the Revolutionary War come alive for me far more than it ever did for me in my American History classes of the revolutionary war battles as well as the American Minutemen coming alive for me as the Minutemen fought for the American War of Independence.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.