Now that Fathers Day looms on the horizon, allow me to draw your attention to a perfect gift for any novel/film lover, John Tibbets and James Welsh's reference tool Novels Into Film: The Encyclopedia of Movies Adapted from Books (1999). As the publishers relate, and as I'm pretty certain is true, this is the only reference of its kind in the English language. Not to be missed by knowledge seekers.

Format and Features:

Novels Into Film is an alphabetical encyclopedia containing the usual acknowledgments section, preface, introduction explaining the field of lit-film study, an explanatory "how to use" section, bibliography, and two indexes (film title index, and general index). A highly informative foreword written by celebrated film director Robert Wise (The Haunting, The Sound of Music) tells the reader a few things about the direction Hollywood is headed in adapting literature, Wise's vast experience in doing so, and his description of the "ideal" film adaptation. An equally informative appendix speaks of the evolution of Hollywood book adaptations and ponders the success of modern novelists with careers built around their books turning into films like John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton.

Completely absent of any jargon or padding, this reference tool was created for all ages and all levels of experience. Everything is well-written and to the point, with prose as comfortably read as in any other professionally written source.

Entries

The individual entries start off with a rundown of the novel's plot, characters, impact, and author. These are roughly the length of a quality review that you'd read here at Epinions.com. After the novel rundown, the authors take us through a similar survey of the movie version(s), making sure to show us where the two parallel and/or break off. Many of the novels have multiple films and Tibbetts and Welsh are always eager to show their readers which version is best and why. As a topper, the authors rarely fail to bring us fun little factoids about the subject in question - an example of which being when they illustrate the confusion of the times by quoting Woodrow Wilson's horrifying response to DW Griffith's ghastly, racist propaganda Birth of a Nation (1915), based on the Reverend Dixon novel The Clansmen (1905):

"Like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." (President Wilson on Birth of a Nation)

After a completed entry, the authors provide us with a brief list of references where we can find more information on the novel/film in question. For cosmetic value, there are black and white drawings or pictures thrown into roughly every other entry. Most entries take up one to three pages of space.

Author John C. Tibbetts

Tibbetts teaches theater and film at University of Kansas and is a pretty big figure in the Kansas City film festival community. Novels Into Film credits him with writing hundreds of articles for such prestigious journals as Lincoln Center's Film Comment and The Journal of Popular Culture. His other book credits include Introduction to the Photoplay and The American Theatrical Film. I've never met the man, but I have seen his commentary on many a documentary and can assure you that he knows what he's talking about.

Author James M. Welsh

A professor of English and film at Salisbury State University in Maryland, and like Tibbetts, Dr. Welsh has occasionally written for Film Comment. He is the editor of the mid-Atlantic region's prestigious journal, Literature/Film Quarterly and heads their associated society, the Literature and Film Association. Welsh is considered by many to be the founder and godfather of the study of novel to film adaptation and I would go so far as to say that he knows just as much about cinema as any person alive or dead. He's an astute critic considered by some mainstream writers to be overly demanding, but you'll never meet a finer man in the industry. On a personal note, I owe much to James Welsh as he introduced me to the films of Leos Carax as well as taught me the fine art of actually thinking about what I see on the silver screen.

Third_Man's Final Thought

Unfortunately, Novels Into Film: The Encyclopedia of Movies Adapted from Books does not look at every single adaptation in history - there are barely over one hundred and twenty entries in the book. It does, however, tread through the famous and more important books and films and gives thorough rundowns of the subjects being examined. This reference book is the only one of its kind and is worth the price of admission on that fact alone. The ease of the read as well as the bonus foreword by Robert Wise and the essay about Hollywood novelists makes Novels Into Film a must-buy for anyone who's ever said "eh, the book was better."

Tibbetts, John C. and James M. Welsh. Novels Into Film: the Encyclopedia of Movies Adapted from Books. New York: Checkmark Books, 1999.

298 Pages

Soft-cover

$16.95 US - $25.50 Can. (although probably lower now)



Recommended: Yes