Waterfront

New York: Random House, 1955. First Edition. INSCRIBED by Schulberg on the front endpaper to his friend, film critic and academic Judith Crist: "For Judith Crist / Here's a little souvenir of those days on Foley Square / Sincerely / Budd Schulberg / Aug 12, 1955."

The best Schulberg association of the 1950s we have encountered. Judith Crist was the first full-time female film critic for an American newspaper, the New York Herald Tribune, the founding film critic at New York magazine, and in her later years, well known as the film critic for television Guide. She appeared in Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories" (1980), and authored several collections of essays on film and interviews with filmmakers. Though more a populist, she very much paved the way for Pauline Kael, as she refused to be influenced by any opinion but her own, and could be quite blunt in her assessments of films. Billy Wilder once said that asking her to review a film was like "asking the Boston Strangler for a neck massage," and Otto Preminger simply referred to her as "Judas Crist."

"Waterfront" was written by Schulberg in the wake of his success as the screenwriter for "On the Waterfront" the year prior, something of a re-imagining of that film. Foley Square, referenced in the inscription, is the heart of the waterfront location in Hoboken where location shooting for "On the Waterfront" took place. Schulberg's presence on the set and his influence on the film's style was as unusual as it was formidable. When Crist and Schulberg met in 1954, he was in his 40s and Crist in her 30s, she only ten years into her tenure at The Herald Tribune.

Near Fine in an about Very Good dust jacket, with the laminate lifting as often found and fading to the spine titling.

[Book #132751]