The Works of James Purdy

“Most people with lively minds will find the rewards of Purdy’s art to be worth the effort.”
— Bruce Bawer, from a 1998 The New York Times book review

NOVELS

• 63: Dream Palace, William-Frederick, 1956.
• Malcolm, Farrar, Straus, 1959.
• The Nephew, Farrar, Straus, 1961.
• Cabot Wright Begins, Farrar, Straus, 1964.
• Eustace Chisholm and the Works, Farrar, Straus, 1967.
• Jeremy's Version, Doubleday, 1970.
• I Am Elijah Thrush, Doubleday, 1972.
• The House of the Solitary Maggot, Doubleday, 1974.
• Color of Darkness [and] Malcolm, Doubleday, 1974.
• In a Shallow Grave, Arbor House, 1976.
• Narrow Rooms, Arbor House, 1978.
• Dream Palaces: Three Novels (contains Malcolm,The Nephew, and 63: Dream Palace), Viking, 1980.
• Mourners Below, Viking, 1981.
• On Glory's Course, Viking, 1984.
• In the Hollow of His Hand, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986.
• Candles of Your Eyes, Viking, 1986.
• Garments the Living Wear, City Lights Books, 1989.
• Out with the Stars, City Lights Books, 1992.
• Gertrude of Stony Island Avenue, Morrow, 1997.
• (Editor, with James Ruppert) Nothing but the Truth: An Anthology of Native American Literature, Prentice Hall, 2000.

STORY COLLECTIONS

• Don't Call Me by My Right Name and Other Stories (also see below), William-Frederick, 1956.
• 63: Dream Palace: A Novella and Nine Stories (contains 63: Dream Palace, Don't Call Me by My Right Name and Other Stories), 1957.
• Color of Darkness: Eleven Stories and a Novella (contains 63: Dream Palace,Don't Call Me by My Right Name and Other Stories, and two stories), New Directions, 1957.
• Children Is All (stories and plays), New Directions, 1962.
• An Oyster Is a Wealthy Beast (a story and poems), Black Sparrow Press, 1967.
• Mr. Evening: A Story and Nine Poems, Black Sparrow Press, 1968.
• On the Rebound: A Story and Nine Poems, Black Sparrow Press, 1970.
• A Day after the Fair: A Collection of Plays and Stories, Note of Hand, 1977.
• The Candles of Your Eyes, and Thirteen Other Stories, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987.
• 63: Dream Palace: Selected Stories, 1956-1987, Black Sparrow Press, 1991.

POEMS

• The Running Sun, Paul Waner Press, 1971.
• Sunshine Is an Only Child, Aloe Editions, 1973.
• Lessons and Complaints, Nadja, 1978.
• Sleep Tight, Nadja, 1979.
• The Brooklyn Branding Parlors, Contact/II, 1985.
• Collected Poems, Athenaeum-Polak Van Gennep, 1990.

Also author of I Will Arrest the Bird That Has No Light, 1978, Don't Let the Snow Fall, 1985, and Are You in the Winter Tree?, 1987.

PLAYS

• Cracks, produced in New York, NY, 1963.
• Wedding Finger, New Directions, 1974.
• Two Plays (contains A Day at the Fair and True), New London Press, 1979.
• Scrap of Paper [and] The Berrypicker, Sylvester & Orphanos, 1981.
• Proud Flesh, Lord John Press, 1981.

Also author of Mr. Cough and the Phantom Sex, 1960, Ruthanna Elder, 1989, In the Night of Time and Four Other Plays, 1992, Foment, 1994, Brice, 1994, and Where Quentin Goes, 1994.

Also author of Eventide and Other Stories (recordings), Spoken Arts, 1968; 63: Dream Palace (recording), Spoken Arts, 1969; Kitty Blue (fairy tale), 1993, and Dawn (novel), 1985. Contributor to numerous books, including New Directions in Prose and Poetry 21, edited by James Laughlin, New Directions, 1969. Contributor to magazines, including Mademoiselle, New Yorker, and Commentary.

Works in Progress: All That Glitters, a novel; Dangerous Moonlight, a play.

Media Adaptations: Malcolm was adapted as a play by Edward Albee and published by Dramatists Play Service in 1966; some of Purdy's poems have been set to music by Richard Hundley and Robert Helps; the story "Sleep Tight" was filmed by Inquiring Systems, Inc.; In a Shallow Grave was adapted and filmed by Kenneth Bowser in 1988; 63: Dream Palace was made into an opera by Hans-Jurgen von Bose, published by Ars Viva Verlag (Mainz, France), 1989.

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