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Above: alternate art, painted by James Meese, for a novel we read a while back under the title The Hard Guys, but which was originally published in 1935 as The Old Man’s Place. This version is from Perma Books, and came in 1953. It’s quite a read. The rear cover offers a teaser (and spoiler), but not much plot info. If you want to know what the book is actually about we discuss it here.
The 1957 novel The Hard Guys, written by John B. Sanford, is why we read books. Originally published in 1935 as The Old Man’s Place, it’s a tale in the rural drama category dealing with three morally challenged men who take over a broken down upstate New York farm belonging to one’s father. This trio are mean as snakes, with hair-trigger tempers and dangerous dreams. Their already fractious relationship is further strained when a mail order bride scheme lures an innocent beauty to the farm. She’s regarded as property—but whose? As the men battle over her she’s under constant threat of being raped. The two main questions in the story become whether she can avoid this fate, and whether one of the three men actually has a conscience. We won’t say more because if you decide to try the book you should go in knowing little. The Hard Guys is an intense, harrowing read, and Sanford—who eventually won a PEN/Faulkner Award and a Los Angeles Times Lifetime Achievement Award—is a powerful writer who understood that poor education, arrogant entitlement, and violent tendencies are a poisonous brew.
Ex-Beatle John Lennon is shot four times in the back and killed by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Chapman had been stalking Lennon since October, and earlier that evening Lennon had autographed a copy of his album Double Fantasy for him.
The Imperial Japanese Navy sends aircraft to attack the U.S. Pacific Fleet and its defending air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. While the U.S. lost battleships and other vessels, its aircraft carriers were not at Pearl Harbor and survived intact, robbing the Japanese of the total destruction of the Pacific Fleet they had hoped to achieve.
In Montreal, Canada, at the École Polytechnique, a gunman shoots twenty-eight young women with a semi-automatic rifle, killing fourteen. The gunman claimed to be fighting feminism, which he believed had ruined his life. After the killings he turns the gun on himself and commits suicide.
Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to overturn the 18th Amendment which had made the sale of alcohol illegal. But the criminal gangs that had gained power during Prohibition are now firmly established, and maintain an influence that continues unabated for decades.
During an overwater navigation training flight from Fort Lauderdale, five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo-bombers lose radio contact with their base and vanish. The disappearance takes place in what is popularly known as the Bermuda Triangle.
