2010 Bookseller Resource Guide
Collecting the American Film Institute 100

In our July/August 2007 issue, Dan Gregory, of Between the Covers Rare Books, explored some of the odder paths that printed stories have taken to the silver screen. As an online exclusive to supplement his essay, “Hollywood Adaptation: How a Christmas Card, a Poem, a Time Magazine Article, and Even a Few Novels Inspired Some of Hollywood’s Greatest Films,” we have compiled a list of the collectable books connected to the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest movies of all time.

This list, compiled by Dan and the editor of Fine Books & Collections magazine, contains our recommendations for the best collectable book from each film. This is a judgment call based on availability of the books and the preference most collectors show for American hardcover books (after all, these are American films). In most cases, the title we’ve picked is the first book publication, but not always. For example, for the 1931 film adaptation of Frankenstein, we list the photoplay edition published to coincide with the film, rather than Mary Shelley’s 1818 first edition. The photoplay edition is illustrated with stills from the film and has Boris Karloff’s famous interpretation of the monster on the cover. That book, we think, is a more attractive and realistic goal for film book collectors. But reasonable people (and certainly booksellers) may disagree.

Definitions: A source book is a book adapted into a movie. A tie-in is a promotional book issued to coincide with the film. It may be a reissue of a previously published book or a novelization based on, written alongside, or inspired by the screenplay. A later screenplay is a published version of the screenplay issued after the movie came out. A later book is similar to a tie-in, but published long after the original film.

AFI
Rank
Film
Book / Book Author / Publisher / Book Type
1
Citizen Kane
The Citizen Kane Book: Raising Kane
By Herman Mankiewicz, Orson Welles and Pauline Kael
Boston: Little, Brown, 1971
Later Screenplay
2
Casablanca
Best Film Plays of 1943–1944
By John Gassner
New York: Crown, 1945
Later Screenplay
3
The Godfather
The Godfather
By Mario Puzo
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1969
Source Book
4
Gone With the Wind
Gone With the Wind
By Margaret Mitchell
New York: Macmillan 1936
Source Book
5
Lawrence of Arabia
Revolt in the Desert
By T. E. Lawrence
New York : George H. Doran Co., 1927
Source Book
6
The Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
By L. Frank Baum
Chicago: George M. Hill 1900
Source Book
7
The Graduate
The Graduate
By Charles Webb
New York: NAL / New American Library, 1963
Source Book
8
On the Waterfront
Waterfront
By Budd Schulberg
New York: Random House 1955
Tie-In
9
Schindler’s List
Schindler’s Ark
By Thomas Keneally
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1982
Source Book
10
Singin’ in the Rain
Singin’ in the Rain
By Betty Comden and Adolph Green
New York: Viking Press, 1972
Later Screenplay
11
It’s a Wonderful Life
The Greatest Gift
By Philip Van Doren Stern
Philadelphia: David McKay, 1944
Source Book
12
Sunset Blvd
Sunset Boulevard
By Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999
Later Screenplay
13
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai
By Pierre Boule
New York: Vanguard, 1954
Source Book
14
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot: A Screenplay
By Billy Wilder
New York: New American Library, 1959
Tie-In
15
Star Wars
Star Wars
By George Lucas (probably ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster)
New York: Ballantine Books, 1976
Tie-In
16
All About Eve
All About Eve
By Joseph L. Mankiewicz
New York: Random House, 1951
Tie-In
17
The African Queen
The African Queen
By C. S. Forester
London, William Heinemann, 1935
Source Book
18
Psycho
Psycho
Robert Bloch
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1959
Source Book
19
Chinatown
Chinatown: a Screenplay
By Robert Towne
Santa Barbara: Neville 1983
Later Screenplay
20
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
By Ken Kesey
New York: Viking Press, 1962
Source Book
21
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
By John Steinbeck
New York: Viking Press, 1939
Source Book
22
2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey
By Arthur C. Clarke
New York: New American Library, 1968
Tie-In
23
The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon
By Dashiell Hammett
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930
Source Book
24
Raging Bull
Raging Bull
By Jake La Motta with Joseph Carter and Peter Savage
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970
Source Book
25
E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
By William Kotzwinkle
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982
Tie-In
26
Dr. Strangelove
Two Hours to Doom
By Peter Bryant
London: T.V. Boardman, 1958
Source Book
27
Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde: A Novel
By Burt Hirschfeld, based on the screenplay by David Newman & Robert Benton
New York: Lancer Books, 1967
Tie-In
28
Apocalypse Now
Youth: A Narrative
By Joseph Conrad
London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1902
Source Book
29
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
By Charles Landery
London: J.M. Dent and Sons, 1940
Tie-In
30
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
By B. Traven
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1935
Source Book
31
Annie Hall
Four Films of Woody Allen: Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan, Stardust Memories
By Woody Allen
New York: Random House, 1982
Later Screenplay
32
The Godfather, Part II
The Godfather
By Mario Puzo
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1969
Source Book
33
High Noon
The Western Hall of Fame Anthology
By Dale L. Walker, editor
New York: Berkley Books, 1997
Later Book
34
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1960
Source Book
35
It Happened One Night
Box Office: A Collection of Famous Stories from which Outstanding Motion Pictures Have Been Made
By Marjorie Barrows and George Eaton, compiled by
Chicago: Ziff-Davis, 1943
Later Book
36
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy
By James Leo Herlihy
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965
Source Book
37
The Best Years of Our Lives
Glory for Me
By MacKinlay Kantor
New York: Coward-McCann, 1945
Source Book
38
Double Indemnity
Double Indemnity
By James M. Cain
New York: Avon Book Company, 1943
Source Book
39
Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago
By Boris Pasternak
New York: Pantheon, 1958
Source Book
40
North By Northwest
North by Northwest
By Ernest Lehman
New York: Viking Press, 1972
Later Screenplay
41
West Side Story
West Side Story
By Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard Bernstein
New York: Random House, 1958
Source Book
42
Rear Window
After Dinner Story
By Cornell Woolrich (as William Irish)
New York/Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1944
Source Book
43
King Kong
King Kong
By W. Delos Lovelace
New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1932
Tie-In
44
The Birth of a Nation
The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan
By Thomas F. Dixon Jr.
New York: Doubleday, Page, 1902
Source Book
45
A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire
By Tennessee Williams
New York: New Directions, 1947
Source Book
46
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange
By Anthony Burgess
London: Heinemann, 1962
Source Book
47
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver
By Richard Elman
New York: Bantam, 1976
Tie-In
48
Jaws
Jaws
By Peter Benchley
Garden City: Doubleday, 1974
Source Book
49
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; Adapted from Grimms Fairy Tales
By (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Walt Disney)
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937
Tie In
50
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
By William Goldman
New York: Bantam Books, 1969
Tie-In
51
The Philadelphia Story
The Philadelphia Story
By Philip Barry
New York: Coward-McCann, 1939
Source Book
52
From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity
By James Jones
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951
Source Book
53
Amadeus
Amadeus
By Peter Shaffer
London: Andre Deutsch, 1980
Source Book
54
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front
By Erich Maria Remarque
Boston: Little, Brown, 1929
Source Book
55
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
By Hammerstein II, Oscar, Richard Rodgers, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
New York: Random House, 1960
Source Book
56
M*A*S*H
M*A*S*H
By Richard Hooker
New York: William Morrow, 1968
Source Book
57
The Third Man
The Third Man
By Graham Greene
New York: Viking, 1950
Tie-In
58
Fantasia
Walt Disney’s Fantasia
By Deems Taylor
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1940
Tie-In
59
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without A Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath
By Robert Lindner
New York: Grune & Stratton, 1944
Source Book
60
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Illustrated Screenplay
By Lawrence Kasdan
New York: Ballantine, 1981
Tie-In
61
Vertigo
The Living and the Dead
By Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac
New York: Ives, Washburn, 1957
Source Book
62
Tootsie
No book published
63
Stagecoach
No But I Saw the Movie: The Best Short Stories Ever Made Into Film
By David Wheeler, editor
New York: Penguin Books, 1989
Later Book
64
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
By Steven Spielberg
New York: Delacorte Press, 1977
Tie-In
65
The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs
By Thomas Harris
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988
Source Book
66
Network
Network
By Sam Hedrin
New York: Pocket Books, 1976
Tie-In
67
The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate
By Richard Condon
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959
Source Book
68
An American in Paris
No book published
69
Shane
Shane
By Jack Schaefer
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1949
Source Book
70
The French Connection
The French Connection
By Robin Moore
Boston: Little, Brown, 1969
Source Book
71
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump
By Winston Groom
Garden City: Doubleday, 1986
Source Book
72
Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
By Lew Wallace
New York: Harper & Bros., 1880
Source Book
73
Wuthering Heights
Wutherning Heights
By Emily Brontë
New York: Triangle Books, 1939
Tie-In
74
The Gold Rush
The Adventures of Charlie Chaplin: The Gold Rush
By Phillipe Magniaux
New York: Drake Publishers, 1975
Later Book
75
Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves
By Michael Blake
Westminster, Md.: Fawcett Books, 1988 (pbo). First hardcover is New York: Newmarket Press, 1991
Source Book
76
City Lights
No book published
77
American Graffiti
American Graffiti
By George Lucas, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck
New York: Grove Press, 1973
Tie-In
78
Rocky
Rocky
By Julia Sorel
New York: Ballantine, (1976)
Tie-In
79
The Deer Hunter
The Deer Hunter
By E.M. Corder
New York: Jove 1978
Tie-In
80
The Wild Bunch
No book published
81
Modern Times
No book published
82
Giant
Giant
By Edna Ferber
Garden City: Doubleday, 1952
Source Book
83
Platoon
Platoon
By Dale A. Dye
New York: Charter Books, 1986
Tie-In
84
Fargo
Fargo
By Joel and Ethan Coen
London, Boston: Faber and Faber, 1996
Tie-In
85
Duck Soup
Why a Duck? Visual and Verbal Gems from the Marx Brothers Movies
By Richard J. Anobile
New York, Darien House 1971
Later Screenplay
86
Mutiny on the Bounty
Mutiny on the Bounty
By Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
Boston: Little, Brown, 1932
Source Book
87
Frankenstein
Frankenstein
By Mary Shelley
New York: Grosset & Dunlap, (nd-1932)
Tie-In
88
Easy Rider
Easy Rider
By Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern
New York: Signet, (1969)
Tie-In
89
Patton
Patton: Ordeal and Triumph
By Ladislas Farago
New York: Obolensky, 1963
Source Book
90
The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer
By Samuel Raphaelson
New York: Brentano’s, 1925
Source Book
91
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
By Alan Jay Lerner
New York: Coward-McCann, 1956
Source Book
92
A Place in the Sun
An American Tragedy
By Theodore Dreiser
New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925
Source Book
93
The Apartment
The Apartment and The Fortune Cookie: Two Screenplays
By Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond
New York: Praeger, 1971
Later Screenplay
94
Goodfellas
Wiseguy
By Nicholas Pileggi
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985
Source Book
95
Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction
By Quentin Tarantino
New York: Miramax, 1994
Tie-In
96
The Searchers
The Searchers
By Alan Le May
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954
Source Book
97
Bringing Up Baby
Adaptations: From Short Story to Big Screen: 35 Great Stories That Have Inspired Great Films
By Stephanie Harrison, editor
New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005
Later Book
98
Unforgiven
No book published
99
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
No book published
100
Yankee Doodle Dandy
No book published