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FEATURED PAGE: A
slide show of all Edgar Box covers
Notice that the 1955 French edition of Death Likes It Hot (above,
second from left) misspells the author's name on the cover of the book,
although the name on the title page inside the book is spelled correctly.
And notice the two Italian editions of Death Likes It Hot, above
right, with two slightly different translations of the title: The 1967
translation omits the preposition "il," making it "death likes heat" as
opposed to "death likes the heat." The 1950s translations didn't
unmask the true author of the books, but the 1960 Japanese paperback did:
The back cover of the book reveals the true identify of Edgar Box, and the
text has a four-page afterword that discusses Vidal's other work published
under his real name, thus making it the earliest edition of a Box novel
that blows Vidal's cover. The 1962-3 German paperback editions, one of
which is pictured below, merely refer to Edgar Box as "a pseudonym for a
well-known American author of literature." Yet despite the 1960 Japanese
unmasking of Edgar Box, thorough sleuths could have discovered Box's true
identity as early as 1953, the year after the first novel appeared. The
1949-1952 volume of Cumulative Book Index, a contemporary reference guide,
lists "Edgar Box" as a pseudonym for Gore Vidal, although granted, such
evidence is akin to the proverbial needle in a haystack.
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