 First edition | |
| Author | Ernest Tidyman |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Macmillan Press |
Publication date | 1970 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Followed by | Shaft Among the Jews |
Shaft is a 1970 detective novel by Ernest Tidyman. The novel debuted the character John Shaft and inspired both the 1971 film Shaft and its sequels. [1] [2]
Shaft tells one of the adventures of John Shaft, a private investigator based in New York City.
Author Ernest Tidyman was at the time trying to transition from the field of journalism to fiction, after his first novel, Flower Power, had little success. [3] Editor Alan Rinzler, who had worked with Claude Brown on the bestselling Manchild in the Promised Land , wanted a book to take the gritty realism of Manchild in the Promised Land and bring it into the mystery genre. At the recommendation of literary agent Ronald Hobbs, noted as one of the few black literary agents in the 1960s, Tidyman was commissioned to write Shaft in 1968. [3] He started writing the novel in late 1968, finished it in 1969, and immediately started shopping the book's film rights in Hollywood, even though it would not see publication for nearly another year. [3]
Shaft was first published in a hardback edition in April 1970. [3]
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary award conferred each year for the best novel written in the English language, which was published in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The winner of the Booker Prize receives international publicity that usually leads to a sales boost. When the prize was created, only novels written by Commonwealth, Irish, and South African citizens were eligible to receive the prize; in 2014, eligibility was widened to any English-language novel—a change that proved controversial.
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Shaft is a 1971 American blaxploitation crime action thriller film directed by Gordon Parks and written by Ernest Tidyman and John D. F. Black. It is an adaptation of Tidyman's novel of the same name and is the first entry in the Shaft film series. The plot revolves around a private detective named John Shaft who is hired by a Harlem mobster to rescue his daughter from the Italian mobsters who kidnapped her. The film stars Richard Roundtree as Shaft, alongside Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John and Lawrence Pressman.
Shaft may refer to:
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Ernest Ralph Tidyman was an American author and screenwriter, best known for his novels featuring the African-American detective John Shaft. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the film version of Shaft with John D. F. Black in 1971.
John Shaft is a fictional private investigator created by author/screenwriter Ernest Tidyman for the 1970 novel of the same name. He was portrayed by Richard Roundtree in the original 1971 film and in its four sequels, Shaft's Big Score! (1972), Shaft in Africa (1973), Shaft (2000) and Shaft (2019), and the seven 1973–74 Shaft television films, with Samuel L. Jackson portraying his son, named John Shaft II, in Shaft (2000) and Shaft (2019), and Jessie Usher portraying the character's grandson in Shaft (2019). The blurb on the paperback on which the original film is based states Shaft is "Hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullitt."
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Shaft in Africa is a 1973 American blaxploitation film directed by John Guillermin, and the third film of the Shaft series, starring Richard Roundtree as John Shaft. Stirling Silliphant wrote the screenplay. The film's budget was $1.5 million, but the film was a box office flop, grossing just $1 million. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer quickly sold the property to television, but the television series was cancelled after just seven episodes.
Shaft's Big Score! is a 1972 American blaxploitation action-crime film starring Richard Roundtree as private detective John Shaft. It is the second entry in the Shaft film series, with both director Gordon Parks and screenwriter Ernest Tidyman reprising their roles from the first film. Moses Gunn and Drew Bundini Brown also return from the previous film, alongside new appearances from acting veterans Joseph Mascolo, Julius Harris and Joe Santos. Composer Isaac Hayes turned down an offer to score the film, so Parks, also a musician, composed and performed the score himself.
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Manchild in the Promised Land is a 1965 autobiographical novel written by Claude Brown. It chronicles the author's coming-of-age story amidst poverty and violence in Harlem during the 1940s and 1950s. Published at the height of the civil rights movement, the book reached far beyond the traditional literary world, drawing new attention to the lives of those living in urban environments. It has sold more than 4 million copies and has been translated into 14 languages.
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Based on Shaft (1970) by Ernest Tidyman | |
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