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James Fenimore Cooper

The Last of the Mohicans. 1920. The earliest adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's novel, a large-scale adventure set during the colonial conflicts between Britain and France 20 years before the American War of Independence.

The Last of the Mohicans.1992. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans. 1957. TV series

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter. 1995. Roland Joffe's adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's seminal noveltells the story of an intolerant Puritan community in the early days of American settlement.

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The Scarlet Letter. 1979. Directed by Rick Hauser.

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The Scarlet Letter. 1934.

Rappaccini's Daughter. 1980. Based on a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, this made-for-television drama tells the tale of a college student, a mysterious young woman and a strangely beautiful garden.

Twice-told Tales. 1963. This three-part horror story is taken from the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Vincent Price stars in all three tales.

Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall of the House of Usher. 1960. This being an Edgar Allen Poe story, there's a history of family madness and melancholia, a premature burial and a sense of doom hanging over the gloomy, crumbling mansion.

The Pit and the Pendulum. 1961. After the success of House of Usher Roger Corman was asked to adapt another Edgar Allen Poe work. The Pit and the Pendulum seemed the logical choice. The story itself is essentially unfilmable, but screenwriter Richard Matheson simply reused the House of Usher story line and tacked on The Pit and the Pendulum as the climatic scene.

Two Evil Eyes. 1990. Two well-known directors each adapt stories by Edgar Allen Poe in this horror drama.

The Tell-Tale Heart. 1960. In this incarnation of Edgar Allen Poe's famous short story, a lovers' triangle leads to the tell-tale murder.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue. 1986.Edgar Allen Poe's detective story adapted for television.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin. 1928. Adaptation of the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Herman Melville

Moby Dick. 1956. Directed by John Huston, starring Gregory Peck. A young man, Ishmael, decides to sign up as a sailor on the whaling ship 'Pequod'. He narrates the tale of that ill-fated voyage. Captain Ahab is hell bent on destroying a white whale, known as Moby Dick, that had maimed him on a previous whale hunt.

Bartleby. 1970. Adapted from Herman Melville's short story..

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Bartleby. 2001. Adapted from Herman Melville's short story..

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Beau Travail. In French. Subtitled. Resetting of Melville's Billy Budd among modern-day French Foreign Legionnaires.

Pola X. Director Leos Carax took his inspiration from Herman Melville's Pierre, or, the Ambiguities.

Louisa May Alcott

Little Women. 1994. Directed by Gillian Armstrong. A beautiful version of Louisa May Alcott's novel. A stirring look at life in New England during the Civil War.

Little Women. 1949. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

The Inheritance. 1997. Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, about forbidden love between a beautiful orphan and an eligible upper-class bachelor.

Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.1960. This American Playhouse production is simply the best adaptation of Huckleberry Finn (out of seven, including all five American cinematic productions from 1931-1993). Much, perhaps most, of the dialogue is taken or only adapted slightly from the novel, so the dialects the characters speak retain the flavor of the book.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 1938. Mark Twain's popular story of a young Tom Sawyer who, with his friend Huck Finn, enjoys many adventures.

The Prince and the Pauper. A drama based on the Mark Twain novel which follows the story of a Prince and a boy who are identical. Both have the chance to experience another life.

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court. 1949. Loose adaptation of Twain's satire A Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

A Million to Juan. 1994. Loose adaptation of Twain's The Million Pound Bank Note.

Henry James

The Golden Bowl. 2000. Henry James' novel is here adapted into one of the most beautiful films yet from the Merchant Ivory stable.

Portrait of a Lady. 1996. The late 19th Century finds Isabel Archer rejecting a lucrative marriage proposal in favour of exploring the world. Adapted from the novel by Henry James.

The Wings of the Dove. 1997. Romantic drama based on Henry James's classic novel.

The Bostonians. 1984. Director James Ivory brings Henry James's classic novel to the screen in this evocative, historical adaptation filled with exciting, exacting performances.

Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence. 1993. Martin Scorsese does not sound like the logical choice to direct The Age of Innocence, an adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel about the manners and morals in New York society in the 1870s. But these are mean streets, too, and the psychological violence inflicted between characters is at least as damaging as the physical violence perpetrated by Scorsese's usual gangsters.

Ethan Frome. 1993. Adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel.

The House of Mirth. 2000. The crushing pressures of social conformity have always been a central concern of Terence Davies' movies, so Edith Wharton's astringent novel of innocence destroyed makes an ideal choice for him.

Passion's Way, aka The Reef, 1999. Adaptation of the book by Edith Wharton.

Theodore Dreiser

A Place in the Sun. 1951. Dreiser's novel American Tragedy coming in at almost 900 pages, it was a difficult task to adapt it for film, but George Stevens' effort is remarkably good (actually an adaptation of an adaptation - A Place In The Sun was a successful stage play).

Stephen Crane

The Red Badge of Courage.1951. Adaptation of Stephen Crane's novel.

Willa Cather

O Pioneers! 1991. Based on the novel by Willa Cather. Willa Cather's second novel is abundant with interwoven themes. Cather bears witness to the early 20th-century Pioneers; the farmer taming the wild Northern States of America, battling with the elements and an unforgiving land to create a home, family and livlihood.

Paul's Case. 1980. Made for TV. Adaptation of a short story by Willa Cather.

Jack London

The Call of the Wild. 1972. Jack London's classic tale of the Klondike Gold Rush as we follow the lives of the dog, Buck, and his master, John Thornton.

White Fang. 1991. A young man tries to fulfill his father's dying wish to find gold in the treacherous Yukon Valley. His journey begins when he meets a veteran goldminer who guides him to his father's claim. Along the way, he discovers a kindred spirit who will change his life forever...a wolf-dog named White Fang.

Legend of the Sea Wolf. 1975. Adaptation of Jack London's novel

Ring Lardner

American Short Story Collection: The Golden Honeymoon. 1980. Based on a short story by Ring Lardner.

June Moon. 1974. Screenplay by Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman, based on a play co-writtten by the same authors.

Sinclair Lewis

Elmer Gantry. 1960. Screenplay adapted from a book by Sinclair Lewis about religious evangelism in the American Midwest in the 1920s.

Dodsworth. 1936. Adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's novel about Sam Dodsworth, a good-hearted, middle-aged man whose mzarriage is going wrong.

Arrowsmith. 1931. Based on Sinclair Lewis's Pulitzer prize winning novel.

Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep. 1946. Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler. Bogart plays private eye Philip Marlowe, who is hired by a wealthy socialite (Bacall) to look into troubles stirred up by her wild, young sister.

Farewell My Lovely. 1975. Robert Mitchum imbues Raymond Chandler's legendary private detective with a sense of maturity as well as a melancholy spirit.

The Long Goodbye. 1973. Robert Altman's terrific reimagining of Raymond Chandler's penultimate novel.

Philip Marlowe: Private Eye Collection. 1986.

The Big Sleep. 1977. Remake starring Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles.

Katherine Anne Porter

Ship of Fools. 1965. Adaptation of the novel by Katherine Anne Porter.

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. 1980. Adaptation of a story by Katherine Anne Porter.

Henry Miller

Quiet Days in Clichy. 1970. Based on the novel by Henry Miller, this is the story of a struggling writer and his photographer roommate set in Paris during the 1930s. Together they spend their days at the Melody Club, a place of ill-repute, where both men develop an taste for wanton women.

Henry and June. 1990. Based on the real life relationship between Henry Miller and Anias Nin. Anas Nin is a young woman in 1930s Paris whose husband is slowly defecting from art to working in a bank, leaving her very bored. When the then-unpublished Brooklyn writer Henry Miller enters her life, she embarks on a journey of seduction and exploration that eventually leads from the writer to his wife, June, who finances her husband's life in Paris so he may praise her beauty in his writing.

James M (Mallahan) Cain

The Postman Always Rings Twice. 1946. Lana Turner and John Garfield star in Tay Garnett's adaptation of James M. Cain's torrid crime melodrama.

The Postman Always Rings Twice. 1981 remake starring Jack Nicholson.

Double Indemnity. 1944. Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler adapted James M. Cain's hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck).

Mildred Pierce. 1945. Joan Crawford is in her element as the heroine of James M Cain's pulp-fiction classic, a ditched wife and mother who is forced to become a waitress.

Dashiell Hammett

The Maltese Falcon 1941. The tightest, sharpest, and most cynical of Hollywood's official deathless classics. The dialogue, much of it lifted straight from Hammett, is delivered with whip-crack speed and sneering ferocity.

The Thin Man.1934. Adapted from Hammet's novel. Also became a radio and TV series.

No Good Deed. 2002. Based on a story, 'The House on Turk Street' by Hammett.

The Dain Curse. 1978. Based on a story by Hammett. Originally a TV series.

The Thin Man Collection. 1934.

F Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby. Perhaps no movie could capture F Scott Fitzgerald's novel in its entirety, but this adaptation, scripted by Francis Ford Coppola, is certainly a handsome try.

The Last Tycoon. Directed by Elia Kazan.

F. Scott Fitzgerald And The Last Of The Belles. 1974. A part-fictional account of how F. Scott Fitzgerald met his wife in 1919.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams

Ernest Hemingway

For Whom The Bell Tolls. 1943. Stylish screen version of Ernest Hemingway's novel about two star crossed lovers during the Spanish Civil War.

To Have and Have Not. 1945. Harry Morgan and his alcoholic sidekick, Eddie, are based on the island of Martinique and crew a boat available for hire.

A Farewell to Arms. 1932. During the Great War an American member of the Italian Medical Service falls in love with an English nurse. When he learns that she is pregnant and has left her job he deserts in order to search for her. Based on the true story of Ernest Hemingway's love affair with nurse Agnes Von Kurowsky.

A Farewell to Arms. 1957. An American in the Italian Army is wounded in action. He is nursed back to health by a pretty nurse. A remake of the 1932 original.

Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita. Stanley Kubrick's 1961 version of Vladimir Nabokov's notorious 1953 novel.

Lolita.1998 remake starring Jeremy Irons.

Margaret Mitchell

Gone With The Wind. 1939. The American Film Institute recently rated Gone With The Wind No 4 in the 100 best American films ever made. This Four-disc collection includes the full-length documentary The Making of a Legend (1989).

John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath. 1940. John Ford's memorable screen version of John Steinbeck's epic novel of the Great Depression

Of Mice and Men. 1939. Drama based on the novel by John Steinbeck, which tells the story of a simple minded ranch hand whose innocent mistakes lead to disaster.

East of Eden. An American youth is driven to desperation trying to win his father's love. Based on the classic Steinbeck novel. A modern story of Cain and Abel set against the approach of World War One.

Three features: East of Eden. Rebel Without a Cause. Giant.

Langston Hughes

Cora Unashamed. 2000. Made for TV. Based on a short story by Langston Hughes.

Margaret Landon. 1903-1993. Books by Margaret Landon, Anna Leonowens)

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The King and I. 1956. Based on the novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon, which in turn was based on the experiences of Anna Leonowens as told in The English Governess at the Siamese Court.

Anna and the King of Siam. 1946. Based on a true story, adapted from Margaret Landon's book, stars Irene Dunne as Anna Owens, a recently widowed young mother who accepts employment as the governess for King Mongkut of Siam (Rex Harrison).

Nathanael West

The Day of the Locust. 1975. Based on Nathanael West's satirical novel. Directed by John Schlesinger. An absorbing look at the desperate characters who populate the Hollywood film industry.

John O'Hara

Pal Joey. 1957.Adaptation of a musical based on a novel by John O'Hara.

From the Terrace. 1960. Adaptation of John O'Hara's novel.

Butterfield 8. 1960. Adaptation of John O'Hara's novel.

On Our Merry Way, Aka A Miracle Can Happen, 1948. Based on stories by John O'Hara and Henry Fonde.

Nelson Algren

The Man With the Golden Arm.1955. Adaptation of the novel by Nelson Algren, starring Frank Sinatra. The story of a heroin-addicted poker dealer who decides to kick the habit and become a jazz drummer.

Walk on the Wild Side. 1962. Adaptation of the novel by Nelson Algren, starring Laurence Harvey and Jane Fonda.

Paul Bowles

The Sheltering Sky. 1990. Bernardo Bertolucci applies his considerable talent to this haunting adaptation of the Paul Bowles novel. John Malkovich and Debra Winger play Port and Kit Moresby, characters loosely based on Bowles and his wife Jane.

John Cheever

The Swimmer. 1968. Burt Lancaster gives one of his most daringly complex performances in The Swimmer, a fascinating adaptation of John Cheever's celebrated short story.

O Youth and Beauty. 1979. Adapted by the Broadway Theatre Archive from a short story by John Cheever.

William Burroughs

Naked Lunch. 1991. In David Cronenberg's superbly shot, unnerving warp on the Burroughs novel, the novelist himself becomes a main character, with elements from Burroughs' life, including the shooting of his wife during a "William Tell" game, and bohemian friends Kerouac and Ginsberg added to frame the book's wild visions.

William S. Burroughs - The Final Academy Documents. 1982. Burroughs appearing in public at the famous Hacienda Club with some readings from his own works.

Destroy all Rational Thought. 1992. Filmed performance. William Burroughes and Brion Gysin in Dublin, Ireland.

Bernard Malamud

The Natural. 1984. Based on a novel by Bernard Malamud. Director Barry Levinson treats The Natural as a kind of shrine to America's national pastime, baseball, complete with all the possible mythic resonance that can be gleaned from the subject.

The Angel Levine. 1970. Based on a short story by Bernard malamud.

Carson McCullers

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. 1991. Based on a novel by Carson McCullers which, in turn, was adapted for the stage by Edward Albee in 1964.

Charles Bukowski

Barfly. 1987. The script for this movie was written by outrageous poet-author-alcoholic Charles Bukowski. But director Barbet Schroeder makes it into an oddly amusing story of a pugnacious drunk writer (Mickey Rourke) based on Bukowski himself.

Charles Bukowski at Bellevue. In the Spring of 1970 Bukowski packed his overnight bag, locked the door of his tumbledown East Hollywood apartment behind him, and took his first plane ride to the state of Washington to read at Bellevue Community College.

Charles Bukowski. Born Into This. 2002.

Poetry in Motion. 1982. More than 20 contemporary North American poets perform their work. Early in the film, Charles Bukowski talks about the energy of poets and of a poem.

Factotum. 2006. This screen adaptation of Charles Bukowski's most acclaimed novel stars Matt Dillon as Henry Chinaski, the heavy-drinking, gambling, womanising antihero who nevertheless wins everybody over with his sleazy charm

Jack Kerouac

Whatever Happened To Kerouac? The Jack Kerouac Story. 1988. Overview of the life of Kerouac. It pieces together quotes from Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg and Michael McClure among others.

Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats. 1994. This documentary follows Kerouac on the road from the life of a beatnik in New York City, and across the country to California, as he set out to find America and himself.

The Source. 1999. Traces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac's meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in 1997.

Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse Five. 1972. George Roy Hill's adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's whimsical antiwar black comedy,

Breakfast of Champions. 1999. Adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel. A portrait of a fictional town in the mid west that is home to a group of idiosyncratic and slightly neurotic characters.

Mother Night. 1996. Based on Kurt Vonnegut's novel Gordon and screenwriter Robert E. Weide have an uncommon insight into Vonnegut's material: the mesh of fact and fiction, the sweeping themes, the tragic goofiness.

Joseph Heller

Catch 22. 1970. Based on Joseph Heller's bestseller which captures the insanity of war and military life during World War II.

Norman Mailer

Tough Guys Don't Dance. 1987. Written and directed by Norman Mailer.

American Tragedy. 2000. Norman Mailer was the screenwriter for this TV mini-series based on the O J Simpson trial.

Richard Hooker

MASH, 1969. Comedy-drama set among surgeons drafted into the Korean war, was a breakthrough not just for director Robert Altman but for movie-making in general. Although set in the 50s, there were few who did not realise that the film's anti-war messages were directed at the US involvement in Vietnam. Indeed, the Pentagon banned US servicemen from seeing the film.

M.A.S.H. TV series season 9 (Collector's Edition) 1972. Other series available.

Truman Capote

Breakfast at Tiffany's. 1961. No film better utilises Audrey Hepburn's flighty charm and svelte beauty than this romantic adaptation of Truman Capote's novella.

In Cold Blood 1967. A faithful screen adaptation of Truman Capote's extraordinary non-fiction book about two killers.

Indiscretion of an American Wife, aka Terminal Station. 1954. Based on a novel by Truman Capote.

Other Voices, Other Rooms. 1995. Based on a book by Truman Capote.

James Baldwin

Go Tell It on the Mountain. 1984. Adaptation of the novel by James Baldwin.

William Styron

Sophie's Choice. 1982. This adaptation of the bestselling novel by William Styron is faithful to the point of being reverential.

Shadrach. 1998. Adapted from a short story by William Styron, directed by his daughter Susanna.

Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird. 1962. Robert Mulligan's classic adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, set in the racially charged atmosphere of Macon County, Alabama in the 1930s, To Kill a Mockingbird is a poignant coming-of-age story.

Hubert Selby

Last Exit to Brooklyn. 1990. Adapted from the story by Hubert Selby Jr, about life in a working class district of Brooklyn during the 1950s.

Requiem for a Dream. 2001. Based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr, Fantasy mixes with the harsh reality of addiction and the desire for hope in Requiem for a Dream.

Fear X. 2003. Screenplay co-written by Hubert Selby Jr, music by Brian Eno. A man who works as a security guard searches for the man who killed his wife, on his CCTV monitors. When he finally finds the chief suspect he is undecided on his next course of action.

Maya Angelou

America's Dream. 1996. Based on short stories by Maya Angelou, John Henrik Clarke, and Richard Wright.

The Gospel According to Jesus. 1995. Includes a contribution from Maya Angelou. Based on a book by Stephen Mitchell.

Ira Levin

The Stepford Wives. 1975. Ira Levin's scary novel about forced conformity in a small Connecticut town makes The Stepford Wives a compelling thriller.

Rosemary's Baby. 1968. For Rosemary's Baby, his modern horror tale about Satanic worship and a pregnant woman's decline into madness, Roman Polanski moves from the traditional monolithic mansions of Gothic flicks to an apartment building in New York City. Based on Ira Levin's novel.

The Boys From Brazil. 1978. A dapted from Ira Levin's novel, stars Gregory Peck as the infamous Dr Josef Mengele, the former Nazi chief who intends to resurrect the Fhrer and create a Fourth Reich through genetic experiments.

A Kiss Before Dying. 1956. Based on the novel Deathtrap by Ira Levin, this is the story of Bud Corliss, a handsome college student who is prepared to do anything to get rich. When his girlfriend becomes pregnant he stages her suicide.

Deathtrap. 1982. Adaptation of Ira Levin's novel, starring Michael Caine.

Tom Wolfe

The Bonfire of the Vanities. 1990. Adaptation of Tom Wolfe's novel. With The Bonfire of the Vanities Wolfe captures in a microcosm the capitalist mechanisms of eighties New York. The novel stands out from literature of its era as a hugely entertaining and cutting satire.

The Right Stuff. 1983. Based on Tom Wolfe's novel of the same name, The Right Stuff is a spectacular and thrilling epic that chronicles the fledgling years of the American space programme.

Toni Morrison