Reexamining his relationship with Hemingway and Huston, a former aspiring screenwriter describes how both men influenced him, Hemingway's tendency toward self-caricature, Huston's self-absorption, and more.

Dangerous Friends

Biographies & Memoirs

Viertel, Peter

Arts & Literature

Nan A. Talese

American skin

Houghton/Mifflin

John Wilson, a famous film director, encounters unexpected problems when he tries to film an epic masterpiece in Africa

White Hunter, Black Heart

Literature & Fiction

Laurel

This book evokes the mythic giants of the glory days of the American film industry. Creative artists and men's men, flamboyant egoists, performers of spontaneous acts of selfishness and generosity: these are Peter Viertel's "dangerous friends". Seeking to distance himself from the intellectual climate of his European emigre upbringing, the young Viertel left the company of Franz Werfel, Thomas Mann, Christopher Isherwood and others of the Los Angeles refugee community to follow his own star. After serving in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, Viertel was an aspiring screenwriter and novelist when he came to know Ernest Hemingway, John Huston, Orson Wells and others, seeing in these quintessential American extroverts the authentic self-expression he sought in his writing and in his life. In this unsentimental memoir, Viertel draws pictures of these men and how they influenced him. As Viertel follows his mentors around the world, he also retraces an older, deeper journey: the ageless search of a young man for his father - and his own identity.

Dangerous Friends: Hemingway, Huston and Others

Dramas & Plays

VIKING

From the golden age of Hollywood to present-day Spain, a richly detailed, tragi-comic novel chronicles the life of a retired movie actor and his tempestuous relationships with family members, colleagues, and lovers. 15,000 first printing.

Loser Deals

United States

Dutton Adult

It was a stellar cast gathered to make an epic masterpiece...a movie that could be made only by a mad genius. And John Wilson was a cinematic genius sent dangerously out of control by the madness of Africa itself. The human cost would be awesome, reflecting the tragic legacy for Africa of the white man's ignorance, arrogance...and passion.\nModeled on John Huston, and the making of The African Queen.\n"Its incidental pictures of African scenery and colonial society, both British and Belgian, are vividly those of a first-rate observer and reporter. So, too, is the London background of hotels and restaurants, and the financial shenanigans that precede and accompany the making of a motion picture." 
- James Hilton, Book Week\n"Viertel is a strong writer; his characters are real people, his dialogue is flawless." 
-The Oakland Press\n"WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART was published in 1953, when Viertel's emotions about working with (John) Huston on the rewrite of the script for The African Queen (1951) were still raw: Huston is its hero and its villain. The portrait of him is marvelously, scathingly full, and convincing." 
-Pauline Kael,The New Yorker\nIf you like White Hunter, Black Heart, make sure to check out Peter Viertel's novel Bicycle on the Beach now available as a kindle ebook.

Classics

Renaissance Literary & Talent

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Viertel, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Viertel, Peter