Joe David Brown
Paper Moon
30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
With a new introduction by Peter Bogdanovich

"For all her conning ways, Addie is a pint-sized frontier woman-tough, gritty, fiercely protective of her man.… This book is a long, tall, oldtime tale. But as Addie might put it, in the right hands that kind of yarn has a lot of prance left." —Martha Duffy, Time

"The plot is alive and serpentine-very much alive and twisting its way through the South of the 1930s.… I kept rooting for [Addie and Long Boy's] continued success in life, partly, I guess, because their victims are never undeserving, and partly because I just didn't want their adventures to end. You're in good hands with Mr. Brown." —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

"A wonderful story … in Mr. Brown's expert hands it emerges shining and fresh. The secret of his success is his heroine, Addie, a sassy, amoral, utterly charming eleven-year-old." —Cosmopolitan

"Pure, unadulterated entertainment … the total charm of the book is in this unending vitality of people and events. It is full of movement and humor and just enough pathos to keep the franchise. It is hard for me to imagine anyone who won't enjoy an evening with Addie and Long Boy.… A great pair, wonderfully imagined." —Cleveland Plain Dealer

Thirty years after its original publication and twenty-nine years after it became Peter Bogdanovich's Academy Award-winning film, Joe David Brown's last novel seems, more than ever, an American classic. Addie Pray, Paper Moon's eleven-year-old heroine and narrator, is one of the most unforgettable characters in all of fiction, and certainly one of the most beloved.

Set in the darkest days of the Great Depression, Paper Moon is the story of what happens when Addie's mother is killed in a car crash, leaving her daughter in the questionable hands of Long Boy, a con-man who may or may not be her biological father. Together they set out on a rollicking journey through the Deep South, hustling every sucker in sight and proving time and time again that no matter how much money you make, it's no fun unless you're making it with somebody you love. Brimming with humor, pathos, and an irresistible narrative energy, Paper Moon is American storytelling at its finest—tough, vibrant, and ripe for rediscovery.

Joe David Brown was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1915. In his twenties he worked as a reporter at newspapers across the country. When World War II came, he left his job at the New York Daily News and signed up with the paratroopers, where he became a forward observer in the famed 517th Combat Team, and was eventually awarded a battlefield commission, the Purple Heart, and the French Croix de Guerre with palm. In 1950 he resumed his career by joining Time-Life, where he became a foreign correspondent. His many books include Stars in My Crown, Kings Go Forth, and Paper Moon, all made into major motion pictures. He died in 1976.

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