The Executioners.

MACDONALD, John D.

Item Number: 67080

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1958.

First edition of this classic, dark psychological thriller novel, which was the basis for the 1962 and 1991 film Cape Fear. Octavo, original half cloth. Signed by John D. MacDonald on the title page. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with some expert restoration to the extremities. Jacket design by H. Lawrence Hoffman. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box with the dust jacket art mimicking the front panel. Rare and desirable signed.

The plot of the novel concerns an attorney named Sam Bowden, who caught Max Cady, an illiterate, brutal rapist, in the act. Bowden later testifies against him. The jury finds Cady guilty and Cady is sent to prison for fourteen years, when he develops and nurses an obsessive grudge, fueled with rage and hatred over how Bowden sent him to jail. After Cady is paroled, he begins stalking Bowden's family, not only seeking vengeance, but also envying what Bowden has, particularly eyeing Bowden's innocent teenage daughter. Cady's vendetta slowly escalates from stalking and annoying the family to killing anybody Cady deems close to the family. Cady's vendetta becomes so dangerously violent that Bowden is forced to kill Cady to protect his family from being murdered. It was the basis for the 1962 film starring Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Martin Balsam, and Polly Bergen. It was was also basis for the film directed by Martin Scorsese and a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. It starred Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, and Juliette Lewis, and features cameos from Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and Martin Balsam, who all appeared in the original film. It was Peck's final theatrical film. It received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor (De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Lewis).