A Hell of a Man: Jim Thompson at 120

Oak Tree Books and Circle Cinema invite you to join us for a special evening celebrating the life and works of Oklahoma’s own "Dimestore Dostoevsky", Jim Thompson on what would have been his 120th birthday - Sunday September 27. The event will include a screening of The Killing (1956) directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written by Jim Thompson with a panel discussion featuring Award-winning authors: Megan Abbott, Thompson biographer Robert Polito, and writer on FX’s The Lowdown, Lou Berney. Come early for a pop-up in the lobby with our special guests - copies of Jim Thompson: Five Noir Novels of the 1950s & 60s edited by Robert Polito and published by Library of America will be on sale alongside copies of Polito’s, Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson as well as books by Megan Abbott and Lou Berney and rare Thompson pieces from Oak Tree Books. Plus, collectible Kubrick postcard giveaways with free trial to the Criterion Channel to attendees while supplies last from the Criterion Collection in advance of a Stanley Kubrick box set coming out this fall!

Tickets on sale now, $13 members and $15 non-members.

About Jim Thompson: Jim Thompson was an American novelist and screenwriter whose crime fiction transformed pulp storytelling. Born in Anadarko, Oklahoma, in 1906, Thompson worked as a hotel bellboy, oilfield laborer, and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, an experience that inspired his first published writing, Oilfield Vignettes (1929). In the early 1930s, Thompson served as head of the Oklahoma Federal Writers’ Project and briefly attended the University of Nebraska before leaving school in 1931. He published his first novels in the 1940s and worked for a short time as a reporter for the Los Angeles Mirror. Thompson’s writing career reached its peak in the 1950s, during which he published more than a dozen novels, including The Killer Inside Me (1952), Savage Night (1953), and The Getaway (1958). He also co-wrote the screenplays for Stanley Kubrick’s films The Killing (1956) and Paths of Glory (1957). Thompson wrote more than thirty novels in total, many of which were adapted for film. Although his work received limited recognition during his lifetime, his reputation grew substantially after his death in 1977, and he is now regarded as a central figure in twentieth-century American crime fiction. Bio from Library of America.

About the film: 1h26min - Noir - Not Rated - English

Jim Thompson co-wrote the film with legendary director Stanley Kubrick, based on a novel by Lionel White. Originally released in 1956, the movie was nominated for Best Film at the BAFTAs and is now regarded as a classic film noir thanks to the tight script from Thompson alongside Kubrick's directing. Career criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) recruits a sharpshooter (Timothy Carey), a crooked police officer (Ted de Corsia), a bartender (Joe Sawyer) and a betting teller named George (Elisha Cook Jr.), among others, for one last job before he goes straight and marries his fiancée, Fay (Coleen Gray). But when George tells his restless wife, Sherry (Marie Windsor), about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.

About Oak Tree Books: Established in 1993, Oak Tree Books specializes in Rare and Out-of-Print titles with an emphasis on Oklahoma and Native American History. Located at 2812 E. 15th St, visit OakTreeBooksTulsa.com for hours and more info.

About Megan Abbott: Megan Abbott is the award-winning author of twelve crime novels, including The Fever, Beware the Woman and the New York Times bestseller The Turnout. She received her Ph.D. in English and American literature from New York University and her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Paris Review and the Wall Street Journal. Dare Me, the series she adapted from her own novel, is streaming on Netflix. Currently, she is adapting her latest novel, the national bestseller El Dorado Drive, for television for A24.

About Lou Berney: Lou Berney is the Edgar Award-winning author of seven novels, including, most recently, Crooks, Dark Ride, and November Road. He writes for the FX television series, The Lowdown.

About Robert Polito: Robert Polito’s most recent books are After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan's Memory Palace (2026) and Jim Thompson: Five Noir Novels of the 1950s & 60s (2026). Later this year, in collaboration with Sophie Brown and Robert Rubin, he will also publish The Gray World: Barbara Loden's Wanda. Other books include A Second Cup: A Reader's Guide to James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover; the poetry collections, Doubles and Hollywood & God; and Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award in biography. The founding Director of the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at the New School, where he teaches writing and literature, he served as President of the Poetry Foundation (2113-15).