The View from Pompey's Head

The View from Pompey's Head is a novel by Hamilton Basso which spent 40 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List after it was published by Doubleday in 1954.

Basso's novel was reviewed by The New York Times in 1954: "Zestful and non-escapist entertainment... The most pleasantly and sensibly romantic novel to come my way in a long time." The Saturday Review also reviewed the novel in 1954:

His most impressive book to date. A long, mildly ironic, and deliberately discursive work, it weaves two of his favorite subjects, the subtle social distinctions of a small Southern city and the subtle questions of reputation and standing in New York literary and publishing circles.

The View from Pompey's Head was reprinted by the Louisiana State University Press in 1998 as part of its "Voices of the South" series. The Light Infantry Ball (1960), Basso's prequel to The View from Pompey's Head, was a finalist for the 1960 National Book Award.

James Sallis, writing in The Boston Globe commented:

Hamilton Basso. With The View from Pompey's Head, a novel sharing themes with earlier work though palpably inferior to same, he became a bestseller. A major film ensued. If anything of Basso's is in print today, I'd be surprised. If Globe readers even know his name, I'd be surprised. Were it not for Inez Hollander Lake's fine biography of Basso, The Road from Pompey's Head (Louisiana State University Press, 1999), I myself would know little more than his name and that one novel. "Comfortably placed on The New York Times bestseller list for 40 weeks," Lake writes, "selling more than 75,000 copies, and sold to the movies for $100,000, The View from Pompey's Head was the breakthrough that Basso had been waiting for. However, just as one cannot argue that Melville's Typee (1846) was a better book because it sold more copies than Moby-Dick (1851), so it is equally impossible to claim that The View from Pompey's Head was a masterpiece because it was so popular." What it did was gather up, like a self-anthology, themes and preoccupations from Basso's earlier work: the return-of-the-native motif so important to at least three previous novels, his ongoing investigation of old vs. new South, his penchant for both the novel of character (Relics and Angels, Courthouse Square) and the novel of ideas (Days Before Lent, Wine of the Country). Its tale of a lawyer defending a black man is a direct precursor of, almost certainly a model for, To Kill a Mockingbird.^[1]

Film adaptation

Basso's novel was sold to 20th Century Fox for $100,000. The 1955 film was written and directed by Philip Dunne. Exterior shots and some interior shots were filmed in Savannah, Georgia. The story begins when Manhattan attorney Anson Page (Richard Egan) returns to his Southern roots after 15 years, arriving in Pompey's Head, South Carolina, to investigate the mystery surrounding missing royalties due famous author Garvin Wales (Sidney Blackmer). In the small Southern town, Page sees the same problems of racial and class prejudices that had once prompted him to leave Pompey's Head. However, he also encounters his former flame, Dinah Blackford (Dana Wynter), who has married businessman Mickey Higgins (Cameron Mitchell). While their romance is rekindled, various secrets of the past rise to the surface.

Child actors Charles Herbert and Evelyn Rudie were in the cast, along with an appearance by DeForest Kelley. Elmer Bernstein provided the music score. Released November 4, 1955, the film was retitled Secret Interlude in the UK. Marjorie Rambeau received a Best Supporting Actress Award from the National Board of Review. Despite a strong curiosity about this film by viewers, it has not been available on VHS and DVD.

References

See also

Novels portal

List of films set in the Southern United States

External links

• Lake, Inez Hollander. The Road From Pompey's Head: The Life and Work of Hamilton Basso. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1999.
• Louisiana State University Press: Voices of the South series: The View from Pompey's Head