Category: Great 20th Century American Writers

THE GAME: Original Stories Inspired by Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”

“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell is one of those short stories everyone has either heard about or read. First published in 1924, the story is about Sanger Rainsford, a big game hunter who finds himself marooned on an island off the coast of South America. He finds a large palatial estate on the island inhabited by a former tsarist general, Zaroff, and his deaf-mute servant Ivan. Rainsford discovers Zaroff has been hunting shipwrecked sailors as game on his estate ever since he became bored of animal hunting. Zaroff turns the hunter into the hunted in his next game, but Rainsford is able to elude the general with his superior skills. It’s implied Rainsford triumphs in the end.

Living Legend: THE LAST BUFFOON by Len Levinson

The Last Buffoon by Len Levinson chronicles the life of a paperback writer in the late 1970’s. The writer is Levinson’s alter ego, Alexander Frapkin, a middle-aged Jewish man who is in the process of losing his sanity as he fights book publishers who won’t pay him, landlords who won’t fix his apartment, drug dealers whom he owes money, and a lawyer who has a very definite interest in the author’s love life.