The Night of the Hunter

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This article is about the novel. For the 1955 film adaptation, see The Night of the Hunter (film).

The Night of the Hunter is a 1953 novel by American author Davis Grubb. The book was a national bestseller and was voted a finalist for the 1955 National Book Award.

In 1955 the book was adapted by Charles Laughton and James Agee as the film The Night of the Hunter. (film noir)

The story concerns an ex-convict Harry Powell who, acting on a story told him by his now-dead cellmate, cons the cellmate's widow into marrying him in hopes that her children will tell him where their father hid the money from his last robbery. After killing their mother, he embarks on a hunt for the children, who have sensed his evil and are running from him.

The plot was based on the true story of Harry Powers, who was hanged in 1932 for the murders of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

[edit] Editions

• Harper Brothers, 1953.
• Penguin Books, 1977. ISBN 0-14-004426-4
• Lightyear Press, 1993. ISBN 0-89968-431-9
• Blackmask.com, 2005. ISBN 1-59654-229-2