We'll have to see if those of us still "out here in the dark" (to slightly amend Norma Desmond's line at the end of SUNSET BLVD) can add some titles to this list--which is still a great jumping-off point for immersing oneself in film noir. I can think of a couple of David Bordwell books in recent years (Reinventing Hollywood and Perplexing Plots) that while not exclusively about noir, shed some interesting light (backlight, sidelight?) on the literary sources and structures that influenced American noir as it emerged in the 1940s. And there are many others as well...

Wisconsin Mark's 2015 book list was last reposted in 2017, and, yes, it could use an update. (Hint, hint.) Dan Hodges might really want to add a number of items here, as things haven't quite stood still in the interim.

My Personal List of Books Helpful in Considering Noir
Posted by Wisconsin Mark on 7/27/2015, 6:07 am
177.242.144.75
Edited by Wisconsin Mark on 7/30/2015, 5:19 am

I posted this here once before, but of course the list is longer now. Still probably lacking some more recent items, as I haven't been systematic about keeping up. I'm happy to have omissions brought to my attention.

For any of you who collect such books, this might be a useful checklist.

Juan Julio de Abajos de Pablos, Los Thrillers Espanoles
Megan Abbott, The Street Was Mine: White Masculinity in Hardboiled Fiction and Film Noir
Richard Allen/Bruce Hershenson, Crime Movie Posters
Lawrence Alloway, Violent America
John Alton, Painting with Light
Max Alvarez, The Crime Films of Anthony Mann
Dudley Andrews, Mists of Regret: Culture and Sensibility in Classic French Film
Jonathan Auerbach, Dark Borders: Film Noir and American Citizenship
Emily E. Auger, Tech-Noir Film
Ron Backer, Gripping Chapters: The Sound Movie Serial
Ron Backer, Mystery Movies Series of 1940s Hollywood
Ron Backer, Mystery Movies Series of 1930s Hollywood
Alex Ballinger/Danny Graydon, The Rough Guide to Film Noir
Guy Barefoot, Gaslight Melodrama
Lawrence Bassoff, Crime Scenes
John Baxter, The Gangster Film
Sheri Chinen Biesen, Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir
Raymond Borde/Etienne Choumeton, A Panorama of American Film Noir
Mark Bould, Film Noir: From Berlin to Sin City
Mark Bould/Kathrina Glitre/Greg Tuck, Neo-Noir
Patrick Brion, Le Film Noir
Dennis Broe, Class, Crime, and International Film Noir: Globalizing America’s Dark Art
Dennis Broe, Film Noir, American Workers, and Postwar Hollywood
Vincent Brook, Driven to Darkness: Jewish Émigré Directors and the Rise of Film Noir
Robin Buss, French Film Noir
David Butler, Jazz Noir
Ian Cameron, The Book of Film Noir
Ian and Elisabeth Cameron, Broads
Lenny Cassuto, Hard-Boiled Sentimentality
Steve Chibnall/Robert Murphy, British Crime Cinema
Nicholas Christopher, Somewhere in the Night
Carlos Clarens, Crime Movies
David B. Clarke, The Cinematic City
Shannon Scott Clute/Richard L. Edwards, The Maltese Touch of Evil: Film Noir and Potential Criticism
David Cochran, America Noir
Max Alan Collins/James L. Traylor, Mickey Spillane on Screen
Mark T. Conard, The Philosophy of Film Noir
Mark T. Conard, The Philosophy of Neo Noir
Mark T. Conard, The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers
Norman Conquest, Rear Windows: An Inside Look at Fifty Film Noir Classics
Joan Copjec, Shades of Noir
Catherine Corman, Daylight Noir: Raymond Chandler’s Imagined City
Robin Cross, B Movies
Bruce Crowther, Film Noir
Jim Dawson, Los Angeles’s Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction’s Mean Streets and Film Noir’s Ground Zero!
Max Decharne, Hardboiled Hollywood
Barbara Deming, Running Away from Myself
Andrew Dickos, Street with No Name
Dina Di Mambro, True Hollywood Noir: Filmland Mysteries and Murders
Edward Dimendberg, Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity
Wheeler Winston Dixon, Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia
Mary Ann Doane, Femmes Fatales
Paul Duncan, Film Noir: Films of Trust and Betrayal
Paul Duncan/Jurgen Muller, Film Noir: 100 All-Time Favorites
Paul Duncan/Alain Silver/James Ursini, Film Noir: The Complete Films
Paul Duncan, Noir Fiction: Dark Highways
Raymond Durgnat, “Paint It Black: The Family Tree of Film Noir”
John Eastman, Retakes
Thomas Elsaesser, “A German Ancestry to Film Noir?”
Jennifer Fay/Justus Nieland, Film Noir: Hard-Boiled Modernity and the Cultures of Globalization
Mark Fertig, Film Noir 101: The 101 Best Film Noir Posters from the 1940s-1950s
Barry Forshaw, Euro Noir: The Pocket Essential Guide to European Crime Fiction, Film & TV
Terry Curtis Fox, “City Knights”
Carl Freedman, Versions of Hollywood Crime Cinema
Gary Giddens, Warning Shadows: Home Alone with Classic Cinema
Barry Gifford, The Devil Thumbs a Ride
Barry Gifford, Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir
Steve Glassman/Maurice O’Sullivan, Crime Fiction and Film in the Southwest
Steve Glassman/Maurice O’Sullivan, Crime Fiction and Film in the Sunshine State: Florida Noir
Ed Gorman et al, The Big Book of Noir
John Grant, A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir: The Essential Reference Guide
Leger Grindon, Knockout: The Boxer and Boxing in American Cinema
Julie Grossman, Rethinking the Femme Fatale in Film Noir
David J. Hogan, Film Noir FAQ
Peter Haining, The Mammoth Book of Movie Detectives and Screen Crimes
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry, Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry, Femme Noir: Bad Girls of Film
Helen Hanson, Hollywood Heroines: Women in Film Noir and the Female Gothic
Phil Hardy, The BFI Companion to Crime
Phil Hardy, The Gangster Film
William Hare, Boxing Films, Mobsters, Dames! Volume 1: How Kirk Douglas and Robert Ryan Punched Their Way to Stardom
William Hare, Early Film Noir
William Hare, L.A. Noir
William Hare, Pulp Fiction to Film Noir: The Great Depression and the Development of a Genre
James Harvey, Movie Love in the Fifties
Thomas Hibbs, Arts of Darkness: American Noir and the Quest for Redemption
Charles Higham/Joel Greenberg, Hollywood in the Forties
Jim Hillier/Alastair Phillips, 100 Film Noirs
Jake Hinkson, The Blind Alley
Foster Hirsch, Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir
Foster Hirsch, Film Noir: The Dark Side of the Screen
David Hogan, Film Noir FAQ
Steve Holland, Mean Streetmaps
Lee Horsley, The Noir Thriller
Howard Hughes, Crime Wave
John T. Irwin, Unless the Threat of Death is Behind Them
Steven Jacobs / Lisa Colpaert, The Dark Galleries: A Museum Guide to Painted Portraits in Film Noir Gothic Melodramas and Ghost Stories of the 1940s and 1950s
Kier-La Janisse, House of Psychotic Women
Kevin Johnson, The Dark Page
Kevin Johnson, The Dark Page II
E. Ann Kaplan, Women in Film Noir
Amir Massourd Karimi, Toward a Definition of the American Film Noir
Michael Keaney, British Film Noir Guide
Michael Keaney, Film Noir Guide
Patrick Keating, Hollywood Lighting: From the Silent Era to Film Noir
Douglas Keesey, Neo-Noir
Paul Kerr, “Out of What Past? Notes on the B Film Noir”
Sigfried Kracauer, “Hollywood’s Terror Films”
Frank Krutnik, In a Lonely Street
Larry Langman/Daniel Finn, A Guide to American Crime Films of the Forties and Fifties
Larry Langman/Daniel Finn, A Guide to American Crime Films of the Thirties
Daryl Lee, The Heist Film: Stealing with Style
Thomas Leitch, Crime Films
Richard Lingeman, The Noir Forties
William Luhr, Film Noir
Arthur Lyons, Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir
Richard Martin, Mean Streets and Raging Bulls
Fran Mason, Hollywood’s Detectives
Paul Mason, Captured by the Media: Prison Discourse in Popular Culture
James F. Maxfield, The Fatal Woman
Geoff Mayer/Brian McDonnell, Encyclopedia of Film Noir
Colin McArthur, Underworld USA
Todd McCarthy/Charles Flynn, Kings of the Bs
John McCarty, Bullets Over Hollywood
Brian McFarlane/Steve Chibnall, The British B Film
Brian McFarlane, Lance Comfort
Elena Medina de la Vina, Cine Negro y Policíaco Español de Los Años Cincuenta
Paul Meehan, Horror Noir
Paul Meehan, Tech Noir: The Fusion of Science Fiction and Film Noir
David Meuel, The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range, 1943-1962
David N. Meyer, A Girl and a Gun
Robert Miklitsch, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands: On Classic Film Noir
Don Miller, B Movies
Janice Morgan/Dudley Andrew, “European Precursors of Film Noir”
Eddie Muller, The Art of Noir
Eddie Muller, Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir
Eddie Muller, Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir
Eddie Muller, Noir City Sentinel Annual #1
Eddie Muller, Noir City Sentinel Annual #2
Eddie Muller, Noir City Sentinel Annual #3
Eddie Muller, Noir City Sentinel Annual #4
Eddie Muller, Noir City Sentinel Annual #5
Eddie Muller, Noir City Sentinel Annual #6
Eddie Muller, Noir City Sentinel Annual #7
Robert Murphy, British Film Noir: Shadows Are My Friends
James Naremore, More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts
Brian Nicol, The Private Eye: Detectives in the Movies
Charles O’Brien, “Film Noir in France”
Stanley Orr, Darkly Perfect World: Colonial Adventure, Postmodernism, and American Noir
Mark Osteen, Nightmare Alley: Film Noir and the American Dream
Robert Ottoson, A Reference Guide to the American Film Noir
R. Barton Palmer, Hollywood’s Dark Cinema
R. Barton Palmer, Perspectives on Film Noir
Charles Pappas, It’s a Bitter Little World
William Park, What Is Film Noir?
James Robert Parrish, The Great Cop Pictures
Homer B. Pettey / R. Barton Palmer, International Noir
Gene D. Phillips, Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir
Gene D. Phillips, Out of the Shadows: Expanding The Canon of Classic Film Noir
Robert B. Pippin, Fatalism in American Film Noir: Some Cinematic Philosophy
Janey Place/Lowell Peterson, “Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir”
Robert Porfirio, The Dark Age of American Film
Robert Porfirio, “No Way Out: Existential Motifs in the Film Noir”
Paula Rabinowitz, Black & White & Noir
Nicole Rafter, Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society
John Howard Reed, B Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies
Thomas C. Renzi, Cornell Woolrich from Pulp Noir to Film Noir
Thomas C. Renzi, Screwball Comedy and Film Noir
Nathaniel Rich, San Francisco Noir
Carl Richardson, Autopsy: An Element of Realism in Film Noir
Eddie Robson, Film Noir
Alistair Rolls/Deborah Walker, French and American Film Noir: Dark Crossings
Eugene Rosow, Born to Lose: The Gangster Film in America
David Rothel, The Case Files of the Oriental Sleuths: Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto & Mr. Wong
Marlisa Santos, The Dark Mirror: Psychiatry and Film Noir
Paul Schrader, “Notes on Film Noir”
Ronald Schwartz, Houses of Noir: Dark Visions from Thirteen Film Studios
Ronald Schwartz, Neo-Noir
Ronald Schwartz, Noir, Now and Then
Spencer Selby, Dark City: The Film Noir
Spencer Selby, The Worldwide Film Noir Tradition
Ted Sennett, Murder on Tape
Lee Server et al, The Big Book of Noir
Jack Shadoian, Dreams and Dead Ends
Michael Shepler, “Sagebrush Noir”
Chi-Yun Shin/Mark Gallagher, East Asian Film Noir: Transnational Encounters and International Dialogue
Sidney, “Complete Film Noir/Consensus Film Noir”
Alain Silver, L.A. Noir
Alain Silver/James Ursini, Film Noir
Alain Silver/James Ursini, Film Noir Graphics
Alain Silver/James Ursini, Film Noir Reader
Alain Silver/James Ursini, Film Noir Reader 2
Alain Silver/James Ursini, Film Noir Reader 3
Alain Silver/James Ursini, Film Noir Reader 4
Alain Silver/James Ursini, Film Noir: The Directors
Alain Silver/James Ursini, The Gangster Film Reader
Alain Silver/James Ursini, The Noir Style
Alain Silver/Elizabeth Ward, Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Guide to the American Style
Alain Silver/Elizabeth Ward, Film Noir: The Encyclopedia
Imogen Sara Smith, In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City
Andrew Spicer/Helen Hanson, A Companion to Film Noir
Andrew Spicer, European Film Noir
Andrew Spicer, Film Noir
Andrew Spicer, Historical Dictionary of Film Noir
Ray Starman, TV Noir: The Twentieth Century
Michael L. Stephens, Film Noir
Davis Sterritt/John Anderson, The B List
Dan Streible, Fight Pictures: A History of Boxing and Early Cinema
J. P. Telotte, Voices in the Dark
Gordon Theisen, Staying Up Much Too Late: Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and the Dark Side of the American Psyche
Peggy Thompson et al, Hard Boiled
Peggy Thompson et al. The Little Black and White Book of Film Noir
Kenneth Turan, Never Coming to a Theater Near You
Jon Tuska, Dark Cinema
Jon Tuska, The Detective in Hollywood
Jon Tuska, In Manors and Alleys
James Ursini, Directors on the Edge: Outliers in Hollywood
Dan Van Neste, The Whistler: Stepping into the Shadows
Marc Vernet, “Film Noir on the Edge of Doom”
Fabio Vighi, Critical Theory and Film: Rethinking Ideology through Film Noir
Jans Wager, Dames in the Driver’s Seat
Jans Wager, Dangerous Dames
Wampa 12, The Film Noir Bible
John V. Watson, Film Noir – The Classic Era: 1941 to 1959
John S. Whitney, “A Filmography of Film Noir”
David Wilt, The Mexican Filmography