Biblio File, 24 Frames per Second
The Bookshelves of Boardwalk Empire
Prohibition. Politics. Corruption. Alcohol was not illegal to drink. It was just illegal to manufacture, sell, or transport. Various organized criminal enterprises saw fit to illegally manufacture, sell, and transport alcohol to those who wanted it. 1920. Money. Politics. Corruption. This is Boardwalk Empire.
Like other period television shows, Boardwalk Empire has threads of historical fact running through its core. Steve Buscemi's character "Nucky" Thompson is based on Enoch "Nucky" Johnson. There's Al Capone and Warren G. Harding. There's Arnold Rothstein and the Black Sox scandal. There's the Women's Suffrage Movement. The writers have a wealth of historical material to work with. Prohibition and the early 1920s offer countless events and a host of characters, both upstanding and questionable, stretching along the east coast from Atlantic City to New York City and west to Chicago. The story opportunities are endless.
Boardwalk Empire makes it easy to lose yourself in the roaring twenties. All of that wonderful music, the set design, the costumes, the dialogue. But it's more than the apparent and obvious details such as these. Sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference, something minimal and seemingly insignificant that adds volumes to a show's authenticity. Something like a book.
The writers of Boardwalk Empire certainly have a lot of classic literature to work with to add layers to a character's personality. Whether it's for character development or to help set the mood for a specific scene, whether it's a title that appears in multiple episodes or it's only a brief reference to a poem or genre, you can always count on a good book.
Below is a list of books that have appeared in Boardwalk Empire. What other books do you imagine Nucky reading? How about Margaret Schroeder? Jimmy Darmody? Agent Nelson Van Alden? Al Capone? At the bottom is a list of various other books that were published in the five years leading up to prohibition. Most all of the books listed below are available for free as eBooks via Google Books and Project Gutenberg so if you can't find the titles at your local library try searching online. All of these and more would have very likely been on the bookshelves of Boardwalk Empire.
Season 4
Episode 10 - "White Horse Pike"
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" / Edgar Allen Poe (click here for more information)
Episode 8 - "The Old Ship of Zion"
Ragged Dick, Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-blacks / Horatio Alger (click here for more information)
Episode 7 - "William Wilson"
Thus Spoke Zarathustra / Friedrich Nietzsche (click here for more information)
"William Wilson" / Edgar Allen Poe (click here for more information)
Episode 5 - "Erlkonig"
Old Surehand / Karl May (click here for more information)
Episode 4 - "All In"
Tess of the D’Urbervilles / Thomas Hardy (click here for more information)
The Dictionary of American History (click here for more information)
Episode 3 - "Acres of Diamonds"
Good Times (click here for more information)
Episode 2 - "Resignation"
The Chessmen of Mars / Edgar Rice Burroughs (click here and here for more information)
The Bible (click here for more details)
The Bible (click here for more details)
Season 3
Episode 11 – “Two Imposters”
Ragged Dick, Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-blacks / Horatio Alger
Episode 10 – “A Man, A Plan…”
The Redemption of David Corson / Charles Frederic Goss
Episode 6 – “Ging Gang Goolie”
The Birth Control Review / Margaret Sanger
"Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis" / Francois Villon (as translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti) (click here for more details)
Episode 5 – “You’d Be Surprised"
Catching up on the latest trends in prefabricated homes!
Episode 4 - "Blue Bell Boy"
Gasoline Alley / Frank King and Happy Holigan / Frederick Burr Opper
Episode 3 – “Bone for Tuna”
"Dream-Love" / Christina Georgina Rossetti
Episode 2 – “Spaghetti & Coffee”
The poems of Claude McKay (click here for more details)
The work of William Shakespeare (click here for more details)
Season 2
Episode 12 - "To the Lost"
Julius Caesar / William Shakespeare
(click here for details)
Episode 11 - "Under God's Power She Flourishes"
The Revenger's Tragedy / Cyril Tourneur
(click here for details)
The White Devil / John Webster
Episode 10 - "Georgia Peaches"
The Tempest / William Shakespeare
(click here for details)
Episode 9- "Battle of the Century"
Pretty Robins: Bright Stories for Little Folks
Episode 8 - "Two Boats and a Lifeguard"
The author Louise Bryant
Episode 7 - "Peg of Old"
The Girl, a Horse, and a Dog / Francis Lynde
Episode 6 - "The Age of Reason"
Sayings, Proverbs, Maxims, and Mottoes / C.F. Schutz
(click here for details)
Young People's Illustrated Bible History
Episode 4 - "What Does the Bee Do?"
Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book / Christina Rossetti
(for text to the poem see page 113 of the free eBook)
Episode 3 - "A Dangerous Maid"
Frankenstein / Mary Shelley (click here for details)
Episode 2 - "Ourselves Alone"
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer / Mark Twain
(click here for details)
(click here and here for more images from this scene)
David Copperfield / Charles Dickens
Season 1
Episode 12 - "A Return to Normalcy"
Episode 11 - "Paris Green"
Episode 10 - "The Emerald City"
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz / L. Frank Baum
(click here and here for more images from this scene)
Episode 9 - "Belle Femme"
The Road to Oz / L. Frank Baum
(click here for another image from this scene)
Episode 7 - "Home"
The Tin Solider / Temple Baily
Tom Swift and His Undersea Search / Victor Appleton
Episode 6 - "Family Limitation"
(click here for another image from this scene)
Episode 5 - "Nights in Ballygran"
Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business / Dale Carnegie
Episode 4 - "Anastasia"
Episode 3 - "Broadway Limited"
Episode 2 - "The Ivory Tower"
What else would be on the bookshelves of Boardwalk Empire?
1916
- Windy McPherson's Son / Sherwood Anderson
- Rinkitink in Oz / L. Frank Baum
- Mountain Interval / Robert Frost
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man / James Joyce
- You Know Me Al / Ring Lardner
1917
- A Princess of Mars / Edgar Rice Burroughs
- The Shadow-Line / Joseph Conrad
- His Last Bow / Arthur Conan Doyle
- Summer / Edith Wharton
- Piccadilly Jim / P. G. Wodehouse
- The Wild Swans at Coole, Other Verses and a Play in Verse / W. B. Yeats
1918
- My Ántonia / Willa Cather
- The Magnificent Ambersons / Booth Tarkington
- The Return of the Soldier / Rebecca West
- The Marne / Edith Wharton
1919
- Winesburg, Ohio / Sherwood Anderson
- The Magic of Oz / L. Frank Baum
- Jungle Tales of Tarzan / Edgar Rice Burroughs
- Demian / Hermann Hesse
- The Moon and Sixpence / W. Somerset Maugham
- Night and Day / Virginia Woolf
1920
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Comments
And what of the book that inspired the HBO series?
Submitted by John B. Bryans (not verified) on June 3, 2012 - 11:16pm
Thank you Mr. Bryans
Submitted by Billy Parrott on June 5, 2012 - 1:40pm
Impressive Mr. Parrott...very
Submitted by Rob (not verified) on June 7, 2012 - 2:28pm
Nelson Johnson's Boardwalk Empire
Submitted by Jenny Baum (not verified) on June 8, 2012 - 2:47pm
HYPOTHESIS
Submitted by VICTOR HUERTAS ... (not verified) on February 7, 2020 - 12:51pm
You seemed to have forgotten
Submitted by Joe (not verified) on February 14, 2020 - 6:22pm
Reference List
Submitted by Rebecca Eliza (not verified) on August 28, 2021 - 12:13am