In the late 1940s, Alvin Schwartz was a philosophy student and serious novelist living in bohemian Greenwich Village, who also made a living by writing scripts for the early strips of classic superheroes such as Batman and Superman. Abstract expressionist painters like Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning were his friends. In 1948, fascinated by existentialist philosophy and eager to capture a sense of the postwar values and spirit of a new generation, he published The Blowtop, a novel about a murder among the Greenwich Village bohemians. The book has been credited as among the first beat novels, predating the works of such better-known writers as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Book distributor LPC, through its Olmstead Press imprint, is reprinting the classic novel and will publish its sequel, No Such Mirror, in 2002. David Wilk, LPC's president, told PW that he jumped at the chance to bring the book back into print. "I'm interested in the period, in noir literature and existentialism. But everything about Schwartz is intriguing. He doesn't fit any categories." The 85-year-old is also the author of An Unlikely Prophet (MacMurray & Beck), a kind of spiritual memoir, and other books. This year he was also honored by the comics industry for his work during the "golden age" of the industry.