Thorne Smith Books in Order

In these comic diary pieces, naive naval recruit Biltmore Oswald lurches through World War I service life, social blunders, and romantic trouble. The charm is his total sincerity as the world keeps making a fool of him.

Biltmore Oswald heads to sea in a sequel that keeps the same deadpan innocence and steady run of bad luck. Shipboard routines, travel, and small disasters turn military life into one long farce.

This retitled edition of Topper follows Cosmo Topper's first collision with the Kerbys, a dead couple who refuse to stay quiet. What begins with a haunted car turns into a boozy, ghost-ridden escape from respectability.

Cosmo Topper, a cautious banker with a dull routine, buys a secondhand car and discovers it is haunted by George and Marion Kerby. Their ghostly interference pushes him toward scandal, freedom, and a life far stranger than he planned.

Tired of advertising and ordinary life, David Landor drifts into a darker, more romantic world by the sea. Smith swaps comedy for mood here, building a love triangle steeped in longing, illusion, and unease.

Mild commuter T. Lawrence Lamb meets a mysterious little man and starts changing into animals at the worst possible times. The result is a strange, funny, and unexpectedly searching look at marriage, desire, and second chances.

Before an engagement celebration at the Crewe estate, the dazzling Emily-Jane Seabrook meets a violent end. What follows is a sharp, fast-moving mystery full of suspicion, old entanglements, and people who know more than they say.

Written for younger readers, this gentle fantasy sends Peter into the company of an extraordinary magic bear. The story is lighter and sweeter than Smith's adult fiction, but it keeps his love of odd talk and sudden wonder.

Inventor Hunter Hawk discovers how to turn living creatures into stone and statues into living beings. Soon the gods themselves are loose in New York, and Smith turns myth, science, and city life into gleeful chaos.

After a bickering husband and wife wish they could trade places, an Egyptian idol grants exactly that. Tim and Sally Willows must survive each other's lives, and the body-swap comedy gets sharper the longer the joke runs.

Topper reunites with the Kerbys on a Riviera holiday that quickly becomes anything but restful. Ghostly meddling, marital strain, and fresh public chaos make this sequel another brisk supernatural farce.

While waiting in a doorway, Hector Owen is pulled into a life of sudden partnership, heavy drinking, and dangerous temptation. Department store politics and his bond with Satin Knightly keep this comic fantasy moving at full tilt.

Photographer Quintus Bland's experiments go badly wrong, leaving him able to appear as little more than a living skeleton. Smith turns the grotesque premise into a comic sprint through panic, drink, and misbehavior.

Rex Pebble discovers that a backyard pool can make old bodies young again. That fountain-of-youth idea gives Smith room for jealousy, desire, and a lot of reckless behavior before the magic settles into trouble.

A proper widower rescues a mysterious woman from a fire and soon finds himself married to a witch. Published after Smith's death and completed by Norman Matson, it mixes romance, magic, and comic ruin.

This short supernatural comedy drops an eccentric female apparition into ordinary life and lets the chaos build. It is brief, mischievous, and a good glimpse of the ghostly humor Smith would later develop more fully.

Smith's early poetry collection shows a quieter side of his imagination. The poems are more reflective than the novels, but readers can already see his feel for mood, wandering lives, and offbeat turns of phrase.

A reunion in Texas leads to a thoroughly cockeyed fox hunt, with Henry the hound stealing the show. The piece is short, dryly narrated, and full of the kind of comic confusion Smith handled so well.

Coffee heir Peter Van Dyke is swept out of his high-society routine and into a foggy misadventure with a very odd group of fellow travelers. The trip ends at a nudist colony, where Smith lets social rules fall apart.