JERICHO, A Novel by Anthony Costello (or Andover, Massachusetts in disguise)

ANTHONY COSTELLO wrote only one novel, the epic, period 1930s, political and socio-economic small town love story, Jericho, based on his interests and experience growing up in Andover, Massachusetts, and its storied history as an American textile mill-town. Bantam published it as a hardback book in 1982; it contains 497 pages.

Lou Feck created the dustjacket cover art for the book, one of the last paintings he produced before his premature death in 1981. It's a three-quarter wraparound that is about as impressive as it is detailed and apt.

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Kirkus Reviews, that self-styled curmudgeon of modern book review services, was overall less than enthusiastic about Jericho's merits, but they did manage to emit this slight bit of praise: "First-novelist Costello does capture the Irish Coughlinite fervor of the Northeast during the period-- with dollops of politics and sex to move things along." You know, that sounds pretty accurate from what I can remember from my experience reading it way back when---things moved along quite well indeed! And for those who aren't steeped in U.S. History, "Coughlinite" refers to Charles Edward Coughlin, a controversial Roman Catholic priest who used weekly radio broadcasts in the 1930s to spread his increasingly anti-democratic, anti-Semitic and fascist doctrine to an estimated 30 million Americans. Yup, the world's always been crazy. But not that crazy; Coughlin was eventually forced off of the air by the prevailing sanity.

John Gardner, the best-selling American author and essayist, was much more positive about Jericho than say, Kirkus: "The gradually accumulating power of Jericho---the writer's immense care and seriousness, his real concern for his characters, his fascination with the real details of life, his almost maniacal determination never to cheat---is a stunning thing to encounter. This is, I think, a mountain of a book... For the sake of real characters, real action, real thought and emotion---I urge you to try it."

This is the first mass-market paperback edition that was published by Bantam in 1983. Robert McGinnis created the cover art, one of approximately 1500 covers he produced over the course of his commercial art career, a career that is still active after seven decades. Just recently, at the ripe old age of 95, McGinnis completed cover art on several of Neil Gaiman's reprints.

Anthony (Tony) Costello studied a the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Florence in Italy before attending Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he received a master of fine arts degree. His ambition was probably to be a painter or commercial illustrator and not a writer, and unfortunately I have no examples of his art, but he also loved acting, so much so that in 1961 he began touring with the Cleveland Playhouse. After that he found parts in Boston and eventually on Broadway. In 1963 he moved permanently to Hollywood, looking for work in film and television. His second acting part was in the 1964 Outer Limits episode The Invisible Enemy, where he played Lieutenant Jim Bowman, an astronaut who just has landed on Mars with his Captain. Costello's performance was unusually natural and believable for one so new to the camera.

Costello had 32 acting credits to his name, including roles in Bonanza, Will Penny, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, Ironside, Night Moves, The Rockford Files, Nero Wolfe, Lou Grant, Quincy and Hart to Hart. Recurring parts were also his in Death Valley Days and Insight, and he had a strong supporting role in the 1970 Sean Connery vehicle, The Molly Maguires.

It was in 1974 that Costello started working on a story in which he could potentially star in, assuming of course that it could be made into a film. It stretched into a mini-series and finally as a novel---Jericho. Some studio producers showed interest, but when Costello insisted on being its scriptwriter they backed away. Hollywood has always been fickle about having a story's actual writer scripting or even being on set. Nevertheless, Costello placed his novel with Bantam in 1981 and it was given the royal hardcover treatment.

Tony Costello stood tall at 6 ft, 3 inches, and had a strong, athletic body, but sadly, that was no match for the deadly plague of the 1980's. He passed away in 1983 at the age of 45, mere months after the paperback version of his novel was issued. If you dig hard enough on youtube you can see him in bit acting roles, or if you're an old Western fool like me you can catch him in the occasional episode of Death Valley Days on Grit TV. Or, better yet, you can hunt down a copy of his magnum opus at my behest, and give yourself several hours worth of reading pleasure.

[© May, 2021, Jeffersen]