the Chaotic Age (1900–present) in The Western Canon. Bloom also deems the rhetoric used by Shagpoke Whipple as prophetic of such presidents as Ronald Reagan. Publication history West began writing A Cool Million in the fall of 1933. A handwritten first draft was completed in November. Though Harcourt, Brace rejected the novel, West continued to work on it until it was finally accepted by Covici-Friede in March 1934. The novel was published in New York City in an edition of 3,000 copies to mixed reviews and poor sales; it was not reprinted in West's lifetime. The novel later appeared in several reprints starting from 1940, following West's renewed fame, and was collected in a single volume edition of the complete novels, as well as in the Library of America edition of West's collected works. A Cool Million – a screen story In September 1940 West wrote an original screen story in collaboration with Boris Ingster. They used A Cool Million as their title, though the story had nothing to do with the novel, hoping that a studio would pay more for a story allegedly based on a published book. West was certain that no one would actually read the book to check whether the screen story had any relation to the novel. On September 24, 1940 Columbia Pictures bought the story for $10,000 and assigned it to screenwriter Sidney Buchman. However, the studio soon abandoned the project and A Cool Million was never filmed. The text of the screen story appears in the Library of America's edition of West's work. References 1934 American novels American comedy novels American satirical novels Parody novels Novels by Nathanael West Films with screenplays by Nathanael West Covici-Friede books