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This topic came to me as a result of a Facebook conversation with a non-member film buff and librarian, who pointed me in the direction of a book entitled Ultus, The Man From The Dead, a rollicking tale of vengeance, jewels, and romance in the same line of country as Doyle and Sax Rohmer; it's a novelisation of the British film serial of the same name, written and directed by George Pearson for Gaumont; the serial came out in late 1915, the novel was published in 1916. Not illustrated unfortunately (Only fragments survive of all the Ultus films) but interesting nevertheless.
This struck me as being incredibly early for a novelisation of a film. Features were barely up and running, so the timing of a predecessor must be within only a handful of years;and most of the features of that era I can think of are either torn from the Bible or tales of antiquity, or were a novel first, with an adapted screenplay coming later.
So, and I know the business of "Firsts" is an invidious one, are there any/many earlier examples of novels adapted from films that anyone has knowledge of ??? NB, Not Film adaptations of novels or tie-in illustrated editions of the same, fascinating though they are too....

The earliest film novelizations weren't much earlier than the one you mentioned, and they were also derived from serials. The Adventures of Kathlyn and The Trey o' Hearts were published in 1914; The Perils of Pauline, The Million Dollar Mystery, Cleek of Scotland Yard, The Master Key, and Exploits of Elaine in 1915.

Photoplay Editions and Other Movie Tie-in Books by Arnie Davis is a good resource for this subject - and a great wish book for collectors!

Nancy

Penfold wrote: NB, Not Film adaptations of novels or tie-in illustrated editions of the same, fascinating though they are too....

I take by that you are not totally excluding "Photoplay" editions* which contain original prose based on the film. If so, "Adventures of Kathlyn" from the seminal 1913 Selig serial/series comes to mind and might qualify...at least as the earliest (someone pls correct me if I am wrong) film based "Photoplay" book written from a film . Pretty sure that the film came first and the prose second on that one. But there might be earlier novelizations without the photoplay aspect. Newspapers used to print weekly installments of a number of films (which when compiled would qualify as short novels) but I can't think of any off the top of my head which weren't serials and thus they would not predate "Kathlyn".

* in other words, I think that you are saying that a photoplay edition such as The Lost World (which was already written when the film came out) would be excluded, no?

By the way, Ultus is a decent enough read. You, your friend and I might be the only people to have read it, oh, in the last X decades. I was lucky enough to pick up a beat up reading copy several years back.

Steve

There is even an earlier example with L'Enfant de Paris (1913), Léonce Perret's first feature length film. I have seen novelization of that film in 3 volumes or so.

Interesting, thanks for the responses; logically the predecessors would be derived from the serials of the 1910's. Ann, was L'Enfant De Paris released as a feature or a serial ?? Or both ??
Interesting too that L'Enfant De Paris is also from Gaumont, so it seems likely they pioneered the idea in Europe at the very least.

I would have to check. But my feeling is that it was a feature unlike Feuillade's Fantômas. But it's quite possible it might have been released in episodes like for example Les Misérables (1912, A. Capellani) which came out in 4 parts.

Interesting post since most films have some kind or source before they're made.

I was curious enough to look for information on "Cabiria" and what I discovered, while not a novelization, is clearly a very early source.

According to IMDB, "Cabiria" was authored by Titus Livius, who apparently lived in the Roman Empire between 59 BC and 17 AD.

I never dreamed "Cabiria" was written so long ago when the things in the story probably were actually happening.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0515385/?ref_=tt_ov_wr" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Penfold wrote:Interesting, thanks for the responses; logically the predecessors would be derived from the serials of the 1910's. Ann, was L'Enfant De Paris released as a feature or a serial ?? Or both ??
Interesting too that L'Enfant De Paris is also from Gaumont, so it seems likely they pioneered the idea in Europe at the very least.

I checked the facts. L'Enfant de Paris was released on September 17th, 1913 as a two-part serial. The novelization in 5 volumes was only published in 1917 when the film was re-released on the screens. Here is the cover of volume 1:

Ah, fascinating.......so this must be volume 5........ I was wondering why this was dated as '17. Thanks again....