About 27 years ago I cam across a battered copy of "Movies Into Film" which had an enormous (and without doubt damaging ) effect on my 14 year old brain.

Since then I have uncovered "Private Screening", "Reverse Angle" and "Something To Declare", but have never been able to find out much about this acidic critic and stimulating writer.

Have other collections emerged that people know of?

Simon wrote for "New York" magazine for years and also did theatre criticism. In recent years, if not decades, he was primarily writing about theatre. He recently was "retired" from "New York" and was at a loss with what to do now that he no longer had a gig. Alas, Simon is reviewing theatre for Bloomberg News' web site.

Simon is brilliant, but is known for his nasty writing. He is awful readable, but doesn't come across as a guy who you would want to get stuck sitting next to on a long bus ride.

A new collection of his film criticism from the eighties & nineties was just published.

I just finished the 658-page book of Simon's film reviews that included movies from '82 to '00. Simon definitely could be nasty. I often disagree with his takes on films, but he is always interesting to read whether you agree with him or not. And I broke out laughing at some of his nastier pans.