Claim: Peter Bogdanovich directed the movie Paper Moon (film).

Addie Pray -LRB- 1971 -RRB- is a novel by Joe David Brown . It was the inspiration for the movie Paper Moon -LRB- 1973 -RRB- directed by Peter Bogdanovich . Shortly after the movie was released , the novel was re-titled Paper Moon in honor of the movie .   The picaresque novel is narrated by Addie , an orphaned girl , who travels with confidence man Moses `` Long Boy '' Pray in the early 1930s , during the Great Depression . Addie states at the beginning of the novel that Long Boy may or may not be her father ; she says that her late mother was the `` wildest '' girl in her town , and that Long Boy is one of her three possible fathers . Their characters are established in Alabama , and the story line then carries them to other Southern states around Memphis . The movie Paper Moon retains these characters and much of their action , but moves the story to Kansas .   The second half of the novel further diverges from the movie . In the novel , Addie helps her father bilk cotton dealers , and collaborates with him to encourage `` marks '' to become investors in a worthless lost mine or , alternatively , a pseudo-health tonic named PruYea for the prunes and yeast it is allegedly concocted with . In a series of final scenes , Addie herself serves as the lead character in a climactic scam against a wealthy , dishonest lawyer in New Orleans .