A few weeks ago during our discussion of the John D. bio THE
RED HOT TYPEWRITER, I expressed doubt that MacKinlay Kantor
had joined the NY police department after World War II. After
all he was born in 1904 and was a highly paid writer to the
slicks such as Saturday Evening Post and to Hollywood. I was
wrong. Back in the US for a few days visiting my daughters
and books, I checked my TWENTIETH CENTURY AUTHORS, FIRST
SUPPLEMENT and found this quote from Kantor:
"In 1948 and 1949 I worked with the New York Police
Department learning the life and following the routine of a
partolman in the 23d Precinct." The result was his novel
SIGNAL THIRTY-TWO.
As for Stark/Westlake, I am currently reading the early
(1962) novel "361" and am enjoying it immensely. His
reputation as a comic novelist overshadowed his early novels
which were in the Hammett mold. I had missed
"361" but am glad I stumbled on an old Penguin edition.
Richard Moore
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 04 Nov 2000 EST