RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled Mystery Writers

From: Marc Seals ( mseals@tampabay.rr.com)
Date: 05 Jan 2006


I assume that you are talking about Hardboiled Mystery Writers: Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, Ross Macdonald: A Literary Reference, edited by Matthew Bruccoli and Richard Layman. The list price is $22, so that's a deal. I bought it when it first came out, and I think it's great.

The BOOKLIST review/summary, posted on Amazon says:
"Here is a treasure trove of original cover art, correspondence, and biographical and literary criticism focusing on the three major figures in twentieth-century "gat and gore" fiction: Chandler, Hammett, and Macdonald. Veteran critics and biographers Bruccoli and Layman have pooled their expertise to offer a perspective on the three writers, from inside and without. Each section opens with a listing of the author's major works, letters, and the location of archives. Then the sections move to the writers' own accounts of their lives, culled from letters, addresses, and notebooks. The reader will learn, for example, that Hammett's two favorite things about writing were, first, the words "Pay to the order of" and, second, the way his characters lived vividly for him in the weeks he wrote about them. Mixed in with the writers' own commentary are Bruccoli's and Layman's assessments and a wonderful assemblage of lurid print ads, dust jackets, and paperback covers. A valuable addit
 ion to the crime fiction reference shelf." (by Connie Fletcher)

~Marc

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: T. Kent Morgan

  I also spotted a copy of a reference book about Chandler, Hammett and
  Roos Macdonald that looked interesting. Of course, I didn't write down
  the title, but think it was something like Hardboiled Mystery
  Novelists. Should have bought it for $5.99 and it will no doubt be
  gone if someone on the list gives it a high recommendation and I go
  back to pick it up.

  Kent Morgan

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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