--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, William Ahearn
<williamahearn@...> wrote:
>
It's
> also an epic story and everybody but the
Russians
> believe that if it's going to be depressing, keep
it
> short. In all honesty, I read Woolrich
differently
> than I read other writers so I completely
understand
> where you're coming from. Even so, I think it is
one
> of his most ambitious and darkest works and can
see
> why others might not think so.
>
> William
>
> Essays and Ramblings
> <http://www.williamahearn.com>
>
I think you are onto something here. WALTZ INTO DARKNESS
seems to have been an attempt by Woolrich to break from the
mystery/crime label that attached itself to him from his
years of writing for the detective pulps. It was a clear
break from his earlier work, as we've discussed in both
setting and length. Looking again at the Nevins' introduction
to the Ballantine reprint, he says the publisher "...J. P.
Lippincott Company published the book early in 1947 under
Woolrich's William Irsh byline, the advertising copy
ballyhooed it as his first mainstream novel..." which ignores
all of his early Scott Fitzgerald novels.
Moreover, the hardcover first edition is branded with "A
Story Press Book" or something similar. My copy of the
hardcover is probably in the same box with Nevins' biography
so I can't check the exact label. But what you said reminded
me that Woolrich had placed two or three short stories in
Story, a high prestige, low-pay magazine founded by Martha
Foley and Whit Burnett. In the 1930s through 1940s it
represented Literature with a capital "L". Foley and Burnett
also founded The Story Press in 1936 but by the time of WALTZ
Foley and Burnett had split and new wife Hallie Southgate
Burnett shared editorial duties with Whit.
I have this vague memory of reading a memoir of one of the
editors
(Foley I believe) that described a Woolrich visit to Story's
offices. In any case, encouragement from The Story Press may
have encouraged Woolrich to cast an eye toward the
Russians.
Richard Moore
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