I recently dug out my copy of Frank MacShane's SELECTED
LETTERS OF RAYMOND CHANDLER (Columbia 1981) as I recalled
Chandler had praised Woolrich as a good idea man but rather
empty in the execution. My memory was generally correct but I
had not recalled an earlier, much more positive
reference.
On October 22, 1942, Chandler wrote Blanche Knopf, wife of
publisher Alfred Knopf and also an important contributor to
the publishing company. "I have just been reading a book
called PHANTOM LADY, by William Irish, whoever that is. It
has one of those artificial trick plots and is full of small
but excessive demands on the Goddess of Chance, but it is a
swell job of writing, one that gives everything to every
character, every scene, and never, like so many of our
overrated novelists, just flushes the highlights and then
gets scared and runs. I haven't seen the book advertised
anywhere and such reviews I have seen of it show a complete
unawareness of the technical merits of the book. So what the
hell."
PHANTOM LADY was the first novel under the name William Irish
and it was so different it bowled people over. Chandler was
not a quick man with praise.
On February 8, 1943, less than four months after writing
Blanche, Chandler wrote her husband Alfred Knopf. "William
Irish is a man named Cornell Woolrich, an author under his
own name, and one of the oldest hands there are at the pulp
detective business. He is known in the trade as an idea
writer, liking the tour de force, and not much of a character
man. I think his stuff is very readable, but leaves no warmth
behind it."
This is a very interesting critique of Woolrich, not one that
can be dismissed easily. Chandler could be catty and a touch
jealous of other writers but this is a thoughtful analysis.
The paranoid viewpoint of much of Woolrich does not lend
itself to warmth. The universe is a cold place which will
snatch away everything you love in an instance. The woman you
love is either an unattainable Goddess or a conniving bitch
but you will continue loving her until life leads your body.
An aside, I wonder if Woolrich picked up the Madonna or whore
view of women during his years south of the border? It is a
concept I've seen discussed by writers examining attitudes of
some Mexican men.
I also wonder if the knowledge that Irish was actually
Cornell Woolrich helped lower Chandler's opinion. Although he
calls him "one of the oldest hands there are at the pulp
fiction business" the truth is that Woolrich first appeared
in the detective pulps in 1934, about the same time as
Chandler. The magic of Irish may have been reduced by knowing
that behind the name was a penny or two a word pulp writer
who shared many contents pages with Chandler.
Richard Moore
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 02 Feb 2008 EST