Dave,
Re your comment below:
"Al, from what I can tell by doing some quick research, Dodd & Mead published both Woolrich and Ross Macdonald, publishing their books in hardcover."
This neither proves nor disproves your premise that noir is no longer acceptable to big NY publishers, but just to correct a factual error:
Cornell Woolrich's first novel, THE BRIDE WORE BLACK, was published by Simon & Schuster, not Dodd, Mead. His first novel as "William Irish," PHANTOM LADY, was published by Lippincott (which, strictly speaking, was not a NY publisher, but a Philadelphia publisher). Maybe later books were published by Dodd, Mead, but that's not who he started out with.
Ross Macdonald's books were all published by Knopf. That, I think, may be one of the reasons he was sactified with the title of "Holy Ghost" to Hammett's "Father" and Chandler's "Son." Because of the symmetry of RED HARVEST being published by Knopf in 1929, THE BIG SLEEP by Knopf in 1939, and THE MOVING TARGET by Knopf in 1949.
All the Archer books (except for the short story collections) were published by Knopf.
JIM DOHERTY
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