Bill
--=20
William Denton | Toronto, Canada | http://www.vex.net/~buff/
| Caveat lec=
tor.
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 12:53:17 -0500 (EST)
From: William Denton <buff@interlog.com>
To: buff@vex.net
From: Words from the Monastery
<REMOVEjackechsTHE@OBVIOUSerols.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.mystery
Subject: Hard Boiled: Just the FAQs Ma'am
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 16:33:14 -0500
Hard Boiled: Just the FAQs Ma'am
Table of Contents
I. Authors
II. Definition
III. Journals / Magazines / Zines
IV. Movies / Television
V. Music
VI. Novels / Novella / Short Stories
VII. Poetry
VIII. Reference
IX. Web Sites
Note: The initials in the brackets after a title relate as
follows:
R =3D Read
S =3D Seen
TBP =3D To Be Purchased
TBR =3D To Be Read
TBS =3D To Be Seen
*******************
I. Authors
James Mallahan Cain (1892-1977) is recognized today as one of
the master
of the hard-boiled school of American novels. Born in
Baltimore, the son
of the president of Washington College, he began his career
as reporter
on the Balitmore papers, served in the American Expeditionary
Force in
World War I and wrote the material for The Cross of Lorraine,
the
newspaper of the 79th Division. He returned to become
professor of
journalism at St. John's College in Annaplis and then worked
for H. L.
Mencken on the The American Mercury. He later wrote
editorials for
Walter Lippmann on the New York World and was for a short
period
managing editor of The New Yorker, before he went to
Hollywood as a
script writer. His first novel, The Postman Always Rings
Twice, was
published when he was forty-two and at once became a
sensation. It was
tried for obscenity in Boston, was said by Albert Camus to
have inspired
his own book, The Stranger, and is now a classic. Cain
followed it the
next year with Double Indemnity, leading Ross Macdonald to
write years
later, "Cain has won unfading laurels with a pair of native
American
masterpieces, Postman and Double Indemnity, back to back."
Cain
published eighteen books in all and was working on his
autobiography at
the time of his death.
Jim Cirni (1937)
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) was born in Chicago, Illinois,
on July 23,
1888, but spent most of his boyhood and youth in England,
where he
attended Dulwich College and later worked as a free-lance
journalist for
The Westminster Gazette and The Spectator. During World War
I, he served
in France witht he First Division of the Canadian
Expeditionary Force,
transferring later to the Royal Flying Corps (R.A.F.). In
1919 he
returned to the United States, settling in California, where
he
eventually became director of a number of independent oil
companies. The
Depression put an end to his business career, and in 1933, at
the age of
forty-five, he turned to writing, publishing his first
stories in Black
Mask. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939.
Never a
prolific writer, he published only one collection of stories
and seven
novels in this life time. In the last year of his life he was
elected
president of the Mystery Writers of America. He died in La
Jolla,
California, on March 26, 1959.
Ellroy, James
David Goodis (1917-1967) is a lost master of hard-boiled
fiction, a
writer who has never received his due. Born in Philadelphia
in 1917, he
enjoyed early success when his 1946 thriller "Dark Passage"
was made
into the Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall film of the same name.
Yet while
a number of his subsequent novels were also filmed -- most
famously
"Down There," on which Fran=E7ois Truffaut based "Shoot the
Piano Player"
-- Goodis retreated into oblivion after "Dark Passage,"
churning out
paperback originals that are compelling for their bleakness,
the utter
hopelessness of their point of view. By the time he died in
1967, Goodis
was all but forgotten, and although in the last decade
several of his
books have been "rediscovered," that status has remained
essentially
unchanged.
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was born in St. Marys Country,
Maryland, in
1894. He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. He left
school at the
age of fourteen and held several kinds of jobs
thereafter--messenger
boy, newsboy, clerk, timekeeper, yardman, machine operator;
and
stevedore. He finally became an operative for Pinkerton's
Detective
Agency. World War I, in which he served as a sergeant,
interrupted his
sleuthing and injured his health. When he was finally
discharged from
the last of several hospitals, he resumed detective work.
Subsequently,
he turned to writing, and in the late 1920s he became the
unquestioned
master of detective story fiction in America. During World
War II, Mr.
Hammett again served as sergeant in the Army, this time for
more than
two years, most of which he spent in the Aleutians.
Ross Macdonald's real name was Kenneth Millar (1915-1983).
Born near San
Fransisco in 1915 and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia,
Millar
returned to the U.S. as a young man and published his first
novel in
1944. He served as president of the Mystery Writers of
America and was
awarded their Grand Master Award, as well as the Mystery
Writers of
Great Britain's Silver Dagger Award.
James Meyers "Jim" Thompson (1906-1977) was born in Anadarko,
Oklahoma,
in 1906. He began writing fiction at a very young age,
selling his first
story to True Detective when he was only fourteen. In all,
Jim Thompson
wrote twent-nine novels and two screenplays (for the Stanley
Kubrick
films The Killing and Paths of Glory). Films based on his
novels include
Coup de Torchon (Pop. 1280), Serie Noire (A Hell of a Woman),
The
Getaway, The Killer Inside Me, The Grifters, and After Dark,
My Sweet.
Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in sexually
transmitted
diseases, a social caseworker, and a labor organizer, and has
directed a
maximum security prison for youthful offenders. Now a lawyer
in private
practice, he represents children and youth exclusively. He is
the author
of eight novels; a collection of short stories, Born Bad;
three graphic
series, Cross, Hard looks, and Underground; and Another
Chance to Get It
Right: A Children's Book for Adults. His nonfiction work has
appeared in
Parade, Antaeus, The New York Times, and numerous other
forums. Two new
novels Footsteps of the Hawk and Batman: The Ultimate Evil,
will be
available in fall 1995. He lives in New York City.
Wang, Shuo
Charles Willeford (1919-1988) was a professional horse
trainer, boxer,
radio announcer, and painter, as well as the author of over a
dozen
novels, including The Burnt Orange Heresy, Pick-Up,
Cockfigher, and
Miami Blues, a collection of short stories and a memoir of
his war
experiences. He was a tank commander with the Third Army in
World War
II. For his war efforts he received the Silver Star, the
Bronze Star,
the Purple Heart, and the Luxembourg Croix de Guerre. He also
studied
art in Bairritz, France, and in Lima, Peru, and English at
the
University of Miami.
Cornell Woolrich (1903-1968) was born in 1903. He began
writing fiction
while at Columbia University in the 1920s, and went on in the
1930s and
1940s to become, along with Raymond Chandler and Jaems M.
Cain, one of
the creators of the noir genre, producing such classics as
Rear Window,
I Married a Dead Man, and the so-called Black Series of
suspense novels.
Woolrich died a recluse in 1968.
*******************
II. Definition
Hard-Boiled \'h=E4rd\ \'boi(e)ld\ adj. 1. a style of
literature and film
(aka film noir) popular from the 1920s through the 1950s
and
characterized by ominous atmosphere and by fast-talking,
sleazy and
cynical characters.
*******************
III. Journals / Magazines / Zines
*******************
IV. Movies / Television
Chinatown (TBS)
Dragnet (S)
Magnum PI (S)
The Maltese Falcon (S)
Nightstalker (S)
The Two Jakes (TBS)
*******************
V. Music
*******************
VI. Novels / Novella / Short Stories
After Dark, My Sweet (TBR)
by Jim Thompson
Published by Vintage Books, 1990
ISBN: 0679732470
Synopsis: William Collins is very handsome, very polite, and
very
friendly. His is also dangerous when aroused. Now Collins, a
one-time
boxer with a lethal "accident" in his past, has broken out of
his fourth
mental institution and met up with an affable con man and a
highly
arousing woman, whose plans for him include kidnapping,
murder, and
much, much worse.
The Big Sleep & Farewell My Lovely (TBR)
by Raymond Chandler, 1939, 1940
Published by Modern Library, May 1995
ISBN: 0679601406
Synopsis: Once again available in the Modern Library are the
two classic
novels featuring private eye Philip Marlowe that made Raymond
Chandler's
name synonymous with America's hard-boiled school of crime
fiction.
Black Dahlia (TBP)
by James Ellroy
Published by Warner Books, 1988
ISBN: 0445405252
Synopsis: This fictionalized version of Hollywood's most
notorious
murder case takes readers on a hellish journey through the
movie capital
and into a region of total madness.
The Blonde on the Street Corner (TBP)
by David Goodis
Published by Serpents Tail, 1997
ISBN: 1852424478
Synopsis: Four "bums," all in their early 30s, all still
living at home,
all hopelesly frozen in the hell of inanimation, stand on the
street
corner eating Indian nuts and buying 16 cent packs of
cigarettes,
talking about nothing, doing nothing, going nowhere and not
much caring.
The Cornell Woolrich Omnibus: (TBR)
Rear Window and Other Stories
I Married a Dead Man
Waltz into Darkness
by Cornell Woolrich
Published by Penguin USA (Paper), 1998
ISBN: 0140269770
Synopsis: Including the complete novels "I Married a Dead
Man" and
"Waltz into Darkness" plus "Rear Window" and four other short
stories,
"The Cornell Woolrich Omnibus" provides a thrilling
collection of
classic works from the quintessential master of noir
fiction.
Down in the Zero (TBR)
by Andrew H. Vachss
Published by Vintage Books, 1995
ISBN: 0679760660
Synopsis: Once again Burke, a street-smart ex-con and
unlicensed private
eye, returns to deal out his own form of justice to those who
prey on
and profit from the lives of innocent children.
The Drowning Pool (TBR)
by Ross MacDonald, 1950
Published by Vintage Books, 1996
ISBN: 0679768068
Synopsis: When a millionaire matriarch is found floating face
down in
the family pool, the prime suspects are her good-for-nothing
son and his
seductive teenage daughter. In The Drowning Pool, Lew Archer
takes this
case in the L.A. suburbs and encounters a moral wasteland of
corporate
greed and family hatred--and sufficient motive for a dozen
murders.
False Allegations (R)
by Andrew H. Vachss
Published by Vintage Books, 1997
ISBN: 0679772936
Synopsis: An ex-con, mercenary, and sometimes killer, Burke
makes his
living preying on New York's vicious predators, avenging
their innocent
victims. But in Andrew Vachss's intense new novel, Burke
finds himself
working the other side of the street, where guilt and
innocence are as
disposable as the sheets in a Times Square hotel--and as
dirty.
Footsteps of the Hawk (TBR)
by Andrew H. Vachss
Published by Vintage Books. 1996
ISBN: 0679766634
Synopsis: Hard on the heels of his national bestseller Down
in the Zero,
Vachss puts Burke, a New York City cop, back into motion. In
Footsteps
of the Hawk, two rogue cops are stalking each other, and
Burke is caught
in the cross fire. He has to figure out what the cops'
connection is
before its too late.
The Kiss Off: A Novel of Suspense (TBR)
by Jim Cirni, 1987
Published by Soho Press, Inc., 1995
ISBN: 1569470367
Synopsis: The Skyview Lounge is a mob joint in Queens. From
behind the
bar, Frank Fontana can watch the initiated of the
outer-borough
underworld socialize and enjoys it--until the bodies of his
co-workers
start piling up and his wife toys wi th the idea of
blackmailing the
Godfather.
The Lady in the Lake (R)
by Raymond Chandler, 1943
Published by Vintage Books, 1992
ISBN: 0394758250
Synopsis: In The Lady in the Lake, Philip Marlow moves out of
his usual
habitat of city streets into the mountains outside of Los
Angeles in is
strange search for a missing woman.
The Long Goodbye (R)
by Raymond Chandler, 1953
Published by Vintage Books, 1992
ISBN: 0394757688
Synopsis: Raymond Chandler's ingenious novel finds Marlow
constantly on
the move with a case involving a war-scarred drunk and his
nymphomaniac
wife. A psychotic gangster's on his trail; he's in trouble
with the
cops; and an unequaled number of corpses turn up.
The Maltese Falcon (TBR)
by Dashiell Hammett, 1930
Published by Vintage Books, 1992
ISBN: 0679722645
Synopsis: Archer, Sam Spade's partner, is shot on a case, and
it's
Spade's obligation to find the killer. In this search for
both the
murderer and the Maltese Falcon, a statue rumored to be of
incalculable
value, Spade runs mortal risks as he comes closer to the
answer--what he
finds almost destroys him.
Mildred Pierce (TBR)
by James M. Cain, 1941
Published by Vintage Books, 1989
ISBN: 0679723218
Synopsis: Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a
skillet, and a
bone-deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to
survive a
divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower
middle class.
But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men
and an
unreasoning devotion to a monstrous daughter. Out of these
elements
James M. Cain created a novel of acute social observation
and
devastating emotional violence, with a heroine whose
ambitions and
sufferings are never less than recognizable.
The Moving Target (R)
by Ross MacDonald, 1949
Published by Vintage Books, 1998
ISBN: 037570146X
Synopsis: Like many Southern California millionaires, Ralph
Sampson
keeps odd company. There's the sun-worshiping holy man whom
Sampson once
gave his very own mountain; the fading actress with sidelines
in
astrology and S&M. Now one of Sampson's friends may have
arranged his
kidnapping. And as Lew Archer Follows the clues from the
canyon
sanctuaries of the megarich to jazz joints where you can get
beaten up
between sets, The Moving Target blends sex, greed, and family
hatred
into an explosively readable crime novel.
Pick-Up (TBR)
by Charles Ray Willeford, 1955
Published by Vintage Books, 1990
ISBN: 0679732535
Synopsis: In Pick-Up, Charles Willeford has created a work
of
psychological suspense that is at once poignant, terrifying,
and utterly
authentic in its depcition of alcoholic desire and
destruction.
Playback (TBR)
by Raymond Chandler, 1958
Published by Vintage Books, 1988
ISBN: 0394757661
Synopsis: As Chandler's last novel opens, Philip Marlowe
meets a
well-endowed redhead as she disembarks from teh Super Chief
and leads
him to the California coast to solve a tale of big money and,
of course,
murder.
Playing for Thrills: A Mystery (TBP)
by Shuo Wang, Howard Goldblatt (Translator)
Published by William Morrow & Company, 1997
ISBN: 0688130461
Synopsis: The first book to be published in English by the
writer the
New York Times Book Review called "China's Kerouac." In
typical Wang
Shuo style, Playing for Thrills shatters storytelling
convention as it
follows the investigation of a mysterious decade-old murder
of a
possibly imaginary character.
Red Harvest (TBR)
by Dashiell Hammett, 1929
Published by Vintage Books, 1992
ISBN: 0679722610
Synopsis: One of Hammett's masterpieces, this is the most
vivid and
realistic picture of gang war ever written--and one of the
most exciting
of all suspense novels.
Trouble Is My Business (R)
by Raymond Chandler, 1950
ISBN: 0394757645
Synopsis: Trouble is My Business is a collection of four
stories, all of
them classic Philip Marlowe mysteries.
Woman in the Dark: A Novel of Dangerous Romance (R)
by Dashiell Hammett, 1933
Published by Vintage Books, 1989
ISBN: 0679722653
Synopsis: There is menace in the air--some unspoken,
unexplained aura of
violence and misdeed associated with the strange girl who
appeared on
the doorstep one day. From the master of the hard-boiled
detective story
comes a new story of mystery and intrigue.
*******************
VII. Poetry
The Waste Land and Other Poems
by T.S. Eliot
Published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1930
*******************
VIII. Reference
Hard-Boiled: Great Lines from Classic Noir Films (TBP)
by Peggy Thompson and Saeko Usukawa
Chronicle Books, 1996
ISBN 0811808556
*******************
IX. Web Sites
Essential Media: Hard-Boiled Fiction
http://www.essentialmedia.com/Hard-boiled.html
Hammett
http://www.troutworks.com/bkGoresHammett.html
Hard-Boiled Fiction
http://www.mysterynet.com/history/hardboiled/
The Hard Boiled Movie Page
http://boiled.sbay.org/boiled/
Hard Boiled: The online reference site for all things
noir.
http://www.voicenet.com/~bmurray/index.html
London Noir
http://www.troutworks.com/bkJakubowskiNoir.html
No Place for a Woman: The Family in Film Noir and Other
Essays
http://www.obs.net/Noir/noir-toc.html
Story Noir Text (Interactive Fiction)
http://www.inept.com/story_noir/index.htm
Troutworks Mystery Guide: Private eye and hard-boiled
http://www.troutworks.com/bookprivate-eye.html
Twists, Slugs and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboiled
Slang
http://www.vex.net/~buff/slang.html
Vachss
http://www.troutworks.com/bkVachssBad.html
*******************
--
Words Head FLan Cinnamon Grater Dessert ... this is what we are.
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