To pick up a thread of a few weeks ago, I seem to recall
that Matt
Helm was often described as "the American James Bond." In
fact, I
never found the comparison very apt (at least, as regards
the Helm
books; the movies, self-consciously aping the Bond movies,
were
another matter).
A better case can be made for Aarons's Sam Durell being the
"American
James Bond." Making his first appearance at roughly the same
time
(*Casino Royale* first appeared in the US in 1954;
*Assignment to
Disaster*, the first Durell in '55), Durell's parallels with
Bond are
quite striking. Both are expert gamblers. Both "cruelly
handsome."
Both began their espionage careers during WW2. Both work
for
fictional trouble-shooting divisions of their respective
organizations
(Durell for the CIA's "K Section," Bond for MI-6's "00
Branch"). Both
have similar relationships with their superiors. Both
superiors,
Durell;s General McFee and Bond's Admiral "M," are gruff,
avuncular
military officers. Both fought pulpy super-villains involved
in
grandiose, outlandish plots. Both, however, started out in
fairly
grim, hard-edged novels with at least a surface dusting of
realism
before market demands moved them into Sax Rohmer
country.
Significantly, Anthony Boucher occasionally drew comparisons
between
Aarons and Fleming when reviewing their books during the
'50s. He
much preferred Aarons.
While on the subject of Boucher, I believe he was the first
to note
similarities between Donald Hamilton and Dashiell Hammett. -
Jim
Doherty
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