Re: RARA-AVIS: Noir Fiction - First UK/US Use?

From: Kate Derie ( cluelass@cluelass.com)
Date: 24 Feb 2000


In reply to your message of 2/23/00 1:00 AM

>George Tuttle at http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Nook/7522/ credits Barry
>Gifford using the term in the Introduction to Jim Thomson's A Hell of a
>Woman in the 1984 Black Lizard reprint. But, the French had been using the
>term "roman noir" for quite some time before. There are subtle differences
>between the two.

This intro was apparently used for all Black Lizard's Thompson reprints. The following excerpt is the only mention of noir.

"The French seem to appreciate best Thompson's brand of terror.
_Roman_noir_, literally "black novel," is a term reserved especially for novelists such as Thompson, Cornell Woolrich and David Goodis. Only Thompson, however, fulfills the French notion of both _noir_ and
_maudit_, the accursed and self-destructive. It is an unholy picture that Thompson presents."

Regards, Kate Derie Creator of the ClueLass HomePage, http://www.cluelass.com Editor of the Deadly Directory, http://www.deadlyserious.com

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