Michael Dirda, book editor of the Washington Post, won a
Pulitzer a few years back for literary criticism and has a
weekly chat session at washingtonpost.com. In this past
Wednesday's chat session, he listed his top HB novels:
http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/00/dirda1025.htm
heverhill, MA: hey
michael,
Can I trouble you for a quick
list of essential hard
boiled detective fiction? I
like Hammet, Chandler,
McDonald, all the requisite
guys. Who else is worth a
read?
Michael Dirda:
Obviously the three you
suggest. You might add Jim
Thompson (The Killer INside
Me), David Goodis, Paul Cain
(Fast ONe), Edward Anderson
(Thieves Like Us), Cornell
Woolrich (The Bride Wore
Black), Charles Willeford (Miami
Blues), Richard Stark (The
Hunter), George V. Higgins (The
Friends of Eddie Coyle), Elmore
Leonard (52-PIck up). For
the Black Mask School of the
1920s, there are several
anthologies around, edited by
Herbertg Ruhm, Ron Goulart
and Joseph T. Shaw. About 10
years ago Black LIzard
Books--a paperback
line--republsihed a good many classic
pulp novels and Robert Polito
recently edited a LIbary of
America volume devoted to the
genre. This seems somehow
slightly wrong, but there you
are.
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