Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 15:09:12 -0500 From: William Harker
Subject: RARA-AVIS: Burns and the Evolution of the
Detective
> I have received a book by William R. Hunt entitled
_William J.
> Burns & The Detective Profession 1880-1930. In
the book's
> final chapter, he makes the following argument
statement
> "Fixing the influence of anyone's career on as mirky
a field
> as literary creation is a risky enterprise that is
outside my
> bounds. It could be argued, however, that Burns'
dubious acts
> and fall from grace were more important in fixing
the place of
> the private detective in literature than his
much-praised
> exploits. the detectives in thousands of novels
since
> the time of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler
are
> generally flawed and at odds with established
police
> organization...
> He argues that without Burns' fall from grace, the
public
> would not have been as willing to accept "flawed"
detectives
> such as Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, or Lew
> Archer. "Sophistication had reached a general level
of
> acceptance of a hero or, sometimes, anti-hero, who
walked the
> seamy side of life, yet produced adventurous,
satisfying
> results."
> Can anyone tell me of a fuller treatment of this
argument?
Tell me, does Hunt talk about dime novel detectives? Because
there were plenty of those who were "generally flawed" and
"at odds with established police organization," and the
American public was reading about them and enjoying their
exploits decades before Spade, Marlowe, and Archer.
jess
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