----- Original Message ----- From: "JIM DOHERTY" <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com>
>
> In fact, Irish PI's (and I'll stick to
PI's
> exclusively for this post) go back to the
sub-genre's
> beginnings. Frederic Nebel's "Tough-Dick" Donahue
was
> a regular feature of BLACK MASK, and his very
similar
> Jack Cardigan held essentially the same position
at
> DIME DETECTIVE. Mike Shayne, proudly Irish,
was
> intorduced in DIVIDEND ON DEATH in 1939, the same
year
> Marlowe made his debut (at least his
book-length
> debut) in THE BIG SLEEP. The first hard-boiled PI
of
> them all, Daly's Terry Mack is clearly either Irish
or
> Scottish.
>
Daly had a series detective named Twist Sullivan in Detective
Fiction Weekly 1933-34. There were plenty of Irish private
detectives and police detectives in that magazine. T. T.
Flynn's detective duo, Mike Harris & Trixie Meehan, also
appeared in DFW, and they seem to be of Irish descent.
> In a recent issue of the PWA newsletter,
REFLECTIONS
> IN A PRIVATE EYE, Gary Phillips reported on a
private
> eye character who predated Hammett, Chandler,
Daly,
> et. al., in a novel called, IIRC, THE BLACK
SLEUTH.
>
> THE BLACK SLEUTH notwithstanding, it's
generally
> agreed that the first black PI in the
> Hammett-Chandler-Macdonald tradition was Ed
Lacy's
> Toussaint Moore who first appeared in the
> Edgar-winning ROOM TO SWING in 1957 and made it
into
> one sequel, MOMENT OF UNTRUTH a 1964 PBO.
>
There were two black private detectives (King & Moxie by
Clement Wood) in a few stories in Flynn's 1924-25, but they
are about impossible to read now; they are offensive to
modern readers.
> There are also comparatively early examples of
Italian
> eyes (William Campbell Gault's Joe Puma),
Hispanic
> eyes (Cleve F. Adams Nevada Alvarado, who is also
one
> of the first female eyes), and Asian, or at
least
> Pacific Rim, eyes (Raoul Whitfield's Filipino PI
Jo
> Gar).
>
> It may seem a little more prevalent now, but
ethnic
> PI's are not anything new by any means.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 12 Oct 2004 EDT