Re: RARA-AVIS: Solomon's Vineyard

From: E.Borgers ( wbac12034@tiscali.be)
Date: 03 Jan 2005


>
>
>Oh, and as far as English publishers beating US ones, doesn't that still
>happen? For instance, aren't the "true firsts" of many Connelly and
>Ellroy novels the Brit editions? (I'm not implying the US editions are
>"abridged editions" like The Fifth Grave was of Solomon's Vineyards.)
>
>Mark
>

Our very own Jason Starr was published first in the UK, after his first novel IIRC.

In the past, the UK harbored HB/noir novels that American publishers refused mainly for bad reasons. One famous example is Horace McCoy ' "No Pockets in a Shroud" written in 1935 and which did not find an American publisher: it was finally first published in 1937 in the UK and much later in the USA (1948) in a revised version. "This is Dynamite" (1953) a novel based on one of his scripts was refused by American publishers because McCoy refused to alter his text at their request; it was accepted by Georges Duhamel in France who published a translation in 1953. It will finally be published in 1959 in the USA, with the title: "Corruption City". (note: McCoy was an acclaimed writer in France, mainly because of his "They Shoot Horses, Don't They" published there by Gallimard in 1946).

Another case was Don Tracy's "How Sleeps the Beast" (1937) which is mainly based on racial hatery and has a famous brutal lynching scene, was first refused by American publishers but found a British publisher.

Chester Himes was pushed to the HB mysteries by Georges Duhamel at the time when Himes was living in France. So his six novels (1958 to 1962) with his Black cops were first published, translated, in France, plus a non-series seventh (but this anecdote is maybe more geographical than editorial, except that Himes was then on a low pace with his American publications ).

There are more.

E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384

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