A few days ago in discussing Cornell Woolrich's WALZ INTO
DARKNESS, I mentioned it was published as a Story Press book
and he had published some short stories in the fabled Story,
a low pay, high prestige magazine that published early
Cheever, Salinger, Mailer and many other literary greats. I
also mentioned reading many years ago a memoir by one of the
editors of Story that discussed Woolrich's visits to the
magazine's editorial offices.
Today nestled in a box of Simenon novels I found THE STORY OF
STORY MAGAZINE by Martha Foley, who with her husband Whit
Burnett founded the magazine. Her description of Woolrich is
striking and worth transcribing for the list:
"Usually writers bringing manuscripts to the office asked for
me, either because they thought Whit, being a man, was too
important, or because people with a problem often find it
easier to talk to a woman than to a man. Cornell Woolrich was
one. I had never heard of him. A thin, shaking,
hungry-looking man, he asked me, almost imploringly, 'if I
send you a story, will you please read it?'
"'Of course,' I told him. 'That's why I'm an editor. To read
manuscripts.'
"Reassured, he told me about himself. In 1927, when he was
twenty- four years old, he had won first prize--$10,000--in a
short story contest held by College Humor, then a
large-circulation magazine.
(Writing as I am now about Cornell makes me wish, as I have
countless times, that I had kept a journal!) As far as I can
remember, he said that there was a long hiatus in his writing
after winning the prize, and that when he resumed writing his
work was rejected. I remember his telling me of how his
father had left his mother, and of how, as a boy, he had
spent years with her roaming around the country in search of
his father. I have never forgotten his leaning forward to me
and saying earnestly, 'A search for a father is a search for
God.'
"The story I promised to read, which Cornell sent me, was the
wonderful "Goodbye New York," a skin-prickling tale of two
people who have committed a crime; desparate to leave the big
city, their stratagems to avoid detection, their
near-captures and their terror, are told in writing far
superior to that of the usual thriller. The praise given the
story when it appeared provided Cornell with the renewed
impetus he craved. He went on to achieve lifelong publishing
success and is best remembered (popularly) for the movie
"Rear Window." He wrote many mystery novels and short
stories, using both the name Woolrich and William
Irish."
Foley wrote this from memory and, not surprisingly, some of
the details are incorrect. Woolrich won the $10,000 prize
from College Humor for his second novel CHILDREN OF THE RITZ
(1927), which also won him a contract as a screenwriter in
Hollywood.
I don't have the Nevins bio/bibliography of Woolrich handy
(one day I will find it while searching my stacks for
something else)but I am reasonably certain that the story
"Goodbye New York" came after he returned to writing with
sales to the detective pulps.
Richard Moore
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