Jim, believe it or not, the first Mystery Writers of America
Edgar awarded to Best Novel was in 1954 (Charlotte Jay's BEAT
NOT THE BONES). The MWA awarded Edgars beginning in 1946 but
the only awards given in 1946 and 1947 was for Best First
Mystery Novel (American) and then from 1948 through 1953,
there was an award for Best Short Story to go along with the
Best First Novel. The Short Story award in those early years
went to entire collections (1952's FANCIES AND GOODNIGHTS by
John Collier) or editing (Ellery Queen in 1948 and 1950). The
first actual short story to win an individual award was "The
House Party" by Stanley Ellin in 1955. An aside here: if you
enjoy mystery/crime short stories and have not read Stanley
Ellin, you are missing some of the best ever written.
The Edgar to "William Irish" in 1949 was something of a
hybrid in that he was cited for "sustained excellence in
short story writing and collections: DEADMAN BLUES and THE
BLUE RIBBON."
So Woolrich/Irish's best novels came before the Edgar awards
were given for best novel. The novels published in his
lifetime after 1954 were either not true novels (HOTEL ROOM
1958 was really a short story collection) or awful rehashes
of very old pulp stories (DEATH IS MY DANCING PARTNER 1959
and THE DOOM STONE Avon 1960) for publication as paperback
originals.
But back to your main question, best at short story or novel?
I'd like to think about that some more as it isn't an easy
choice for me. He wrote some wonderful short stories but he
also wrote some real dogs. The same is true for his novels.
Did he reach a higher standard in the short form? Hard to
say.
Richard Moore
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, JIM DOHERTY
<jimdohertyjr@...> wrote:
>
> As it's the last day of Woolrich month, I'm
wondering
> how many here have concluded that, as good as many
of
> his novels are, Woolrich's real strength is in
the
> medium of the short story.
>
> Significantly, the only Edgar he'd ever win (in
his
> "William Irish" persona) was in the short
story
> category. Even more significantly, this was not
for
> any particular short story, but just for
general
> continued excellence as a short story
writer.
>
> Arguably, the two best films made from his work,
THE
> WINDOW and READ WINDOW, were both based on
short
> stories.
>
> Speaking for myself, very often his novels
don't
> altogether work. The many unlikely occurences
and
> coincidences, the linchpin of so much of
Woolrich's
> work, become too apparent at book-length. Don't
get
> me wrong. When he's on his game, as in THE BRIDE
WORE
> BLACK or PHANTOM LADY, he's great.
>
> But his short stories are more consistently good.
I
> recommend just about any of his short
story
> collections, but NIGHTWEBS and NIGHT & FEAR
are
> particularly good. NIGHT & FEAR contain what
I've
> been told was Woolrich's personal favorite of
his
> short fiction, "Endicott's Girl." My own
personal
> favorite, "Detective William Brown," is in the
same
> collection.
>
> Curious to find out how other Rare Birds feel
about
> the novel/short story question.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
>
>
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