Other influences on Ian Fleming, to name just the most obvious, were Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, Edgar Wallace, and, perhaps most obviously, Sax Rohmer. Fleming was actually good friends with Chandler.
Bond was a spy rather than a private detective, but I don't think I'd put Fleming in with 'English spy fiction.' He's much more the hardboiled school of writing. English spy fiction is Chesterton, Maugham, LeCarre, etc. Comparing them to Bond is like comparing Superman to Christ.
Buchan was obviously influenced, himself, by H. Rider Haggard. Hannay is very much the idea of taking Alan Quartermain out of Africa and depositing him, resources in tact, in England and Scotland during the preparations by Germany for an attack on Great Britian. He's a man framed for murder, without colleagues or friends, who must find incontravertable proof of a conspiracy that appears absurd to law enforcement, not only to clear himself, but to save his country from ruin. His observations on deceit and disguise are, in themselves, a good reason to read the books.
I say with confidence that most of the Black Mask authors read Buchan's books, and he was an inspiration for all of them. Largely forgotten today, John Buchan was a bestselling author in the early 20th Century.
Patrick King
--- On Mon, 8/3/09, Stephen Burridge <stephen.burridge@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Stephen Burridge <stephen.burridge@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: greatest noir or detective protags
To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, August 3, 2009, 1:45 PM
I guess it's a matter of definition, as usual. I think of the "hardboiled"
tradition as beginning more or less with Hammett or his immediate Black Mask
predecessors and contemporaries, and involving fairly cynical, usually
American tough guy protagonists. Hannay's the hero of a series of adventure
stories, the first of which appeared before WW1. He's a tough, rather
unreflective man of action; also a rich, conservative, patriotic Brit with a
chivalrous attitude to women. I don't think he has much to do with the
hardboiled tradition as I understand it. I certainly agree that Buchan was
a major influence on British spy fiction, but I think that's something
else.
On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 12:42 PM, Patrick King <abrasax93@yahoo. com> wrote:
>
>
> I'm absolutely certain that Hannay was a huge influence on Ian Fleming's
> James Bond, because Fleming said so. Published in 1915,The 39 Steps was
> extremely popular on both sides of the Atlantic during WWI. Neither Chandler
> nor Hammett could have avoided it. The Hitchock movie which came out 20
> years later adding romance to the idea, was also very popular, but mitigated
> Hannay's resourcefulness learned in the African bush. Hannay in the movie
> was from Canada! The story sure as hell influenced Hollywood because every
> second movie was, and continues to be, about an innocent man who must flee
> and solve the crime he is accused of. Hannay may not be noir, as he is
> always successful against the longest odds, but when it comes to hardboiled,
> Richard Hannay is the source of the Nile!
>
> Patrick King
>
> --- On Sun, 8/2/09, Stephen Burridge <stephen.burridge@ gmail.com<stephen.burridge% 40gmail.com> >
> wrote:
>
> From: Stephen Burridge <stephen.burridge@ gmail.com<stephen.burridge% 40gmail.com>
> >
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: greatest noir or detective protags
> To: rara-avis-l@ yahoogroups. com <rara-avis-l% 40yahoogroups. com>
> Date: Sunday, August 2, 2009, 2:47 PM
>
>
>
> I like Buchan, but I don't think he wrote hardboiled or noir fiction, and I
>
> don't think Hannay is a noir character at all.
>
> Stephen
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 04 Aug 2009 EDT