Just a quick link, really, prompted by Violent World of Parker supremo Trent, who drew my attention to an article at the Los Angeles Review of Books, which Trent tweeted about earlier (also linked by The Rap Sheet the other day). It’s a great piece on hard-boiled crime writer Dan J. Marlowe—the subject, of course, of a recent run of Violent World of Parker and Existential Ennui posts—written by Marlowe aficionado and biographer Charles Kelly. Charles left a number of comments on this EE Dan Marlowe post and this TVWoP one, and currently has an essay about Marlowe in the back of the third issue of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phllips’s comic book Fatale, but the Los Angeles Review of Books article—which is ostensibly about Marlowe’s time in Hollywood—has some startling revelations in it, including the fact that many of Marlowe’s novels were co-written with a US Air Force Colonel. It’s well worth a few minutes of your time, so go give it a read, why don’cha.
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Thanks so much for the mention. Boy, Marlowe has been a hell of a subject. Don’t know who I’ll find for my next bio that will be quite as interesting. After banging away at the research for six years or so, there are still mysteries about Dan I haven’t solved.
He’s a fascinating subject, for sure. Thanks, Charles!
Very welcome. A good chunk of the bio comes out of boxes of Dan’s papers kept by his late friend, insurance man Gordon Gempel, after Gempel became Dan’s guardian because of the amnesia.
I have got to find me some of these books.
Jim Thompson, Cornell Woolrich–them I can pick up at the library, at least their better known stuff. Best as I can tell, Marlowe just never broke out of the genre ghetto, in terms of recognition. And it really seems like that was an injustice, but I’ll have to actually find some books for me to be sure.
Chris, there are quite a few Marlowe E-Books available at very reasonable prices–Name of the Game and One Endless Hour are both only $2.99.
My latest thing is trying out a new author/book on my Kindle if it’s available, then if I really like it, adding a physical copy for my collection.
Thanks, David. I don’t have a Kindle. I have an iPad, but somehow ebooks just don’t do it for me.
I’m guessing that Hard Case Crime or some other publisher ill be reprinting him in the near future, anyway.
The Kindle (not the Kindle Fire) is an entirely different reading experience than an iPad. E-ink is much superior to a glary computer screen. For a lot of things, I like it better than a physical book.
The first two in the “Operation” series are coming in a split volume from Stark House within the next year, date not yet announced.
If you’re looking to buy these areiclts make it way easier.
If I was into e-reading, I’d probably use a Kindle. But I just like printed books. I’ll be on the lookout for the Stark House editions.
I’ll have a post on it once the official date is announced and we have the cover art, so you can stay tuned here. Stark House also has a newsletter (not too frequent) that is well worth a subscription. I’d like to cover them more here, but there’s a lot going on right now, both in life and in Parker/Stark/Westlake news. But it’s a great imprint and I’ll give them their proper due one day!
Marlowe is simply great. So glad he’s getting some respect. Earl Drake is one of my favorite characters.