Ross Macdonald: In-Depth Detective Fiction

One of my best all-time thrift store finds was a pristine-condition Vintage/Black Lizard edition of Black Money by Ross Macdonald.

Born Kenneth Millar on December 13, 1915 in Los Gatos, California, and raised in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, Ross Macdonald has been called the heir to Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) and Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep). Most of his novels — starring detective Lew Archer — are set in Los Angeles and the fictional Santa Teresa, based on Santa Barbara, where he lived most of his life with his wife, and fellow detective novelist, Margaret Millar. Macdonald passed away in 1983 at age 67.

In Ross Macdonald, a Biography, author Tom Nolan writes: “By any standard he was remarkable. His first books, patterned on Hammett and Chandler, were at once vivid chronicles of a postwar California and elaborate retellings of Greek and other classic myths. Gradually he swapped the hard-boiled trappings for more subjective themes: personal identity, the family secret, the family scapegoat, the childhood trauma; how men and women need and battle each other, how the buried past rises like a skeleton to confront the present. He brought the tragic drama of Freud and the psychology of Sophocles to detective stories, and his prose flashed with poetic imagery.”

Here are a few lines from the opening page of Black Money: “I walked around the end of the fifty-meter pool, which was enclosed on three sides by cabanas. On the fourth side the sea gleamed through a ten-foot wire fence like a blue fish alive in a net. A few dry bathers were lying around as if the yellow eye of the sun had hypnotized them.”

Find Black Money by Ross Macdonald at Amazon.com.

The Night Goes On All Night: Noir Inspired Poetry, edited by Rick Lupert

At the Silver Birch Press blog, one of our favorite topics is noir — novels (anything by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, or Ross MacDonald) and films (especially Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder, with a script by Chandler and Wilder). That’s why we were intrigued when we learned about THE NIGHT GOES ON ALL NIGHT: Noir Inspired Poems, edited by Rick Lupert (Ain’t Got No Press, November 2011) published in conjunction with the Los Angeles Poetry Festival’s “Night and the City” Noir Festival.

The collection features work from 24 poets who, according to the book description, explore “their own noir-de-vivre with humor, grit, nostalgia, and the requisite fedora.” The book includes an introductory note about noir from Los Angeles Poetry Festival director Suzanne Lummis.

CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE: E. Amato, Michael C. Ford, Michael Cluff, Brendan Constantine, Mike Daily, Gloria Derge, Peggy Dobreer, Jerry Garcia, Joelle Hannah, Kris Huelgas, Elizabeth Iannaci, Jack Bowman, Ruth Nolan, Marc Olmsted, Kevin Patrick Sullivan, Angela Penaredondo, Douglas Richardson, Anthony Seidman, Eric Steineger, Eric Tuazon, Mehnaz Turner, Wyatt Underwood, Wanda VanHoy Smith and Florence Weinberger.

Here is a sampling from the collection…

PANORAMA CITY (Excerpt)
by Brendan Constantine

We started wearing
dark glasses between the house & the garage.
Panorama City had no view; from any window
we saw another window.

ABOUT THE EDITOR: Rick Lupert has been involved in the Los Angeles poetry community since 1990. He served for two years as a co-director of the Valley Contemporary Poets, a non-profit organization that produces readings and publications out of the San Fernando Valley. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, including The Los Angeles Times and Chiron Review. He edited A Poet’s Haggadah: Passover through the Eyes of Poets anthology and is the author of thirteen books. Since 1994, he has hosted the long-running Cobalt Cafe reading series in Canoga Park and is regularly featured at venues throughout Southern California. Rick created and maintains the Poetry Super Highway, a major internet resource for poets. (PoetrySuperHighway.com) Currently Rick works as a music teacher and web designer and can be reached by email at Rick@PoetrySuperHighway.com.

Find the 56-page THE NIGHT GOES ON ALL NIGHT: Noir Inspired Poetry at Amazon.com.

LAVA Literary Salon: A Dashiell Hammett Evening, 4/27/13

Our friends at LAVA (Los Angeles Visionary Association) have asked us to help spread the word about an event scheduled for Saturday, April 27, 2013 — LAVA Literary Salon: A Dashiell Hammett Evening. This sounds like an amazing event — and if you make at least part of your living as a writer, it’s probably tax deductible (research!) — a special evening to celebrate the life and work of Dashiell Hammett, the author who started the hardboiled detective genre.

Here’s what you can expect…

Julie M. Rivett (Hammett’s granddaughter and editor of several books about him) wlll discuss the author’s professional life, private life, public life, and literary legacy.

Richard Layman, a Hammett biographer, will trace the author’s remarkable journey from high school dropout to world renowned writer.

Q&A with Rivett and Layman.

The Long Beach Shakespeare Company will present scenes starring legendary Hammett characters, including Nick and Nora Charles.

Buffet Dinner that features gourmet fare popular in exclusive restaurants circa 1950.

Date: Saturday, April 27, 2013

Time: 630-10:30 p.m.

Location: Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 West 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90014

Tickets: $100 (more information here)

ABOUT THE LAVA LITERARY SALON SERIES: LAVA’s Literary Salon is a place for lovers of great Los Angeles writers to come together in historic spaces for good company, fine food, and fascinating discussions by experts in the field. Events take place in the historic Los Angeles Athletic Club, where Raymond Chandler, then a young oil executive, played bridge and eavesdropped on the powerful men who would shape the city and his detective fiction.

Happy Birthday, Ross Macdonald

I’m a longtime fan of crime writer extraordinaire Ross Macdonald, and was excited last week when I found a Vintage/Black Lizard edition of Black Money — a novel I’d never read — at my local Goodwill store for $1.99. I’m currently reveling in Macdonald’s amazing prose — every line, a treasure.

Born Kenneth Millar on December 13, 1915 in Los Gatos, California, and raised in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, Ross Macdonald has been called the heir to Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) and Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep). Most of his novels — starring detective Lew Archer — are set in Los Angeles and the fictional Santa Teresa, based on Santa Barbara, where he lived most of his life with his wife, and fellow detective novelist, Margaret Millar. Macdonald passed away in 1983 at age 67.

In Ross Macdonald, a Biography, author Tom Nolan writes: “By any standard he was remarkable. His first books, patterned on Hammett and Chandler, were at once vivid chronicles of a postwar California and elaborate retellings of Greek and other classic myths. Gradually he swapped the hard-boiled trappings for more subjective themes: personal identity, the family secret, the family scapegoat, the childhood trauma; how men and women need and battle each other, how the buried past rises like a skeleton to confront the present. He brought the tragic drama of Freud and the psychology of Sophocles to detective stories, and his prose flashed with poetic imagery.”

I consider it serendipity that I found a copy of Black Money just in time to celebrate what would have been Ross Macdonald’s 97th birthday — and consider myself lucky to spend this rainy December evening in L.A. reading Macdonald’s amazing prose.

Here are a few lines from the opening page: “I walked around the end of the fifty-meter pool, which was enclosed on three sides by cabanas. On the fourth side the sea gleamed through a ten-foot wire fence like a blue fish alive in a net. A few dry bathers were lying around as if the yellow eye of the sun had hypnotized them.”

Find Black Money by Ross Macdonald at Amazon.com.

Summer Road Trip: Martha’s Vineyard

Our visit to Martha’s Vineyard wouldn’t be complete without stopping to pay our respects at Abel Hill Cemetery, the final resting place of playwright/screenwriter Lillian Hellman. Her most well-known works include the plays The Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic, and Another Part of the Forest — all Broadway hits. Hellman enjoyed a long career, an interesting personal life (including a 30-year relationship with Dashiell Hammett, who invented the hardboiled detective genre), and a devotion to social causes. In the movie Julia (1977), Hellman and Hammett were portrayed by Jane Fonda and Jason Robards. RIP, Ms. Hellman.