Aside from the debatable choices of the content itself, the Library of America's two-volume Crime Novels is not big on editorial intrusions, but it does allow itself a fairly detailed biographical note on each of the authors. Reading over these I was struck by some trends that might best be illustrated through a list. (I've stolen the format from An Incomplete Education,where a similar chart was used to compare Leonardo and Michelangelo. I figured if it would do for the architect of St. Peter's Basilica, it would do for the author of I Married a Dead Man.)
JAMES M. CAIN
Book: The Postman Always Rings Twice... Background: Born 1892, Annapolis, MD. Father a university president... Journalist? Sure was. Wrote for Baltimore Sun, Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker...
Military:
Served in France, World War I...
Other Jobs: Trained as a singer. Also taught school and worked as screenwriter... Married: Four times, including marriages with a movie actress and an opera singer... Politics: Accused of being a communist when he established American Authors Authority to protect authors copyrights. Alcoholic?No... What else should we know? That rare thing, a long and successful life among noir novelists. Followed Postman up with the classics Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce. Lived to be 82 years old.
HORACE McCOY
Book: They Shoot Horses, Don't They?... Background: Born 1897 in Pegram, TN. Moved to Texas... Journalist? Yep. Sportswriter for Dallas Dispatch and editor of the Dallasite... Military: Texas National Guard, then served in France as bombardier, awarded the Croix de Guerre... Other Jobs: Actor, screenwriter (worked, uncredited, on King Kong), lettuce picker, bouncer... Married: Three times, if you count the annulled second marriage to Dallas socialite; followed it up with marriage to daughter of wealthy oilman... Politics: No information... Alcoholic? Not as far as we know... What else should we know? Enjoyed a bestseller in 1952 with The Scalpel; died of a heart attack three years later.
EDWARD ANDERSON
Book: Thieves Like Us... Background: Born 1905 in Weatherford, TX... Journalist? Naturally. On staff of Rocky Mountain News, Los Angeles Examiner, Sacramento Bee, Fort Worth Star-Telegram... Military: None... Other Jobs: Radio writer, screenwriter, freight-hopping hobo... Married: Three times, twice to the same woman... Politics: Extreme right-wing views, informed somehow by his Swedenborgianism... Alcoholic? Yes, which might partly explain his recurrent transient's life...What else should we know? Thieves Like Us made into two classic films, by Nicholas Ray (as They Live by Night) and Robert Altman, but Anderson didn't benefit much, having sold the film rights for a quick $500. There are eight Edward Andersons with a Wikipedia entry; this Edward Anderson isn't one of them. Talk about sinking like a stone.
KENNETH FEARING
Book: The Big Clock... Background: Born 1902 in Oak Park, IL... Journalist? Reviewer for the New Yorker, later in life a Newsweek staffer... Military: None... Other jobs: Nothing of note; all he did was write, including several volumes of poetry... Married: Twice, both ending in divorce... Politics: Investigated by the FBI for being a communist... Alcoholic? Yes, and died in poverty at age 59... What else should we know? The Big Clock made into a film in 1948, but Fearing made little money from it. Also the basis of the 1987 film No Way Out.
WILLIAM LINDSAY GRESHAM
Book: Nightmare Alley... Background: Born 1909 in Baltimore, MD... Journalist? Book reviewer for Evening Post (New York) and crime magazine editor... Military: Medic with the Lincoln Brigade in Spain... Other jobs: Greenwich Village folk singer, copywriter... Married: Three times. He and second wife, poet Joy Davidman, deeply influenced by ideas of C. S. Lewis, although Gresham eventually drifted away from Christianity, dabbling in Zen Buddhism and Scientology. Following his divorce from Davidman, he married her cousin, while Davidman married C. S. Lewis... Politics: Member of Communist Party... Alcoholic? Yes, and sometimes made him violent... What else should we know? Committed suicide with overdose of sleeping pills after registering in New York hotel under false name. He was 53.
CORNELL WOOLRICH (aka William Irish)
Book: I Married a Dead Man... Background: Born 1903 in New York City... Journalist? Never... Military: Nope... Other jobs: None... Married: Married for three months to daughter of filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton, after which he traveled through Europe with his mother and then moved into her Upper West Side apartment, where he remained for the next 25 years. Woolrich, if you haven't guessed already, was very gay... Alcoholic? Yes, which contributed to drastic slowdown in productivity and two decades as a recluse... What else should we know? The good: Also the author of Rear Window (filmed by Alfred Hitchcock) and The Bride Wore Black (filmed by Francois Truffaut). The bad: in 1961, two years after death of mother, his gangrenous leg had to be amputated; he died of a stroke ten months later at the age of 58.
