Charles Williams

Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction aims to enhance understanding of one of the most popular forms of genre fiction by examining a wide variety of the detective and crime fiction produced in Britain and America during the twentieth century. It will be of interest to anyone who enjoys reading crime fiction but is specifically designed with the needs of students in mind. It introduces different theoretical approaches to crime fiction (e.g., formalist, historicist, psychoanalytic, postcolonial, feminist) and will be a useful supplement to a range of crime fiction courses, whether they focus on historical contexts, ideological shifts, the emergence of sub-genres, or the application of critical theories. Forty-seven widely available stories and novels are chosen for detailed discussion. In seeking to illuminate the relationship between different phases of generic development Lee Horsley employs an overlapping historical framework, with sections doubling back chronologically in order to explore the extent to which successive transformations have their roots within the earlier phases of crime writing, as well as responding in complex ways to the preoccupations and anxieties of their own eras. The first part of the study considers the nature and evolution of the main sub-genres of crime fiction: the classic and hard-boiled strands of detective fiction, the non-investigative crime novel (centered on transgressors or victims), and the mixed form of the police procedural. The second half of the study examines the ways in which writers have used crime fiction as a vehicle for socio-political critique. These chapters consider the evolution of committed, oppositional strategies, tracing the development of politicized detective and crime fiction, from Depression-era protests against economic injustice to more recent decades which have seen writers launching protests against ecological crimes, rampant consumerism, Reaganomics, racism, and sexism. Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction aims to enhance understanding of one of the most popular forms of genre fiction by examining a wide variety of the detective and crime fiction produced in Britain and America during the twentieth century. It introduces different theoretical approaches to crime fiction (e.g., formalist, historicist, psychoanalytic, post-colonial, feminist) and will be a useful supplement to a range of crime fiction courses, whether they focus on historical contexts, ideological shifts, the emergence of sub-genres, or the application of critical theories. Forty-seven widely available stories and novels are chosen for detailed discussion.Illuminating the relationship between different phases of generic development Lee Horsley employs an overlapping historical framework to explore the extent to which successive transformations have their roots within the earlier phases of crime writing, as well as responding in complex ways to the anxieties of their own eras. The first part of the study considers the nature and evolution of the main sub-genres of crime fiction:the classic and hard-boiled strands of detective fiction, the non-investigative crime novel (centred on transgressors or victims), and the 'mixed' form of the police procedural.The second half of the study examines the ways in which writers have used crime fiction as a vehicle for socio-political critique. These chapters consider the evolution of committed, oppositional strategies, tracing the development of politicized detective and crime fiction, from Depression-era protests against economic injustice to more recent decades which have seen writers launching protests against ecological crimes, rampant consumerism, racism, and sexism. Beginning with Dashiell Hammett testifying before Senator Joseph McCarthy, Pulp Culture pursues the lives and work of crime writers who approached the genre at street level: David Goodis, Chester Himes, Jim Thompson, Dorothy B Hughes, Dolores Hitchens, Leigh Brackett, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Howard Browne, Gil Brewer, William B McGivern, Lionel White, Ross MacDonald, Horace McCoy, Charles Willeford and Charles Williams. Pulp Culture gives post-war crime fiction a political and irreverent reading, examining the politics of paranoia, private detection and criminality; the origins of crime fiction; the role of women in a male-dominated genre; and why the early 1960s marked the final days of classic hardboiled fiction. It also considers the genre's influence on contemporary crime writers and film-makers. Pulp Culture is essential reading for anyone interested in noir writing, films and the post-war era. Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, David Goodis these are a few of the masters of noir responsible for the great lurid paperbacks of the thirties, forties, and fifties. With titles like The Big Sleep, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, and Street of the Lost, with racy cover lines like "My gun-butt smashed his skull!" and "Ruthless terror ripped away the mask that hid cold fear," and with some of the most extraordinary cover illustrations ever to grace American literature, these paperbacks held the ingredients of American nightmares. In Harboiled America—lavishly illustrated with 135 paperback covers, and expanded with new material on Thompson, Goodis, and others—Geoffrey O'Brien masterfully explores the art, history, and ideas of the American paperback. Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, David Goodis ... these are a few of the masters of noir responsible for the great lurid paperbacks of the thirties, forties, and fifties. With titles like The Big Sleep, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, and Street of the Lost, with racy cover lines like "My gun-butt smashed his skull!" and "Ruthless terror ripped away the mask that hid cold fear", and with some of the most extraordinary cover illustrations ever to grace American literature, these paperbacks held the ingredients of American nightmares. In Hardboiled America -- lavishly illustrated with 135 paperback covers, and expanded with new material on Thompson, Goodis, and others -- Geoffrey O'Brien masterfully explores the art, history, and ideas of the American paperback. Raymond Durgnat None Gene D. Phililips William F. Nolan William Relling, jr. Jean Pierre Coursodon Lee Server Malvin Wald Tom Flinn Tom Flinn Philip Kemp Lee Server Paul Duncan Jack Shadian Lee Server James Delson Peter Richards Leigh Brackett Stephen Hunter Jon L. Breen Lee Server None Barry N. Malzberg Don Yates Walt Sheldon Stephen King Ed Gorman Bill Pronzini Bill Crider Ed Gorman Steve Holland Gary Lovisi George Tuttle Max Allan Collins Etienne Borgers Burton Kendle Ed Gorman George Tuttle Bill Crider Charles L.P. Silet James Stallis Robert Skinner Noel Mawer Dulcy Brainard Dick Lochte Sybil Steinberg Mike Ripley and Maxim Jakubowski James Sallis Bill Crider Jon L. Breen Ed Gorman and Lee Server None Ron Goulart None William Nadel Mark Dawidziak Max Allan Collins Lee Server None None None "Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction aims to enhance understanding of one of the most popular forms of genre fiction by examining a wide variety of the detective and crime fiction produced in Britain and America during the twentieth century. It introduces different theoretical approaches to crime fiction (e.g., formalist, historicist, psychoanalytic, post-colonial, feminist) and will be a useful supplement to a range of crime fiction courses, whether they focus on historical contexts, ideological shifts, the emergence of sub-genres, or the application of critical theories. Forty-seven widely available stories and novels are chosen for detailed discussion."--Jacket The author analyzes the texts of some classic American hard-boiled crime and mystery stories from the Cold War era. Included are works by: David Goodis, Chester Himes, Jim Thompson, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Mickey Spillane, Howard Browne, Dorothy B. Hughes, Dolores Hitchens, Leigh Brackett, Gil Brewer, William McGivern, Lionel White, Horace McCoy, Charles Willeford, and Charles Williams This text pursues the lives and work of crime writers who approached the genre at street level. It examines the politics of paranoia, private detection and criminality, the role of women in a male dominated genre and why the early `60s marked the end of classic hardboiled fiction. Noir is big, so The Big Book of Noir jam-packs its pages with articles, interviews, excerpts, opinion, and gossip that chronicle its history and explore noir in all its forms: movies, detective stories, television and radio shows, comic books, and graphic novels. The interest in the origins of "noir" has never been greater. Invented in Depression America, elevated to art in post-war France, it has been reinvented as the entertainment form for the new millennium. B&W illustrations It is no coincidence that Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest was first published on the eve of the Wall Street Crash.