Four novels of the 1950s

Book

Four novels of the 1950s / Ross Macdonald ; Tom Nolan, editor.

Macdonald, Ross, 1915-1983 (author.). Nolan, Tom, (editor.). Macdonald, Ross, 1915-1983 Way some people die. (Added Author).

Summary:

"Revered by such contemporary masters as Sue Grafton, George Pelecanos, and James Ellroy, praised by Eudora Welty as "a more serious and complex writer than Chandler and Hammett ever were," Ross Macdonald (the pseudonym of Kenneth Millar) brought to the crime novel a new realism and psychological depth and a unique gift for intricately involving mystery narratives. For his centennial, The Library of America inaugurates its Macdonald edition with four classic novels from the 1950s, all featuring his incomparable protagonist, private investigator Lew Archer. Set against the background of a glittering yet darkly enigmatic Southern California, Macdonald's books are both unsurpassed entertainments and emotionally powerful evocations of an outwardly prosperous, inwardly turbulent America. Macdonald mastered the hard-boiled detective form early on and brought to it a prose style of extraordinary beauty. The four novels collected in the volume reveal him broadening the genre into an intensely personal means of expression, transforming the tragedies and dislocations of his own life into haunting fiction. "My interest," he wrote to his publisher, "is the exploration of lives."

Record details

ISBN: 9781598533767 (hbk.)
ISBN: 1598533762 (hbk.)
Physical Description: 926 pages ; 21 cm.
Publisher: New York : The Library Of America, [2015]
Copyright: ©2015

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 917-926).
Formatted Contents Note:: The way some people die -- The barbarous coast -- The doomsters -- The Galton case.

Other writings. Letter to Alfred A. Knopf -- The writer as detective hero -- Preface to Archer in Hollywood -- Writing The Galton case -- Down these streets a mean man must go.