Ross macdonald on crime writing authors

Ross Macdonald - One of the few mystery writers also regarded as a major American novelist. Macdonald was frequently characterized as the successor to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

When his father abandoned his family unexpectedly, Macdonald lived with his mother and various relatives, moving several times by his 16th year.

In Canada, he met and married Margaret Sturm in They had a daughter, Linda, who died in He began his career writing stories for pulp magazines.

While doing graduate study, he completed his first novel, The Dark Tunnel, in For his first four novels, he used his real name. After serving at sea as a naval communications officer from toMillar returned to Michigan, where he obtained his Ph.

For his fifth novel, inhe wrote under the name John Macdonald in order to avoid confusion with his wife, who was achieving her own success writing as Margaret Millar. He then changed his pen name briefly to John Ross Macdonald, before settling on Ross Macdonald, in order to avoid being confused with fellow mystery writer John D.

MacDonaldwho wrote under his real name.

He is the author of Ross Macdonald: A Biography () and editor of Ross Macdonald’s The Archer Files (). He is also the author of Artie Shaw, King of the Clarinet (reissued ) and has been crime fiction reviewer for The Wall Street Journal since /5(26). Ross Macdonald came to crime writing honestly. Virtually fatherless and growing up poor, Kenneth Millar broke social and moral laws: having sex from the age of eight, getting drunk at . Hailed as one of the 'holy trinity of American crime writers', Ross Macdonald surpassed his predecessors Chandler and Hammett, writing detective novels informed by sorrows and by Freud, argues.

In the early s, he returned to California, settling for some thirty years in Santa Barbarathe area where most of his books were set. In these the city is referred to under the fictional name of Santa Teresa.

Work[ edit ] Macdonald first introduced the tough but humane private eye Lew Archer in the short story "Find the Woman" credited to "Ken Millar"; he would subsequently use variations of "John Ross Macdonald" on all his writing.

On Crime Writing by Ross Macdonald

A full-length novel, The Moving Targetfollowed in This novel the first in a series of eighteen would become the basis for the Paul Newman film Harper. Macdonald has been called the primary heir to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler as the master of American hardboiled mysteries.

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: He brought the tragic drama of Freud and the psychology of Sophocles to detective stories, and his prose flashed with poetic imagery.Both Millar (under the pen name of first John Macdonald, then John Ross Macdonld and finally Ross Macdonald) and Margaret were regularly being published.

Tobias Jones on the crime novels of Ross Macdonald | Books | The Guardian

Millar (, On Crime Writing; also includes "The Writer as Reflections on Ross Macdonald by 25 of America's Most Distinguished Authors New York: The Mysterious Press, He is the author of Ross Macdonald: A Biography () and editor of Ross Macdonald’s The Archer Files (). He is also the author of Artie Shaw, King of the Clarinet (reissued ) and has been crime fiction reviewer for The Wall Street Journal since /5(26).

Apr 21,  · Ross Macdonald had a smart answer to the tedious question of why he devoted his considerable talents to writing "mere" detective stories: Macdonald said . Ross Macdonald is the pseudonym of the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth regardbouddhiste.com is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in southern California and featuring private detective Lew Archer.

Millar was born in Los Gatos, California, and raised in his parents' native Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, where he started college.4/5(K). Hailed as one of the 'holy trinity of American crime writers', Ross Macdonald surpassed his predecessors Chandler and Hammett, writing detective novels informed by sorrows and by Freud, argues.

Both Millar (under the pen name of first John Macdonald, then John Ross Macdonld and finally Ross Macdonald) and Margaret were regularly being published.

Millar (, On Crime Writing; also includes "The Writer as Reflections on Ross Macdonald by 25 of America's Most Distinguished Authors New York: The Mysterious Press,