Re: RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled: Classic vs. Contemporary

Mario Taboada (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Sun, 30 Nov 1997 13:21:39 +0000 Rick Robinson has a point - the promotional machine is always looking
for wunderkinds and blockbusters, and there are many mystery readers
(even quite avid ones) who don't know of Tucker Coe or Richard Stark, or
going back a ways, of Gault, Browne, Dewey, or even Ross Macdonald
(Chandler and Hammett everyone has heard of, but that doesn't mean that
they have that many readers). But even recent writers who work at a very
high level, like Crumley (he has spoken about his sales, which are
pitiful and never have gone beyond 10,000 copies), or Loren Estleman or
Max Allan Collins, two writers who uphold the tradition, or of Arthur
Lyons (one of the best mystery writers to ever have come out of
California, and the infinitive stays split, dammit!).

I suspect this is partly due to tax laws that make it very costly for
publishers to keep old material in print. Even Ross Macdonald was out of
print for a few years! As some readers of this list surely know, the
situation in England is very different, and there are *lots* of reprints
of classic hardboiled authors available at low prices (No Exit Press,
Allison & Busby, etc.).

All of that said, there are several hardboiled writers now working who
deserve all the praise they get, like Block, Pronzini, Walter Mosley,
James Sallis, Teri White, James Lee Burke, James Ellroy, etc. We may
even be in a kind of golden age for the hardboiled mystery...

Regards,

Mario Taboada
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