Friends,
In his essay on hardboiled fiction in Howard Haycraft's "The
Art of the Mystery Story", Erle Stanley Gardner credits Daly
as one of the founders, if not the founder, of the hardboiled
genre. I just re-read this essay for the first time in over
30 (!!) years and found it very well written and
interesting.
I read a Daly book in 1980 or 81 (possibly "The Snarl of the
Beast") and, though not remarkable, found it likable. If one
takes into consideration when it was written, it is
remarkable! Not boring nor slow, as so many of his modern
successors.
Enrique F. Bird PicR>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Keith Alan Deutsch [SMTP:
keithdeutsch@earthlink.net]
> Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 5:21 PM
> To:
rara-avis@icomm.ca
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: Carroll John Daly
> Importance: High
>
> Dear Bob,
>
>
> Yes Daly is a hack, but a brilliant hack. Almost
every cliche about the
> "classic hard boiled detective" was invented ab ovum
by Daly. Mike Hammer
> and
> Race Williams (or Three-Gun Terry) are obviously
blood brothers (and
> Spillane
> admitted as much.) By the way, I realy enjoy
Spillane, for awhile he was
> the
> most popular writer in America (by sales); but he
often makes the same
> "terrible
> writing mistakes of excess" that Daly does. With the
right attitude, Daly
> is a
> lot fun. Vigoruos, silly, but engaging first person
narration.
>
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