Juri was wondering how Chandler could have a blurb on a
Philip Atlee novel when the first was published after
Chandler's death.
James Atlee Phillips had several novels published before his
Fawcett series as Philip Atlee and those were the ones that
caught Raymond Chandler's eye. I recently reread SUITABLE FOR
FRAMING (1949) and again relished scenes and dialog that
capture perfectly what I love in a good HB story. Here is one
sample:
The tall man who had been tapped with
the blackjack was sitting up. He was still on the floor, his
back against the wall, and was feeling his head carefully.
Mack, the bartender whistled at me through the uproar. He was
holding out a glass of pink champagne, but I shook my head in
refusal. With an impatient gesture, he indicated it was for
the man on the floor, so I made the transfer. He took it and
leaned back with a sigh. When I turned to go, he asked me to
have a drink with him, so I sat down. There seemed to be legs
all around us.
"It's a bitch, ain't it?" he asked
pleasantly.
"What? That rap on the sconce?"
He laughed out loud. "No I had that
coming. I always start shouting about this time of night, and
Mack usually has to feed me the persuader---" He felt his
head again, like a man pawing through a nest for eggs. "One
night they had to get four gendarmes."
I smiled at a young lady on one of
the bar stools, and she rearranged her skirts. "Is that all
you do?" I asked. "Collect skull fractures in here?"
He murmured into the bubbles of his
champagne. "No, sir. I do a great many other things.
Sometimes I fly horses."
To me, this is great stuff!
I also enjoy the Philip Atlee novels although the writing and
plotting is generally not at the level of his earlier work.
His brother David was a top CIA official who later wrote a
memoir and a novel. I always wondered if
"Philip Atlee" was also a cover for intelligence work. Both
E. Howard Hunt and Charles McCarry pursued writing careers
while remaining on the CIA payroll. I am currently reading
his Dell paperback original THE DEADLY MERMAIDS from the
mid-50s, which features someone operating undercover in Haiti
for a US intelligence agency.
James A. Philips died a few years ago. He married a wealthy
Arkansas woman and lived the good life in his final years.
Mike Nevins did a good interview with him years ago that was
published in an issue of (I think) "Espionage."
Richard Moore
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