RARA-AVIS: Brackett and other 40's hardboiled women

From: Michael Robison ( zspider@gte.net)
Date: 18 Oct 2002


Steve wrote: This mention reminds me that the late Leigh Brackett mentored Bradbury a lot during this period. If anyone on the list hasn't checked out her collection of hard boiled stories from the 40's then I would strongly suggest that you do so. NO GOOD FROM A CORPSE. Apparently film director Howard Hawks was so impressed upon reading it after it came out in 1944 that he hired Brackett to help write the screenplay of THE BIG SLEEP. When we get to the 40's on our monthly trips through the decades I'd definitely like to see other members thoughts on Brackett's work, both in the movies on the pulps.

************* Seems like the women really woke up to hardboiled/noir in the 40's, doesn't it? I have not found a single novel in the genre written in the 30's by a woman. Baker's YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN is 30's, but it hasn't developed a hardboiled or noir feeling yet, and I'm halfway through it (that is not a complaint, just a state- ment.).

But the 40's! WAHOOOO!! Here come the women! Craig Rice, Margaret Millar, Dorothy Hughes, Brackett, and Patricia Highsmith. Any suggestion of other women writing hardboiled/noir novels in the 40's would be appreciated.

Incidentally, Steve, I got the Brackett title you listed above from Abebooks. It's a cute little pamphlet type thing, and it's got a 15 cent price on it. Oddest format I ever seen for a novel. Is this what the older dime novels looked like? I had to pay 20 bucks for the darn thing! Hahaha!

miker

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