Al wrote:
<Well, without inviting Hunter and Leonard to take lie
detector tests,
<there's no way of knowing for sure. But I'm frankly
astonished you think so.
<I can easily see how Chandler's style of writing would
drive Leonard to
<distraction. After all, their writing is contrary in
almost every possible
<way.
Wasn't Leonard's claim that he had learned nothing from
either Chandler or Hammett? I don't see how anybody writing
in the crime field today can say that and mean it. I'm
thinking primarily of Hammett here. The Black Mask boys, with
Hammett as the most visible, put a distinctive stamp on crime
fiction that influenced everything in the genre that came
after. I wonder if there was a follow up question: if Hammett
wasn't an influence, then who? Perhaps like Robert Parker,
Leonard is a Melville man.
Dick Lochte
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