RARA-AVIS: Rara Avis top 50 Crime Fiction Writers

From: Dave Zeltserman ( dz@hardluckstories.com)
Date: 25 Apr 2008


21 Rara Avians ended up responding, 152 writers received votes. Again, as stated originally, scoring was done NBA MVP-style--the top writer on each list received 25 points, with each successive writer receiving one less point. Once the lists were tallied (using Excel) I tried settling ties by giving preference to writers who appeared on more lists.

I'd like to thank everyone who participated. I'm including next to each writer's name the point total that they received. I think this is a list we can be proud of--and to my mind, makes a hell of a lot more sense than that farcockteh list the London Times came up with.

1) Dashiell Hammett 480 2) Raymond Chandler 383 3) Charles Willeford 317 4) Lawrence Block 261 5) Donald Westlake 259 6) Jim Thompson 225 7) James Cain 217 8) David Goodis 197 9) Chester Himes 195 10) Elmore Leonard 185 11) Michael Connelly 157 12) Ross MacDonald 157 13) James Crumley 155 14) James Ellroy 139 15) Charles Williams 130 16) John D. Macdonald 120 17) Ross Thomas 116 18) James Sallis 109 19) Georges Pelecanos 92 20) Walter Mosley 91 21) Daniel Woodrell 84 22) Derek Raymond 78 23) Mickey Spillane 78 24) Joe Gores 76 25) Cornell Woolrich 73 26) Ted Lewis 72 27) Harry Whittington 66 28) JP Manchette 63 29) Georges Simenon 62 30) Jason Starr 60 31) Ed McBain 59 32) Robert Parker 58 33) Frederic Brown 57 34) Jonathan Latimer 55 35) Loren Estleman 54 36) Patricia Highsmith 53
    Ken Bruen 53 38) Dan Marlowe 52 39) TJ Parker 52 40) Newton Thornburg 46 41) Gil Brewer 42 42) Rex Stout 42 43) Horace McCoy 40 44) James Lee Burke 40
    George Higgins 40 46) Vicki Hendricks 34 47) Peter Rabe 32 48) Thomas Perry 32
    Cormac McCarthy 32 50) Thomas Cook 31



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