James Crumley

For the Scottish football goalkeeper, see James Crumley (footballer). For the fugitive in Michigan, see 2021 Oxford High School shooting.

James Crumley
at Bouchercon Chicago, September 11, 2005
at Bouchercon
Chicago, September 11, 2005
BornJames Arthur Crumley
(1939-10-12)October 12, 1939
Three Rivers, Texas, U.S.
DiedSeptember 17, 2008(2008-09-17) (aged 68)
Missoula, Montana, U.S.
OccupationAuthor
Alma materGeorgia Institute of Technology
Texas A&M University–Kingsville (B.A.)
University of Iowa (M.F.A.)
Period1969–2005
Genrehardboiled detective crime
Notable worksOne to Count Cadence
The Last Good Kiss
The Mexican Tree Duck
Notable awardsDashiell Hammett Award
1993 The Mexican Tree Duck
SpouseMartha Elizabeth
(married c.1992)
four previous marriages:
Sandra "Charlie" Crumley
Maggie Brown
Judith Ann Ramey
Bronwyn Pughe[1]

James Arthur Crumley (October 12, 1939 – September 17, 2008)[2][3][4] was an American author of violent hardboiled crime novels and several volumes of short stories and essays, as well as published and unpublished screenplays. He has been described as "one of modern crime writing's best practitioners",[5] who was "a patron saint of the post-Vietnam private eye novel"[1] and a cross between Raymond Chandler and Hunter S. Thompson.[4] His book The Last Good Kiss has been described as "the most influential crime novel of the last 50 years."[6]

Crumley's first published novel, 1969's One to Count Cadence, which was set in the Philippines and Vietnam, began as the thesis for his master's degree in creative writing from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1966. His novels The Last Good Kiss, The Mexican Tree Duck and The Right Madness feature the character C.W. Sughrue, an alcoholic ex-army officer turned private investigator. The Wrong Case, Dancing Bear and The Final Country feature another P.I., Milo Milodragovitch. In the novel Bordersnakes, Crumley brought both characters together. Crumley said of his two private detectives: "Milo's first impulse is to help you; Sughrue's is to shoot you in the foot."[3]

Crumley had a cult following, and his work is said to have inspired a generation of crime writers in both the U.S. and the U.K,[5] including Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane[1] and Craig McDonald,[7] as well as writers from other genres such as Neal Stephenson,[8] but he never achieved mainstream success. "Don't know why that is," Crumley said in an interview in 2001, "Other writers like me a lot. But up until about 10 to 12 years ago, I made more money in France and Japan than in America. I guess I just don't fit in anyplace in the genre book marketplace."[9]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference wapo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Local author James Crumley dies at 68 url=http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/09/18/news/local/news02.txt date=2008-09-17 accessdate=2008–09=18
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference lat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Fox, Margalit "James Crumley, Crime Novelist, Is Dead at 68" New York Times (September 19, 2008)
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference guardian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Moe, Doug "Bleak House slashes prices, literally" Archived January 7, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Wisconsin State Journal (December 4, 2008)
  7. ^ McDonald's character "Hector Lassiter", who appears in his novels Head Games and Toros & Torsos, is "a hard-living crime writer whose private life overlaps with his dark and violent fiction" and was inspired by Crumley. Moe, Doug "Bleak House slashes prices, literally" Archived January 7, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Wisconsin State Journal (December 4, 2008)
  8. ^ Mergenhagen, Donna "Literary world loses significant authors"[permanent dead link] The Triton (December 26, 2008)
  9. ^ "Author James Crumley dies" Dallas Morning News (September 20, 2008)