Alias S S Van Dine
by John Loughery
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Description
"During the first four tumultuous decades of this century, Willard Huntington Wright lived two lives: before World War I, he was a pioneering art critic and editor of the avant-garde magazine The Smart Set, who numbered among his friends Alfred Stieglitz, H. L. Mencken, and Theodore Dreiser. In the 1920s, he transformed himself into S. S. Van Dine, one of America's best-selling authors. Mysteries featuring his detective Philo Vance--The Benson Murder Case, The "Canary" Murder Case, The show more Bishop Murder Case, among others--sold more than a million copies by the end of the decade, and dominated book sales during the first rough months of the Great Depression. Even by the standards of the Jazz Age, Wright lived an outsized life--in his palatial Manhattan penthouse he maintained an aquarium of two thousand exotic fish. But by the late 1930s, he was a broken, desperate man consumed by the fear of failure that had shadowed him all his life. The fashions of detective fiction had changed--Wright deplored the "all booze and erections style" of his competitor Dashiell Hammett--and he was reduced to writing novelizations of his failed screenplays in order to get by." "John Loughery depicts in bewitching detail the rise and fall of a writer who helped create the modern detective novel, and tells with heartbreaking eloquence the story of a man whose fame ultimately destroyed him. Re-creating the artistic spirit of a lost world, Alias S. S. Van Dine is a brilliant work of literary archaeology that resurrects a man, his books, and the era whose glamour and flaws he came to represent so completely."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved show lessTags
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Member Reviews
It's a well-researched, balanced biography on a very complex subject. W H Wright (Van Dine's real name) was an elusive and contradictory character, very difficult to put your finger on. On the other hand, his life is well-documented through hundreds of letters, hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, and numerous acquaintances. He was a dogmatic and ferocious art critic, a great expender of money, and up to his forties he lived from hand to mouth for several years. The Philo Vance mystery novels allowed him to become rich and live like the European intellectual dandy he aspired to be (sort of Gabrielle d'Annunzio or J-K. Huysmans). His mystery novels have aged a lot but are still a touchstone for anyone who wants to know what show more mystery writing in America was in the 1930s. show less
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Edgar Award
418 works; 15 members
Author Information
10 Works 538 Members
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Dedication
- For Virginia and Edward Loughery
- First words
- From the beginning, Willard Huntington Wright's objectives were lofty: the raising of American journalism and criticism to new heights and the emancipation of American literature.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It is appropriate that Stanton's fine painting, echoing the colors and style of Cezanne, suggests not the later, defeated side of his brother's life, but the earlier, brighter moment of confidence in his own and in America's future.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Biography & Memoir, Literature Studies and Criticism, Mystery
- DDC/MDS
- 813.52 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1900-1945
- LCC
- PS3545 .R846 .Z75 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1900-1960
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 31
- Popularity
- 900,677
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
