From Ed Gorman's Desk: "Ross Macdonald"

from ED GORMAN’S Desk

Ross Macdonald from Aug. 1, 2007   The first Ross Macdonald novel I ever read was The Way Some People Die. He was John Ross Macdonald then, still going back and forth I suppose with John D. MacDonald about the use of names so similar.      I was fifteen, steeped in Gold Medals and Lions and Ace Doubles. By then I’d read a good deal of Hammett and Chandler as well. None of it prepared me for Ross Macdonald.      I was too ignorant to pick up on stylistic differences. What I noticed were the characters. Few of them were new to me as types, most of them in fact were in most of the hardboiled novels I’d read, but Macdonald brought a depth and humanity to them that made me think not of other crime writers but of authors such as Fitzgerald and Hemingway and James T. Farrell and Graham Greene, my idols at the time. This was real no bullshit psychological writing.      Just as superheroes never outgrow their need for milk, I’ve never outgrown my need for the novels and stories of Ross Macdonald. I share his view of humanity, that amalgam of fascination, disappointment, anger, and sorrow that fill his work.      If you want to remind yourself of how good he was even early on, I’d recommend The Archer Files edited by Tom Nolan and published by Crippen & Landru. In addition to being a fine looking collection, it contains all the published Lew Archer short stories plus an intriguing section called “Notes.” Macdonald started stories that he planned to someday finish, a way of keeping thoughts alive. Most of these sure would have made superb tales.      Then there’s the long introduction by Tom Nolan in which he takes the reader into the work and life of Kenneth Millar; a/k/a Ross Macdonald. Nolan wrote the Edgar-nominated biography of Macdonald and this introduction is almost a synthesis of it in its information, insight and elegantly arranged presentation.      Oh, yes—the stories. There are an even dozen and while some are better than others all of them demonstrate why he became so important so quickly, even though his real fame took many years to achieve. My favorite is an imperfect piece called “Wild Goose Chase.” There’s a sort of gothic frenzy to it that kept me flipping those pages.      This is an essential acquisition for all libraries, home or public.  Click here to check out The Archer Files at Amazon.

This article originally appeared on Ed Gorman’s blog, New Improved Gorman, on Aug. 1, 2007. It is reprinted here by permission. Ed wrote dozens of novels in a variety of genres, but his most popular work (and my favorite of his work) was in the crime and western genres. His ten Sam McCain mysteries—set in the fictional Iowa town of Black River Falls during the 1950s, ’60, and ’70s—are suspenseful, mysterious, and often funny excursions into small town America. The New York Times called Sam McCain, “The kind of hero any small town could take to its heart” and The Seattle Times called McCain “an intriguing mix of knight errant and realist…”      But Ed was also a tireless reader and promoter of other writers’ work. His blogs—there were three, none of them operating at the same time—are treasure troves for readers of crime, horror, and western fiction both old and new. Ed died Oct. 14, 2016.   Click here to check out Ed Gorman’s Sam McCain novels on Amazon.