Western and Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction in America: From High Noon to Midnight

209 Pages·1987·48.732 MB·English

by  Cynthia S. Hamilton (auth.)

WESTERN AND HARD-BOILED DETECTIVE
FICTION IN AMERICA

Western and Hard
Boiled Detective
Fiction in America
From High Noon to Midnight
Cynthia S. Hamilton
M
MACMILLAN
PRESS
©Cynthia S. Hamilton 1987
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1987 978-0-333-40495-9
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
of this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied
or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance
with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to
this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and
civil claims for damages.
First published 1987
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Hamilton, Cynthia S.
Western and hard-boiled detective fiction
in America: from high noon to midnight.
1. Detective and mystery stories, American
- History and criticism
I. Title
813' .0872'09 PS374.D4
ISBN 978-1-349-08392-3 ISBN 978-1-349-08390-9 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-349-08390-9
For my family
who kept wanting to know when it would be finished

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
PART ONE THE STUDY OF FORMULA LITERATURE
1 The Historical Frame 9
2 The Layering of Contexts 36
3 Formula and the Marketplace 50
PART TWO THE WRITER AND THE FORMULA
4 Zane Grey 71
5 Frederick Faust 94
6 Dashiell Hammett 120
7 Raymond Chandler 146
Bibliography 172
Index 192
vii

Preface
There are a number of people I should like to thank. My husband
has undoubtedly contributed more to the successful completion
of this project than anyone else. He has acted as sounding-board,
typist, and on occasion as research assistant. He has also done the
dishes. Marcus Cunliffe supervised the initial stages of my
research and writing on the American adventure formula, and has
continued to take an active interest in my work. Rupert Wilkin
son's meticulous reading of my dissertation was invaluable. I am
grateful for his time and patience, as well as for the discomforting
accuracy of his criticisms.
Cindy Pateras has provided a great deal of bad coffee and good
advice on the craft of writing. John Whitley and Geoffrey Hemstedt
have taken a helpful interest in my project, for which I am grateful.
My daughter contributed a great deal of eager interest, both in
whatever I happened to be working on at the moment, and in the
timing of her supper. My editor, Frances Arnold, has been both
helpful and patient.
Although I had formulated my own approach to formula litera
ture before reading John G. Cawelti's work, his The Six-Gun
Mystique and Adventure, Mystery, and Romance have certainly
helped to shape my own thinking. Although I admire his work, I
have reservations about his theoretical framework. Richard Bridg
man's notion of colloquial style, and Philip Durham's identification
of the concept and components of the objective technique have
provided the framework for my discussions of style, though the
insights on individual writers made possible by their groundwork
are my own. John Paterson's fine essay on the private eye had
the effect of immediately crystallising what had previously been
nebulous. Robert Edenbaum and Steven Marcus did me a similar
service for Hammett's work. I have relied heavily on a number of
biographies, mainly for facts, but occasionally for some insight:
ix