Ross MacDonald
Page 68
“ ‘Kick le Carré in the pants for me’ ”: Margaret to Kenneth Millar, April 28, 1965, UCI.
“ ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me’ ”: “Prizes and Awards,” Publishers Weekly, May 10, 1965.
“The nineteenth annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards ceremony”: Details from “The Third Degree,” MWA newsletter, 1965.
“ ‘Brilliant as it was’ ”: Millar to Michael Avallone, May 11, 1965, from the Avallone Collection, Department of Special Collections, Boston University.
“ ‘Other people have said they found it difficult’ ”: Julian Symons interview with TN.
“ ‘Ken was very observant’ ”: Robert Lescher interview with TN.
“ ‘Your weariness came over the air as relaxation’ ”: Amy O’Leary to Millar, May 28, 1965, HRHRC.
“ ‘We were talking with the girls’ ”: Anna Branson to Millar, July 30, 1965, UCI.
“ ‘I think somebody said Yeats was an old man mad about writing’ ”: Martha MacGregor, “The Week in Books,” New York Post, May 9, 1965.
“ ‘Quite obviously this nails you down even tighter’ ”: Knopf to Millar, February 16, 1965, HRHRC.
“ ‘Someday I hope sales will catch up with the critics’ ”: Knopf to Millar, January 22, 1965, HRHRC.
“pleased and touched”: Knopf to Millar, January 10, 1964, HRHRC.
“among the best likenesses he’d ever captured”: Alfred A. Knopf, Sixty Photographs (Knopf, 1975). Note that Knopf made at least two exposures of Millar this day; the one reproduced in his book is different from that used on several of Macdonald’s.
“New Yorker”: Donald Barthelme, “Edward and Pia,” New Yorker, September 25, 1965.
“ ‘I read Black Money’ ”: Swanson to Millar, September 13, 1965, UCI.
“The motion pictures he’d seen as a kid”: The Inspector Fate films are mentioned by Archer in chapter ten of The Barbarous Coast. Their objective correlative in Millar’s life, perhaps, are the Falcon Swift stories he read as a boy and recalled in his preface to Lew Archer, Private Investigator (see Self-Portrait).
“ ‘lover’s quarrel’ ”: “My lover’s quarrel with Hollywood began at the age of seven”: from the introduction to Archer in Hollywood (Knopf, 1967).
“ ‘I had been a lunatic Archer fan since 1950’ ”: William Goldman, “The Macdonald Conspiracy,” in Inward Journey.
“ ‘I was a big big reader in those days’ ”: William Goldman interview with TN.
“ ‘one of the best novels of the twentieth century’ ”: Ibid.
“ ‘This should strengthen our bargaining position’ ”: Millar to von Auw, May 14, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘I have observed that the writers in my field’ ”: Millar to Olding, July 15, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘I believe my backlist’ ”: Ibid.
“ ‘who seems to understand’ ”: Millar to von Auw, May 14, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘I’d much rather see the deal fall through’ ”: Millar to von Auw, June 2, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘I came up with “Harper” ’ ”: Goldman interview with TN.
“ ‘If you know anything about the movie business’ ”: Ibid.
“It’s my best book”: Millar to Olding, June 22, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘Knopf never tells me anything’ ”: Millar to Olding, July 15, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘If Bantam drop half their Archers’ ”: Millar to Knopf, July 18, 1965, HRHRC.
“ ‘I sometimes wonder’ ”: Millar to Olding, July 20, 1965, Princeton.
“The writer was pleased no end”: Millar to Koshland, July 30, 1965, HRHRC.
“ ‘Erle Stanley Millar’ ”: Millar to Olding, July 10, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘I believe we should be ready’ ”: Millar to Koshland, July 30, 1965, HRHRC.
“not ‘movie money’ ”: Millar to Knopf, September 15, 1965, HRHRC.
“ ‘They paid ninety thousand’ ”: Easton interview with TN.
“ ‘We wonder at our good fortune’ ”: Millar to Olding, September 20, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘My dear wife is very happy’ ”: Millar to von Auw, September 20, 1965, Princeton.
“one of 1965’s twelve Women of the Year”: Jack Jones, “Writer Keeps One Eye on Novel, Other on Sparrow,” Los Angeles Times, January 4, 1966. See also Pat Dayton, “Writer Aware of Her Fame but Respects Predecessors,” Santa Barbara News-Press, December 17, 1965.
“ ‘a living doll’ ”: Millar to the Bransons, October 28, 1964, UCI.
“shot on the same stages as The Big Sleep”: Philip Oakes, (London) Sunday Times Magazine, June 5, 1966.
“ ‘I thought Newman was terrific’ ”: Goldman interview with TN.
“ ‘While you’re talking’ ”: Paul Newman interview, Playboy, July 1968.
“The actor told Goldman”: Millar to von Auw, January 17, 1966, Princeton.
“ ‘One advantage of the twenty-year Swanee episode’ ”: Millar to Jim Riesman (Ober agency), June 12, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘Swanee presents his problems’ ”: Millar to von Auw, September 4, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘Swanee and I saw Harper’ ”: Millar to von Auw, January 17, 1966, Princeton.
“Bennett Cerf called Millar from New York”: Millar to Knopf, February 12, 1966, HRHRC; Millar to von Auw, February 12, 1966, Princeton.
“ ‘the maddest of all’ ”: Millar to Knopf, February 9, 1966, HRHRC.
“ ‘It’s all rather fun for a change’ ”: Ibid.
“ ‘You will excuse my continuing to push’ ”: Millar to von Auw, February 12, 1966, Princeton.
“ ‘At a time when too many producers are stumbling’ ”: James Powers, “ ‘Harper’ Shapes Up as a Smash Hit: Funny, Exciting, Offbeat Love Story,” Hollywood Reporter, February 10, 1966.
“ ‘Let the boys make a picture with Archer’ ”: Millar note (unsent) with Swanson letter to Millar, February 11, 1966, UCI; also Millar to von Auw, February 17, 1966, Princeton.
“ ‘A presentation is a pretty mixed art form’ ”: Millar to Knopf, February 9, 1966.
“ ‘notes left next to the teapot’ ”: Kenneth to Margaret Millar, UCI.
“ ‘Turned down $35,000’ ”: Millar to Jim Riesman (Ober agency), March 24, 1966, Princeton.
“Judith Crist wrote it a mash note”: Judith Crist, “Return of the Pre-Bond Man,” New York Herald Tribune, April 3, 1966.
Millar to von Auw, April 12, 1966, Princeton: “I wish it were a better movie, but if Judith Crist likes it I don’t have to.”
“Pauline Kael, in McCall’s, was scathing”: Pauline Kael, “At the Movies,” McCall’s, April 1966.
“‘Harper even starts out like Raymond Chandler’ ”: Philip K. Scheur, “Newman Versatile in Playing ‘Harper,’ ” Los Angeles Times, February 23, 1966.
“the fourth-highest-grossing film in the country”: von Auw to Millar, April 14, 1966, Princeton.
“ ‘I remember waiting two hours in Mr. Warner’s office’ ”: Harris Seed interview with TN.
“ ‘I wish for the present to remain unrepresented by any agent in Hollywood’ ”: Millar to von Auw, April 27, 1966, Princeton.
“ ‘the best of Hollywood in many months’ ”: Queen, June 8, 1966.
“ ‘live in a world of mental slavery’ ”: Millar to Bill Koshland, June 10, 1966, HRHRC.
“ ‘not my line’ ”: Millar note, UCI.
“his blood pressure dropped twenty points”: Millar to von Auw, June 17, 1966, Princeton.
“ ‘We writers’ ”: Introduction to Archer in Hollywood; reprinted in Self-Portrait.
“ ‘Ken had an aura of great strength’ ”: Jerre Lloyd interview with TN.
“ ‘Perhaps I’ll never work as hard, quite’ ”: Millar to Anna Branson, September 2, 1966, UCI.
“ �
��The changes of the past year or so’ ”: Millar to Knopf, December 30, 1966, HRHRC.
“the best part of the year for him”: Millar to Knopf, November 16, 1966, HRHRC.
“hoped to surprise the customers”: Millar to Harding Lemay, December 4, 1966, HRHRC.
“ ‘I kept wondering’ ”: John Leonard, “Ross Macdonald, His Lew Archer and Other Secret Selves,” New York Times Book Review, June 1, 1969.
“their old Ford”: Raymond A. Sokolov, “The Art of Murder,” Newsweek, March 22, 1971.
“ ‘A burglary, even in absentia’ ”: Millar to Knopf, May 2, 1966, HRHRC.
“ ‘the stupidest deputy sheriffs in the world’ ”: Millar to von Auw, April 8, 1966, Princeton.
“ ‘majestic instancy’ ”: Millar to von Auw, June 9, 1967, Princeton.
“ ‘The director, Jack Smight’ ”: William Goldman interview with TN.
“ ‘Technique is poetic justice seen from below’ ”: Millar to Steven Carter, October 23, 1967, courtesy of Steven Carter.
“ ‘a lean, sun-browned man of 52’ ”: Dick Adler, “Will the Real Ross Macdonald Please Keep Writing?” West magazine, Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1967.
“ ‘I met him for breakfast’ ”: Dick Adler interview with TN.
“ ‘The number of mystery writers’ ”: Clifford A. Ridley, “Surveying the Current Whodunit Offerings,” National Observer, January 6, 1968.
“ ‘I have a passion for Dickens’ ”: Charles Monaghan interview with Elizabeth Bowen, “Portrait of a Woman Reading,” Washington Post Book World, November 10, 1968.
“ ‘some sort of a seer’ ”: Millar interview with Paul Nelson, UCI.
“ ‘I foresaw with a sudden pang’ ”: Millar to Ping Ferry, May 3, 1973; typed copy, UCI.
“ ‘an unmitigated disaster’ ”: Macdonald interview with Jeff Sweet, Gallery, August 1974.
“ ‘I’m in a bitter struggle’ ”: Millar to Olding, June 22, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘If they really do suspend hostilities’ ”: Millar to von Auw, December 28, 1965, Princeton.
“ ‘I have a book going’ ”: Millar to Knopf, December 30, 1966, HRHRC.
“Macdonald started getting fan mail from GIs”: correspondence, UCI.
“ ‘It feels to me like a season of apocalypse’ ”: Millar to Olding, October 3, 1967, Princeton.
“ ‘The country is going to hell’ ”: Millar to the Bransons, December 21, 1967, UCI.
“ ‘I’m a bit scared of 1968’ ”: Millar to Avallone, December 31, 1967, from the Avallone Collection, Department of Special Collections, Boston University.
“ ‘It got to the point’ ”: Macdonald interview with Trevor Meldal-Johnsen, Gallery, March 1976.
“a cherry bomb”: Millar to Olding, February 2, 1969, Princeton.
“ ‘I won’t say I’m sorry’ ”: Millar to William Ruehlmann, March 23, 1968; typed copy, UCI.
“ ‘It makes me angry’ ”: Millar to Ruehlmann, October 26, 1972; typed copy, UCI.
“ ‘A small, anxious boy’ ”: Brad Darrach, “Ross Macdonald: The Man Behind the Mysteries,” People, July 8, 1974.
“ ‘Close to explosion’ ”: Paul Nelson, “It’s All One Case,” in Inward Journey.
“ ‘As a teenager’ ”: William Ruehlmann interview with TN.
“ ‘I met Ken in the morning’ ”: Ibid.
“ ‘Did you know . . . that the government is planning atomic power plants’ ”: Millar to Olding, December 9, 1968, Princeton.
“ ‘still these are precious days’ ”: Millar to Olding, August 3, 1968, Princeton.
“ ‘I’ve slowed down enough’ ”: Millar to von Auw, September 28, 1968, Princeton.
“one by Clare Booth Luce”: New York, circa September 1968, unlocated. (Cited by Millar to Green, September 28, 1968, UCI.)
“the daily New York Times”: Thomas Lask, “Homicide à la Carte,” “Books of the Times,” New York Times, July 6, 1968.
“ ‘We are living on the income from books alone’ ”: Millar to Seed, July 29, 1968, typed copy, UCI.
“ ‘now at the peak of his earning power’ ”: Millar to Seed, May 1, 1968; typed copy, UCI.
“ ‘an extraordinary performance’ ”: Anthony Boucher, “Criminals at Large,” New York Times Book Review, March 3, 1968.
“ ‘There are a couple of hundred of us’ ”: Phyllis White letter to TN, May 31, 1990.
“a book in which Macdonald kept company with mainstream authors”: Thomas McCormack, ed., Afterwords: Novelists on Their Novels (Harper & Row, 1968).
“ ‘Close to godhead’ ”: Joe Gores interview with TN.
“ ‘I seem to be moving further in the direction of the “mainstream novel”’ ”: Millar to Ash Green, May 6, 1968, UCI.
“ ‘I feel as if I’m turning a corner’ ”: Millar to Knopf, March 26, 1968, HRHRC.
“ ‘I’m keen on this book’ ”: Millar to Green, September 28, 1968, UCI.
“ ‘Naturally the front page’ ”: Alfred A. Knopf, “Book Publishing: The Changes I’ve Seen,” Atlantic Monthly, December 1957.
“ ‘We’d all been in the service’ ”: Stump interview with TN.
“ ‘It lay so thick on the water’ ”: Ross Macdonald, “Life with the Blob,” Sports Illustrated, April 21, 1969; included in Self-Portrait.
“He cut his Union Oil credit card in two”: Herb Harker, “A Tribute,” Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1983: “It was not an act he took pleasure in, nor did he express any malice. A snip of the shears tokened his separation from the despoilers.”
“ ‘Many of us booed him’ ”: Macdonald, “Life with the Blob.”
“ ‘Margaret was always in the forefront’ ”: Ping Ferry interview with TN.
“in a picture reproduced in newspapers and magazines”: E.g., Business Week, February 15, 1969; Sports Illustrated, April 21, 1969; Fortune, April 1969.
“ ‘No one ever could intimidate Ken’ ”: Barney Brantingham, “Millars mobilized to ‘ban the blob,’ ” Santa Barbara News-Press, January 28, 1989.
“ ‘This thing radicalized the entire city’ ”: Ferry interview with TN.
“ ‘We took it seriously’ ”: Brantingham, “Millars mobilized.”
“ ‘the objective correlative of my mental life’ ”: Millar to Olding, February 11, 1969, Princeton.
“having his picture printed”: E.g., “Oil in the Velvet Playground,” Ramparts, November 1969.
“a quixotic flotilla of launches and sailboats”: See “GOO Fishes In,” Newsweek, December 8, 1969; also letter from Lt. T. B. Kichline, U.S. Coast Guard, to Millar, December 10, 1969, UCI.
“With Easton, Millar did a second article”: Ross Macdonald and Robert Easton, “Santa Barbarans Cite an 11th Commandment: ‘Thou Shalt Not Abuse the Earth,’ ” New York Times Magazine, October 12, 1969.
“ ‘collaborating with a porcupine’ ”: Robert Easton, “A Tribute,” Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1983.
“ ‘We’ve got to convert this horror’ ”: Macdonald, “Life with the Blob.”
“ ‘special notice’ ”: John Leonard to Millar, March 24, 1969, UCI.
“ ‘knew my books better than I do’ ”: Millar to Green, January 1, 1969, UCI.
“ ‘I have a tactile memory’ ”: John Leonard interview with TN.
“ ‘We dilated on the thesis’ ”: John Leonard, “I Care Who Killed Roger Ackroyd,” Esquire, August 1975.
“ ‘I was not at that time a mystery reader’ ”: Leonard interview with TN.
“ ‘Macdonald’s work in the last decade’ ”: William Goldman, “The finest detective novels ever written by an American,” New York Times Book Review, June 1, 1969.
“ ‘Ten years ago, while nobody was watching’ ”: John Leonard, “Ross Macdonald, his Lew
Archer and other secret selves,” New York Times Book Review, June 1, 1969.
“ ‘Vonnegut was known quite specifically in New York’ ”: Leonard interview with TN.
“ ‘I told Maggie’ ”: Millar to Green, May 30, 1969, UCI.
“ ‘My publishers are agog’ ”: Millar to Matthew Bruccoli, May 28, 1969, MJB Collection, UCI.
“ ‘The Coolest Man in Crime’ ”: Millar to Green, January 2, 1969, UCI.
“ ‘Booksellers and readers’ ”: Millar to von Auw, June 1, 1969, Princeton.
“ ‘In these books, bruised women run away’ ”: Ray Bradbury, “Macdonald . . . the Sadness of Murder,” Los Angeles Times Calendar, June 8, 1969.
“ ‘Heywood Broun had a considerable following’ ”: Alfred A. Knopf, “Publishing’s Last 50 Years,” Saturday Review, November 21, 1964.
“ ‘absolutely perfect’ ”: Millar to Green, June 23, 1969, UCI.
“ ‘It’s more than I’d hoped for’ ”: Millar to Green, July 14, 1969, UCI.
“ ‘these are interesting times’ ”: Millar to Green, June 28, 1969, UCI.
“ ‘Pretty good for an old mystery writer’ ”: Easton to Matthew Bruccoli, September 22, 1982, courtesy of Robert Easton.
“ ‘I’ve decided to postpone’ ”: Millar to Olding, July 16, 1969, Princeton.
“ ‘Eighth place’ ”: Millar to von Auw, July 16, 1969, Princeton.
“Time magazine’s”: unsigned review, “Detection Pushed Too Far,” Time, August 15, 1969.
“ ‘What Mr. Goldman is saying’ ”: Bruce Cook, “Can ‘Fun’ Be ‘Serious’?” National Observer, September 15, 1969.
“ ‘I do want to tell you’ ”: Knopf to Millar, September 5, 1969, HRHRC.
“ ‘The Greeks only pirate first-class stuff’ ”: Ober memo, July 1969, Princeton.
“ ‘We have ceased wondering’ ”: Millar to John Smith, July 15, 1969, UCI.
“ ‘comparative obscurity’ ”: Millar to Green, October 20, 1969, UCI.
“ ‘I really can’t’ ”: Millar to von Auw, July 17, 1969, Princeton.