I first encountered a list like this on Lee Goldberg’s blog a couple of days ago, and the idea has spread to other places since then, so I thought I’d try my hand at it. I have very specific reasons for picking every one of these authors, but if I went into detail about them, this would be too long for a blog post and more of an essay instead. The list might vary slightly from day to day, but probably not much. So here they are, 25 writers who have influenced my career, in an order that makes sense to me, even if it probably won’t to anybody else.
Livia Washburn
Robert E. Howard
Davis Dresser
Raymond Chandler
Dashiell Hammett
Ross Macdonald
Richard S. Prather
Mickey Spillane
Robert Leslie Bellem
A. Leslie Scott
Tom Curry
Walt Coburn
Lester Dent
D.B. Newton
Lou Cameron
Jon Messman
Noel Gerson
Paul Block
Gary Goldstein
Ed Gorman
Allan Guthrie
Stan Lee
Ernest Hemingway
Harry Whittington
Leslie Charteris
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9 comments:
Very interesting and I definitely want to do this myself. There are a fair number on your list that I know of by name but haven't read much from.
Stan Lee *and* Ernest Hemingway. Now that's eclectic. Interesting to see so many detective writers on your list.
Interesting selection, James. I presume some of the people on the list have been more of an influence on your career than as a writer, am I right?
I just don't know who these guys are:
Noel Gerson
Paul Block
Gary Goldstein
You send me Googling, man.
Okay, I get it with Gerson and Block, but Goldstein - the producer of PRETTY WOMAN?
Great list - this is interesting to read, like going through a writer's book shelf.
Juri,
I'm thinking of the other Gary Goldstein, writer, editor, and former stand-up comic who has bought more books from me over the course of my career than any other editor. He falls into the same category as Block, Gorman, and Guthrie, writers who also happen to be editors who have bought books from me.
Brian,
There's a line of dialogue in my first book where someone tells the protagonist, "You're the only person I know who has Zane Grey and Herman Hesse on the same shelf." I've always been pretty scattershot in my reading. All the detective writers are there because they made me want to write a private eye novel of my own, and that's what got me started.
Haven't seen Noel Gerson's name in a long time. I think the last time he had any rack space was back in the late '70s when he was reprinted by -- I think it was Charter -- during the boom in pulpy historical novels created by the success of Jakes' Kent Family novels.
Fred,
I remember those historical novels by Gerson. I believe they were originally published in the Fifties. I seem to recall that he also wrote under the name Bruce Lancaster. But his biggest successes were the Wagons West series under the Dana Fuller Ross pseudonym and the White Indian series as by Donald Clayton Porter, two series he started but didn't finish. After he retired those by-lines became house names. I was the fourth and final Dana Fuller Ross (and the books I did under that name are still the best-selling books I've written), so he was definitely an influence on my career.
Interesting list, James. Made me think about making my own list, which follows:
Ross Macdonald
Raymond Chandler
Dashiell Hammett
Mickey Spillane
Carter Brown
Richard S. Prather
John D. MacDonald
Warren Murphy
Ross Thomas
Bill Pronzini
Donald E. Westlake (as Stark and Coe)
Max Allan Collins
Dennis Lynds (Michael Collins)
Franklin W. Dixon
Donald Hamilton
Edward S. Aarons
Roger Zelazny
Keith Laumer
Roberrt Silverberg
Robert Heinlein
Robert E. Howard
Frank Herbert
Jory Sherman
Ben Haas (John Benteen)
Thanks. This was fun.
RJR
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