CRITICAL ANALYSIS
ONE OF THE BEST Ellroy interviews can be found in the Spring 1984 edition of Armchair Detective. The interview was conducted by Duane Tucker, to whom Ellroy dedicated the paperback edition of "Silent Terror." Ellroy quotes W.H. Auden, Pauline Kael, James M. Cain and Ed McBain. He also lays out a master plan that he projects will carry him through the age of 50: A long police procedural to be set in Sioux City, S.D. in 1946; a long novel of mass murder and political intrigue set during Hitler's Beer Hall Pustch, a novel about the Black Dahlia murder and a revised version of his 400-page manuscript "The Confesions of Bugsy Seigel," which Ellroy said his agent hated. To date, only the Black Dahlia novel has appeared.
ELLROY ANTHOLOGY ANOMALY: One of the more peculiar Ellroy anthology appearances was issued in hardback in 1998. An excerpt from "Brown's Requiem" appears in Bishop Schulyer's "A Passion For Golf, The Best of Golf Writing." The hardback first edition was issued in 1998 by St. Martin's Press and weighs-in at 349 pages. The paperback edition is still available. Order A Passion for Golf : The Best of Golf Writing
PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY: For a different take on the Dog, check out "Unchained Memories: True Stories of Traumatic Memories, Lost and Found," by Lenore Terr, M.D.The book contains a long chapter about Ellroy and the influence of his mother's murder entitled, "The Black Dahlia's Son." Terr interviewed Ellroy twice in 1991, once in his studio in Eastchester, N.Y. and the last time in L.A. just shortly after he completed his writing of "White Jazz." The interviews caught Ellroy some years before he began digging into his mother's murder and analyzes the crime's influence and effect on Ellroy's writing. Order Unchained Memories
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS: In 1989, British journalist John Williams spent two months traveling across America and interviewing crime writers. The result was Williams book, "Into the Badlands, A Journey Through the American Dream," published simultaenously in a rare paperback edition and still rarer hardback edition by Paladin Books in 1991. Williams caught up with James Ellroy following publication of "The Big Nowhere." Among the interesting Ellroy nuggets is Ellroy's confession that longtime friend Randy Rice to whom Ellroy dedicated "Brown's Requiem" was the inspiration for the character of "Walter" in "Requiem." Fellow-writer Andrew Vachss also claims to have arranged for Ellroy to serve as a Big Brother to "a proper little sociopath."
Check out "Criminal Proceedings: The Contemporary American Crime Novel," a collection of essays edited by Peter Messent. In addition to several Ellroy references, there is also a chapter by Josh Cohen entitled, "James Ellroy, Los Angeles and the Spectacular Crisis of Masculinity," that centers largely around an explication of "The Black Dahlia." The collection was published in hardback and paperback in 1997 by Pluto Press.
"Neon Noir," a survey of contemporary American crime fiction by Woody Haut contains extensive references to James Ellroy, as well as a rather long chapter filled with trenchant observations of the Demon Dog's novels up through "American Tabloid." Haut's book is a sequel to his earlier, highly-praised "Pulp Culture." It is published by U.K.-based "Serpent's Tail" as a 1999 paperback original. First edition string ends in "1." Order Neon Noir
Ellroy is also one of 20 authors spotlighted in a collection of interviews conducted by Charles L.P. Silet and recently published in trade paperback by Ontario Review Press, Princeton."Talking Murder" features "Mad Dog and Glory: A Conversation with James Ellroy" that appeared in slightly altered form in "Armchair Detective," in 1995. Other authors featured include Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain and Andrew Vachss. Order Talking Murder
