THE LATEST:
• (5/28/03) James Ellroy has split with GQ. The New York Post is reporting that James Ellroy has left his post as a GQ writer-at-large. Also out are Joe Queenan and Terrence Rafferty. In theory, at least a few more Ellroy pieces were written for GQ (including the novella Hollywood F*ck Pad) which have not appeared and are scheduled to be part of the new Ellroy GQ collection Destination Morgue, to be released this fall in the U.S. • (5/22/03) James Ellroy returns in the June 2003 (U.S.) edition of GQ (look for the cover with Eva Mendes) with a new essay entitled Dana, Anne & Jean. This one stands as one of Ellroy’s shorter, but, perhaps, most revelatory pieces for GQ. The three women who form a kind of personal trinity for the author are actress Dana Delany, poet Anne Sexton (astute Ellroy readers will remember Ellroy excerpted a Sexton poem for the epigraph of The Black Dahlia) and Jean Hilliker, the author’s murdered mother. Ellroy also writes for the first time about the circumstances that led to the abrupt termination of his 2001 world tour to promote The Cold Six Thousand, and of his determination to publish a new novella in a coming issue of GQ featuring Dana Delany (this would represent the author’s first piece of fiction to bring a female protagonist front and center). It should be noted that Ellroy has often mentioned Dana Delany as his personal first choice to portray his mother in any eventual film adaptation of My Dark Places. The article is illustrated with some stunning black and white photos of Delany. All in all, highly recommended for Ellroy fans. • (12/19/02) James Ellroy’s first published prose of 2003 appears in the January 2003 U.S. edition of GQ. Originally touted for November 2002, publication, the new piece from Ellroy is an examination of the unsolved, 1965 murder of Stephanie Lynn Gorman, a Los Angeles High School student with Hollywood dreams who actually scored extra roles in Bye Bye Birdie and Pollyanna. Titled “Stephanie,” as always, GQ illustrates the piece with photographic and art elements that will not be incorporated in the eventual reprint of the piece later in 2003 in Destination Morgue, the new book compilation of the latest Ellroy GQ fiction and nonfiction. • (8/22/02) The September, 2002 U.S. edition of GQ is a special 45th Anniversary edition that contains another Ellroy essay, this one dubbed "My Weird Sh*t." Nothing startling here — it's a kind of mélange or reiteration of earlier GQ pieces, covering his mother's murder, his life with his father and his profligate days (blend My Life as a Creep with I've Got the Goods and sprinkle lightly with Let's Twist Again and you've pretty much captured the taste of the new piece). GQ also reprints an excerpt of My Mother's Killer, the early GQ piece that inspired Ellroy's memoir. Even the art is a reheat — a full page photo of Ellroy that appeared as a full page photo of Ellroy last year accompanying an Entertainment Weekly review of The Cold Six Thousand, and a small head shot of Ellroy that appeared with an article in US Magazine years ago. • (6/21/02) Ellroy's long promised profile of L.A. District Attorney Steve Cooley appears in the July 2002 GQ. In a tease for the article, Ellroy notes, "I read up on Steve Cooley, and everything he did impressed me." Ellroy predicts Cooley could go down as one of America's great crime fighters. • (2/22/02) James Ellroy writes in the March 2002 GQ magazine about the May 2001 unsolved murder of actor Robert Blake's wife. The article is entitled "Little Sleazer" and is written in a style that recalls that employed in "The Cold Six Thousand." In a short tease, Ellroy admits that Blake's fleeting, on-the-make wife is not a sympathetic figure, but argues that that fact, taken alone, does not qualify her to be murdered. • (10/27/01) James Ellroy is declared GQ's Writer of the Year (2001) in the November edition. The bio accompanying the award focuses on Ellroy's bestselling "The Cold Six Thousand." It is accompanied by a creepy photo of the author bound hand and foot and tucked into the trunk of a Lincoln Continental with Missouri plates (the plate number is quirky enough to probably signify something). The photo was taken on Aug. 5, 2001 in Carmel, California by Lorenzo Agius. Ellroy also contributes a short essay regarding the events of Sept. 11 entitled "The Power of Witness." • Several of Ellroy's more recent GQ articles have been collected as an original e-book by Contentville entitled "Breakneck Pace". Order Crime Wave: Reportage and Fiction April 2001: This edition contaned a preview of the new novel, "The Cold Six Thousand" (Look for the edition with actress James King on the cover). GQ presents excerpts of chapters 1, 2, 3, 20, 21, 22 & 60, illustrated with photos of Hoover, Castro, RFK and Harry Ruby, among others. GQ editors set up the preview this way: "Fans of James Ellroy will want to reserve plenty of time for this issue." Ellroy sets it up like this: "It's really the story of America between the John and Robert Kennedy assassinations. This is the first time that the whole era of the 1960s has been shown from the underside. Reading it you will go to Vietnam and Cuba. You'll join the FBI, see Martin Luther King, Howard Hughes, Lyndon Johnson and the leading gangsters of the day. It's really my magnum opus." The April GQ also contains Ellroy's profile of FOX news host and fellow best-selling author Bill O'Reilly. 
American crime fiction novelist James Ellroy has been a writer-at-large for GQ Magazine since 1994. Ellroy's GQ pieces have ranged from short fiction, to essays, to non-fiction revolving around true crime topics.
Ellroy's articles up through March 1999 have been collected in book form under the title "Crime Wave." The compilation was published in paperback by Vintage Crime in 1999. "Crime Wave" was published in hardcover in the U.K. by Century. Ellroy collectors should take note that the original GQ articles as published contain photos and original artwork not reproduced in "Crime Wave."
Ellroy's GQ articles published subsequent to those collected in "Crime Wave" have been collected as an e-book under the title, "Widespread Panic," available from Contentville.
November 1993: Ellroy's first article for GQ appears. "Out Of the Past," tells the story of real life accordion player and B-movie star Dick Contino, and teases Ellroy's Contino novella, "Dick Contino's Blues," published that same year with Ellroy's other short fiction under the title "Hollywood Nocturnes."
August 1994: GQ publishes "My Mother's Killer," Ellroy's account of his mother's murder and his first public comments regarding his reactions to viewing her homicide case file. The short essay for GQ prefigures Ellroy's memoir, "My Dark Places."
December 1994: Ellroy weighs-in on the Nicole Brown Simpson/Ron Goldman murders in "Sex, Glitz and Greed: The Seduction of O.J. Simpson."
July 1995: The Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction dogs the footsteps of the L.A. County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau in "The Tooth of Crime."
October 1997: Ellroy stalks the set of the movie adaptation of his novel "L.A. Confidential," profiling director/co-writer Curtis Hanson.
November/December 1997: A new Contino novella, "Hollywood Shakedown," appears in back-to-back issues of GQ.
March/April 1998: "Body Dumps": Another Ellroy doubleheader, this time, in non-fiction form. Ellroy tackles an unsolved murder with retired L.A.P.D. homicide detective Bill Stoner (who assisted Ellroy in his investigation of his mother's murder and who figured prominently in "My Dark Places.")
September 1998: Ellroy unveils a short story narrated by the alarmingly alliterative Danny Getchell, skanky scribe of "Hush-Hush" Magazine. Rock Hudson figures prominently in the piece.
November 1998: Ellroy revisits his school years in "Let's Twist Again," the twisted tale of his three years at John Burroughs Junior High.
December 1998: Another Ellroy foray into true crime territory. This time, Ellroy and Det. Stoner re-open the case of murdered actress Kayrn Kupcinet.
February/March 1999: In back-to-back issues of GQ, Ellroy's Danny Getchell novella "Tijuana, Mon Amour," unfolds. The recently deceased Chairman of the Board plays a prominent role.
October 1999: Ellroy recalls "My Life As A Creep," a hearkening back to his days on the streets as a drifter and drug-addict with a jones for November 1967 Playboy Playmate Kaya Christian. The GQ article also reproduces a couple of vintage Ellroy mug shots following an arrest for "public drunkeness" in 1971.
March 2000: This issue of GQ is permeated by Ellroy: First up, "I've Got The Goods," a celebration of Hollwood Scandal rags such as "Confidential" and "Hush-Hush." Next up: "The Trouble I Cause," a Jack Webb-centered Danny Getchell short story. Ellroy's third contribution: "L.A.'s Dark Places," an illustrated map by David Hughes for which Ellroy supplied text. This macabre info-graphic serves as a kind of "Ellroy For Dummies," laying out the locale and specifics of the Black Dahlia body-dump site, the stabbing of Johnny Stompanato and the Club Mecca firebombing, among other L.A. crime sites. In this same issue, Sam Kashner profiles "Confidential" magazine editor and chief Howard Rushmore in a piece Ellroy might have written, and a fashion lay-out unfolds in Ellroy-style featuring "L.A. Confidential" stars David Strathairn and James Cromwell.
June 2000: Ellroy contributed an article in the June GQ about Gary Graham, executed in Texas for murder on June 22. Ellroy appeared on MSNBC May 24, 2000 to promote his article. Ellroy said he had changed his former pro-death penalty stance and believed Graham should not be executed based on the testimony of a single eyewitness. Ellroy also appeared on the FOX News Network's "O'Reilly Factor," where he stated he was 85% certain Graham committed the crime. Several hours before the execution was carried out, Ellroy appeared again on MSNBC as a pundit.
July 2000: "Blood Sport" dwelled on boxing: Armand Ellroy's love of boxing in general and Mexican boxers in particular. Ellroy's piece centered on a recent Las Vegas featherweight bout between Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera. Ellroy's prose was more stripped down than ever. Compared to this, "White Jazz" reads like Dickens.
November 2000: Ellroy's long touted piece profiling 2000 presidential contenders George W. Bush and Al Gore — as well as their parties' respective summer conventions — appeared in the November edition of GQ Magazine. "The Father, the Son and Bubba's Ghost" may stand as Ellroy's best nonfiction piece for GQ to date. In one of the most politically incorrect political pieces ever written, Ellroy lacerates the state of American politics, the candidates, the party machines and the constituents that make it all run. Ellroy tells GQ what "shocked" him was the "extent to which Republicans, Democrats and the media took the whole thing seriously."
