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Doug Greene's classic biography of Carr
published eighteen years ago |
I can now announce that I am under contract with
McFarland Press (publishers of my
Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery) to edit a collection of essays in honor of mystery scholar
Doug Greene. The book should be out next year, before Doug's seventieth birthday. I am so pleased to have helped bring this project about, because Doug has been such a big influence over my own reading (and ultimately writing) related to the mystery genre, since the time in Chicago in 1989 when I bought IPL paperback reprint editions of John Dickson Carr's
The Judas Window and
Hag's Nook, with introductions written by Doug (my introduction to both Carr and Doug).
Of course everyone knows Doug for his great John Dickson Carr biography,
The Man Who Explained Miracles (1995), but he also has produced a lot of additional fine mystery scholarship and has done tremendous things in mystery publishing, including founding
Crippen & Landru. I hope this new book will serve as a fitting tribute to one of the really eminent modern figures in mystery genre scholarship and publishing.
Fantastic news Curt - well done. A tribute is richly deserved - Doug's DOOR TO DOOM anthology of carr's short stories and radio plays, with its detailed bibliography, completely changed my life - for the better I might add!
ReplyDeleteMany congratulations, Curt. I had no idea who mystery scholar Doug G. Greene was until I visited your blog. Here's wishing you all the best for a successful accomplishment of what is no doubt a unique tribute. I have learned something today.
ReplyDeleteWell done, Curt! I'm going to be keeping an eye out for this one.
ReplyDeleteBravo. That sounds like a worthy project indeed. Now, if only someone can entice a publisher into re-issuing Greene's JDC biography. Last year, I finally found an affordable copy of it in a used bookstore, but that came after years of looking for one. By the way (and perhaps this would be a plausible essay topic): Did Greene's handling of spoiler content in "The Man Who Explained Miracles" foreshadow the spoiler conventions that have emerged on the Internet? I, at any rate, don't recall seeing that kind of special typographical treatment for spoiler info in any other printed book.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. I'm very proud to be working on this one. Maybe it will help get Doug's Carr bio reprinted. It certainly should be. It's a classic!
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