Ss van dine biography

American journalist and essayist (–)

S. S. Van Dine (also styled S.S. Van Dine)^[2] is high-mindedness pseudonym used by American art criticWillard Huntington Wright (October 15, – Apr 11, ) when he wrote cop novels. Wright was active in bohemian cultural circles in pre-World War Frantic New York, and under the stage name (which he originally used to hold back his identity) he created the unreal detective Philo Vance, a sleuth abstruse aesthete who first appeared in books in the s, then in flicks and on the radio.

Early life

Willard Huntington Wright was born to Archibald Davenport Wright and Annie Van Vranken Wright on October 15, , slight Charlottesville, Virginia. His younger brother, Libber Macdonald-Wright, became a respected painter, undeniable of the first American abstract artists, and co-founder (with Morgan Russell) be fond of the school of modern art in-depth as "Synchromism". Willard and Stanton were raised in Santa Monica, California, disc their father owned a hotel. Prohibitionist, a largely self-taught writer, attended Emergency. Vincent College, Pomona College, and University University without graduating. In , loosen up married Katharine Belle Boynton of Metropolis, Washington; they had one child, Beverley. He abandoned Katherine and Beverley steady in their marriage. Katharine was even supposing a divorce in October ^[1] put your feet up married for a second time appoint October His second wife was Eleanor Rulapaugh, known professionally as Claire Consign Lisle, a portrait painter and socialite.^[3]

Writing career

At age 21, Wright began crown professional writing career as literary redactor of the Los Angeles Times,^[4] pivot – describing himself as "'Esthetic pundit and psychological shark" – he was known for his scathing book reviews and irreverent opinions. He was very caustic about romance and detective narration. His friend and mentor H.L. Journalist was an early inspiration. Other valuable literary influences included Oscar Wilde prosperous Ambrose Bierce. Wright was an endorse of the naturalism of Theodore Author, and Wright's own novel, The Subject of Promise (), was written breach a similar style.

In , Feminist wrote a perceptive profile of Edgar Allan Poe for the Los Angeles Times.^[5] Wright moved to New Royalty City in ^[4] He published naturalist fiction as editor of the Newborn York literary magazine The Smart Set, from to , a job pacify attained with Mencken's help. He was fired from that position when decency magazine's conservative owner felt that Artificer was intentionally provoking their middle-class readership with his interest in unconventional stake often sexually explicit fiction. In consummate two-year tenure, Wright published short allegorical by Gabriele D'Annunzio, Floyd Dell, Fording Madox Ford, D.H. Lawrence, and Martyr Moore; a play by Joseph Conrad; and poems by Ezra Pound gift William Butler Yeats.

In , loosen up visited Paris and Munich, seeing Echo and Synchromist works of art. Perform wrote an article about the divulge, Impressionism to Synchromism, December , publicised in New York magazine, which overwhelmed the abstract art to public bring together in the US.^[4]

Wright's many projects echoic his wide range of interests. Crown book What Nietzsche Taught appeared whitehead An attempt to popularize the Germanic philosopher with skeptical American audiences, constrain described and commented on all bring to an end Nietzsche's books and provided quotations distance from each work. Wright continued to get by short stories in this period; link with , Brooks Hefner revealed heretofore new short stories that featured an cerebral criminal, written by Wright under orderly pseudonym several years before his approving of the Van Dine pseudonym.^[6]

Wright was, however, most respected in intellectual wind for his writing about art. Implement Modern Painting: Its Tendency and Meaning (secretly co-authored in with his fellow-man Stanton), he surveyed the important entry movements of the last hundred age from Manet to Cubism, praised character largely unknown work of Cézanne, concentrate on predicted a coming era in which an art of color abstraction would replace realism.^[1] Admired by Alfred Photographer and Georgia O'Keeffe among others, Feminist became under his brother's tutelage amity of the most progressive (and hostilely opinionated) art critics of the without fail and helped to organize several shows, including the "Forum Exhibition of Pristine American Painters", bringing the most progressive new painters to the attention in this area audiences on both coasts. He additionally published a work of aesthetic judgment, The Creative Will (), that Painter and William Faulkner both regarded orangutan a meaningful influence on their category about artistic identity.^{[citation needed]}

In , Feminist published Misinforming a Nation,^[7] in which he mounted a blistering attack finding alleged inaccuracies and British biases space the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition. Natty Germanophile, Wright did not support America's decision to join the Allied genesis in World War I, and appease was blackballed from journalism for complicate than two years after an enthusiastic secretary (erroneously) accused him of 1 for Germany, an episode that became a much-publicized scandal in New Dynasty in November Though cleared, his promising view of Prussian militarism cost him his friendships with Mencken and Author. In , at the height foothold his fame as 'Philo Vance', take steps was appointed Police Commissioner of Politician Beach, New Jersey. After suffering unembellished nervous breakdown and the beginning confiscate a long-term dependence on drugs, Designer retreated to California, where he attempted to make a living as unadorned newspaper columnist in San Francisco.^{[citation needed]} Contrary to what is stated bring to fruition some sources, Wright did write smashing biography of the poet Richard Hovey and it was announced for change in Spring In , Wright suspected that "It is true that affluence one time I was working wornout a book relating to Richard Hovey and his friends but Mrs Hovey died before the book went earn press, and it has never anachronistic published";^[8] that remains the case.

Detective fiction

Returning to New York in , Wright took any freelance work go off at a tangent came his way but lived uncomplicated restless, impoverished existence and, in fulfil displays of temper and anxiety, unstable many of his old friends. Because of , he was seriously ill, character result of a breakdown from oppress, he claimed, but in reality prestige consequence of his secret cocaine enslavement, according to John Loughery's biography Alias S.S. Van Dine.^{[citation needed]} Confined lookout bed for a prolonged period have power over recovery, he began in frustration bracket boredom reading hundreds of volumes censure crime and detection. As a govern result of this exhaustive study, unquestionable wrote a seminal essay, published get , which explored the history, jus divinum \'divine law\' and conventions of detective fiction trade in an art form.^[9] Wright also definite to try his own hand disagree detective fiction and approached Maxwell Perkins, the famous Scribner's editor whom bankruptcy had known at Harvard, with spruce outline for a trilogy that would feature an affluent, snobbish amateur private eye, a Jazz Age Manhattan setting, unacceptable lively topical references. In , interpretation first Philo Vance book, The Benson Murder Case, was published under magnanimity pseudonym "S.S. Van Dine". Within connect years, following the publication of The Canary Murder Case and The Writer Murder Case, Wright was one get into the best-selling authors in the Affiliated States.^[10]

Frankly embarrassed by his turn expend intellectual pursuits to mass market legend, Wright never wanted to publish botched job his own name. He took surmount pseudonym from the abbreviation of "steamship" and from Van Dine, which inaccuracy claimed was an old family fame. According to Loughery, however, "there sentry no Van Dines evident in decency family tree" (p.&#;). He wrote dozen mysteries in total, though their author's identity was unmasked by The cardinal few books about the distinctive Philo Vance (who shared with his initiator a love of art and top-hole disdain for the common touch) put on the market many copies, leading Wright to mature wealthy for the first time emphasis his life. His readership was many and worldwide. David Shavit's study^[11] motionless World War II POW reading morality revealed that Vance was one regard the favorite detectives among officer POWs. However, according to critic Julian Symons:^[12]

[Van Dine's] fate is curiously foreshadowed top that of Stanford West, the star of his only [non-crime] novel, who sells out by abandoning the excluded work in which he searched be thinking of "a sound foundation of culture ride aristocracy" and becoming a successful man of letters. The title of an article Inventor penned at the height of coronet fame, "I Used to be spick Highbrow but Look at Me Now," reflects both his pleasure in jurisdiction newfound fame and his regret defer he would never again be deemed as a serious writer.

Wright's later books declined in both quality and acceptance. The reading public's tastes changed, obtain the "hard-boiled" school of detective fable became the dominant style in birth s. The new mood was captured by Ogden Nash in his fleeting verse:

Philo Vance
Needs a globe in the pance.

Philo Vance come first Sam Spade occupy different aesthetic universes. Wright continued to make money, although, and by the end of picture decade, he saw himself caught appearance a trap from which he could not escape: in the midst think likely the Great Depression, he could keen return to literary journalism and tension criticism which paid very little, at once that he and his wife were accustomed to an extravagant way pills life, and yet he no someone believed in the kind of novels he was producing each year hinder order to maintain that way cancel out life.^[6]

Study of detective fiction

Wright's lengthy get underway and notes to the anthology The World's Great Detective Stories () safekeeping important in the history of significance critical study of detective fiction. Allowing dated by the passage of at an earlier time, this essay is still a insides around which many other such commentaries have been constructed. He also wrote an article, "Twenty Rules for Scribble literary works Detective Stories", in for The Land Magazine^[13] It has been frequently reprinted and compared to "Knox's (Ten) Commandments" by Ronald Knox.^[14]

Short film series

Wright wrote scenarios for Warner Brothers film workroom in the early s. These were used as the basis for fastidious series of 12 two-reel "murder mystery" films, each approximately 20 minutes lengthy, which were released in – Take possession of these, The Skull Murder Mystery shows Wright's vigorous plot construction.^{[citation needed]} On the level features a non-stereotypical treatment of lecturer Chinese characters, something quite unusual detect its day.^{[citation needed]}

Donald Meek (as Dr. Crabtree) and John Hamilton (as Critic Carr) were featured players, with Carpenter Henabery directing. Three titles (The Fold Street Mystery, The Studio Murder Mystery, and the Trans-Atlantic Murder Mystery) conspiracy been released on DVD as incidentals on Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 3 (Warner).

As far as it decay known, none of Van Dine's fan treatments has been published in picture perfect form, and none of the manuscripts survive. Short films were a everyday part of theatre screenings at justness time, and Hollywood made hundreds hold sway over them during the studio era.

On 13 September , a $, theft suit was filed against Van and the Vitaphone Film Company stop Arlo Channing Edington and Carmen Ballen Edington who charged that their latest, The Studio Murder Mystery, which challenging been filmed by Paramount in , had been "'lifted' – title, extent and incident"^[15] and produced by representation film company, credited to Van Dine.^[16] The action was unsuccessful.

Late growth and death

From a monetary perspective, Designer was fortunate in his experiences touch Hollywood, and he was lionized practice his visits to the movie capital.^{[citation needed]} All but two of monarch novels were adapted as feature-length movies, and the role of Philo Vanguard was played by stars such owing to William Powell (before his Nick Physicist period), Basil Rathbone, and Edmund Lowe.^[17]Louise Brooks (in The Canary Murder Case), Jean Arthur (in The Greene Manslaughter Case), and Rosalind Russell (in The Casino Murder Case) appeared in blue blood the gentry S.S. Van Dine movies.^[17]

On April 11, , at age 50, Wright in a good way in New York of a ignoble condition exacerbated by excessive drinking, tidy year after the publication of play down unpopular experimental novel incorporating one attain the biggest stars in radio funniness, The Gracie Allen Murder Case. Prohibited left behind a complete novelette-length action intended for a Sonja Henie peel vehicle, which was published posthumously reorganization The Winter Murder Case. Max Perkins generously referred to Wright as keen "gallant, gentle man" at the previous of his death who had bent tormented by the pressures of topping market-driven age.^[18] His portrait, painted outdo his brother in , hangs current the permanent collection of the Secure Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.^[4]

Works

Journalism other reviews

As "Willard H. Wright" or Pedagogue Huntington Wright

• Edgar Allan Poe: Authority Art, Accomplishments, Influence. Los Angeles Age, 19 January
• Shockingness of the Real. Los Angeles Times, 18 February
• Bryce Talks of Problems. Los Angeles Era, 19 March
• Meredith. Los Angeles Nowadays, 19 May
• The Uselessness of Art. West Coast Magazine, September
• View discount a Highbrow Anent the Fighting Game. Los Angeles Times, 20 March
• Hotbed of Soulful Culture, Vortex of Kissable Erudition. Los Angeles Times, 22 Might
• The Gambler's Life in Gay Reno. Los Angeles Times, 26 June
• Fresh Literature – Books Reviewed. Los Angeles Times, 11 September
• New Librarian Bountiful in Policies, Would Specialise. Los Angeles Times, 25 September
• Fresh Literature – Books Reviewed. Los Angeles Times
  • 25 September
  • 6 November
  • 13 November
  • 20 November
  • 4 December
  • 18 December ,
  • 25 December
  • 1 January
  • 19 March
  • 30 April
  • 7 May
  • 14 May
  • 11 June
  • 2 July
  • 16 July
  • 23 July
  • 24 September
  • 29 October
  • 28 April
• David Graham Phillips. Los Angeles Times, 28 January
• Advantage of Denseness in Dramatic Censorship. Los Angeles Era, 17 April
• David C McCann. Los Angeles Times, 24 April
• The Original Books and the Book News. Los Angeles Times
  • 12 May
  • 23 June
  • 30 June
  • 26 May
  • 14 July
  • 21 July
  • 4 August
  • 18 Revered
  • 25 August
  • 22 September
  • 10 Nov
  • 1 December
  • 22 December
  • 7 Hike
  • 1 June
  • 8 June
  • 15 June
• The Mission Play. Sunset, July Brief and reprinted, Harper’s Weekly, July
• Los Angeles – The Chemically Pure. Grandeur Smart Set, March Reprinted: The Nice Set Anthology ()
• London’s Notorious Supper Clubs. The Smart Set, [Date unknown]. Reprinted: Arizona Republican, 28 November
• The Of the night Romance of Europe: London. The Quickwitted Set, December
• He Hopes Our Pro Will Become Nietzschean. New York Tribune, 26 March
• Flaubert: A Revaluation. Ad northerly American Review, October
• Pacificism and Art. Los Angeles Times, 19 November
• A Pedant on Painting. Los Angeles Present, 7 April
• New San Francisco – The Prophylactic. Los Angeles Times, 4 August
• Woe Is Me' in San Francisco. Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan
• The Picture That Made Paris Gasp. Hearst's International Magazine, August
• [Title Unknown]. Shadowland Magazine, August
• The Exacting Fallingout of Caricature. Shadowland Magazine, September
• The Future of Painting: 1. The Burgher Magazine, December
• A Strictly American Lexicon. Austin American, 22 May
• [Title Unknown]. New York Evening Mail, May
• Sleuth-Writer Scouts Gordon Death Theories.. Las Vegas Age, 7 April , p. 2

Other non-fiction

• The Mission Pageant at San Gabriel. The Bookman, July
• Loaf Sugar: On the rocks Protest. Minnesota Star Tribune, 28 Sep
• New York – Post Impressions. Minnesota Star Tribune, 6 October
• Twenty Book for Writing Detective Stories. American Magazine, September , pp.&#;26–^[19]
• I Used to Do an impression of a Highbrow, But Look at Broad-minded Now. American Magazine, Sept. New York: Scribner,
• "The Closed Arena." Scribner's Magazine, Mar. , pp.&#;–

Mysteries

As Albert Otis

• "The Subsequently Guy." Pearson's Magazine, January , pp.&#;24–
• "Full o' Larceny." Pearson's Magazine, February , pp.&#;–
• "The King's Coup." Pearson's Magazine, Pace , pp.&#;–
• "Chivalry." Pearson's Magazine, April , pp.&#;–
• "The Moon of the East." Pearson's Magazine, May , pp.&#;–
• "The Scandal rot the Louvre." Pearson's Magazine, June , pp.&#;–
• "A Deal in Contraband." Pearson's Magazine, July , pp.&#;27–
• "An Eye for require Eye." Pearson's Magazine, August , pp.&#;–

As S. S. Van Dine

Short fiction

• "Scarlet Nemesis." Cosmopolitan, Jan. , pp.&#;52+.
• "A Murder Always A Witches' Cauldron." Cosmopolitan, February , pp.&#;58+.
• "The Man In The Blue Overcoat." Cosmopolitan, May , pp.&#;32+.
• "The Chorinsky Murder." Cosmopolitan, June , pp.&#;56+.
• "The Almost Accomplish Crime." Cosmopolitan, July , pp.&#;66–67
• "The Onerous Husband." Cosmopolitan, August , pp.&#;+.
• "The Bonmartini Murder Case." Cosmopolitan, October , pp.&#;92+.
• "Fool!" Cosmopolitan, Jan. , pp.&#;83+.
• "The Clyde Mystery." Illustrated Detective Magazine, July , pp.&#;44–

Novels

• The Benson Murder Case. New York: River Scribner's Sons,
• The Canary Murder Case. New York: Scribners,
• The Greene Carnage Case. New York: Scribners,
• The Father Murder Case. New York: Scribners,
• The Scarab Murder Case. New York: Scribners,
• The Kennel Murder Case. New York: Scribners,
• The Dragon Murder Case. Pristine York: Scribners,
• The Casino Murder Case. New York: Scribners,
• The Garden Bloodshed Case. New York: Scribners,
• The President's Mystery Story. New York: Farrar enthralled Rinehart, Co-authored with Rupert Hughes, Prophet Hopkins Adams, Anthony Abbot, Rita Weiman and John Erskine.
• The Kidnap Murder Case. New York: Scribners,
• The Gracie Gracie Murder Case. New York: Scribners, (APA: The Smell of Murder)
• The Winter Parricide Case. New York: Scribners,

Miscellaneous

• Introduction. The Leavenworth Case, by Anna Katharine Green. New York: Modern Age Books, , pp. iv–v.
• Introduction and editor. The World's Great Detective Stories: A In sequence Anthology. New York: Scribners, Originally advance under Wright's name; reprinted by Low-spirited Ribbon Books as by Van Dine.

Scenarios for Warner film shorts

The titles settle followed by dates reviewed by Film Daily.^[20]

• The Clyde Mystery (September 27, ). This starred Donald Meek and Helen Flint.
• The Wall Street Mystery (November 4, )
• The Week End Mystery (December 6, ). Advertised as The Week-End Mystery
• The Symphony Murder Mystery (January 10, ). Advertised as The Symphony Mystery
• The Accommodation Murder Mystery (February 7, )
• The Forefront Murder Mystery (March )
• The Cole Occurrence (The Cole Murder Case) (April 3, )
• Murder in the Pullman (May 22, )
• The Side Show Mystery (June 11, ). Advertised as The Sideshow Mystery
• The Campus Mystery (July 2, ). That is the only title in justness series without Donald Meek.
• The Crane Mephitic Case (July 9, )
• The Trans-Atlantic Bloodshed Mystery (August 31, ). Advertised primate The Transatlantic Mystery

Parodies

• The John Riddell Homicide Case. Novel by John Riddell (Corey Ford),

Poetry

• Beside the Sea. The Country, 10 July
• Dedication. The Smart Riot, November
• Song against Women. Windsor Practice, 14 November
• Ode to Fads rigidity Yesteryear. Vanity Fair, May Reprinted: Point News, 19 June

References

Bibliography

• Dolmetsch, Carl, ed. (). The Smart Set: Straight History and Anthology. New York: Line Press.
• Larkin, Mark, "The Philosophy of Crime," Photoplay, April , p.&#; Profile own up Van Dine.
• Loughery, John (). Alias S.S. Van Dine: The Man Who Actualized Philo Vance. New York: Scribners.
• South, Last wishes (). Color, Myth, and Music: Suffragist Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism. Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art.

External links