Charles Ray Willeford III (January 2, 1919 – March 27, 1988) was an American writer. An author of fiction, poetry, autobiography, and literary criticism, Willeford is best known for his series of novels featuring
hardboiled detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
Hoke Moseley.
Willeford published steadily from the 1940s, but vaulted to wider attention with the first Hoke Moseley book, ''Miami Blues'' (1984), which is considered one of its era's most influential works of crime fiction. Film adaptations have been made of four of Willeford's novels: ''
Cockfighter
''Cockfighter'' (also known as ''Born to Kill'', ''Gamblin' Man'' and ''Wild Drifter'') is a 1974 drama film by director Monte Hellman, starring Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton and featuring Laurie Bird and Ed Begley Jr. The screenplay is based ...
'', ''
Miami Blues'', ''
The Woman Chaser
''The Woman Chaser'' is a 1999 film directed by Robinson Devor and starring Patrick Warburton, Ron Morgan, Emily Newman, Paul Malevich, and Marilyn Rising. The screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford.
Synopsis
Set ...
'', and ''
The Burnt Orange Heresy''.
Early life
Charles Ray Willeford III was born in
Little Rock, Arkansas
(The Little Rock, The "Little Rock")
, government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager
, leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor
, leader_name = Frank Scott Jr.
, leader_ ...
, on January 2, 1919. Following the death of his father from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
in 1922, Willeford and his mother moved to the Los Angeles area. After his mother's death in 1927, also from TB, he lived with his grandmother Mattie Lowey on Figueroa Street near
Exposition Park until 1932. At the age of thirteen, in the midst of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, he boarded a freight train in Los Angeles, assumed a false identity, and—passing as a seventeen-year-old—traveled by rail along the Mexican border for a year.
Career
In March 1935, he signed up with the
California National Guard; a few months later, he enlisted in the regular
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
. He spent two years stationed in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
serving as a fire truck driver, a gas truck driver, and briefly as a cook. At the end of 1938, he was discharged from the Army, though he re-enlisted in March 1939, joining the
U.S. Cavalry
The United States Cavalry, or U.S. Cavalry, was the designation of the mounted force of the United States Army by an act of Congress on 3 August 1861.Price (1883) p. 103, 104 This act converted the U.S. Army's two regiments of dragoons, one r ...
stationed at the
Presidio of Monterey, California. In the Cavalry, he learned to ride and care for horses and spent several months learning the art of
horseshoe
A horseshoe is a fabricated product designed to protect a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toen ...
ing. He also served as a "horseholder" in a machine gun troop and earned a marksman qualification.
In 1942, Willeford married Lara Bell Fridley before being stationed at
Fort Benning
Fort Benning is a United States Army post near Columbus, Georgia, adjacent to the Alabama–Georgia border. Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees and civilian employees ...
, Georgia, for
infantry school
A School of Infantry provides training in weapons and infantry tactics to infantrymen of a nation's military forces.
Schools of infantry include:
Australia
*Australian Army – School of Infantry, Lone Pine Barracks at Singleton, NSW.
France
...
. He was assigned to Company C, 11th Tank Battalion,
10th Armored Division and sent to Europe as a tank commander. He fought in the
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive (military), offensive military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted fr ...
and earned the
Silver Star
The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an e ...
, the
Bronze Star
The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone.
Wh ...
for outstanding bravery, the
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, w ...
with one oak leaf cluster, and the
Luxembourg War Cross. After
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easter ...
, he studied at
Biarritz American University until he was shipped back to the United States.
Willeford enlisted again in 1945 for a term of three years. As a member of the
24th Infantry Division, he was stationed in
Kyushu
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...
, Japan, from 1947 to 1949. He ran the army radio station WLKH and was promoted to
master sergeant.
His first book of poetry, ''Proletarian Laughter'', was published in 1948. In May 1949, he and his wife, Lara, divorced. In July of the same year, he left the army, leaving a mailing address of
General Delivery
''Poste restante'' (, "remainder post"), also known as general delivery in North American English, is a service where the post office holds the mail until the recipient calls for it. It is a common destination for mail for people who are visiting ...
,
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
. He enrolled in the Universitarias de Belles Artes in
Lima, Peru
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...
, studying art and art history in the graduate program. He was dismissed from the university when officials learned that he had neither an undergraduate degree nor a high school diploma. He lived in New York City for a month at the end of 1949 before re-enlisting in the air force.
Willeford was stationed at
Hamilton Air Force Base Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
in California through April 1952. He married Mary Jo Norton in July of that year, and lived for a while in
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
. In 1953, Willeford's first novel, ''High Priest of California'', was published. Bound as a double volume with another writer's novel, it sold 55,000 copies, about a third of its print run. In January 1954, he re-enlisted once again; he was stationed this time at Palm Beach Air Force Base, while living in
West Palm Beach. In 1955, he was reassigned to
Harmon Air Force Base in
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
. Willeford finally left active duty in November 1956. By that time, two more novels of his had been published.
Later life
After retiring from the Air Force in 1956, Willeford held jobs as a professional boxer, actor, horse trainer, and radio announcer. He studied painting in France for a time, returning to the United States to attend
Palm Beach Junior College
Palm Beach State College is a public college in Lake Worth, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System.
Palm Beach State College enrolls nearly 27,000 students in over 100 programs of study including bachelor of applied science, associa ...
. After receiving an associate degree in 1960, he studied English literature at the
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...
, attaining a bachelor's degree in 1962 and a master's in 1964. During this period he also worked as an associate editor with ''
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
''Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine'' (AHMM) is a bi-monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction. ''AHMM'' is named for Alfred Hitchcock, the famed director of suspense films and television.
History
''AHMM'' ...
'' and began a long tenure as a book reviewer for the ''
Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...
''. Willeford had been very productive as a novelist after leaving the military, but after 1962's ''Cockfighter'', he would not have another novel published for nine years. Upon receiving his M.A., Willeford taught humanities classes at the University of Miami through 1967, then moved to
Miami-Dade Community College
Miami Dade College (Miami Dade, MDC or Dade) is a public college in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1959, it has a total of eight campuses and twenty-one outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. It is the largest college in the Florida College ...
where he became an associate professor, teaching English and philosophy through 1985.
In 1971, ''The Burnt Orange Heresy'', often identified as Willeford's best
noir novel, and ''The Hombre from Sonora'' appeared (the latter under a pseudonym). Though he would continue to write fiction, there would again be an extended hiatus—thirteen years—before another novel of his came out. He wrote the screenplay for the
1974 film adaptation of ''Cockfighter'', in which he also acted. In 1976, he and his second wife were divorced. The following year he appeared in a small role in the film ''Thunder and Lightning'', produced by
Roger Corman. Willeford married his third wife, Betsy Poller, in 1981. Three years later came the publication of ''Miami Blues'', the first of the Hoke Moseley novels and their
twisted take on the hardboiled tradition for which Willeford would become best known. The "series was almost nipped in the bud," notes
Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block (born June 24, 1938) is an American crime writer best known for two long-running New York-set series about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and the gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Mas ...
. In Willeford's first, unpublished sequel, "he had his unlikely hero commit an unforgivable crime, and ended the book with Hoke contentedly anticipating a life of solitary confinement."
[Block (1996), p. 3.] As it turned out, the popularity of ''Miami Blues'' and its first two published sequels led to the largest financial windfall of the author's life: a $225,000 advance for the fourth Hoke Moseley book, ''The Way We Die Now''.
Released in early 1988, it would be his last novel.
Death
Charles Willeford died of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
at 69 years, in
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, on March 27, 1988, and was interred at
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
in
Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...
.
Literary style
Steve Erickson suggests that Willeford's crime novels are the "genre's equivalent of
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his l ...
's best science fiction novels. They don't really fit into the genre."
Marshall Jon Fisher describes the "true earmark" of Willeford's writing, particularly his early paperbacks, as "humor—a distinctively crotchety, sometimes, raunchy, often genre-satirizing humor."
"''Quirky'' is the word that always comes to mind," according to crime novelist
Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block (born June 24, 1938) is an American crime writer best known for two long-running New York-set series about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and the gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Mas ...
. "Willeford wrote quirky books about quirky characters, and seems to have done so with a magnificent disregard for what anyone else thought." In Erickson's description, "The camera's not really focused on the middle of the scene. It's a little bit off. They're not plot driven or language driven, which makes them really different from most major crime novels. They're character driven and cunning in a very eccentric way."
Lou Stathis
Louis J. Stathis (September 29, 1952 – May 4, 1997) was an American author, critic and editor, mainly in the areas of fantasy and science fiction. During the last four years of his life he was an editor for DC Comics' Vertigo line, working on ...
argues that it is Willeford's "complete lack of sentimentality and melodrama that sets him apart from the pack of so-called 'tough-guy' writers.... Willeford's prose is as flat-toned and evenly cadenced—as emotionally ''neutral''—as the blank visages of his feigned-human socio/psychopaths...the careful accretion of detail adding up to an incontrovertible truth of insight."
Woody Haut suggests that Willeford's second novel, ''Pick-Up'' (1955), "combines
David Goodis
David Loeb Goodis (March 2, 1917 – January 7, 1967) was an American writer of crime fiction noted for his output of short stories and novels in the noir fiction genre. Born in Philadelphia, Goodis alternately resided there and in New York Cit ...
's romanticism,
Horace McCoy
Horace Stanley McCoy (April 14, 1897 – December 15, 1955) was an American writer whose mostly hardboiled stories took place during the Great Depression. His best-known novel is '' They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'' (1935), which was made into ...
's portrayal of alienated outcasts and
Charles Jackson's depiction of life as a '
lost weekend.'" ''The Woman Chaser'' (1960), he writes, features a "structural self-consciousness
hatprefigures subsequent post-modernist texts." Lee Horsley describes how Willeford—along with his contemporaries
Jim Thompson and
Charles Williams—"structured entire narratives around the satiric presentation of the male point of view...subverting male stereotypes and creating a space within which the strong, independent woman could get and even sometimes keep the upper hand." David Cochran suggests that while his protagonists are not quite as psychotic as Thompson's, "they are in some ways even more disturbing because of their appearance of normality."
[Cochran (2000), p. 40.] Most, he points out, "have adjusted successfully to postwar American society, which given the
rpsychotic nature...serves as a damning indictment of the dominant culture."
Willeford's wide-ranging interests were reflected in his work: ''High Priest of California'' references
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...
,
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
's ''
Ulysses
Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature.
Ulysses may also refer to:
People
* Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name
Places in the United States
* Ulysses, Kansas
* Ulysse ...
'', and composer
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...
. ''The Burnt Orange Heresy'' cracks jokes about
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...
amidst contemplations of the sources of
Dada and
Surrealist painting. In Block's words, "it is at once a solid crime novel and a fierce send-up of modern art while constituting perhaps the longest shaggy dog story ever told."
Willeford sometimes addressed more serious topics in explicit fashion: ''The Black Mass of Brother Springer'' (1958) is one of the first novels to depict the civil rights revolution that followed the Supreme Court's ruling in ''
Brown v. Board of Education''.
But even without such overt topicality, there was an ideological edge to his work. Cochran writes of the author's 1950s and 1960s novels,
Willeford created a world in which the predatory cannibalism of American capitalism provides the model for all human relations, in which the American success ethic mercilessly casts aside all who are unable or unwilling to compete, and in which the innate human appreciation of artistic beauty is cruelly distorted by the exigencies of mass culture.
In Haut's words, Willeford "creates characters who search for autonomy but settle for survival....
enever abandons his class perspective." Describing the Hoke Moseley novels, Horsley similarly writes that Willeford "uses both his transgressors and his investigator...as commentators on the injustices of class and on a system that seems preoccupied with owning and controlling human life." According to Willeford's wife, Betsy, he had a credo that also served as a caution for aspiring writers: "Just tell the truth, and they'll accuse you of writing black humor."
Notability and influence
"Nobody writes a better crime novel,"
Elmore Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thri ...
said of Willeford. Sean McCann credits Willeford—along with Jim Thompson and
David Goodis
David Loeb Goodis (March 2, 1917 – January 7, 1967) was an American writer of crime fiction noted for his output of short stories and novels in the noir fiction genre. Born in Philadelphia, Goodis alternately resided there and in New York Cit ...
—as one of the writers responsible for bringing the "hard-boiled crime story to a new stage in its development during the 'paperback revolution' of the 50s." Centered around criminal protagonists rather than private eyes and "focused on those features of the genre that seemed most grotesque or cruel or uncanny and, extending them to new extremes,
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
remade the hard-boiled story into a drama of psychopathology." According to bookseller Mitch Kaplan, an expert on the South Florida literary scene, "''Miami Blues'' launched the modern era of Miami crime fiction. There's a direct line from
illefordthrough just about everyone writing crime fiction in Miami today."
Fellow writer
James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke (born December 5, 1936) is an American author, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won Edgar Awards for ''Black Cherry Blues'' (1990) and ''Cimarron Rose'' (1998), and has also been presented with the Grand Master ...
has acknowledged a "great debt" to Willeford: "If someone wanted advice about writing, about how to pull it off, make it work, punch it up...Charles could tell you how to do it."
Daniel Woodrell
Daniel Woodrell (born March 4, 1953) is an American novelist and short story writer, who has written nine novels, most of them set in the Missouri Ozarks, and one collection of short stories. Woodrell coined the phrase "country noir" to describe ...
is among the other crime novelists he is identified as influencing. Willeford's characteristic juxtaposition of humor and violence was apparently one of director
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
's inspirations. Discussing ''
Pulp Fiction'', Tarantino has said that the film "is not noir. I don't do
neo-noir. I see ''Pulp Fiction'' as closer to modern-day crime fiction, a little closer to Charles Willeford."
Writing in 2004,
Jonathan Yardley
Jonathan Yardley (born October 27, 1939) was the book critic at ''The Washington Post'' from 1981 to December 2014, and held the same post from 1978 to 1981 at the ''Washington Star''. In 1981, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Back ...
of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' called him "one of our most skilled, interesting, accomplished and productive writers of what the literary establishment insists on pigeonholing as 'genre' fiction."
Four of Willeford's books have been adapted for the screen: ''
Cockfighter
''Cockfighter'' (also known as ''Born to Kill'', ''Gamblin' Man'' and ''Wild Drifter'') is a 1974 drama film by director Monte Hellman, starring Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton and featuring Laurie Bird and Ed Begley Jr. The screenplay is based ...
'' (1974; starring
Warren Oates and directed by
Monte Hellman), for which Willeford wrote the screenplay; ''
Miami Blues'' (1990; starring
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. In his early career, Baldwin played both leading and supporting roles in a variety of films such as Tim Burton's ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), Mike Nichol ...
and directed by
George Armitage, also featuring
Fred Ward
Freddie Joe Ward (December 30, 1942 – May 8, 2022) was an American actor and producer. Starting with a role in an Italian television movie in 1973, he appeared in such diverse films as '' Escape from Alcatraz'', ''Southern Comfort'', '' The R ...
as Hoke Mosley); ''
The Woman Chaser
''The Woman Chaser'' is a 1999 film directed by Robinson Devor and starring Patrick Warburton, Ron Morgan, Emily Newman, Paul Malevich, and Marilyn Rising. The screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford.
Synopsis
Set ...
'' (1999; starring
Patrick Warburton and directed by Robinson Devor); and ''
The Burnt Orange Heresy'' (2019; starring
Claes Bang
Claes Kasper Bang (; born 28 April 1967) is a Danish actor and musician. He is best known for playing the leading role of Christian in Ruben Östlund's 2017 film '' The Square'', which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and for the r ...
and directed by
Giuseppe Capotondi). Willeford adapted his first novel, ''High Priest of California'', into a play. A 1988 production in New York City at The Vortex Theatre apparently represents its first full staging. A subsequent production was staged in 2003.
Works
The bibliography below lists all original publications of Willeford's works and selected reprints that contain variant Willeford titles and/or texts or significant ancillary material.
Hoke Moseley series
* The first of the crime novels featuring Hoke Moseley. Willeford's original title was ''Kiss Your Ass Good-Bye''. Trade paperback reprint. Includes an introduction by
Elmore Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thri ...
. ''
Miami Blues'' was made into a 1990 American black comedy crime film directed by
George Armitage.
* ''New Hope for the Dead''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. Hardcover. The second Hoke Moseley novel.
:: ''New Hope for the Dead''. New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2004. Trade paperback reprint. Includes an introduction by
James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke (born December 5, 1936) is an American author, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won Edgar Awards for ''Black Cherry Blues'' (1990) and ''Cimarron Rose'' (1998), and has also been presented with the Grand Master ...
.
* ''Sideswipe''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987. Hardcover. The third Hoke Moseley novel.
:: ''Sideswipe''. New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2005. Trade paperback reprint. Includes an introduction by
Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block (born June 24, 1938) is an American crime writer best known for two long-running New York-set series about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and the gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Mas ...
.
* ''The Way We Die Now''. New York: Random House, 1988. Hardcover. The fourth Hoke Moseley novel.
:: ''The Way We Die Now''. New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2005. Trade paperback reprint. Includes an introduction by
Donald E. Westlake.
* ''
Grimhaven'' (unpublished). Photocopy of typescript maintained in the Charles Willeford Archive at the Broward County Library, Florida; 212 leaves, no date: "NOTE: as per Betsy Willeford
idow of the author 'Ms. of the "black Hoke Mosely" , never published, sold to a small but ruthless group of collectors in the form of Xerox copies. May not be copied in the library by patrons who'll wholesale it on the Internet.'" Originally intended as the second Hoke Moseley novel.
Other novels
* ''High Priest of California''/
'Full Moon'' New York: Royal Books, 1953. Paperback original. Willeford's first published novel, bound with novel by
Talbot Mundy
Talbot Mundy (born William Lancaster Gribbon, 23 April 1879 – 5 August 1940) was an English writer of adventure fiction. Based for most of his life in the United States, he also wrote under the pseudonym of Walter Galt. Best known as the ...
. Cover blurbs for ''High Priest'': "A roaring saga of the male animal on the prowl"/"The world was his oyster—and women his pearls!" 151,000-copy press run.
* ''Pick-Up''. New York: Beacon Books, 1955. Paperback original. His second published novel. Willeford's original title was ''Until I Am Dead''. Cover blurb: "He holed up with a helpless lush." ''Crime Novels, American Noir of the 1950s''. New York: The Library of America, 1997, contains ''Pick-Up''.
* ''High Priest of California''/''Wild Wives''. New York: Beacon Books, 1956. Paperback original. Willeford would later mistakenly recall that ''Until I Am Dead'' was the original title for ''Wild Wives''. Bound with his earlier novel, ''High Priest'', which is blessed with another turgid blurb: "No woman could resist his strange cult of lechery!"
:: ''High Priest of California''/''Wild Wives''. San Francisco: Re/Search Publications, 1987. Trade paperback reprint. Includes an introduction by Lou Stathis, an afterword by V. Vale and Andrea Juno, biographical notes, and a bibliography.
* ''Honey Gal''. New York: Beacon Books, 1958. Paperback original. Willeford's original title was ''The Black Mass of Brother Springer''. The publisher rejected it and asked for another; Willeford proposed ''Nigger Lover'', which was also rejected. The cover blurbs indicate Beacon's high intentions: "He was white, she was beautiful—and bad"/"A starkly naked novel of sin and segregation."
:: ''The Black Mass of Brother Springer''. Berkeley, California: Black Lizard Books, 1989. Paperback reprint, with Willeford's title restored.
:: ''The Black Mass of Brother Springer''. New Albany, Indiana: Wit's End Publishing, 2004. Trade paperback reprint, with Willeford's title restored. Includes a foreword by James Sallis.
* ''Lust Is a Woman''. New York: Beacon Books, 1958. Paperback original. Willeford's original title was ''Made in Miami''. Cover blurbs: "She was a pawn in an evil game"/"The story of Maria who wanted—desperately—to become a movie star!"
:: ''Made In Miami''. Point Blank, 2008. Trade paperback reprint, with Willeford's title restored.
![WomanChaserBook](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/WomanChaserBook.jpg)
* ''
The Woman Chaser
''The Woman Chaser'' is a 1999 film directed by Robinson Devor and starring Patrick Warburton, Ron Morgan, Emily Newman, Paul Malevich, and Marilyn Rising. The screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford.
Synopsis
Set ...
''. Chicago: Newsstand Library, 1960. Paperback original. Willeford's original title was ''The Director''. The title of the protagonist's would-be cinematic magnum opus is ''The Man Who Got Away''.
* ''The Whip Hand''. Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett Publications, 1961 Paperback original. Published under the sole byline of W. Franklin Sanders, though documentary evidence and stylistic analysis indicate it is largely, perhaps almost completely, the work of Willeford. A manuscript of the novel, written around 1952, found in his files indicates that Willeford's original title was ''Deliver Me from Dallas!''
:: ''Deliver Me from Dallas!'' Tucson, Arizona: Dennis McMillan Publications, 2001. Hardcover of Willeford's original manuscript version, with his name and title restored. Includes an introduction by Jesse Sublett.
* ''Understudy for Love''. Chicago: Newsstand Library, 1961. Paperback original. Willeford's original title was ''The Understudy: A Novel of Men and Women''. Cover blurb: "When it came to love he was just an understudy...but he was learning in a hurry!" Newsstand's covers advised that both this and Willeford's next novel were "Adult Reading."
* ''Understudy for Death''. London: Titan Books, 2018. First
Hard Case Crime
Hard Case Crime is an American imprint of hardboiled crime novels founded in 2004 by Charles Ardai (also the founder of the Internet service Juno Online Services) and Max Phillips. The series recreates, in editorial form and content, the flavor o ...
edition, July 2018. Cover blurb: "First publication in nearly 60 years!"
* ''No Experience Necessary''. Chicago: Newsstand Library, 1962. Paperback original. Willeford's original title was ''Nothing Under the Sun''. Cover blurb: 'You like it?' she whispered. 'I like it,' he clenched his teeth, 'I like it, I like it!'" The in-house editor rewrote parts of this novel in a more conventional "pulp erotica" style without Willeford's advance knowledge or subsequent approval. Willeford disclaimed this book. He salvaged the work later by using it, with only slight rewriting, as the Pop Sinkiewicz half of ''Sideswipe''.
* ''
Cockfighter
''Cockfighter'' (also known as ''Born to Kill'', ''Gamblin' Man'' and ''Wild Drifter'') is a 1974 drama film by director Monte Hellman, starring Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton and featuring Laurie Bird and Ed Begley Jr. The screenplay is based ...
''. Chicago: Chicago Paperback House, 1962. Paperback original. Cover blurb: "The dedicated obsession of a fanatical sport. As in the bullring—to the death. Legal in Florida—illegal in the forty-nine other states. The iron will of a man, whose entire life was channeled into one supreme ambition!"
:: ''Cockfighter''. New York: Crown Publishers, 1972. Hardcover. A slightly rewritten second edition of the novel.
* ''The Burnt Orange Heresy''. New York: Crown Publishers, 1971. Willeford's first hardcover original.
* ''The Hombre from Sonora''. New York: Lenox Hill Press, 1971. His second hardcover original. Published under the pseudonym "Will Charles." Willeford's original title was ''The Difference''.
:: ''The Difference''. Tucson, Arizona: Dennis McMillan Publications, 1999. Hardcover reprint, with Willeford's original title restored.
* ''Kiss Your Ass Good-Bye''. Miami Beach, Florida: Dennis McMillan Publications, 1987. Hardcover. A self-contained fragment from Willeford's novel ''The Shark-Infested Custard'', finished by early 1975, but rejected by everyone who saw it as "too depressing" to publish. Four hundred–copy press run.
* ''A Charles Willeford Omnibus''. London: MacDonald and Co, 1991. Hardcover. Collects ''Pick-Up'', ''The Burnt Orange Heresy'', and ''Cockfighter''.
* ''The Shark-Infested Custard''. Novato, California: Underwood-Miller Books, 1993. Hardcover. The novel deemed "too depressing" to publish when offered around in the mid-seventies, in print at last. As an in-joke, the novel's four protagonists discuss Monte Hellman's ''
Two-Lane Blacktop
''Two-Lane Blacktop'' is a 1971 American road movie directed by Monte Hellman, written by Rudy Wurlitzer and starring songwriter James Taylor, the Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird.
Plot
Two street racers, the Dri ...
'' and its star, Warren Oates, in the first chapter. Oates collaborated with Hellman on the film adaptation of ''Cockfighter''.
:: ''The Shark-Infested Custard''. New York: Dell, 1996. Paperback reprint. Includes an introduction by Lawrence Block.
Poetry
* ''The Outcast Poets''. Yonkers, New York: Alicat Bookshop Press, 1947. No. 8 in the Alicat Bookshop Press "Outcast" chapbook series. Collects poems by Willeford and four other writers.
* ''Proletarian Laughter''. Yonkers, New York: Alicat Bookshop Press, 1948. No. 12 in the "Outcast" chapbook series. Contains a preface by the author and seven prose "Schematics" interlaced with the poems. One thousand–copy press run.
* ''Poontang and Other Poems''. Crescent City, Florida: New Athenaeum Press, 1967. Self-published saddle-stapled chapbook of poetry. Five hundred–copy press run.
Short stories and nonfiction
* ''The Machine in Ward Eleven''. New York: Belmont Books, 1963. Paperback original. Short story collection. Willeford stated, "I had a hunch that madness was a predominant theme and a normal condition for Americans living in the second half of this century. The publication of ''The Machine in Ward Eleven'' (1963) and its reception by readers confirmed what I had only heretofore suspected."
* ''A Guide for the Undehemorrhoided''. Kendall, Florida: self-published, 1977. Hardcover. A short account of Willeford's hemorrhoid operation. One thousand–copy press run.
* ''Off the Wall''. Montclair, New Jersey: Pegasus Rex Press, 1980. Hardcover. Nonfiction. An account of the
Son of Sam case, telling the story of Craig Glassman, the deputy sheriff who captured
David Berkowitz.
* ''Something About a Soldier''. New York: Random House, 1986. Hardcover. Autobiography, covering Willeford's first hitches in the peacetime Army and Air Force in the Philippines and California, from age sixteen to age twenty.
* ''New Forms of Ugly: The Immobilized Hero in Modern Fiction''. Miami Beach, Florida: Dennis McMillan Publications, 1987. Hardcover. Subtitle per online McMillan bibliography; Willeford's ''New York Times'' obituary gives it as ''The Immobilized Man in Modern Literature''. A revised version of ''The Immobilized Man: A New Hero In Modern Fiction'', Willeford's University of Miami master's thesis. A survey of the literature of angst, covering writers from
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
, through
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
and
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...
, to
Chester Himes and
Saul Bellow. 350-copy press run.
* ''Everybody's Metamorphosis''. Missoula, Montana: Dennis McMillan Publications, 1988. Hardcover and limited-edition goatskin. Collection of short stories and essays. Includes annotated bibliography by Don Herron. 374-copy hardcover and 26-copy goatskin press run.
* ''I Was Looking for a Street''. Woodstock, Vermont: Countryman Press, 1988. Hardcover. Autobiography, covering Willeford's childhood and the period when he went on the road as a teenager during the Depression, before joining the army.
* ''Collected Memoirs of Charles Willeford''. Sarasota, Florida: Disc-Us Books, 1988. Paperback. Collects ''Something About a Soldier'' and ''I Was Looking for a Street''.
* ''Cockfighter Journal: The Story of a Shooting''. Santa Barbara, California: Neville Publishing, 1989. Hardcover. Autobiography, covering the filming of the
Roger Corman production of ''Cockfighter'' (for which Willeford both wrote the screenplay and acted the role of Ed Middleton), taken from a diary he kept during the shoot.
* ''Writing and Other Blood Sports''. Tucson, Arizona: Dennis McMillan Publications, 2000. Hardcover. Collection of essays on writing, writers, and related facts of life. Includes ''New Forms of Ugly''. One thousand–copy press run.
* ''The Second Half of the Double Feature''. New Albany, Indiana: Wit's End Publishing, 2003. Hardcover and trade paperback. Collection of short stories, vignettes, and autobiographical sketches. The hardcover also includes Willeford's complete poetry.
This bibliography is adapted from literary historian
Don Herron
BR549 (originally spelled BR5-49) was an American country rock band founded in 1993. It originally consisted of Gary Bennett (lead and background vocals, acoustic guitar), Don Herron (steel guitar, resonator guitar, fiddle, mandolin, acoustic gu ...
's ''Willeford'' (1997), courtesy of Dennis McMillan Publications.
See also
*
List of people from Little Rock, Arkansas
The following people were all born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock (categorized by area in which each person is best known):
Actors, musicians and others in the entertainment industry
A ...
Footnotes
References
* Block, Lawrence (1996). "Introduction to ''The Shark-Infested Custard''," in ''The Shark-Infested Custard'' (New York: Dell), pp. 1–3.
* Cochran, David (2000). ''America Noir: Underground Writers and Filmmakers of the Postwar Era'' (Washington, D.C., and London: Smithsonian Institution Press).
* Haut, Woody (1995). ''Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War'' (London: Serpent's Tail).
* Haut, Woody (1999). ''Neon Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction'' (London: Serpent's Tail).
* Herron, Don (1997). ''Willeford'' (Tucson, Ariz.: Dennis McMillan).
* Horsley, Lee (2005). ''Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction'' (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press).
* McCann, Sean (2000). ''Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism'' (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press).
* Stathis, Lou (1987). "Introduction: Charles Willeford: New Hope for the Living," in ''High Priest of California/Wild Wives'' (San Francisco: Re/Search), pp. 5–13.
* Steinberg, Sybil (1987). "Charles Willeford: An Interview," in ''The Big Book of Noir'', ed. Ed Gorman, Lee Server, and Martin H. Greenberg (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1998), 313–316.
External links
Charles Willeford Paperback Coverspart of the ''Vintage Paperbacks'' website
Nothing is Inchoate, or, "When Did You Get Interested In Abused Children, Helen?"nbsp; An overview of his works by Ethan Iverson
''The Shark-Infested Custard''excerpt from the novel: chapter 1 and part of chapter 2; part of the Random House website
inventory of archive at the Broward County LibraryBienes Center for the Literary Arts, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
at ArlingtonCemetery.net, an unofficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willeford, Charles
1919 births
1988 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American poets
United States Army personnel of World War II
American literary critics
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American male poets
American mystery writers
Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
Military personnel from Little Rock, Arkansas
Novelists from Florida
Recipients of the Silver Star
United States Air Force airmen
United States Army soldiers
Writers from Little Rock, Arkansas