NEW YORK ? A long-lost Cornell Woolrich story, with a rhyming title that seems destined to become a catch-phrase, is being published this week.
The Strand Magazine will reintroduce a short thriller by the author whose fiction was the source for such classic films as Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" and Francois Truffaut's "The Bride Wore Black." The name of the new piece features the common slang for "detective" in the 1930s: "Never Kick a Dick."
"When I found out that a lost story by Woolrich existed yet hasn't been published in over 70 years I was skeptical," said Strand managing editor Andrew Gulli. "When I read the story though, I found my misgivings were unfounded. It's a great noir story: eccentric characters; card sharks; vengeance; gritty dialogue; and a fantastic twist."
The Woolrich story will appear in the Strand's holiday issue, coming out Friday.
Woolrich, who died in 1968 at age 64, wrote more than 200 novels and short stories, and his work was often adapted into film, radio plays and television. His style changed dramatically over time, from the jazzy influence of F. Scott Fitzgerald to the pulp prose of some of his `30s work to a lyrical approach in his later years.
Much of his writing is now out of print.
"It's not atypical for these great pulp writers to ebb and flow," says Murray Weiss, president of Literal Media, which manages rights to Woolrich's work. "But we are negotiating to bring his work back and you should expect to see more Woolrich on the shelves and as e-books in 2012."
"He's a mystery writer's mystery writer, the one all the pros speak about in tones of hushed reverence but that the average Joe wouldn't know by name," says Charles Ardai, publisher of Hard Case Crime, which reissued the Woolrich novel "Fright" in 2007.
Weiss said "Never Kick" was offered to the Strand because he was impressed by the magazine's history of publishing little-known stories by such authors as Mark Twain, Graham Greene and Dashiell Hammett. Weiss added that the Woolrich piece was so obscure he couldn't find it in the agency files and had to track it down through biographer Mike Nevins.
"I was fascinated by the plot ? a rich college kid on spring break in Florida is marked, robbed and led to suicide by gangsters in a high-stakes poker game, whose tragic death is avenged by his New York-based tough guy brother," Weiss said.
The Strand story was first published in Double Detective magazine in 1938, and then forgotten for decades even as Woolrich became a leading crime writer. "Never Kick" is vintage hard-boiled fiction ? the word "hard-boiled" appears several times ? with great names such as Tricks Bernstein as the heavy and Semaphore Stell as the blonde. The setting is the penthouse of the Miami-Coney Plaza, overlooking Biscayne Bay. The detective, who is indeed on the wrong end of a kick, is Driscoll ? no first name.
"It's baffling to me that it has remained unpublished for nearly three-quarters of a century while some better-known Woolrich stories got reprinted three, four, five times," Ardai says. "It's a fine example of Woolrich's work during his pulp period (the late `30s), packing a novel's worth of characters and plot into just 10 pages of concentrated storytelling."
Ardai can already imagine the movie. Quentin Tarantino would be a "no-brainer" as the director.
"And casting?" he wonders. "It's a story about two tough guys going toe-to-toe, one cold, one hot. How about Daniel Craig vs. Robert De Niro? With Rose McGowan as the dame."
baby lisa irwin pearl jam 20 martha marcy may marlene lacuna lacuna paranormal activity 3 trailer paranormal activity 3 trailer
