Recounts the rise and fall of Willard Huntington Wright, alias S. S. Van Dine--the virtual creator of the modern detective novel whose dramatic swing from success to failure epitomized the Jazz Age in which he lived.
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Loughery, who is art critic of The Hudson Review , presents a well-researched, candid, contemporary, and objective assessment of Willard Huntington Wright, who under the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine wrote the phenomenally successful Philo Vance detective novels of the 1920s. Following his struggles to establish himself as art critic, reviewer, editor, novelist, and self-styled man of letters, the impoverished, eccentric Wright was to find success only as the writer of popular detective fiction. In Wright's spectacular rise and downfall, Loughery sees "a very American story of ambition, struggle, and success." In its extravagance, arrogance, and intellectualism, Wright's own life personified the fictional detective he created. Loughery credits Wright with "legitimizing and invigorating detective fiction in America," and with his efforts, through art criticism, to promote acceptance of modern painting. An excellent, balanced study, recommended for public and academic collections in American literature and popular culture.
- Lesley Jorbin, Cleveland State Univ. Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Lesley Jorbin, Cleveland State Univ. Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Intriguing if ultimately somewhat disappointing: A full biography (the first, apparently) of nasty, elegant, tortured Willard Huntington Wright (1887-1939)--magazine editor, art critic, and, as ``S.S. Van Dine,'' the author of the phenomenally successful, now nearly forgotten Philo Vance mysteries. Loughery, art critic of The Hudson Review, begins, effectively, with Wright's final, unhappy days: the Philo Vance bubble already burst, his lavish lifestyle in disarray. Next, bewilderingly, the narrative flashes back not to Wright's beginnings but to his brief stint (1913-14) as editor of The Smart Set--where his daring taste soon got him into trouble. Only then does Loughery make a proper start: Virginia childhood with indulgent, hotel-owning parents and an equally precocious younger brother (artist Stanton); spotty studies at Harvard and impetuous, unfortunate marriage at 19; acerbic book-review work in California, with Mencken as model. After The Smart Set debacle came years of ill-rewarded labor as an eloquent champion of modern art, particularly the ``synchronism'' of brother Stanton Macdonald- Wright. A failure in N.Y.C, Wright became a 1920's scrounger in Hollywood, writing for movie-mags--while wrestling with drug addiction and domestic turmoil. (He was a misogynistic womanizer as well as a racist.) Finally, in 1924, this bitter aesthete decided to sell out with a vengeance and came up with Philo Vance, a ``fantasy projection'' of himself: art connoisseur, aristocrat, amateur detective--and the first American sleuth to rival the sophistication and popularity of the British mystery greats. However, by 1933, the Van Dine novels had become ``a dreary, desperate, mortifying labor for cash.'' Despite the clumsy start, an unlikable subject, and insufficient psychological depth: curious, literate life-history, with sporadic illumination of American culture (pop and otherwise) in the 1910-40 period. (Eight-page photo insert--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mostly a fine book,
By Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Alias S S Van Dine (Hardcover)
John Loughery's book was a big seller when it came out and there are many used copies available in the resale market, but in other ways it has been unjustly forgotten, and that's a real shame.
Loughery has been damned by detective story fans as a man who didn't himself care for mysteries, and preferred "S S Van Dine" under his real name, Willard Huntington Wright. Wright's activities as art writer, theorist, editor and all-around American modernist are interesting indeed, and I don't blame Loughery for making so much of them. Could any of the members of today's MWA boast such a wideranging career? And Wright's brother was indeed one of the more interesting painters of his day. You'd think a book that gives equal attention to both aspects of this strange career would be a "win-win," as they say, affair, and yet even I, sympathetic to Loughery and in general admiring of his work here, come away uneasy with the results. I think that for dramatic effect, Loughery exaggerates to some extent Van Dine's fall from popular favor, his money problems, the last years of his life, and even the so-called decline in the Philo Vance novels: all seem written up in the most lurid light, and seemingly for moral reasons, to show that you can't be a pr*ck your whole life and expect to carry on without recriminations. Yes, Loughery really despises Wright/Van Dine, and maybe that approach has worked for some biographies, but for this one, it is a pity indeed, for I think we wind up feeling that the biographer has missed a wonderful chance to give us a well-rounded picture, because he got too hung up on Wright's flaws as a human being, a husband and a father. Folks claim the early Vance novels were the best ones, and it is sad in a way that Van Dine wound up writing novels in honor of Gracie Allen and Sonia Henie. When you call your book "The Gracie Allen Murder Case" it becomes obvious you've sold your assto the movie studios, and yet something could have been made of this phase of Wright/Van Dine, those books weren't so awful.
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