Customer Reviews

Ross MacDonald: A Biography

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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As a personal friend of Ken Millar (Ross MacDonald) during the sixties and seventies, as well as a regular attendant at the writers' luncheon he encouraged and supported in Santa Barbara during those years, I was especially interested in reading Tom Nolan's "Ross MacDonald: A Biography." I was curious to see whether the writer could possibly capture the personality of Ken, a man whose combination of brilliance and internal conflicts made him so enigmatic that most people, even after knowing him for years, could scarcely undestand him at all. I was pleased and amazed to discover, after reading the book, that Tom Nolan had come closer to explaining him than anyone I'm aware of--and by "anyone" I mean to include not just those who have written about him, but also those other friends of his, who, like me, found him so fascinating and incomprehensible. And this from an author who never even met the man! While it is true that Tom Nolan, as a biographer, had to present sides of Millar's pesonality and events from his life that Millar, understandably, had been interested in keeping secret while he was alive, Ken indicated to me many times that he knew anything that had happened to him would, of necessity, have to be eventually included in any biography that was ever done, and I don't feel he would have had an objection to the balanced and considerate way that material was presented by Tom Nolan in "Ross MacDonald: A Biography." I certainly had no objection. The forthright, kind and dispassionate way Nolan treated this material reminds me of those same qualities I often observed in Ken Millar. Had they met, he and Tom Nolan would have become great friends.

A good biography defines for the reader the complete subject. An exceptional biography not only defines the subject but offers insights and generates feeling for the subject. Nolan has done a truly masterful job of offering us Kenneth Millar, without ever once inflicting any kind of authorial (hence subjective) opinions on the material.

As someone who, to this day, can remember many of Millar/Macdonald's exquisitely crafted lines and scenes, and who loved both his work and that of his wife Margaret Millar, it was a wonderful experience to read this book. Since they were so integral to each other's lives, author Nolan has wisely, and quite fully, included Margaret in this biography in order to give us a full perspective on their life together--a pair of (ultimately) enormously successful writers who happened to be married.

Margaret comes across as a clever, difficult, quite damaged woman, often hiding behind throwaway quips and quite caustic remarks; not at all sociable, undeniably gifted, and possessed of a humor that was frequently cruel.

Millar, on the other hand, is shown to be, first and foremost, a generous, thoughtful, kind, and immensely gifted man with a fine, fine mind. His long struggle to achieve the success he so richly deserved is, in some ways, very contemporary; in other ways, it's reflective of the times (the late 40s through the late 70s).

Rich, too, in physical detail, what I particularly liked was Nolan's comprehension of Millar's sense of being an alien in America. Despite his American birth, having grown up in Canada, Millar brought to his life and to his work a kind of interior chill that is so very much a part of Canadian life. A very tricky thing to describe, yet Nolan does a masterful job of highlighting the difference in sensibilities between Canadians and Americans. It's no small achievement. We Canadians are not Americans, but articulating why--and defining the cultural niceties--can be exceedingly difficult.

To learn that a mind as fine as Millar's is destroyed, ultimately, by Alzheimer's is achingly painful to read. To "see" the man begin to falter and then fail is harrowing and, finally, heartbreaking. Millar redefined the mystery genre, bringing it forward into the mainstream of literature with consummate skill and a peerless talent. Nolan does his subject proud. This is a book that would, undoubtedly, have pleased the shy and unpretentious Millar enormously.

Read every Ross Macdonald book you can find. And then read this splendid biography.
My highest recommendation.

I am an avid reader of mystery novels from the time I was a little girl - being the only girl in my group of friends to read mystery. I loved Lew Archer stories but was not really knowledgeable about the author. When I came across the book in the library, I checked it out and thoroughly enjoyed the book. His life was so wonderful yet pitifully sad. I thought Tom Nolan did a great job doing his research and his talent for writing made the book one that I could not put down until I had completely finished it. I can identify with some of the things McDonald's daughter went through. Her life hit a nerve and I believe Tom Nolan did an excellent job describing that part. I am an aspiring writer myself and I was amazed at the time and effort Tom put into this book. Hats off to him and I will be looking to read other books by him. The photograph of the author is very familiar to me. I feel that I may have known him. Strange.

This exhaustively researched book is not so much a biography of Ken Millar (real name of "Ross Macdonald") so much as a history of Millar's career as a writer, and as such it is extremely valuable to anyone who dreams of being an author.

Millar examplifies the classic situation of the genre author who achieves "overnight" fame after publishing 18 previous critically aclaimed books. This book makes it clear just how much work and how much frustration is involved in the life of the genre novelist, as well as portraying how complex it can be to deal with success when it finally comes.

What is particularly interesting in this story too, is the fact that Millar's wife, Margaret, was a successful mystery writer long before he was. The way that these two authors, with their quirky, authorial personalities, supported each other through their life's journeys and tragedies is particularly poignant, though Nolan, unfortunately, takes a very negative attitude--unjustified by much of the data he himself presents--towards Margaret's personality and achievements.

Today's novelists often look back with envy at those who wrote in the "Golden Age" of the pulps, before TV had ended the brief Age of Literacy of the first half of this century. Reading this book will dispell much of that envy. The tiny numbers of books sold in that "golden age" (3,500 being a typical hard cover sale of Ross Macdonald's first 16 books) and the pathetic sums paid him for paperback rights to books that had gotten enthusiastic NYTimes reviews show us that if anything today's genre writers are doing better(in adjusted dollars), not worse than those of Millar's day.

The search for personal and family identity in the hidden past is a constant theme in the Archer Books I've read, and this bio explains what was in some ways the author's private obession with his own identity..Was he American/Canadian,mystery/literary author,competition/assistant for his mystery writer wife,a Santa Barbara Lover, or the opposite. A true paradox who perplexed about everyone who knew him with more silent demons than most of us, no doubt all these factors helped his evolution into a major crime and literary writer. This bio explains his life from the beginnings of a lost father, and child forever on the move with various relatives and schools and cities. Called by one admirer a man one who absolutely take no chances, he was also known to climb out a 3rd floorwindow, and hand on the ledge by his finger, and climb back inside, saying that modern society is totally adverse to risks and challenges. This bio also is a fine intro into the business aspects of the writer, from working with an agent, publisher, getting paperback and movie/TV rights, just about the whole gamut. And then the final, hard struggle to fame and fortune! This book reads like the best novel, a real page turner, until it's final sad conclusion, a study in the deteriorating effects of Alzheimers. And the story of his wife and daughter are worthy of their own bios, though Mr. Nolan does a terrific job of weaving these people in the book, too! So if you're looking for a really phenomenal book/bio, do not miss this one!

Mr. Nolan has done a meticulous job here. Quite a bio.
You get the idea Ross Macdonald was as hard-working and decent as they come. It'll make you wish you had known the man.
Tom Nolan's book gets high marks here!

I am a mystery author who is attemping to continue in the literary tradition of Hammett/Chandler/Macdonald. While taking a break between my first book (now in current release and recently sold to a Japanese publisher for translation/publication) and my second book (now in preproduction), I read Tom Nolan's ROSS MACDONALD. Ross Macdonald is perhaps the mystery writer who has had the strongest influence upon my writing, and I spent approximately a month closely reading this overwhelming book. Mr. Nolan spent the better part of two decades researching this bigraphy, and his dedicated efforts clearly show in this work. Nolan traces Macdonald's early life, his education, his military career, his sometimes stormy relationship with his wife Margaret Millar, his years of work at mastering his craft, his family troubles, his eventual fame, his societal and political interests, his dedication to certain causes, and the tragically early end to his life. In short, this book tells you everything you ever wanted to know about Macdonald but didn't know enough to ask. While reading this book, I made mental notes of a some minor details I desired further elaboration on. Fortunately, several months later, I found myself seated next to Tom Nolan at the LA TIMES Festival of Books. It was a pleasure to meet such a kind and generous man. Mr. Nolan is as fine a gentleman as he is a writer, and he had answers to all the questions I still had about the great author we both admire. ROSS MACDONALD is an extraordinarily well-researched work written by a man with a thorough mastery of his material. I have never read a better literary biography.

Thanks Tom Nolan from a disenfranchised Canadian living in Canada. Thank you to Paul Nelson too, for introducing me to Ross Macdonald's work way back when.

What a pleasure to see Tom Nolan's work in print. His extensive research and exaustive dedication comes thru in this impressive biography that took 16 years to complete.

Nolan sems to have captured quite a bit of the life of Kenneth Millar, an especially daunting challenge considering that the great mystery novelist prized his privacy. Anyone interested in Millar/Macdonald, mysteries or publishing should find this book as enlightening as it is readable.