Ross Macdonald - (1915-1983)
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San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California
I. Biography
Ross Macdonald was born Kenneth Millar in Los Gatos, California on December 13, 1915. He has written under the names: Kenneth Millar, John Macdonald and John Ross Macdonald. When Millar was three years old, his father abandoned his mother and him and she moved the family to Canada where he grew up. Macdonald was shifted from home to home and from relative to relative and he estimates that by the time he graduated from high school in 1932, he had resided in about fifty rooms. Because of this he regarded his family with shame and embarrassment. This had a profound affect on him and is reflected in some of his work.
In 1932, Macdonald enrolled at the University of Western Ontario. In the winter of 1936-1937, Macdonald dropped out of school and went to venture in Europe, where he spent two months in Nazi Germany. In June of 1938, Macdonald married a wonderful lady, by the name of Margaret Sturm, who later became the successful novelist Margaret Millar. In 1938 Millar entered the University of Toronto where he studied to become a high school teacher. Both he and his wife were determined to become writers. Macdonald began his writing career by contributing verses, humorous sketches and stories to the Toronto Saturday Night weekly newspaper. In the spring of 1939, Millar fathered a daughter who died at the age of 31.
In 1941, due to his wife's writing success, Macdonald was able to leave teaching high school after two years to accept a fellowship at the University of Michigan to work on a doctorate in English. During World War II, Macdonald served in the United States Naval Reserve as a communications officer. As a child his mother had instilled in him that California was his natural birthplace and after the war was over he moved back to the state in which he was born and settled in Santa Barbara, California. He died due to Alzheimer's complications on July 11,1983.
II. Professional Life
Macdonald is thought to be one of the most prominent writers of "hard boiled" American detective fiction. Macdonald's books, written under his real name, Kenneth Millar, are crime and spy novels.
Macdonald's first novel, The Dark Tunnel, was written in Ann Arbor, Michigan during the fall of 1943. It is a spy novel about a thirty-year-old college English teacher who is wrongly accused of murder and becomes obsessed with locating the real killer.
The Dark Tunnel was soon followed by Trouble Follows Me, Blue City, and The Three Roads. The last was the first novel to reflect the author's interests in California. The Moving Target, was the first of Millar's novels published under the name Macdonald and introduced Lew Archer, a detective, and prominent and recurring figure in his detective series. In two of his books, Sleeping Beauty and The Underground Man, Macdonald addresses the problems with man's corruption of nature. Being an avid bird-watcher, he worked tirelessly on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society.
Macdonald has written at least four books, which are established as some of the finest detective stories written. These books are, The Galton Case, The Chill, The Underground Man, and Sleeping Beauty .
Macdonald's books have been made for movies and television. Paul Newman starred as Archer in the movie Harper, the adaptation of the book The Drowning Pool. NBC aired Archer , as a television series, during the 1975 season, and in 1974 as a made for TV movie. The Underground Man, starring Jim Hutton, Peter Graves and Jack Klugman was also aired.
Macdonald received several awards and honors, these included the Crime Writers Association's Golden Dagger Award in 1966, The Los Angeles Times's Robert Kirsch Award in 1982. He was also a member of the Authors League, and Mystery Writers of America.
III. Regional Influences
The author's captivation with Southern California has continued to be reflected his later books. From Millar's home in Santa Barbara you can drive ten miles inland into an unspoiled territory where even the endangered condor can fly peacefully. Again and again he enthusiastically expresses a perspective of California as a "Mini America." He also engulfs the reader into believing that California is a land of extraordinary natural beauty.
IV. Other Writer's Influences
Macdonald was often compared to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Macdonald created the detective Lew Archer in 1949. He is based on the character Miles Archer, Sam Spade's partner in Dashiell Hammett's mystery The Maltese Falcon.
V. LIterary Works
As mentioned earlier Ross Macdonald's name was actually Kenneth Millar, and his books were released under three different names: Ross Macdonald, Millar, and John Ross Macdonald.
These were released as
Ross Macdonald
The Moving Target (1949)
The Ivory Grin (1952)
The Name Is Archer (1955) Collection
The Barbarous Coast (1956)
The Doomsters (1958)
The Galton Case (1959)
The Ferguson Affair (1960)
The Wycherly Woman (1961)
The Zebra Striped Hearse (1962)
The Chill (1964)
The Far Side of the Dollar (1965)
Black Money (1966)
The Instant Enemy (1968)
The Goodbye Look (1969)
The Underground Man (1971)
Sleeping Beauty (1973)
The Blue Hammer (1976)
Lew Archer, Private Investigator (1977)
These were released as Millar (his real name)
The Dark Tunnel (1944)
Trouble Follows Me (1946)
Blue City (1947)
The Three Roads (1948)
These were released as John Ross Macdonald
The Drowning Pool (1950)
The Way Some People Die (1951)
Meet Me at the Morgue (1953)
Find a Victim (1954)
Archer in Hollywood (1967)
On Crime Writing(1973)
Archer in Jeopardy (1979)
Ceaselessly into the Past (1981)
VI. Sources
May, Hay, ed. Contemporary Authors
, v. 110, p. 355. 1984, Gale Research Company
American Authors, pp.331-337
Riley, Carolyn, ed. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Gale Research Company, 1973
vol. 1, pp. 185-186, vol. 2 pp. 255-257, vol 3, pp. 307-309
vol 14, pp 328-336, vol 34, p 416
Ross Macdonald:
Macdonald, Ross. The Underground Man.
Pierce, J. Kingston. The Private Eye of Ross Macdonald. http://www.januarymagazine.com/crfiction/ross.html
This essay was submitted by a student of Kathy Honda Stein, a teacher at San Pedro High School, in San Pedro, California.