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Lawrence Block

Born June 24, 1938 (1938-06-24) (age 69)
Buffalo, New York
Pen name Chip Harrison, Paul Kavanagh, others
Occupation novelist, short story writer
Nationality United States
Writing period
1950s - present
Genres Crime fiction, mystery fiction
Official website
For the U. Events 972 - Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces takes place Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Buffalo (ˈbʌfəloʊ is the second largest city in New York State. A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a Pseudonym adopted by an Author or their publishers to conceal their identity Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such Nationality is a relationship between a Person and their State of Origin, Culture, association Affiliation and/or Loyalty The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A literary genre is a category of literary composition Genres may be determined by Literary technique, tone, Content, or even (as in the case of fiction Crime fiction is the Genre of Fiction that deals with Crimes their detection criminals and their motives It is usually distinguished from S. federal judge, see Lawrence J. Block. Lawrence J Block (born 1951 in New York City, New York, United States) is an American Federal judge on the United States Court

Lawrence Block (born June 24, 1938) is an acclaimed contemporary American crime writer best known for two long-running New York-set series, about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, respectively. Events 972 - Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces takes place Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Crime fiction is the Genre of Fiction that deals with Crimes their detection criminals and their motives It is usually distinguished from The City of New York A private investigator or private detective (often shortened to PI or private eye) is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake Matthew (Matt Scudder is a fictional Private investigator, the most famous and enduring creation of American crime writer Lawrence Block. The term gentleman (from Latin gentilis, belonging to a race or "gens" and "man" Cognate with the French word gentilhomme Bernie Rhodenbarr is the Fictional protagonist of the Burglar series of comic mystery novels by Lawrence Block. Block was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1993. Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers based in New York.

Contents

Biography

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Lawrence Block attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH, but left before graduating. Buffalo (ˈbʌfəloʊ is the second largest city in New York State. Antioch College was a private independent Liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States, and was the founder and flagship His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the 1950s, was mostly in the porn paperback industry, an apprenticeship he shared with fellow mystery author Donald E. Westlake. Donald Edwin Westlake (born July 12, 1933, in Brooklyn New York) is a prolific American Novelist, with over a hundred books The first of his "own" work to appear was the 1957 story "You Can't Lose. " He has since published more than fifty novels and more than a hundred short stories, as well as a series of books for writers.

Block has lived in New York City for decades, setting most of his fiction there, and has come to be very closely associated with the city. He is married to Lynne Block, and has three daughters from an earlier marriage. With Lynne, he spends much of his time traveling (the two have been to nearly 100 countries), but continues to consider New York his home.

Matthew Scudder

Block's most famous creation, the ever-evolving Matthew Scudder, was introduced in 1976's The Sins of the Fathers as an alcoholic ex-cop working as an unlicensed private investigator in Hell's Kitchen. Matthew (Matt Scudder is a fictional Private investigator, the most famous and enduring creation of American crime writer Lawrence Block. Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City that includes roughly the area between Originally published as paperbacks, the early novels are interchangeable; the second and third entries—In the Midst of Death (1976) and Time to Murder and Create (1977)—were written in the opposite order. 1982's Eight Million Ways to Die (filmed in 1988 by Hal Ashby, with unpopular results) breaks from that trend, concluding with Scudder introducing himself at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Hal Ashby ( September 2, 1929 - December 27, 1988) was an American film director and Academy Award -winning film editor Alcoholics Anonymous ( AA) is an informal meeting society for recovering and recovered alcoholics, with the stated purpose to help its members "to stay sober and The series was set to end on that note, but an idle promise Block had made to supply an editor friend with an original Scudder short resulted in "By the Dawn's Early Light," a story set during the character's drinking days, but told from the perspective of a recovering alcoholic. Block expanded on that with 1986's When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (named for a line in a song by folk singer Dave Van Ronk, a close friend), which proved not only one of the most literary entries, but also a favorite of the author and his fans. Dave Van Ronk ( June 30 1936 – February 10 2002) was a Folk singer born in From then on, Scudder's circumstances rarely remain the same from one book to the next; 1990's A Ticket to the Boneyard, for example, reunites him with Elaine Mardell, a hooker from his days on the force, whom he marries several books later. Other high points are 1991's taut, gruesome A Dance at the Slaughterhouse (winner of the Edgar award for best Mystery Novel), and 1993's A Long Line of Dead Men, an ingeniously-plotted puzzler featuring a rapidly dwindling fraternity known as the "Club of 31. The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars) named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. " The sixteenth entry in the series, All the Flowers Are Dying, was published in early 2005.

Though it's been suggested that Scudder's struggle with alcoholism is in part autobiographical, Block has repeatedly refused to discuss the subject, citing AA's own tradition of anonymity.

Bernie Rhodenbarr

Block's other major series, much lighter in tone, relates the misadventures of gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Unlike Scudder, Rhodenbarr is ageless, remaining essentially the same from 1977's Burglars Can't Be Choosers, to the tenth and most recent entry, 2004's The Burglar on the Prowl. The only significant advancements come in the third volume, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling (1979) which sees Bernie having used the spoils from his previous caper to buy a bookstore, and introduces Carolyn Kaiser, his lesbian "soulmate" and partner in crime. The plots run very much to form: Bernie breaks into a residence (usually on Manhattan's Upper East Side), and, through a series of implausible events, becomes involved in a murder investigation—often as the prime suspect. The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. Not even an eleven-year hiatus (between 1983's The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian and 1994's The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams) would see that basic formula change. There is, however, a meta quality to the more recent entries: Bernie, the reluctant detective, is himself a bookseller and genre fan, and is apt to make references to Agatha Christie, E.W. Hornung (his cat is named "Raffles"), Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Sue Grafton and John Sandford, among others. Agatha Mary Clarissa Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 &ndash 12 January 1976 commonly known as Agatha Christie, was an English Ernest William Hornung (June 7 1866 &ndash March 22 1921 known as Willie, was an English author most famous for writing the Raffles series of novels about a Arthur J Raffles is a character created in the 1890s by E W Hornung, a brother-in-law to Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Samuel Dashiell Hammett ( May 27, 1894 — January 10, 1961) was an American Author of Hardboiled detective Raymond Thornton Chandler ( July 23, 1888 &ndash March 26, 1959) was an American Author of crime stories and novels Sue Taylor Grafton (born April 24 1940 is a contemporary American Author of Detective novels Biography Early years Born in John Sandford may refer to John Sandford (novelist, an American novelist and journalist John Loren Sandford, a Christian author The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart (1995) exploits this to full effect: set during a Humphrey Bogart film festival, the story is itself inspired by many of the actor's most famous roles. The Burglar in the Library (1997) similarly imagines a meeting between Hammet and Chandler at a New England inn in the 1940s, casting a volume inscribed by Hammett to Chandler as its own Maltese Falcon. The Maltese Falcon is a 1930 Detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine " Black Mask " The Burglar in the Rye is one of the more intriguing books in the series, as Bernie works to track down a writer clearly based on J.D. Salinger as reflected in the title. Jerome David "J D" Salinger (born January 1 1919 (ˈsælɨndʒɚ is an American author best known for his 1951 Novel The Catcher in the Rye The Burglar in The Closet was filmed in 1987 as Burglar, with Whoopie Goldberg as Bernie (now short for "Bernice"). Burglar is a 1987 American comedy Film directed by Hugh Wilson and distributed by Warner Bros Whoopi Goldberg (born Caryn Elaine Johnson; November 13, 1955) is an American actress, comedienne, and television

Evan Michael Tanner

Besides Scudder and Rhodenbarr, Block has written eight novels about Evan Tanner, an adventurer and accidental revolutionary who, as a result of an injury sustained in the Korean War, cannot sleep. Evan Michael Tanner, or simply Tanner is the literary creation of author Lawrence Block and appears in eight of his novels The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the All but the last of these were published in the '60s and early '70s (beginning with 1966's The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep), while the most recent, 1998's Tanner on Ice, revived the character after a nearly a thirty-year hiatus.

Chip Harrison

This is Block's salute to the Nero Wolfe series created by Rex Stout. Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective created by the American Mystery writer Rex Stout, who made his debut in 1934 Rex Todhunter Stout ( December 1 1886 - October 27 1975) was an American Crime writer, best known as the creator of The character Chip Harrison is a take on Wolfe's assistant, Archie Goodwin. Archie Goodwin may refer to Archie Goodwin (fictional detective, created by Rex Stout Archie Goodwin (comics (1937-1998 comic book In the series, Block created Leo Haig, a character who openly modelled himself after Nero Wolfe, imitating most of Nero Wolfe's peculiarities such as refusing to leave his residence on business, sending out his associate instead to do the "legwork", and copying Wolfe's habits, such as obsession with plants but substituting the object of affection with tropical fish instead. Tropical fish include Fish found in tropical environments around the world including both freshwater and salt water species

Block made Leo Haig to believe that Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin actually exist in real-life, living and operating under pseudonyms, and that Rex Stout was only a chronicler and one of pseudonym of Archie Goodwin, and that if Haig proved himself worthy, Wolfe would invite Haig to dinner.

Having read all publications on Wolfe, Haig would operate like how he imagined Wolfe would, and assign Chip Harrison the tasks as Wolfe would assign Goodwin.

Martin Ehrengraf

Block created Martin Ehrengraf as a sartorially impeccable lawyer who charged outrageous fees but always get his clients off the hook from whatever they were charged with. Ehrengraf always insisted that the clients he accepted were innocent and never settled for any form of pleading or bargaining.

Ehrengraf would work in such a way that most of the time, his clients never even stood for trial, the charges would be dropped after evidence suddenly turned up to show someone else was the culprit. Half the time, that someone else would also be dead, with a confession note or incriminating evidence to be found by the police. Many times, it seemed like Ehrengraf had done nothing to earn his fee, yet he always claimed it, strongly hinting to his clients, some who balked, that the surprising turn of events was the result of his orchestrations rather than revelations of the actual truth.

Two sub-themes recurred in Martin Ehrengraf stories. The first was that he would wear what was described as a Caedmon Society necktie, after a fictional Oxford society created by Block for the Ehrengraf series. The necktie and the society was introduced in the short story The Ehrengraf Defense, and subsequently, always worn by Ehrengraf when meeting his client to collect his fee, having masterminded the exoneration of the client from all charges.

Another sub-theme was that Ehrengraf would always find profit for his work, even when none seemed apparent in the beginning where the client could not afford the fee or he was called to do his share of work as a public defender.

Keller

Four episodic novels—Hit Man, Hit List, Hit Parade, and Hit and Run (forthcoming)—rework and combine a series of stories about Keller, a lonely, wistful hitman who originally appeared as a semi-regular feature in Playboy magazine in the 1990s. Playboy is an American Men's magazine, founded in Chicago Illinois, by Hugh Hefner and his associates which has grown into Playboy Keller received assignments via a contact named Dot, who was based in White Plains. His assignments usually take him to different cities, where Keller would soon wish himself retiring from the business, daydreaming about settling there, before finishing off the assignment, returning and his fantasies forgotten as a passing dream.

Other works

Small Town (2003), Block's first non-series book in fifteen years, details a group of New Yorkers' varying responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Block has also written dozens of short stories over the years, and he is the only three-time winner of the Edgar Award for Best Short Story. The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars) named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. The 2002 collection Enough Rope compiles stories, 84 in all, from earlier collections, such as Like a Lamb to Slaughter and Sometimes They Bite, along with new and previously uncollected stories.

In addition to writing the scripts for a handful of television episodes over the years—including, in 2005, two episodes of the ESPN series Tilt—Block co-wrote the screenplay for My Blueberry Nights, a 2007 film directed by Wong Kar-wai and starring Norah Jones. ESPN, originally an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, is an American Cable television network dedicated to Tilt is a US TV series set against the backdrop of the (fictional World Championship of Poker tournament in Las Vegas, and with My Blueberry Nights is a 2007 film directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Norah Jones and Jude Law. Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30 1979) is an American Singer-songwriter, Pianist, Keyboardist [1]

Selected bibliography

Matthew Scudder novels

  1. The Sins of the Fathers (1976)
  2. In the Midst of Death (1976)
  3. Time to Murder and Create (1977)
  4. A Stab in the Dark (1981)
  5. Eight Million Ways to Die (1982)
  6. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (1986)
  7. Out on the Cutting Edge (1989)
  8. A Ticket to the Boneyard (1990)
  9. A Dance at the Slaughterhouse (1991)
  10. A Walk Among the Tombstones (1992)
  11. The Devil Knows You're Dead (1993)
  12. A Long Line of Dead Men (1994)
  13. Even the Wicked (1997)
  14. Everybody Dies (1998)
  15. Hope to Die (2001)
  16. All the Flowers Are Dying (2005)

Bernie Rhodenbarr novels

  1. Burglars Can't Be Choosers (1977)
  2. The Burglar in the Closet (1978)
  3. The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling (1979)
  4. The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza (1980)
  5. The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian (1983)
  6. The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams (1994)
  7. The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart (1995)
  8. The Burglar in the Library (1997)
  9. The Burglar in the Rye (1999)
  10. The Burglar on the Prowl (2004)

There are also Bernie Rhodenbarr short stories: "The Burglar Who Dropped In On Elvis" and "The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke". Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 was an English Author and poet Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza (ברוך שפינוזה Bento de Espinosa Benedictus de Spinoza ( November 24, 1632 – February 21, Pieter Cornelis (Piet Mondriaan, after 1912 Mondrian, (pronounced Dutch pit 'mɔndrian later pit 'mɔndɹiɔn ( March 7, 1872 &ndash February Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams ( August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) also nicknamed The Kid, the Splendid Splinter

Evan Tanner novels

  1. The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep (1966)
  2. The Canceled Czech (1966)
  3. Tanner's Twelve Swingers (1967)
  4. The Scoreless Thai (a. k. a. Two for Tanner) (1968)
  5. Tanner's Tiger (1968)
  6. Here Comes a Hero (a. k. a. Tanner's Virgin) (1968)
  7. Me Tanner, You Jane (1970)
  8. Tanner on Ice (1998)

Chip Harrison novels (as Chip Harrison)

  1. No Score (1970)
  2. Chip Harrison Scores Again (1971)
  3. Make Out With Murder (a. k. a. The Five Little Rich Girls) (1974)
  4. The Topless Tulip Caper (1975)

"As Dark As Christmas Gets" (1997) is a Chip Harrison short story written specifically for customers of the Otto Penzler owned Mysterious Bookshop. Otto Penzler (born July 8, 1942) is a well-known American Publisher and Editor of Mystery fiction in the United States It was printed in booklet format for the 1997 holiday season.

Keller novels

  1. Hit Man (1998)
  2. Hit List (2000)
  3. Hit Parade (2006)
  4. Hit and Run (forthcoming, June 2008)
Cover art by Robert McGinnis
Cover art by Robert McGinnis

Paul Kavanagh novels

  1. Such Men Are Dangerous (1969)
  2. The Triumph of Evil (1971)
  3. Not Comin' Home to You (1974)

Other fiction

Books for writers

References

  1. ^ "A Hodge-Podge of Homicide" by OTTO PENZLER, The New York Sun, June 13, 2007, accessed 13 June 2007

External links


Persondata
NAME Block, Lawrence
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harrison, Chip (pseudonym); Kavanagh, Paul (pseudonym)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Mystery writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Buffalo, New York
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Events 972 - Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces takes place Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Buffalo (ˈbʌfəloʊ is the second largest city in New York State.
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