The 1929 Louise Brooks film, The Canary Murder Case, is based on bestselling book of the same name by the pseudonymous S.S. Van Dine, a once-popular and critically esteemed author of detective fiction.
Though little read today, Van Dine is considered an important early figure in the development of the modern detective story. Many of his books were bestsellers, and many were turned into popular films and radio programs.
Van Dine is one of three writers featured in a new book, Making the Detective Story American: Biggers, Van Dine and Hammett and the Turning Point of the Genre, 1925-1930 (McFarland), by J.K. Van Dover. This 221 page study also examines the fiction of Earl Derr Biggers and Dashiell Hammett during a crucial five year period when these three authors helped transform the detective story into the genre we know today.
The characters they created, including Philo Vance (Van Dine), Charlie Chan (Biggers), and the Continental Op (Hammett), represented a new style of detective – each solving crimes in innovative and decidely American ways. Together, the collective successes of these three authors helped push crime and detective fiction away from earlier European models and into territory which was fresh and exciting.
Van Dine was born Willard Huntington Wright in 1888. He studied art in Europe, and eventually found work as a critic for various magazines and newspapers (including the Los Angeles Times), and served as the editor of The Smart Set. (Notably, during his tenure with The Smart Set, Wright was the first to publish the work of Frank Wedekind in the United States.) Wright also wrote a novel and short stories, a book on Nietzsche, and a book on art and aesthetics. (His brother was the modernist painter Stanton Macdonald-Wright.)
Wright continued as a journalist and critic until 1923, when he reportedly became ill due to exhaustion from overwork; in reality, his ailment was a secret drug addiction. Wright’s doctor confined him to bed (supposedly because of a heart ailment, but actually because of cocaine dependency) for more than two years. In frustration and boredom, Wright began reading and studying thousands of volumes of crime and detective fiction. In 1926, thinking he could do better and hoping to make a little money, he published his first S. S. Van Dine novel, The Benson Murder Case. It was a success.
The Canary Murder Case followed in 1927. It was the first Van Dine book to be filmed. Released by Paramount in both silent and sound versions, The Canary Murder Case premiered in February, 1929 and starred William Powell as Philo Vance and Louise Brooks in the title role of the blackmailing showgirl who is murdered. The film was also popular success, and helped focus even more attention on Van Dine and his exceptional modern detective, Philo Vance.
Though he was personally conflicted about the worth of his genre work (hence his pseudonym), Van Dine gave detective fiction a good deal of thought. He also wrote two important essays on the subject and compiled an anthology. But what’s more, he got readers thinking about the form and its rules and merits.
J.K. Van Dover has written an admirable book because it reminds us of the rich and vital history of a genre which is now assuming its own place on the shelves of literature – witness the recent publication of Hammett’s works in the Library of American series. Making the Detective Story American is well written, thoroughly researched, and an interesting good read!
A background check reveals Van Dover brings considerable knowledge and experience to the writing of his new book. He has taught courses on the detective story in Germany, Austria, and China, and is the author of ten books including Murder in the Millions: Erle Stanley Gardner, Mickey Spillane, Ian Fleming (Ungar, 1984), The Critical Response to Raymond Chandler (Greenwood Press, 1995) and Isn't Justice Always Unfair?: The Detective in Southern Literature (Popular Press, 1997).
Fans of early detective fiction and films will also want to check out another new release, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History (W. W. Norton). Yunte Huang’s "heady mixture of scholarship, essay and memoir" (Washington Post) has been receiving a good deal of attention for its broad examination of the social and cultural milieu of the fictional detective. It’s also worth investigating.
More info: J. K. Van Dover’s Making the Detective Story American: Biggers, Van Dine and Hammett and the Turning Point of the Genre, 1925-1930 is available from online retailers and Indiebound.
Thomas Gladysz is an arts journalist and author. Recently, he wrote the introduction to a new “Louise Brooks edition” of Margarete Böhme's classic book, The Diary of a Lost Girl (PandorasBox Press). Gladysz will speak about his new book at the Village Voice Bookshop in Paris on January 13, followed by a screening of the film at the nearby Action Cinema.
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