David Goodis, the noir novelist from Philadelphia who depicted with great clarity and distinctive voice the rougher edges of this big rough city of neighborhoods, died on January 7, 1967. This past Saturday I was among about twenty Goodis fans who braved 14 degree temperatures to travel in his footsteps. Stops included his grave and the Philadelphia home where he lived the last eighteen years of his adult life. It's the place he wrote several of my noir favorites, including Down There (which Francois Truffaut made into Shoot the Piano Player), Street of No Return, The Moon in the Gutter, and many others.
For more on Goodis, read the Library of America's Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s collection and look for the English translation of the French biography Goodis: A Life in Black and White out this month. And if you can get to Philly, the NoirCon 2014 conference promises to be a humdinger over Halloween weekend.
1 comment:
Long Live Joe Samuel Starnes and David Goodis. Where Goodis left off, Starnes continued right down that fox hole full bore. It is dark, deep and scary and often very cold!
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