David Goodis

David Goodis (March 2, 1917 – January 7, 1967) was an American noir fiction writer.

Born in Philadelphia, Goodis had two younger brothers, but one died of meningitis at the age of three. After high school in Philadelphia, Goodis studied at Indiana University for a year before transferring to Temple University, where he graduated in 1938 with a journalism degree.

Pulp magazines

While working at an advertising agency, he started writing his first novel, Retreat from Oblivion. After it was published by Dutton in 1939, Goodis moved to New York City, where he wrote under several pseudonyms for pulp magazines, including Battle Birds, Daredevil Aces, Dime Mystery, Horror Stories, Terror Tales and Western Tales, sometimes churning out 10,000 words a day. Over a five-and-a-half year period, according to some sources, he produced five million words for the pulp magazines.

Radio and screenplays

During the 1940s, he scripted for radio adventure serials, including Hop Harrigan, House of Mystery and Superman. Novels Goodis wrote during the early 1940s were rejected by publishers, but in 1942, he spent some time in Hollywood as one of the screenwriters on Universal's Destination Unknown. His big break came in 1946 when his novel Dark Passage was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, published by Julian Messner and filmed for Warner Brothers with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall heading the cast. Delmer Daves directed what is now regarded as a classic film noir, and a first edition of the 1946 hardcover is valued at more than $800.

Arriving in Hollywood, Goodis signed a six‑year contract with Warners where he scripted The Unfaithful (a remake of Somerset Maugham's The Letter). Some of his scripts were never produced, including Of Missing Persons and an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Lady in the Lake.

Return to Philadelphia

In 1950, Goodis returned to Philadelphia where he lived with his parents and his schizophrenic brother Herbert. At night, he prowled the underside of Philadelphia, hanging out in nightclubs and seedy bars, a milieu he depicted in his fiction. Cassidy's Girl (1951) sold over a million copies, and he continued to write for paperback publishers, notably Gold Medal. There was a renewed interest in his novels when François Truffaut filmed Down There (1956) as the acclaimed Shoot the Piano Player (1960).

Goodis died in 1967 of cirrhosis of the liver. After his death, his work went out of print in the United States, but he remained a popular favourite in France. In 1987, Black Lizard began to reissue Goodis titles. In 2007, Hard Case Crime published a new edition of The Wounded and the Slain for the first time in more than 50 years. Also in 2007 Street of No Return and Nightfall were re-published by Millipede Press.

Influence

Goodis has influenced contemporary crime fiction writers, notable Paul D. Marks.

Bibliography

• Somebody's Done For (1967)
• Night Squad (1961)
• Fire in the Flesh (1957)
• Down There (1956)
• aka Shoot the Piano Player
• The Wounded and the Slain (1955)
• The Blonde on the Street Corner (1954)
• Street of No Return (1954)
• Black Friday (1954)
• The Moon in the Gutter (1953)
• The Burglar (1953)
• Street of the Lost (1952)
• Of Tender Sin (1952)
• Cassidy's Girl (1951)
• Of Missing Persons (1950)
• Behold This Woman (1947)
• Nightfall (1947)
• aka Convicted
• aka The Dark Chase
• Dark Passage (1946)
• Retreat from Oblivion (1939)

Filmography

• Street of No Return (1989)
• Descent into Hell (1986) from The Wounded and the Slain
• Rue Barbare (1984) from Street of the Lost
• The Moon in the Gutter (1983)
• And Hope to Die (1972) from Black Friday
• Le Casse (1971) from The Burglar
• The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode: "An Out for Oscar" (broadcast April 5, 1963)
• Shoot the Piano Player (1960) from Down There
• The Burglar (1957)
• Nightfall (1957)
• Section des disparus (1956) from Of Missing Persons
• Dark Passage (1947)
• The Unfaithful (1947)

Read

• Excerpt from The Wounded and the Slain

References

• Garnier, Philippe. Goodis, La Vie en Noir et Blanc. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1984.
• Sallis, James. Difficult Lives: Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Chester Himes. New York: Gryphon Books, 1993.

External links

• Nightfall and Street of No Return 2007 editions from Millipede Press.
• David Goodis at the Internet Movie Database
• David Goodis and the Representation of Women
• David Goodis: Poet of the Losers by Dave Moore
• David Goodis -- Gallery of book covers
• David L. Ulin reviews The Blonde on the Street Corner
• The Serious Moonlight: The Cinematic World of David Goodis