Home > Jim Thompson (writer)

Thompson wrote over thirty novels, half of them between the late 1940s and mid 1950s, his most prolific period. Not recognized during his lifetime, Thompson's stature grew in the 1980s, stemming from the republication of his novels in the Black Lizard series of rediscovered crime fiction. He was an admirer of Fyodor Dostoevsky and was nicknameA nickname is a short, clever, cute, derogatory, or otherwise substitute name for a person or thing's real name, (for example, Nick is short for Nicholas . As a concept, it is distinct from both pseudonym and stage name, although there may be overlap in td "Dimestore Dostoevsky" by writer Geoffrey O'Brien .

An unsuccessful writer of literary fictionLiterary fiction is a somewhat uneasy term that has come into common usage since around 1970, principally to distinguish 'serious' fiction from the many types of genre fiction and popular fiction. For example, a traditional first novel is supposed not to, Thompson finally gravitated towards the less prestigious but more commercial crime fiction genre. After the publication of his first hard-boiled novel, Nothing More Than Murder , he soon became one of the masters of the second generation of noirFilm noir is a genre of film based in large part on the hard-boiled detective novels that grew out of naturalism, a movement in literature based on realism. Film noir is French for "black film", and is pronounced accordingly ("film nwahr"): the plural is writers, as were named the writers that followed Dashiell HammettSamuel Dashiell Hammett ( May 27, 1894 January 10, 1961) was an American author of " hard-boiled" detective novels and short stories. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade The Maltese Falcon , Nick and Nora Charles The Thin Man , and the, Raymond ChandlerRaymond Thornton Chandler ( July 23, 1888 March 26, 1959) was an American author of crime stories and novels. His influence on modern crime fiction has been immense, particularly in the writing style and attitudes that much of the field has adopted over t and James M. CainJames Mallahan Cain ( July 1, 1892 October 27, 1977) was an American journalist and crime writer. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labelling, he is usually associated with the hard-boiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the cre.

Thompson's books are populated by grifterThe Grifter is a character created by comic book writer Brandon Choi and popular comic book artist Jim Lee. The latter is most famous for popularizing the X-Men during the 90s. Grifter, patterned after Jim Lee's X-Men character Gambit, was introduced in ts, loser s and psychopaths, some on the fringes of society, some in the very heart of it. His nihilistic worldview was best served by first person narratives, revealing an almost frighteningly deep understanding of the workings of warped mind s. It culminated in a few of his numerous masterpieces - The Killer Inside Me , Savage Night , A Hell of a Woman , Pop. 1280 . Thompson turned pulp into literature, into art. Some of his work features unreliable narrators and experiments with surrealism.

In 1955 Thompson moved to Hollywood and was commissioned by Stanley Kubrick to write the screenplay for his first studio-financed picture, The Killing. Although Thompson wrote the majority of the script, Kubrick insisted on keeping most of the credit to himself, leaving Thompson with a vague "additional dialogue" credit. The two collaborated again on Paths of Glory (which was also mostly written by Thompson, again with little credit), then parted ways. Thompson remained in California for the rest of his life, drifting away from writing his increasingly unpopular novels and eventually stooping to write television programs and novelizations, anything to pay the bills.

In the early and mid 1970s Thompson's novels The Getaway and The Killer Inside Me were adapted to the big screen, both bowdlerized to fit genre conventions of the time. Thompson himself was initially hired to adapt The Getaway, but was subsequently fired by star Steve McQueen who deemed his style too depressing. It wasn't until 1989-1990, long after Thompson's demise that Hollywood resumed interest in his writing, producing no less than three novels during that period - Kill-Off , After Dark, My Sweet and The Grifters, which garnered four Academy Award nominations. French director Bertrand Tavernier adapted Pop. 1280 for his 1981 film, Coup de Torchon .

Thompson died after a series of strokes at age 71, from a combination of alcoholism and self-inflicted starvation. At the time of his death none of his novels were in print in his home country.