Goodbye, Evan Hunter (updated)
The man beloved to millions of crime fiction fans under his real name and as Ed McBain passed away yesterday afternoon. He was 78. The cause, as a New York Times obituary written by Marilyn Stasio reports, was cancer of the larynx, which he had battled for several years. He is survived by his wife, Dragica Dmitrijevic, as well as three sons and a step-daughter.
He will be missed by many, many people, including me. Frankly, I'm stunned -- I knew he'd battled cancer for a long period of time, and the single time I met him he spoke with a voice box -- and I can't help thinking that Hunter's passing marks the end of an era. Or at least, the beginning of the end.
This post will change over the course of the next 24 hours, and will stay at the top of the blog until Friday.
UPDATE #1: Bill Crider chimes in:
I can't begin to imagine a world without Evan Hunter in it. I've been reading his books before I even started reading crime fiction, the first one being a Winston SF novel called FIND THE FEATHERED SERPENT when I was just a tyke. I loved that book. A few years later I picked up THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, which I read about the time the movie came out. I thought it was a great novel, and I still have that same copy, though it's been re-read so many times that it's in tatters. I later read many of his "mainstream" books, like STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET, mainly because of the movies made from them. What really got me started on him, though, was the 87th Precinct books that he wrote as Ed McBain. Man, I loved those early books in that series. As anyone who reads my Sheriff Dan Rhodes novels is aware, I work in a tribute to McBain every chance I get. He ever wrote me a letter about it once, which was a huge thrill for me. The news that he's gone hit me hard. I've been reading his novels for more than fifty years, and I guess I just thought he'd always be around.
UPDATE #2: More remembrances over at the Crime Fiction Dossier.
UPDATE #3: Ken Bruen talks about McBain's influence over at the Secret Dead Blog.
UPDATE #4: In what appears to be his final interview before his death, Hunter spoke to the Telegraph in May about LET'S TALK, his memoir of battling cancer that was published only in the UK (by Orion.) It was poignant when first published, but is all the more so now.
UPDATE #5: How fitting that it's the 50th anniversary of "Rock Around the Clock" -- which shot to fame after being featured in the movie THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, based on the novel that brought Hunter to early prominence.
UPDATE #6: Ron points to the NYTimes' McBain retrospective from five years back, featuring a plethora of old news, reviews and the like.
UPDATE #7: Ed Gorman, as always, knows exactly what to say. And Ed Champion sums up what made McBain's novels so great:
These were cops who had sizable problems, inhabiting a gritty world that was damn near hopeless, but bristling with life as if to defy the hard breaks. What made the McBain novels work were the telling details tossed so effortlessly throughout the text. A carefully wiped counterpane or a hastily tied garbage bag wouldn't just give you a hint to the crime. It would tell you everything you needed to know about the people.
UPDATE #8: Novelist, editor, and writing guru Sol Stein contributed his thoughts via email:
I published two of Evan's books, which isn't saying much considering his output and the clean text (compared to some other professional fiction writers) he sent in. In lectures to writers I have frequently referred to his mastery of craft and given examples from his writing.
What brought us closer a little over a year ago was my inviting him to join an authors' panel I was arranging in Tarrytown. That's when I learned of his illness. We then had an e-mail interchange about an issue that interested both of us mightily, at what point does one become an unhyphenated American? I incorporated for Evan's' approval the views on that subject he gave one of his characters into a chapter of my recently-completed memoir for his approval. We both lived and worked under names that were not our birth names.
I'm shocked and sorrowful. He wrote some wonderful books, starting (for me) with BLACKBOARD JUNGLE. I've been reading his novels for almost 50 years now, and I can't quite believe he's gone.
Posted by: Bill Crider | July 06, 2005 at 08:17 PM
Hunter is the first big name writer who has died in my reading generation. It brings to light the fact that some of the other guys I started with like Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake are getting up there in years. (knock on wood)
Posted by: Bryon | July 06, 2005 at 08:57 PM
Margery Flax got word to me. Somewhat to my own surprise, I broke down and cried. I didn't know Evan that well, but what I knew was sheer class. I especially valued his kindness to Paige Rose of Mystery Loves Company. And Paige told him to look after me, so when our paths crossed, he was always very solicitous.
The thing that makes me especially sad is that I don't think we'll see many more careers such as his (or Westlake's or Block's.) Very few writers can do -- or are encouraged to do -- what these men did. They wrote quickly and well, in so many styles and genres that they needed more than one name.
Just very blue.
Posted by: Laura | July 06, 2005 at 09:36 PM
Evan was a not just a exceptionally talented writer, he was a good man as well: generous, supportive, helpful, kind. I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to work with him over the past several months, and am really shaken by the news. (I'd just sent him e-mail yesterday.) Everyone who knew him will miss him terribly.
Posted by: Charles Ardai | July 06, 2005 at 10:20 PM
I'm not as poetic as some others, but this just sucks.
Ed McBain is the reason I read mystery. He was the first "adult" author I read. He was the first author I collected. Ed McBain truly is the reason I am involved with the mystery genre.
When I got to interview him a few years back he replied to my email faster than any other author. He was a complete gentleman and he treated me like a real journalist, not just some goof posting interviews on websites.
On top of being a wonderful person he was also an amazing writer. I can honestly say I never read one of his books that I did not like.
Evan Hunter wil be greatly missed.
Posted by: jon | July 06, 2005 at 10:49 PM
What a damn shame for us all. My prayers go out to his family.
With a stack of new books demanding my attention, I re-read POISON a couple of weeks ago. Once again I was completely blown away by that man's ability to create so much with so few words. His mastery of the craft was unbelievable.
Posted by: Harry Hunsicker | July 07, 2005 at 12:53 AM
Laura makes a great point. Evan Hunter wrote so many books over his long and rich career that I'm guessing even he wouldn't have known the number. (Surely we're talking over 100.) It really is a different era now.
Posted by: David J. Montgomery | July 07, 2005 at 10:34 AM
I've never read Hunter/McBain, but I've always seen his influence across the board. All of us, whether we've read him or not, have been influenced by him in some way, because our influences took pointers from him.
He will be missed.
Posted by: Dave White | July 07, 2005 at 10:45 AM
I communicated with him once, when I asked if I could use a from his website on my own site. He replied graciously, even saying he'd always liked that picture.
Posted by: Graham | July 07, 2005 at 11:58 AM
My mom loved the Ed McBain books and still has dozens of them, many first editions. I read them while in high school and they greatly influenced my love of police procedurals and mysteries. He will be sorely missed. I even called my mom to tell her and she's bummed, too.
Posted by: Allison Brennan | July 07, 2005 at 12:23 PM
Giants once walked the earth, and Ed McBain was one of them.
Posted by: Joseph Goodrich | July 07, 2005 at 12:52 PM
An incredibly sad day for readers and writers everywhere. But what a legacy he has left for the world to enjoy.
Posted by: Jeff Abbott | July 07, 2005 at 01:00 PM
What was his problems with kids? In most of his books and stories, their always presented as hoodlums and rapists.
Ross Macdonald's books had youths too, but there was more sympathy towards them.
Posted by: Phillip | July 07, 2005 at 02:20 PM
I can't say for sure, but his problem with kids may have been that he taught in a school he used as the basis for BLACKBOARD JUNGLE.
Posted by: Graham | July 07, 2005 at 05:02 PM
Publishers Lunch On Hunter to boot mentions this vert blog ;-)
Evan Hunter, 78, best-known for his books written as Ed McBain, died yesterday at home, from cancer of the larynx. The NYT says he "virtually invented the American police procedural with his gritty 87th Precinct series featuring an entire detective squad as its hero." Agent Jane Gelfman estimates he sold over 100 million books over 50 years of writing and publishing.
Otto Penzler will published FIDDLERS, the 55th and last book in the 87th Precinct series, through his imprint at Harcourt in September.
Blogger Sarah Weinman collects remembrances from all over.
NYT
Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind
Posted by: Jozef Imrich | July 08, 2005 at 12:45 AM
He was the greatest.
There never ever will be anyone like Him.
I started reading McBain/Hunter in 1960 and have -probably-one of the greatest collections of His Work in Books, anthologies, audio, movies, articles, letters, mails and interviews.
We will miss enormously our Master El Jefe.
The world wil be different, now He's gone.
R.I.P., Dear Evan.
A pen-pal- best friend, if ever.
J.P.Engels
Posted by: jean pierre engels | July 29, 2005 at 11:41 AM