Comment by nineplay | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nineplay | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

It may be worth noting that William Faulkner wrote a murder mystery and threw a fit when he didn't win the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine short story award. Steinbeck might not have felt that he was above genre fiction, but perhaps he thought the addition of a werewolf was a bridge too far.

> What a commentary. In France I am the father of a literary movement. In Europe I am considered the best modern American, and among the first of all writers. In America, I eke out a hack's motion picture wages by winning second prize in a manufactured mystery story contest

http://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2012/05/faulkner-vs-well...

I read Faulkner's story and honestly the ending wasn't as satisfying as he might have thought. Wellman's story was probably better as a "murder mystery" even if the writing perhaps lacked some of Faulkner's polish. I thought some of Faulkner's other mysteries were better

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight%27s_Gambit

Wellman was one of the greats of pulp fiction (especially the Weird subgenre, on which he was a lasting influence), so it's not terribly surprising that he could wrangle a mystery story more effectively than a literary writer.

>In America, I eke out a hack's motion picture wages by winning second prize in a manufactured mystery story contest

Makes me think of how Stephen King wrote some novels as Richard Bachman and then with King's name on them, they sold ten times as many.

Also, allegedly J K Rowling wrote a crime novel as Robert Galbraith which sold only 1500 copies.

(Before selling several orders of magnitude more when the pseudonym was linked to her.)

There might be the confounding factor of being unlikely to buy a novel you don't know exists. If Rowling releases something under her own name, I'm sure to hear about it, which will surely boost sales.

Although perhaps this was exactly what you meant.

> Steinbeck might not have felt that he was above genre fiction

At the time he would have written it, he was quite hungry. Living off of income from manual labor with some extra contributions from his father. Perhaps he thought a warewolf mystery could sell a few books at the time, but as you suggest, later on that would've been embarrassing.

Can you recommend some Faulkner mysteries? I loved his style and the world he built and could always go for more.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com