GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #54

LEW ARCHER

The most famous fictional private detective of the 1960s and 1970s is admittedly largely autobiographical in conception.  To creator Ross Macdonald, "He is less a doer than a questioner, a consciousness in which other lives emerge."  Archer is a "not unwilling catalyst for trouble" who probes the pasts of the people he investigates.  He is sympathetic to the problems of the young who are seeking their identity in society, and is committed to fighting those who would despoil the environment.  Archer was born in 1913 and was a policeman in Long Beach, California, until he was fired because he would not work under a corrupt police administration.  He became a private investigator and has remained in that profession ever since, except for the time he spent in intelligence work during WWII.  His marriage was a casualty of his work - his wife, Sue, divorced him because "she didn't like the company I kept."  Though far from being an ascetic, he has, since his divorce, refrained from the sexual promiscuity characteristic of most fictional private eyes.  Archer's interests are varied and include reading and painting - the Japanese artist Kuniyoshi has always been one of his favorites.  He is especially interested in natural history and frequently displays his ability to identify birds, trees and flowers.  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Among those who know these things, Ross Macdonald is considered one of the "Big Three" in detective fiction.  Hammett revolutionized crime writing, Chandler romanticized it, and Macdonald gave it social realism, making possible all who followed.  Ross Macdonald (1915-1983) is the pseudonym of Kenneth Millar, one of the few mystery writers to also be regarded as a major American novelist.  Millar was born in Los Gatos, California, but as an infant moved with his parents to Canada.  He graduated from Kitchener Collegiate Institute in Ontario in 1932 and then attended the University of Western Ontario.  He married Margaret Sturm whom he knew in school, and as Margaret Millar she became a mystery writer.  She published her first mystery in 1941 and her husband's own interest in the genre was awakened.

He served in the Navy during WWII as a communications officer aboard an escort carrier in the Pacific.  He began publishing mystery novels in 1944 as Kenneth Millar.  After his fourth book was published in 1948, he realized that his books could be confused with those of his wife, whose own career as a mystery writer was flourishing.  So Millar adopted the pseudonym John Ross Macdonald, only to be confused with another rising mystery writer, John D. MacDonald.  So Millar made his final name change to Ross Macdonald.  All of his earlier works have been reprinted under that name.  Lew Archer, his famous private eye, is partly an autobiographical creation.  Admitted Macdonald, "I'm not Archer, exactly, but Archer is me."  He used the mystery genre to convey his views on life in the U.S.  He was aware of the potential in the mystery for complicated plots, saying that plots "should be as complex as contemporary life, but balanced enough to say true things about it."

1949 "The Moving Target"/  1950 "The Drowning Pool"/  1951 "The Way Some People Die"/  1952 "The Ivory Grin"/  1954 "Find a Victim"/  1955 "The Name is Archer" (s.s.)/  1956 "The Barbarous Coast"/  1958 "The Doomsters"/  1959 "The Galton Case"/  1961 "The Wycherly Woman"/  1962 "The Zebra-striped Hearse" (Cosmopolitan Sept. 1962)/  1964 "The Chill" (Cosmopolitan Aug. 1963)/  1965 "The Far Side of the Dollar" (Cosmopolitan Sept. 1964)/  1966 "Black Money" (Cosmopolitan Dec. 1965)/  1968 "The Instant Enemy"/  1969 "The Goodbye Look"/  1971 "The Underground Man" (Cosmopolitan Feb. 1971)/  1973 "Sleeping Beauty"/  1976 "The Blue Hammer".

SHORT STORIES

"Find the Woman" (EQMM June 1946)/  "The Bearded Lady" (American Oct. 1948)/  "The Imaginary Blonde" (Manhunt Feb. 1953)/  "The Guilty Ones" (Manhunt May 1953)/  "The Beat-Up Sister" (Manhunt Oct. 1953)/  "Guilt-Edged Blonde" (Manhunt Jan. 1954)/  "Wild Goose Chase" (EQMM July 1954)/  "Midnight Blue" (Ed McBain's Mystery Magazine Oct. 1960)/  "Bring the Killer to Justice" (EQMM Feb. 1962)/  "The Sleeping Dog" (Argosy Apr. 1965)

FILMS

When Lew Archer reached the big screen he inexplicably underwent a name change, becoming Lew Harper in an otherwise faithful adaptation of "The Moving Target".  Paul Newman played Harper in two films, then portrayed a Harper/Archer type private eye in the film "Twilight", in a homage to Ross Macdonald and Newman's character is named Harry Ross.  Then the French made an Archer film but renamed the character Lew Millar (an homage to Kenneth Millar?)  What does it take to get Lew Archer in a film under his own name?  Put him on television.

"Harper" WB, 1966.  Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Shelley Winters.  Director: Jack Smight.  Private detective Lew Harper is recommended by the lawyer and personal friend of a wealthy family.  The troubled household includes a scheming wife, and a husband who has been kidnapped for a ransom of a half-million dollars.

"The Drowning Pool" WB, 1976.  Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Melanie Griffith, Richard Jaeckel, Gail Strickland, Linda Haynes.  Director: Stuart Rosenberg.  Harper travels to Louisiana to help an old girlfriend who's worried her husband will find out she's been cheating on him.

"Twilight" Paramount, 1998.  Technically not a Lew Archer film, but an admitted homage to Archer.  Newman (Harry Ross), Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman, Reese Witherspoon, Stockard Channing, James Garner.  Director: Robert Benton.

"The Wolf of the West Coast" French, 2002.  Based on the short story "Guilt-Edged Blonde" but Archer is renamed Lew Millar, played by James Faulkner.  Lew travels to France to serve as bodyguard to an American billionaire, whose life has been threatened.

TELEVISION

"The Underground Man" NBC, May 6, 1974.  Peter Graves (Lew Archer), Jack Klugman, Judith Anderson, Sharon Farrell, Celeste Holm, Kay Lenz, Vera Miles.  Director: Paul Wendkos.  After the novel of the same name received extensive critical acclaim, it was purchased for theatrical feature release, but instead became a two-hour TV movie and possible series pilot.  A housekeeper and her mentally challenged son are among those involved when Archer searches for a former girlfriend's missing child and uncovers murders both past and present.

"Archer" NBC, 1975.  A series was launched with Brian Keith as Lew Archer, and was completely unsuccessful.  The series was cancelled after six episodes that ran from January 30 to March 13, 1975.  Kim Darby and Anne Francis guest starred.