Retracing the Footsteps of David Goodis, America's Great Lost Noir Writer
David Goodis
Philadelphia's Noir Prince
“After a while it gets so bad that you want to stop the whole business. You figure that there’s no use in trying to fight back. Things are set dead against you and the sooner you give up the better. It’s like a mile run. You’re back there in seventh place and there isn’t a chance in the world. The feet are burning, the lungs are bursting, and all you want to do is fall down and take a rest.”
----First paragraph of David Goodis’ first novel Retreat from Oblivion (1939).
David Goodis surrounded by Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. Notice the lines of B&B's clothing and Bogart's real hairline. Photo courtesy of April Feld Sandor.
So began the writing career of David Goodis. Typical Goodis. A statement of frustration, introducing a tale of gloom, depression and despair. Noir at its blackest.
David Goodis was Philadelphia’s noir prince. After graduating from Temple University in 1938, Goodis moved to New York where he wrote advertising copy, radio scripts and thousands of words for pulp magazines. In the mid-1940’s he was in Hollywood as a screenwriter. He crashed and returned to his parents’ home in Philadelphia, where he churned out novels and short stories, depicting the bleakness and darkness of lives in free fall.
Who was David Goodis and why did he write as he did?
Max Goldberg
No Exit: Adapting the dissolute, interior noir of David Goodis
Brian Greene
The Blonde on the Street Corner
Jay Gertzman
Captain Jim Cassidy navigates hard boiled Philadelphia
Alexandre Anitchkin
Russian Blogger writes about David Goodis on Tetradki
"Every character [of a Goodis] book is suffering profoundly. The main character can do nothing about it," said Geoffrey O'Brien, Editor-in-Chief of Library of America. "The 1950's drove Goodis to such relentless self-analysis."
Robert Polito, Goodis scholar and editor,
and Geoffrey O'Brien, editor-in-chief of Library of America,
present Goodis anthology at 2012 Philadelphia Book Festival
Library of America has released Goodis, Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 1950s edited by Robert Polito, director of Writing Programs at The New School.
This volume contains five Goodis classics: Dark Passage, Nightfall, The Moon in the Gutter, The Burglar and The Street of No Return. Tour the noir geography of David Goodis as he writes about San Francisco, Manhattan, the American West, Philadelphia's docks, working class Philadelphia, working class Atlantic City and Philadelphia's tenderloin.
The volume is a study in Goodis' deepening inner torment. Dark Passage and Nightfall were written before Goodis returned to Philadelphia after an unhappy stint as a Hollywood writer and a failed marriage. The Moon in the Gutter, The Burglar and The Street of No Return were written in a second floor bedroom in Goodis' parents' home on North 11th Street. These three Philadelphia novels are progressively gloomy. The characters are progressively hopeless. As Goodis advances in his career, his books address deeper and deeper psychological themes.
Polito includes a detailed chronology of Goodis' life, from his parents' occupations and residences, through Goodis' education, his publications, his disastrous marriage, his hushed romance, his brilliant descent into paperbacks, and his demise. Polito provides notes explaining the contemporary cultural references in the five novels.
I won't tell you about the plots. Get the book.
Library of America's "Reader's Almanac" blog on David Goodis anthology
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Indigo
Borders Australia
Angus Robertson (Australia)
Whitcoulis (Enzed)
Thebookdepository.com (UK)
Fishpond (Singapore)
On April 19, 2012 Goodisheads gathered at the Free Library of Philadelphia to celebrate the release of the Goodis anthology. Editor Robert Polito proclaimed, "It's great to be in Goodisville or Goodis Country. How similar things are as when Goodis wrote his novels and how different they are." NoirCON founder Louis Boxer discussed the life of David Goodis. Robert Polito and Geoffrey O'Brien read from Goodis novels. They completed the evening with a panel discussion.
Blogger Adam Finestone joins Goodis acquaintance and public relations specialist Andrew Kevorkian at a publication party at the Pyramid Club. Kevorkian attended the funeral of David Goodis.
Lou Boxer, founder of NoirCON, Robert Poliito, Adam Finestone and Andrew Kevorkian
Educator and writer Ed Petit hosted the panel discussion. Petit is the authority on two great Phliadelphia writers from an earlier age, George Lippard (1822-1854) and Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). These Philly guys---Goodis, Lippard and Poe---princes of noir.
Robert Polito
Louis Boxer, Geoffrey O'Brien and Robert Polito discuss the life and writings of David Goodis
Free Library of Philadelphia PODCAST
Goodis film probes 'dark tendencies' and hidden lives
Click for details.
Brian Greene interviews
Larry Withers on "To A Pulp."
http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/pages/noir_zine/profiles/to_a_pulp.php
Brian Greene is a freelance writer from North Carolina. He writes regularly for Shindig! music magazine from
the UK, and he is working on a biography of the late British crime writer/cult figure, Ted Lewis.
Behold This Woman---David Goodis' wife in the pulp and flesh
The Burglar revisited
2011 Goodis Memorial and Tour
2010 Goodis Memorial and Tour
Truffaut and Goodis
Mike Dennis reviews The Blonde on the Street Corner
Mike Dennis reviews Cassidy's Girl
Jay Gertzman on A Moribund Segment of Goodisville
A mile outside the City Between Two Rivers, January Cold came in, formed four walls around them and closed in on the Thirteen. Gathered to remember the Prince of Noir, they read from his works, told tales, and raised his Shade from the bleak grave.
On January 25, 2009, just hours before the 42nd anniversary of the death of David Goodis according to the Hebrew calendar, 13 militant Goodisheads gathered at Roosevelt Cemetery to remember Philadelphia's Prince of Noir.
Introduction to 2009 Goodis Memorial
Portions of Goodis' writings selected for ceremony
Larry Withers' You Tube on the ceremony
Duane Swierczynski's blog on the ceremony
You Tubes by Duane Swierczynski
Duane Swierczynski's blog on "Relics of a Noir Writer"
Peter Rozovsky's blog on the ceremony
Louis Boxer's photos of the ceremony
In September 1966, David Goodis' mother died. Harold Silver sent David Goodis a basket of fruit. David Goodis sent the following note to Harold Silver. (Photos by Louis Boxer)
Design by Michael Gabriel
Click to:
NoirCon 2010, a celebration of International Noir writing and film.
NoirCon 2008, a celebration of Philadephia Noir writing and film.
GoodisCON, a conference celebrating the 90th anniversary of the birth and the 40th anniversary of the death of David Goodis.
Death Certificate of David Goodis
D.G.'s envelop authorizing The Fugitive law suit
Louis Boxer's album of David Goodis photos.
The Soul of David Goodis.
Goodis' cousin reveals the key to David's personal mystery.
David Goodis in Hollywood
Jeff Weddle's new book,
Bohemian New Orleans describes
D.G.'s failed screenplay of Four Steps to the Wall, prison novel by Jon Webb.
The final destruction of Goodisville
Louis Boxer revisits Dark Passage
Cullen Gallagher: Critical Perspectives on David Goodis
Cullen Gallagher: Fire in the Flesh
Cullen Gallagher: Of Missing Persons
Philadelphia Weekly: Stranger than Fiction--Philadelphia Noir (David Goodis)
Free David Goodis downloads for your E-Reader
In the early 1980's, Goodis' biographer, Philippe Garnier, traced the scenes of Goodis' Philadelphia stories. His conclusion: "I find it very difficult to image springtime in Philadelphia." Philippe Garnier, Goodis, vie en noir et blanc, Editions due Seuil, 1984. Video on Philippe Garnier.
Joe Chauncy: David Goodis on the Black Dahlia MurderBlack Dahlia Murder Analyzed by David Goodis
NoirCON 2012
Report from NoirCON 2012
Cullen Gallagher: Pulp Serenade
The Big Set-Up
Opening Night
Friday Panels
Awards Ceremony
Saturday Panels
Robert Olen Butler
Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block and Duane Swierczynski
Sunday Panels
Peter Rozovsky: Detectives Beyond Borders
What I got at NoirCON
Lawrence Block, Vicki Hendricks
What they said at NoirCON
Ratlines
Lawrence Block
Evening One
Crime Songs
Email me: aaron@microbrewjournalism.com