Woody Haut

Page Updated: 09/06/99

Woody Haut

Neon Noir

Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War

About the Author

Bibliography

British Pbk Original - Serpents Tail (1999)

Neon Noir
Neon Noir, the follow-up to Woody Haut's highly regarded Pulp Culture, brings his story of American crime fiction up to date. From the Kennedy assassination to the Vietnam War and Watergate, through Reaganomics to Irangate and Whitewater, Neon Noir is a roller coaster ride through the American nightmare.
Haut investigates the dark side of America through the work of crime writers such as James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, James Lee Burke, Lawrence Block, James Sallis, Charles Willeford, Jim Thompson, Richard Stark, Jerome Charyn, Sara Paretsky, George P. Pelecanos, Vicki Hendricks, K.C. Constantine, George V Higgins and James Crumley.
Mapping the fissures and scars of America's psychogeography and morally ambiguous shadowlands, Neon Noir also considers the difference between past and present hardboilers, the impact of war and journalism on noirists, the portrayal of cities, the aesthetics of crime fiction, and the future of this most complex genre.
Woody Haut is a writer and journalist and lives in both London and France.

Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War
Pulp Culture takes the reader on a walk down the Mean Streets of post-war America to investigate the classic texts of American hardboiled crime fiction and the era from which they came. With crooks hiding in every doorway and commies lurking under every bed, crime fiction - its gaudy paperback covers portraying men with guns and women with low necklines - was avidly read by a nation adjusting to the Cold War and the Atomic Era.
Beginning with Dashiell Hammett testifying before Senator Joseph McCarthy, Pulp Culture pursues the lives and work of crime writers who approached the genre at street level: David Goodis, Chester Himes, Jim Thompson, Dorothy B Hughes, Dolores Hitchens, Leigh Brackett, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Howard Browne, Gil Brewer, William B. McGivern, Lionel White, Ross MacDonald, Horace McCoy, Charles Willeford and Charles Williams.
Pulp Culture gives post-war crime fiction a political and irreverent reading, examining the politics of paranoia, private detection and criminality; the origins of crime fiction; the role of women in a male-dominated genre; and why the early 1960s marked the final days of classic hardboiled fiction. It also considers the genre's influence on contemporary crime writers and filmmakers. Pulp Culture is essential reading for anyone interested in noir writing, films and the post-war era.
'Top marks' Time Out
'Noble names, great titles, and wicked excerpts… A splendid primer for Noir neophytes' Detour Magazine
'This is a excellent introduction to the world of '50s pulpsters like Jim Thompson and Mickey Spillane, putting them into a political and social context. I marvel at the detail and precision of the research, as well as the sharp observations.' Crime Time
'Like the fiction it explores, Pulp Culture is a taxicab from hell, speeding its passenger, the reader, through postwar America' LA Weekly
'Literature percolates society, and fiction, says Woody Haut, has been refracted by the class war and Cold War of this century. As the American yellowbrick road became an urban mean street, the likes of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler enunciated the paranoia and guilt of the American nightmare. Reds were under beds, UFOs were in the skies; a president was pulped, and culture turned decidedly noir. Fiction was full of trench coats and trilbies, square jaws and handguns. The Cold War may have thawed, but Haut recreates its chill, and brilliantly analyses the paperbacks that preempted the dystopian worlds of film directors David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino.' Tobias Jones, Observer
'A fascinating insight into the history of American hardboiled fiction and its origins in the Cold War. It will become a major work of reference in the field, encompassing as it does thorough analysis of the works of Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Chester Himes, Charles Willeford and many other vital writers who are only now getting the appreciation they failed to get when they were alive. Essential reading for all crime readers.' Time Out
'Haut examines the hardboiled novel in the context of postwar American politics - the anti-communism paranoia and the Cold War (Dashiell Hammett appeared before Senator McCarthy's committee) and also the liberal resistance to right-wing excesses. He charts, too, the economic and social development of the private eye in a rapidly changing America. Pulp Culture has a serious intent, but it is easy and fun to read.' The Times
'A fascinating insight into the roots of modern American hardboiled fiction and its development. There is little doubt in my mind that Pulp Culture will become one of the major reference books in our field.' Maxim Jakubowski

About The Author
Born in Detroit in 1945, Woody Haut grew up in Pasadena, California, attended San Francisco State University, and has lived in Britain since the early 1970s. Presently a London-based journalist, he has worked as a college lecturer, taxi-cab driver, record-shop assistant, cinema programmer and Labour Editor for Rolling Stock magazine (US). His earlier work, Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War, has also been published by Serpent's Tail.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Neon Noir (Serpents Tail Pbk, 1999)

Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War (Serpents Tail)

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