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Memoirs

SPILLANE

James L. Traylor Max Allan Collins

King of Pulp Fiction - A Biography

The first-ever biography of the most popular and most influential pulp writer of all time, written by the collaborator who knew him best.

There has never been a full-length biography of Mickey Spillane, the most popular and influential mystery writer of his era - until now. Beginning in 1947 with I, the Jury, and continuing with his next six novels, Spillane quickly amassed a readership in the tens of millions, becoming the bestselling novelist in the history of American publishing. Surrounded by controversy for the overt violence and suggestive sexual content of his iconic Mike Hammer private eye novels, Spillane was loathed by critics but beloved by his readers. There is, however, more to Spillane's life than the books. He also starred as Hammer in a movie, was a circus performer, worked with the FBI in capturing a notorious criminal, and starred in Miller Light beer commercials that were so popular they ran for a quarter of a century. Max Allan Collins became Spillane's friend and collaborator, continuing the Mike Hammer series for years after the author's death, building upon unfinished manuscripts the writer left behind. Now, with co-author James Traylor, Collins has produced the first comprehensive and authoritative profile of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. It is a must-read for any fan of the author - or of the generations of crime writers that were influenced by his work.

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Book Published 2023-02-07 by Mysterious Press

Comments

In this illuminating biography, the first devoted to Spillane, MWA Grandmaster Collins (the Nathan Heller series), a late-life collaborator of Spillane's, and critic Traylor provide incisive analysis of Spillane's unique career... This definitive work is indispensable for any fan of the revolutionary Spillane and his two-fisted novels.

A full-dress biography of the most polarizing practitioner of 20th-century crime fiction. Nearly everyone deplored the sex and violence of Mickey Spillane's midcentury novels about private eye Mike Hammer - though that didn't stop the millions of readers who catapulted him to the top of bestseller lists and kept him there. Fans who've been waiting for a life of Spillane will gobble this up.

Spillane almost single-handedly created the market for 'pocket books' in the late 1940s, and he was one of the first authors media-savvy enough to promote himself as a character.

A knockout biography... A thoroughly engrossing life story and an indispensable account of the rise of paperback publishing.

Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor are Spillane experts who have championed the author's works since the early 1980s. Mr. Collins, a noted crime writer, also collaborated with Spillane and has been completing drafts left by Spillane upon his death in 2006. The biographers concede their partisanship but avow they have been "hard-nosed" about their hard-boiled subject. "Spillane" is an engaging, capacious and largely celebratory account, presenting the writer, his works and their multimediaadaptations as worthy of serious consideration.

Spillane is a legend of the blood-soaked whodunit, a pioneer of tough guy ethics and New Age vengeance.