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Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe
Does life imitate art? Perhaps so, for an amnesiac hardboiled writer. Dan J. Marlowe (1914-1986), a creator of callous criminal characters, was one of the finest paperback suspense novelists of the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, horror mega-author Stephen King dedicated a book to him. Marlowe’s life was like his fiction: full of dark drama and strange twists. In the early 1960s, Marlowe befriended bank robber, Al Nussbaum, who partnered with murderous sociopath Bobby “One-Eye” Wilcoxson. Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe interweaves the stories of Nussbaum, who became a mystery-story writer, Wilcoxson, who committed a savage murder after being released from prison, and Marlowe, who, stricken with amnesia, was haunted by the ghosts of his past, some of whom roamed the seamy world of kinky sex. Book contains 16 photos.
- GenresNonfictionBiography
284 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 11, 2013
In this compelling biography, Charles Kelly chronicles the life of Dan J. Marlowe, a suspense writer whose career spanned the 1960s and '70's, but whose reputation has largely faded into oblivion in the years since.
As Kelly makes clear, this is largely unfair because in his heyday, Marlowe was a prolific writer who churned out a large body of work, published both under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms. Best known for his classic pulp novel, The Name of the Game Is Death, Marlowe also wrote a large number of short stories for a variety of magazines as well as a number of hard- and soft-core "adult" novels.
Marlowe became a writer somewhat late in life after supporting himself as a bookkeeper and professional gambler. But with the publication of Doorway to Death in 1959, he hit the ground running and never looked back.
Marlowe's wife, Evelyn, had died in 1956, and after that he lived for a number of years in Harbor Beach, Michigan. A man of seeming contradictions, he was a hard-boiled writer of pulp novels that were brimming with sex and violence, and whose favorite sexual fetish involved spanking women with large bottoms. At the same time, though, he was also a conservative Republican who joined the Rotary Club and served on the city council.
He also formed a close friendship with Al Nussbaum, a bank robber who had once appeared on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. After Nussbaum wrote him a fan letter, Marlowe began visiting Nussbaum while Nussbaum was still in prison and was later instrumental in helping Nussbaum win parole. Later the two men would live together in Los Angeles, while Nussbaum pursued his own career as a mystery writer.
Tragically, while still near the peak of his career in 1977, Marlowe suddenly developed amnesia, perhaps induced by a stroke, and lost the memory of much of his past life. Shortly thereafter, he moved to L.A. with Nussbaum, who introduced Marlowe to several other L.A. area writers and attempted to jumpstart his career.
Sadly, it was not to be. Although Marlowe continued to work on small projects, because of his health problems, he was unable to put in the long sessions at the typewriter that were necessary to sustain the level of work he had produced before being stricken. He was able to publish only one more book before he died of a heart attack in 1986.
Kelly renders this story vividly and, in the process, he reveals not only the life of a writer who deserves to be better-remembered, but also a great deal about the life of many writers during this period who, like Marlowe, were enormously productive but who never broke through on a larger stage and who thus usually lived close to the edge financially. Like many of his contemporaries, Marlowe was always hoping to write the "big" book that would win him a larger reputation and greater financial success. Sadly, he was unable to do so, but now, thanks to Charles Kelly, he may finally get the recognition he continues to deserve.
As Kelly makes clear, this is largely unfair because in his heyday, Marlowe was a prolific writer who churned out a large body of work, published both under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms. Best known for his classic pulp novel, The Name of the Game Is Death, Marlowe also wrote a large number of short stories for a variety of magazines as well as a number of hard- and soft-core "adult" novels.
Marlowe became a writer somewhat late in life after supporting himself as a bookkeeper and professional gambler. But with the publication of Doorway to Death in 1959, he hit the ground running and never looked back.
Marlowe's wife, Evelyn, had died in 1956, and after that he lived for a number of years in Harbor Beach, Michigan. A man of seeming contradictions, he was a hard-boiled writer of pulp novels that were brimming with sex and violence, and whose favorite sexual fetish involved spanking women with large bottoms. At the same time, though, he was also a conservative Republican who joined the Rotary Club and served on the city council.
He also formed a close friendship with Al Nussbaum, a bank robber who had once appeared on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. After Nussbaum wrote him a fan letter, Marlowe began visiting Nussbaum while Nussbaum was still in prison and was later instrumental in helping Nussbaum win parole. Later the two men would live together in Los Angeles, while Nussbaum pursued his own career as a mystery writer.
Tragically, while still near the peak of his career in 1977, Marlowe suddenly developed amnesia, perhaps induced by a stroke, and lost the memory of much of his past life. Shortly thereafter, he moved to L.A. with Nussbaum, who introduced Marlowe to several other L.A. area writers and attempted to jumpstart his career.
Sadly, it was not to be. Although Marlowe continued to work on small projects, because of his health problems, he was unable to put in the long sessions at the typewriter that were necessary to sustain the level of work he had produced before being stricken. He was able to publish only one more book before he died of a heart attack in 1986.
Kelly renders this story vividly and, in the process, he reveals not only the life of a writer who deserves to be better-remembered, but also a great deal about the life of many writers during this period who, like Marlowe, were enormously productive but who never broke through on a larger stage and who thus usually lived close to the edge financially. Like many of his contemporaries, Marlowe was always hoping to write the "big" book that would win him a larger reputation and greater financial success. Sadly, he was unable to do so, but now, thanks to Charles Kelly, he may finally get the recognition he continues to deserve.
March 22, 2013
This is a terrific example of a writer's life that is as compelling as any fictional story he/she created. Best known for his Earl Drake novels, Dan Marlowe is no stranger to fans of noir and thriller paperbacks from the 60's and 70's. My first intro to Marlowe's novels was The Vengeance Man and I was hooked. But until this bio, there wasn't much that we knew about the writer. This book has the goods, and if you like Marlowe's novels, or compelling real life stories about artists on the fringes, do yourself a favor and read this fascinating look the man behind the typewriter.
November 8, 2022
I like to read biographies about authors....Ross Macdonald, A Biography by Tom Nolan and To The High Castle, Philip K. Dick: A Life 1928-1962 by Gregg Rickman are good ones...These books show what a tough racket the writing life is for authors....The same can be said for Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe (2012) by Charles Kelly. It's the bio of hard-boiled author Marlowe who wrote the crime-fiction classic The Name of the Game Is Death (1962). The book follows Marlowe's writing life from the death of his wife in 1956 to his passing in 1986. Along the way we travel far and wide with Marlowe with a curious stop in Harbor Beach, MI, and are introduced to his pals like bank robber Al Nussbaum. But I found the strongest portion of the book was Marlowe's dealing with the world of the book publishing racket. Though he wrote violent books, Mr. Marlowe comes across as a hard working gentleman who never got a break, and was used, especially financially, by the publishing machine...I must say it appeared that Mr. Marlowe never let the writing life get him down, even when bad health grabbed him, and he produced quality work right up to his last day...Interesting book...3.5 outta 5.0...
October 22, 2013
I have not read any books by Dan J. Marlowe. However, I want to, especially after having read this book. Kelly gives us a lot of detail not only about Marlowe, his co-authors, and about the times that Marlowe practiced his craft. What I enjoyed most were the details regarding the politics of book publishing at the time. Not only about the Gold Medal details but the interplay of editors and publishers with the author.
June 25, 2019
An excellent biography of an under-appreciated writer.
July 18, 2024
An incredibly well-done journalistic recreation of hard-boiled pulp-fiction writer Dan Marlowe's life, with quite a lot of interesting info. It was just too long and too nuanced for me to care about it all. The first several chapters are pretty fantastic, compulsive reading. But in the middle it begins to get bogged down in details. The author is to be lauded for unearthing a ton of documents, but it is to be lamented that he described almost all of them.
February 26, 2013
Charles Kelly has struck a blow for more than he might have imagined in his biography “Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe.” The first and most important is a likely renewed interest in the neglected works of Dan J. Marlowe, (1914-1986) the former suspense novelist of Fawcett Gold Medal books, his paperbacks selling in the hundreds of thousands of copies in the 1960’s and 70’s. Kelly’s second, important accomplishment is to put the lie to the notion that self- published work is always a shoddy and chaotic practice. Anyone looking to see how it should be done, has found the standard in this work. From the cover to the typeface and especially the beautifully edited and managed content, this publication rivals the best in the business. Although Kelly painstakingly acknowledges all help, ultimately self-publishers can only truly rely on a staff of one.
I read this book after finishing a well- published biography of a far more famously dead writer whose author neglected to mention the writer’s creative process, an omission I consider unforgivable. Which gets me to the heart of what is so compelling about this read. Kelly artfully blends his own sleuthing intrigue, detailing how he followed a thin golden vein of material on Marlowe’s life until a meeting in Marlowe’s home town gave him the mother lode; materials collected by someone who planned but never completed the biography process. Kelly’s delight in his subject is so palpable that we feel his excitement as if we are handling the material ourselves. And it has the aroma of providence. Kelly and Marlowe are perfect for each other.
Letters and other artifacts document the personal and professional side of Marlowe, including close relationships with noted bank robbers, murderers and sociopathic criminals. Some even became writing partners, both public and silent. If happy, settled people make for dull reading than this has it all, dangerous liaisons, financial desperation, sexual fetishism, foreign travel, and even a bout with amnesia, an ailment that seems somehow quaint for all its terror. When was the last time you heard that term?
It’s not surprising that Charles Kelly was a finalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel of the Year Contest. This story unfolds like the best biographies; truth that reads as fiction, containing narrative drive, setups and plenty of payoffs along the way, satisfying, literate. Somehow, with authorial sleight-of-hand, Kelly manages Marlowe’s enigmatic nature, artfully peeling back one trait a time. I was particularly intrigued at glimpses of Marlowe’s creative process, from labored beginning to polished end product, finally producing “The Name of the Game is Death,” a novel that Stephen King so admired that he dedicated one of his novels to him, citing Marlowe as a great influence on his own work.
Marlowe, even in his heyday, kept looking for the big break that would “release him from the grind of banging out action-packed thrillers every few months.” The workaday grim financial reality of pounding away on his beloved IBM Selectric is echoed in mid-list writers today. Only the tools have changed.
Somehow Kelly manages to reconcile a character that seems at odds with itself. In fact he succeeds so well that Marlowe comes off as an old-fashioned, civic-minded gentleman despite his known and intimate associations with murderers. Images and stories create a portrait of the times and the man, a tidy, almost formally dressed, middle-aged gentleman writing pornography to make ends meet; a philanderer who carries around a picture of his long dead wife with him until his own end some thirty years later. A patriotic homebody, yet Marlowe moved to Mexico, in one of many efforts to stretch his slender resources to accommodate a bad booze habit and desire for space and solitude. The greater puzzle about this mystery writer is what took us so long to reacquaint ourselves with Marlowe, once the Edgar Award winning hard-boiled hero of Fawcett Gold Crest, a publishing company that our own Mark Howell once worked for. “Gunshots in Another Room The Forgotten Life of Dan J Marlowe,” succeeds on two levels at least. I want to go out and order “The Name of the Game is Death,” and “Killer With a Key,” both considered to be “the most hardboiled, ever” and classics of the era, but before that, I want other work by Charles Kelly, whatever the genre.
“Gunshots in another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe,” is available in both print and digital editions.
www.jessi.ca
I read this book after finishing a well- published biography of a far more famously dead writer whose author neglected to mention the writer’s creative process, an omission I consider unforgivable. Which gets me to the heart of what is so compelling about this read. Kelly artfully blends his own sleuthing intrigue, detailing how he followed a thin golden vein of material on Marlowe’s life until a meeting in Marlowe’s home town gave him the mother lode; materials collected by someone who planned but never completed the biography process. Kelly’s delight in his subject is so palpable that we feel his excitement as if we are handling the material ourselves. And it has the aroma of providence. Kelly and Marlowe are perfect for each other.
Letters and other artifacts document the personal and professional side of Marlowe, including close relationships with noted bank robbers, murderers and sociopathic criminals. Some even became writing partners, both public and silent. If happy, settled people make for dull reading than this has it all, dangerous liaisons, financial desperation, sexual fetishism, foreign travel, and even a bout with amnesia, an ailment that seems somehow quaint for all its terror. When was the last time you heard that term?
It’s not surprising that Charles Kelly was a finalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel of the Year Contest. This story unfolds like the best biographies; truth that reads as fiction, containing narrative drive, setups and plenty of payoffs along the way, satisfying, literate. Somehow, with authorial sleight-of-hand, Kelly manages Marlowe’s enigmatic nature, artfully peeling back one trait a time. I was particularly intrigued at glimpses of Marlowe’s creative process, from labored beginning to polished end product, finally producing “The Name of the Game is Death,” a novel that Stephen King so admired that he dedicated one of his novels to him, citing Marlowe as a great influence on his own work.
Marlowe, even in his heyday, kept looking for the big break that would “release him from the grind of banging out action-packed thrillers every few months.” The workaday grim financial reality of pounding away on his beloved IBM Selectric is echoed in mid-list writers today. Only the tools have changed.
Somehow Kelly manages to reconcile a character that seems at odds with itself. In fact he succeeds so well that Marlowe comes off as an old-fashioned, civic-minded gentleman despite his known and intimate associations with murderers. Images and stories create a portrait of the times and the man, a tidy, almost formally dressed, middle-aged gentleman writing pornography to make ends meet; a philanderer who carries around a picture of his long dead wife with him until his own end some thirty years later. A patriotic homebody, yet Marlowe moved to Mexico, in one of many efforts to stretch his slender resources to accommodate a bad booze habit and desire for space and solitude. The greater puzzle about this mystery writer is what took us so long to reacquaint ourselves with Marlowe, once the Edgar Award winning hard-boiled hero of Fawcett Gold Crest, a publishing company that our own Mark Howell once worked for. “Gunshots in Another Room The Forgotten Life of Dan J Marlowe,” succeeds on two levels at least. I want to go out and order “The Name of the Game is Death,” and “Killer With a Key,” both considered to be “the most hardboiled, ever” and classics of the era, but before that, I want other work by Charles Kelly, whatever the genre.
“Gunshots in another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe,” is available in both print and digital editions.
www.jessi.ca
November 21, 2014
Although I have never read a Dan J. Marlowe novel, I found Charles Kelly's GUNSHOTS IN ANOTHER ROOM: THE FORGOTTEN LIFE OF DAN J. MARLOWE a very interesting read. Marlowe is most well-known for the novel, THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH, but he wrote many more suspense-thriller "pulps". He also wrote book reviews, newspaper columns, and porn. Whatever it took to keep writing for a living. His writing is described as "the hardest of the hard-boiled", but the author himself was an outgoing, civic-minded, hard-working guy. His close friend, Al Nussbaum, however, was not. Nussbaum was a real-life bank robber who read books like Marlowe's. Nussbaum figured, with all the experience he had, he could be a writer too. He contacted Marlowe and a friendship began. GUNSHOTS follows both men's lives and careers. Some of the most interesting stories in the book involve when their lives intersect - like the episode when Marlowe suffers from amnesia and Nussbaum takes him in and pushes him to regain his former writing skills.
Through tremendous research, Charles Kelly has resurrected one of the most popular hard-boiled writers of his day from obscurity. GUNSHOTS IN ANOTHER ROOM is a great read for fans of hard-boiled fiction, as well as for those who just want to know more about this era of suspense fiction and the writers who created it.
Through tremendous research, Charles Kelly has resurrected one of the most popular hard-boiled writers of his day from obscurity. GUNSHOTS IN ANOTHER ROOM is a great read for fans of hard-boiled fiction, as well as for those who just want to know more about this era of suspense fiction and the writers who created it.
March 3, 2013
This biography is almost as wild, compelling, dark and surprising as one of Dan J. Marlowe's books, which includes the classic [[ASIN:B0066P4ZFO The Name of the Game is Death]]. Charles Kelly has done an enormous amount of research and thoroughly knows his subject. What really sets this book apart from most literary biographies is the tight, novelistic approach he's taken to telling not only Marlowe's strange story, but also the tale of bank robber Al Nussbaum, who became Marlowe's collaborator. Marlowe fans will appreciate the fascinating, detailed look at the author as a person, as well as his complex relationships with his literary agent and two collaborators (William C. O'Dell and Nussbaum), but also the telling details behind the plotting and writing of his books, even those that never saw print. Highly recommended!
February 23, 2014
Kudos for Charles Kelly! Having missed the golden age of pulp crime novels, this was a great trip back in time for me. Kelly reincarnates Marlowe as a living, breathing character on the page in front of us. This book is a definite must read for crime novel lovers and historians of the genre.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews