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Ross Macdonald: A Biography
Private eye Lew Archer bridged the gap falling between Hammett's Sam Spade, Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Rober B. Parker's Spenser. Knowing Macdonald is essential to understanding the modern P.I. novel.
Originally published in 1999 by Scribner 0-684-81217-7, ""Ross Macdonald: A Biography"" won the Macavity Award and was nominated for the Edgar, and the Anthony Awards.
Originally published in 1999 by Scribner 0-684-81217-7, ""Ross Macdonald: A Biography"" won the Macavity Award and was nominated for the Edgar, and the Anthony Awards.
496 pages, Paperback
First published March 12, 1999
21 people are currently reading
239 people want to read
About the author
Tom Nolan
46 books12 followersTom Nolan reviews mystery fiction forThe Wall Street Journal and has been a contributing editor for California and Los Angeles magazines.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
May 21, 2019
Kenneth Millar had a childhood worthy of a psychopath: a domineering granny, a feckless mother, a wayward father--and that's just for starters. He was having sex with other boys when he was eight, drinking, stealing and brawling at twelve. When he was sixteen, he decided to make a list of all of the places he had lived to date, and quit when he got to fifty. Late in high school, he began to scare himself: he knew he was angry enough to kill, and could sense the murderer within. It was then that he sat down and wrote out a rigid set of moral rules, rules he strove to adhere to all his life. Later, Millar became a graduate student in English Lit at the University of Michigan; he specialized in Coleridge, and was known for his brilliance. But, as he feared, he was destined for a life of crime: he became "Ross MacDonald," author of what is--in my opinion--the most artistically successful series of detective novels ever written.
Tom Nolan's biography is an excellent survey of the life of an extraordinary man, who guided his own explosive personality with grim discipline through a series of challenges: a difficult forty year marriage to mystery writer Margaret Millar, the long struggle for recognition as a novelist (as opposed to a mere mystery writer), the difficult life and tragic death of his only daughter, and his inevitable defeat under the final challenge of Alzheimer's. Don't worry, though, there are bright spots here too, including the critical recognition of his body of work in his mid '50's, and the account of his ardent--and primarily epistolary--friendship with the great Eudora Welty.
As a longtime admirer of Macdonald, perhaps the greatest value of this book for me was the light it shines on the characters of his novels. Before, he seemed the most impersonal of novelists, but now I glimpse the faces of Millar's people--and the young Kenneth Millar's face too--speaking through the masks of each of his characters like the dry voices of some Attic tragedy--a comparison appropriate for the fateful, murderous dramas created by the genius of Ross Macdonald.
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December 9, 2021
This is one of the most poignant biographies I’ve read.
I read this out of morbid curiosity: I wanted to know more about Ross Macdonald/Kenneth Millar’s mental decline; about his daughter’s out of control drug & alcohol abuse & finally after reaching peace with herself and becoming a mother she dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
When he’s great, his novels don’t sell… when he’s near the end, he becomes successful beyond his wildest dreams… only to face critical rejection at the end of his run.
Especially of interest is his relationship in later years with a longtime fan - Eudora Welty. She’s there when he breaks through to the big time and she’s there with him as he descends into the twilight world of Alzheimer’s.
This is a must read for all Ross Macdonald enthusiasts.
I read this out of morbid curiosity: I wanted to know more about Ross Macdonald/Kenneth Millar’s mental decline; about his daughter’s out of control drug & alcohol abuse & finally after reaching peace with herself and becoming a mother she dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
When he’s great, his novels don’t sell… when he’s near the end, he becomes successful beyond his wildest dreams… only to face critical rejection at the end of his run.
Especially of interest is his relationship in later years with a longtime fan - Eudora Welty. She’s there when he breaks through to the big time and she’s there with him as he descends into the twilight world of Alzheimer’s.
This is a must read for all Ross Macdonald enthusiasts.
June 8, 2023
04/2023
Kenneth Millar wrote (as. Ross Macdonald) such amazing mysteries, elevating the genre of detective fiction forever. The stories are detailed and Gothic (about families and the sins of the past haunting them).
Kenneth Millar wrote (as. Ross Macdonald) such amazing mysteries, elevating the genre of detective fiction forever. The stories are detailed and Gothic (about families and the sins of the past haunting them).
June 19, 2011
Strikes me that there are at least two types of biography. There are those written to establish the record, and then there are those written to interpret the established record. Interesting to read some of the responses to Tom Nolan's bio of Kenneth Millar. I think the minor discontent that bubbles up with the book (ie. too long, repetitive here and there) has to do with the fact that this opus noir falls into the former category. It's exhaustively researched and focused on specifics. In a way it reminds me of the bios that Matthew Bruccoli used to write (an not inappropriate connection considering the late great MJB pops up in here as Macdonald's bibliographer in the late 60s). Bruccoli was famous for telling you what he subjects paid in taxes, right down to the decimal. Just the facts, ma'am. For better or worse, we live in a Kitty Kelley world. Maybe a later writer will come along and give us the sensational Millar. There are certainly plenty of strands to tawdrify:
1. Loss of virginity at 8 to a mentally handicapped girl causing deep shame throughout remainder of life
2. Competitive marriage to the equally prolific Margaret Millar, whose works have unfortunately fallen out of print but who in the 40s and 50s actually brought home more money than Archer
3. Seemingly mixed signals and constant stress from publishers about breaking Archer open to the masses, only to have efforts to probe psychological darkness objected to
4. A daughter guilty of vehicular manslaughter who later disappears for a week causing frantic search into the scuzzbowl of Reno ... combined a decade later with the daughter's sudden death
5. A friendship with noted maneater/sex fiend Eudora Welty (come on, somebody, prove this friendship wasn't chaste---we want to know she went to the PO cause she was a crack ho and that the Blue Hammer was the nickname for Lil' Lew... The marketplace demands this!!!)
6. A horrific descent into Alzheimers that finds creative genius crumbling into proto-Reaganesque adult diapers
It's actually a relief to read a skilled journalist like Nolan and let the facts speak for the drama. If this book doesn't grip, remember that's not its job. It's here for research, for consultation, for knowing the gen behind that gat.
NOW WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE GIVE US A MARGARET MILLAR BIO AND GET HER ASS BACK IN PRINT???? She's ripe for an Ebook renaissance. Far too good to be lingering in the limbo of the forgotten.
PS. Interesting connection: Nolan for years was a music critic. Wrote a landmark 66 article on California pop/rock that remains req reading. Also authored, among others, the famous 1971 Rolling Stone cover story on Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys that at once clarified and generated myths surrounding the famous Smile farrago. Blatant suck-up: If you happen to ever see this, TN, could I get an address bc I have a copy of this book and that issue I'd love signed. Good to have him in both worlds.
1. Loss of virginity at 8 to a mentally handicapped girl causing deep shame throughout remainder of life
2. Competitive marriage to the equally prolific Margaret Millar, whose works have unfortunately fallen out of print but who in the 40s and 50s actually brought home more money than Archer
3. Seemingly mixed signals and constant stress from publishers about breaking Archer open to the masses, only to have efforts to probe psychological darkness objected to
4. A daughter guilty of vehicular manslaughter who later disappears for a week causing frantic search into the scuzzbowl of Reno ... combined a decade later with the daughter's sudden death
5. A friendship with noted maneater/sex fiend Eudora Welty (come on, somebody, prove this friendship wasn't chaste---we want to know she went to the PO cause she was a crack ho and that the Blue Hammer was the nickname for Lil' Lew... The marketplace demands this!!!)
6. A horrific descent into Alzheimers that finds creative genius crumbling into proto-Reaganesque adult diapers
It's actually a relief to read a skilled journalist like Nolan and let the facts speak for the drama. If this book doesn't grip, remember that's not its job. It's here for research, for consultation, for knowing the gen behind that gat.
NOW WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE GIVE US A MARGARET MILLAR BIO AND GET HER ASS BACK IN PRINT???? She's ripe for an Ebook renaissance. Far too good to be lingering in the limbo of the forgotten.
PS. Interesting connection: Nolan for years was a music critic. Wrote a landmark 66 article on California pop/rock that remains req reading. Also authored, among others, the famous 1971 Rolling Stone cover story on Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys that at once clarified and generated myths surrounding the famous Smile farrago. Blatant suck-up: If you happen to ever see this, TN, could I get an address bc I have a copy of this book and that issue I'd love signed. Good to have him in both worlds.
July 7, 2009
Outstanding, in-depth bio. of RM by Wall Street reviewer, Tom Nolan.
November 24, 2019
Will write something more about this biography at some stage.
Recommended reading.
Recommended reading.
September 18, 2024
I rarely read biographies because so many fall into one of these traps: (1) The biographer believes that their life is equally as entertaining as that of their subject and creates (in effect) a joint biography sharing daily events and scintillating moments of the biographer's own life; (2) Having done scads of research the biographer determines to put every last nano-bit of it into the book no matter how trivial or insignificant; (3) Alternatively, huge chunks of the subject's life are inexplicably omitted -- the odd spouse or decade, non-existent; (4) The subject can do no wrong; (5) Everything the subject did was wrong (with the implication that the biographer could have done it far better). I'm sure you've identified other approaches to regret, but apparently I 'm very high maintenance when it comes to biographies. But a good one, like Diane Middlebrook's brilliant biography of Anne Sexton was a joy to read. As was this, Tom Nolan's book about mystery writer Ross Macdonald, who was Kenneth Millar (1915-1983). Millar was a brilliant man with a damaged childhood, a brilliant academic life, a difficult (yet somehow right) marriage, a devoted but tragic parenthood, and a belatedly successful writing career. Millar created private detective Lew Archer who became the low-key successor to Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. Archer wasn't quirky, didn't have a particular memorable attribute to hang a description on to bring him to mind. He was almost commonplace, just consistent and dogged, not overly cerebral, violent, or eccentric. His novels combined the puzzling plots of Agatha Christie with the realism of Dashiell Hammett and the depth of character found in mainstream (literary) fiction. That they echoed the wounds of his own life isn't a negative. The writing itself was gorgeous. The Lew Archer books existed in a narrow range from very good to excellent. There was no standout masterpiece like The Long Goodbye or The Maltese Falcon. I'd say Macdonald had between 12 and 18 masterpieces. It's hard to pick a single choice. What one reviewer would call "not his best" another would call "his best yet." It was all how the well-defined characters affected the reader. There was a similarity between the books, each refining the themes he continuously explored. Macdonald also didn't have a great movie made of one of his books to give Lew Archer a visual identity. I'm not an actor, but I wouldn't know how to "play" Archer. Unfortunately, Humphrey Bogart never played Lew Archer as he did Spade and Marlowe. Paul Newman did, but it didn't quite work. Ross Macdonald just made a consistent body of very good books. But Macdonald took the concept of the PI to the next level and helped lead to the next-gen explosion of private detectives since. Many writers since cite him as a touchstone. All of this is to explain why Ross Macdonald and Lew Archer are mainly known to the cognoscenti, and Ken Millar's success came late and understated. After being in and out of debt for much his life, often having to borrow money from friends, he finally found financial success at the end of his career. Financial security was the reason he wrote mysteries. All his life he'd wanted to write a mainstream novel, but felt he couldn't take the chance as he needed to provide for his family. So he wrote the mysteries that (barely) allowed him to make ends meet. He put a lot of literary talent in those crime novels. As Tom Nolan did in writing this page-turner of a biography, laying out the facts but making it read like a novel without feeling like it's been sensationalized in the slightest. Ken Millar had way too much happen to him in life, trauma and sorrow were never far away. And the section on the end of his life as he succumbed to Alzheimer's was both terrifying and hurt my heart. The whole book is brilliantly written. His wife, Margaret Millar (a bundle of neuroses at best and harsh, narcissistic, and unfeeling at worst), doesn't come off well. Yet her books (she also wrote successful mysteries) were often fantastic. Fellow crime novelist John D. MacDonald also comes off poorly. This is an amazing biography of a writer who I think is mostly (unfairly) forgotten today. I was happy that it met my especially picky and fussy standards for biography. [5★]
January 31, 2012
Gives you hope that being decent is not a lost art form.
August 16, 2008
Ross Macdonald is always mentioned in the same breath as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. And of the three, Macdonald was the most literate.
Here now is the full story of how Ken Millar of Ontario became Ross Macdonald of Santa Barbara, California. Biographer Tom Nolan traces Millars origins from an anonymous birth in the Bay Area to a bleak childhood spent mostly in Ontario.
If his creation, Lew Archer, seemed like an outsider, it might have been because Millar/Macdonald spent his life as a wanderer. From Ontario to Alberta to Vancouver and back, then across the border to Michigan to California, with a stint aboard a Navy ship at the end of World War II. He and wife Margaret Millar, a noted mystery writer in her own right, were the classic couple that couldn't live with each other, but couldn't live without each other either.
Nolan uses Millar's recollections of his childhood in Kitchener and elsewhere in Canada to show how Millar the boy almost became Millar the criminal, acting out, even indulging in homosexual acts, to rebel against an overly religious mother and an absent father. Millar would make a conscious decision to become, instead, a scholar, eventually earning his Ph D with a dissertation on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whom he would spend a lifetime studying.
As Millar's writing career begins, Nolan divides chapters almost along the writing of each Lew Archer novel. As Millar (as Macdonald) moved away from imitating Raymond Chandler (which Chandler resented) to becoming a more psychological writer, the books start to parallel their author's life. In the wake of daughter Linda's disappearance in 1958, Macdonald begins focusing on the missing child as a touchstone. After her death in 1970, his work turns more toward the tragic consequences of family secrets.
Perhaps most tragic is the deterioration of Macdonald's mind at the peak of his creative prowess. Starting with THE GOODBYE LOOK, Macdonald had become one of America's (and Canada's) pre-eminent writers. And yet after the release of the final Archer novel, THE BLUE HAMMER, his mind clouded, his ability to concentrate draining away. By the time of his death in 1983, he had taken hisplace alongside contemporaries Norman Mailer and Joan Diodon as one of the premier writers of his day. Yet even to the end, when he could barely remember his own name, Macdonald/Millar would still swim in the ocean everyday, at least until he was able.
Millar wanted to round off his Archer series with one last novel - a tome delving into Archer's Canadian past - but his illness prevented him. Experts agree, though, he left behind one of the most impressive bodies of work not only as a crime writer, but as a seriousness novelist.
Here now is the full story of how Ken Millar of Ontario became Ross Macdonald of Santa Barbara, California. Biographer Tom Nolan traces Millars origins from an anonymous birth in the Bay Area to a bleak childhood spent mostly in Ontario.
If his creation, Lew Archer, seemed like an outsider, it might have been because Millar/Macdonald spent his life as a wanderer. From Ontario to Alberta to Vancouver and back, then across the border to Michigan to California, with a stint aboard a Navy ship at the end of World War II. He and wife Margaret Millar, a noted mystery writer in her own right, were the classic couple that couldn't live with each other, but couldn't live without each other either.
Nolan uses Millar's recollections of his childhood in Kitchener and elsewhere in Canada to show how Millar the boy almost became Millar the criminal, acting out, even indulging in homosexual acts, to rebel against an overly religious mother and an absent father. Millar would make a conscious decision to become, instead, a scholar, eventually earning his Ph D with a dissertation on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whom he would spend a lifetime studying.
As Millar's writing career begins, Nolan divides chapters almost along the writing of each Lew Archer novel. As Millar (as Macdonald) moved away from imitating Raymond Chandler (which Chandler resented) to becoming a more psychological writer, the books start to parallel their author's life. In the wake of daughter Linda's disappearance in 1958, Macdonald begins focusing on the missing child as a touchstone. After her death in 1970, his work turns more toward the tragic consequences of family secrets.
Perhaps most tragic is the deterioration of Macdonald's mind at the peak of his creative prowess. Starting with THE GOODBYE LOOK, Macdonald had become one of America's (and Canada's) pre-eminent writers. And yet after the release of the final Archer novel, THE BLUE HAMMER, his mind clouded, his ability to concentrate draining away. By the time of his death in 1983, he had taken hisplace alongside contemporaries Norman Mailer and Joan Diodon as one of the premier writers of his day. Yet even to the end, when he could barely remember his own name, Macdonald/Millar would still swim in the ocean everyday, at least until he was able.
Millar wanted to round off his Archer series with one last novel - a tome delving into Archer's Canadian past - but his illness prevented him. Experts agree, though, he left behind one of the most impressive bodies of work not only as a crime writer, but as a seriousness novelist.
September 21, 2008
One would think that Macdonald's biographer might be a little more poetic, but this is all very matter-of-fact. Nonetheless, it's absolutely fascinating, and it's making me want to go back and re-read all the Macdonald mysteries I've already read and read all those I haven't.
Update: remained absolutely fascinating to finish. Not only an interesting portrait of the man, but also an interesting history of the genre and even a bit of a history of the publishing industry.
Update: remained absolutely fascinating to finish. Not only an interesting portrait of the man, but also an interesting history of the genre and even a bit of a history of the publishing industry.
September 14, 2008
Over 400 pages, but interesting throughout, Nolan has certainly done a thorough (and Herculean) job with this biography. His subject, already seen at one remove ("Ross Macdonald") was, by all accounts, a dauntingly private man, not to mention one who was careful to parse every sentence he heard or uttered, leaving very little behind for any potential biographer. Getting 400 quality pages must have been quite a challenge.
March 16, 2009
Tough read really. A biography of a good writer, a real pro and consequently, it is a book about a guy who wrote. With great discipline. He also swam in the ocean and bird watched and owned dogs and had a daughter who killed a kid in a hit and run at a young age and never quite recovered. He grew up like an orphan really. Bounced from Northern California through Canada to Michigan and wound up in Santa Barbara. As a result of reeading this book, i plan to get deeply into his actual works, which were mysteries of a high order. i already went out and rented Harper with Paul Newman as the star, which was a representation of one of MacDonald's first books, The Moving Target.
Some interesting passages with regard to Autobiographical Fiction when Ken Millar, whose pen name was Ross Macdonald is compared to his private detective character Lew Archer. The swirling identity effect happens in there a little bit.
p.221 - Archer undergoes chameleonic change while hunting Wycherly's daughter and (not incidentally)Wycherly's ex-wife.
P. 234 - The book expressed the unity that Millar and ...
P. 237 - ...the Macdonald style,
On p. 389 at this point - either it's rough going or I just don't get much time to read these days.
Woodwardesque research and completeness. Over 50 pages of notes, acknowledgements and citiations.
Some interesting passages with regard to Autobiographical Fiction when Ken Millar, whose pen name was Ross Macdonald is compared to his private detective character Lew Archer. The swirling identity effect happens in there a little bit.
p.221 - Archer undergoes chameleonic change while hunting Wycherly's daughter and (not incidentally)Wycherly's ex-wife.
P. 234 - The book expressed the unity that Millar and ...
P. 237 - ...the Macdonald style,
On p. 389 at this point - either it's rough going or I just don't get much time to read these days.
Woodwardesque research and completeness. Over 50 pages of notes, acknowledgements and citiations.
July 28, 2009
Thanks to Ed Lynskey for recommending this excellent biography of Ross Macdonald (pseudonym of Kenneth Millar). One of Macdonald/Millar's most valuable contributions was to shift hard-boiled detective fiction from pure genre to literary. Nolan's examination of Macdonald/Millar's life explains (to some extent) how and why he was able to do this.
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August 9, 2011I recommend this. Good book about an interesting man - who wanted to write stories that were both literary and part of a genre.
Said he almost didn't want to start writing because he didn't think he would do it as well as D.H. Lawrence.
Also, it was something of a struggle to finish his last book because he was losing his mental sharpness.
Said he almost didn't want to start writing because he didn't think he would do it as well as D.H. Lawrence.
Also, it was something of a struggle to finish his last book because he was losing his mental sharpness.
January 21, 2010
This was a great companion to Ross's books. It gives insight to his writings.
October 24, 2011
Engrossing,and sad.
April 8, 2014
Insightful look into one of the best crime/thriller authors of the 20th century.
December 14, 2014
A comprehensive, brilliantly researched bio on the author of the Lew Archer novels.
October 17, 2017
"[...] recurring patterns in Macdonald's plots which [...] more resembled Dickens' and Faulkner's than Hammetts's or Chandler's. [...] All men are guilty and all human actions are connected. The past is never past. The child is father to the man. True reality resides in dreams. And most of all, everyone gets what he deserves, but no one deserves what he gets."
(George Grella, University of Rochester, on main motifs in works of Ross Macdonald)
Tom Nolan's Ross Macdonald: A Biography (1999) is an outstanding book. The biography portrays the life and works of one of my most favorite writers, the author of "the finest series of detective novels ever written by an American." As much as I dislike critical hype and hyperbole, I completely agree with these words of a literary critic about Macdonald's series of novels featuring Lew Archer, a California P.I. I have reviewed all 18 Archer novels, written between the late 1940s and the mid-1970s, here on Goodreads. Two of these novels, The Underground Man and The Chill , are in my view near-masterpieces, and deserve inclusion in the so-called serious literature category.
Sue Grafton, an accomplished and popular mystery author, provides a touching introduction to the biography and emphasizes the profound influence Macdonald had on her own writing. Mr. Nolan provides a detailed account of Ross Macdonald's early years. While most of us know that Macdonald is a pseudonym of Kenneth Millar, fewer readers are aware of the author's fractured childhood and checkered youth, when he spent most of his days apart from his parents and was raised mainly by aunts and uncles, continually changing addresses, cities, and even countries - he spent many years of his youth in Canada. After serving in the US Navy as a communication officer, he studied literature at the University of Michigan and obtained the PhD degree based on the thesis about Samuel Coleridge. His first books, non-Archer ones, were firmly grounded in the hard-boiled crime genre. The Archer series illustrates the author's evolution that freed his writing from the constraints of hard-boiled genre and led to the depth of late works that masterfully depict the human condition.
The biography is fantastically rich in details, analyses and interpretations, so for sake of brevity I will just mention the few threads that I find the most important. The dramatic youth, possible mental illness, and tragic early death of Macdonald's daughter, Linda, cast a long shadow upon the author's life and writing. A Newsweek journalist offers perhaps an oversimplified yet astute diagnosis when he writes about Linda and Macdonald's novels: "she's really the one that all those novels are about."
Another major thread in Macdonald's life is his marriage to Margaret Sturm, later Margaret Millar, an accomplished and popular mystery writer who in 1956 won the prestigious Edgar Award for her Beast in View . The couple had married in 1938 and stayed together until Macdonald's death 45 years later. The thread of spousal "competition" is totally fascinating: in the beginning years it was Margaret who was supporting the family financially through her mystery writing when her husband focused on his academic and military careers; but towards the end, it was Mr. Millar whose earnings dwarfed those of his wife's, when he became a worldwide acclaimed author.
The third thread in the biography is focused on sort of a "rivalry" between Macdonald and Raymond Chandler. It may be true that in the early stages of his literary career Kenneth Millar used Chandler's hard-boiled style as inspiration and pattern to imitate. However, he certainly grew beyond the hard-boiled canon. Mr. Chandler used to denigrate Macdonald's literary skills and disagreed with grouping Macdonald along himself and Dashiell Hammett as the three masters of the genre. In fact, some of Chandler's statements might be construed as attempts to sabotage Macdonald's career. I apologize to Chandler's fans but I think his novels are generally inferior to these of Macdonald's and that listing Chandler as Mr. Millar's equal is not justified. To me, only one novel by Chandler, The Long Goodbye is comparable in class to the best of Macdonald's works.
Fascinating biography and I need to toss a coin to decide whether to round my 4.5 rating up or down.
Four and a half stars.
(George Grella, University of Rochester, on main motifs in works of Ross Macdonald)
Tom Nolan's Ross Macdonald: A Biography (1999) is an outstanding book. The biography portrays the life and works of one of my most favorite writers, the author of "the finest series of detective novels ever written by an American." As much as I dislike critical hype and hyperbole, I completely agree with these words of a literary critic about Macdonald's series of novels featuring Lew Archer, a California P.I. I have reviewed all 18 Archer novels, written between the late 1940s and the mid-1970s, here on Goodreads. Two of these novels, The Underground Man and The Chill , are in my view near-masterpieces, and deserve inclusion in the so-called serious literature category.
Sue Grafton, an accomplished and popular mystery author, provides a touching introduction to the biography and emphasizes the profound influence Macdonald had on her own writing. Mr. Nolan provides a detailed account of Ross Macdonald's early years. While most of us know that Macdonald is a pseudonym of Kenneth Millar, fewer readers are aware of the author's fractured childhood and checkered youth, when he spent most of his days apart from his parents and was raised mainly by aunts and uncles, continually changing addresses, cities, and even countries - he spent many years of his youth in Canada. After serving in the US Navy as a communication officer, he studied literature at the University of Michigan and obtained the PhD degree based on the thesis about Samuel Coleridge. His first books, non-Archer ones, were firmly grounded in the hard-boiled crime genre. The Archer series illustrates the author's evolution that freed his writing from the constraints of hard-boiled genre and led to the depth of late works that masterfully depict the human condition.
The biography is fantastically rich in details, analyses and interpretations, so for sake of brevity I will just mention the few threads that I find the most important. The dramatic youth, possible mental illness, and tragic early death of Macdonald's daughter, Linda, cast a long shadow upon the author's life and writing. A Newsweek journalist offers perhaps an oversimplified yet astute diagnosis when he writes about Linda and Macdonald's novels: "she's really the one that all those novels are about."
Another major thread in Macdonald's life is his marriage to Margaret Sturm, later Margaret Millar, an accomplished and popular mystery writer who in 1956 won the prestigious Edgar Award for her Beast in View . The couple had married in 1938 and stayed together until Macdonald's death 45 years later. The thread of spousal "competition" is totally fascinating: in the beginning years it was Margaret who was supporting the family financially through her mystery writing when her husband focused on his academic and military careers; but towards the end, it was Mr. Millar whose earnings dwarfed those of his wife's, when he became a worldwide acclaimed author.
The third thread in the biography is focused on sort of a "rivalry" between Macdonald and Raymond Chandler. It may be true that in the early stages of his literary career Kenneth Millar used Chandler's hard-boiled style as inspiration and pattern to imitate. However, he certainly grew beyond the hard-boiled canon. Mr. Chandler used to denigrate Macdonald's literary skills and disagreed with grouping Macdonald along himself and Dashiell Hammett as the three masters of the genre. In fact, some of Chandler's statements might be construed as attempts to sabotage Macdonald's career. I apologize to Chandler's fans but I think his novels are generally inferior to these of Macdonald's and that listing Chandler as Mr. Millar's equal is not justified. To me, only one novel by Chandler, The Long Goodbye is comparable in class to the best of Macdonald's works.
Fascinating biography and I need to toss a coin to decide whether to round my 4.5 rating up or down.
Four and a half stars.
May 15, 2021
3.5 stars.
I can count on one hand the number of times I've felt compelled to read the biography of a favorite author. I've never been one who felt the need to delve into an author's personal life just because I enjoyed their work, but this was practically a requirement. I've never seen such obvious writing-as-therapy as I found in the Lew Archer series, which of course made me deadly curious about the man who was sharing his struggles couched in terms of genre entertainment with the world, at large. As a former psychology major (and a hobbyist writer), I couldn't pass this sinkhole of intrigue without diving in headfirst.
As it turns out, Kenneth Millar wrote himself and his more or less miserable life into all of his books, and used his protagonist, Lew Archer, as a way of sorting through the crazy: his toxic co-dependent relationship with his wife, who didn't seem to like him very much; his strained relationship with his troubled daughter; the childhood that prompted him to make a conscious decision to repress most aspects of his personality and, in all likelihood, his true sexuality. The amazing thing is that the more Millar wrote about Archer, the more he became him, all the while not managing to solve the questions he was working through. This is truly a triumphant feat, or perhaps its just a great example of the complexity of human life and psyche.
This biography is somewhat breathless and defensive of Millar, hence knocking off a few stars. It makes Margaret Millar out to be a cross between a complete harridan and an awful, nasty bitch. It brushes aside criticism of Millar's work from genre critics, suggesting jealousy as the motive for less-than-gushing reviews. It glosses over much of Linda's life and the true reason for her death (only mentioning that it was "originally thought to be a cerebral accident", as if implying that there was some other, true cause of death). For all of the loving dissection of the Archer novels and how they reflected Millar's life and inner workings, there is precious little said about the romance in The Blue Hammer between Archer and a girl young enough to be his daughter, though it is mentioned that Archer's quest cycle is complete by the end of the book. Oh really? All those hints about the terrible relationship with his wife, more or less from the start, and major dropped hints about a romantic love existing between Millar and Eudora Welty, and such strange silence about this important aspect of Archer's life? Hmm. Sometimes what's not included is just as obvious as what is.
I can't say I'm upset or disappointed that I read this biography as supplemental material to the Lew Archer series, because it really does shed a lot of light into how Millar worked as a writer, how he fought the constraint of his genre, how he was curiously thin-skinned about criticism for the entirety of his career, and how he lived a miserable life by choice, and from a very young age, no less. It's all very interesting, and quite saddening.
Do I consider this essential reading to enjoy Lew Archer series? Only if you, like me, can't overlook the obvious therapy work that went into the composition of the stories. The elements of psychology (especially Freud) are so strong that I personally found it overwhelming and had to know what made this guy tick. If you just like a good detective yarn, you can probably skip the author biography and lose nothing of value.
If you do decide to read this book, read the entire Lew Archer series first, because pretty much every single book is spoiled here.
I can count on one hand the number of times I've felt compelled to read the biography of a favorite author. I've never been one who felt the need to delve into an author's personal life just because I enjoyed their work, but this was practically a requirement. I've never seen such obvious writing-as-therapy as I found in the Lew Archer series, which of course made me deadly curious about the man who was sharing his struggles couched in terms of genre entertainment with the world, at large. As a former psychology major (and a hobbyist writer), I couldn't pass this sinkhole of intrigue without diving in headfirst.
As it turns out, Kenneth Millar wrote himself and his more or less miserable life into all of his books, and used his protagonist, Lew Archer, as a way of sorting through the crazy: his toxic co-dependent relationship with his wife, who didn't seem to like him very much; his strained relationship with his troubled daughter; the childhood that prompted him to make a conscious decision to repress most aspects of his personality and, in all likelihood, his true sexuality. The amazing thing is that the more Millar wrote about Archer, the more he became him, all the while not managing to solve the questions he was working through. This is truly a triumphant feat, or perhaps its just a great example of the complexity of human life and psyche.
This biography is somewhat breathless and defensive of Millar, hence knocking off a few stars. It makes Margaret Millar out to be a cross between a complete harridan and an awful, nasty bitch. It brushes aside criticism of Millar's work from genre critics, suggesting jealousy as the motive for less-than-gushing reviews. It glosses over much of Linda's life and the true reason for her death (only mentioning that it was "originally thought to be a cerebral accident", as if implying that there was some other, true cause of death). For all of the loving dissection of the Archer novels and how they reflected Millar's life and inner workings, there is precious little said about the romance in The Blue Hammer between Archer and a girl young enough to be his daughter, though it is mentioned that Archer's quest cycle is complete by the end of the book. Oh really? All those hints about the terrible relationship with his wife, more or less from the start, and major dropped hints about a romantic love existing between Millar and Eudora Welty, and such strange silence about this important aspect of Archer's life? Hmm. Sometimes what's not included is just as obvious as what is.
I can't say I'm upset or disappointed that I read this biography as supplemental material to the Lew Archer series, because it really does shed a lot of light into how Millar worked as a writer, how he fought the constraint of his genre, how he was curiously thin-skinned about criticism for the entirety of his career, and how he lived a miserable life by choice, and from a very young age, no less. It's all very interesting, and quite saddening.
Do I consider this essential reading to enjoy Lew Archer series? Only if you, like me, can't overlook the obvious therapy work that went into the composition of the stories. The elements of psychology (especially Freud) are so strong that I personally found it overwhelming and had to know what made this guy tick. If you just like a good detective yarn, you can probably skip the author biography and lose nothing of value.
If you do decide to read this book, read the entire Lew Archer series first, because pretty much every single book is spoiled here.
May 7, 2018
I’m not a big biography reader. In fact most non-fiction I read is for some purpose, some topic I’m curious about and I usually skip around skim a lot and just dip in to the bits that interest me. Almost never have I finished a non-fiction book, and set it down with the thought that I’d like to read it again. So this book is a rarity for me.
Once I started this, I had no inclination to skip, and no inclination to switch over to one of the novels I’m currently reading. For me this was as much of a page-turner as any best-selling thriller. Yet at the same time it was emotionally draining. Millar/Macdonald’s life was an emotional roller-coaster and I found myself having to step away for a few minutes every couple chapters. The final few sections, which portray Millar as alzheimer’s destroys his once brilliant mind are especially painful to read.
For a famously quiet, private man, Millar wrote a lot of letters and had a lot of friends, though most seem not to have felt they ever knew him that well. Nolan does a good job, letting Millar and his friends speak for him. A large part of the text is quotations from interviews with friends and Millar’s own words. Nolan seldom interprets or draws conclusions.
I won’t try to summarize any of the content, just say that Millar’s life was every bit as eventful and interesting as those of the characters in his books. Surprisingly so considering the face he presented to the world. Recommended for any fan of Ross Macdonald or an interest in the life of a mid-20th century writer.
Once I started this, I had no inclination to skip, and no inclination to switch over to one of the novels I’m currently reading. For me this was as much of a page-turner as any best-selling thriller. Yet at the same time it was emotionally draining. Millar/Macdonald’s life was an emotional roller-coaster and I found myself having to step away for a few minutes every couple chapters. The final few sections, which portray Millar as alzheimer’s destroys his once brilliant mind are especially painful to read.
For a famously quiet, private man, Millar wrote a lot of letters and had a lot of friends, though most seem not to have felt they ever knew him that well. Nolan does a good job, letting Millar and his friends speak for him. A large part of the text is quotations from interviews with friends and Millar’s own words. Nolan seldom interprets or draws conclusions.
I won’t try to summarize any of the content, just say that Millar’s life was every bit as eventful and interesting as those of the characters in his books. Surprisingly so considering the face he presented to the world. Recommended for any fan of Ross Macdonald or an interest in the life of a mid-20th century writer.
November 6, 2010
Not to diminish or denigrate Macdonald, but considering that he wrote one basic type of novel, this bio is way too long and redundant - some judicious editing would have helped; the author apparently decided not to interfere with the natural speech of people he interviewed, so there are many "gonna's" "gotta's" and "lotta's" in their recollections. The constant comparisons of Macdonald to Hammett and Chandler - and the frequent mention of the latter two names - become almost annoying.
April 16, 2008
This is a bit ponderous but highly informative.
May 3, 2017
Biography of Kenneth Millar (writing as Ross MacDonald). Fascinating man but as much a mystery to most people as his books. Well written and sympathetic without being syncofantic.
July 7, 2023
“What the reader hopes most to see in a biography is the work of the intelligent scholar who also feels an affinity for his subject.” from Eudora Welty’s review of Arthur Mizener’s biography of Ford Madox Ford
Tom Nolan satisfies the reader on both counts. His research is thorough and his approach is fair. At the same time, he holds Macdonald/Millar in high regard, portraying a complex man who fought like the devil to get the recognition he thought he deserved, and to protect his daughter, yet who is also often described as tender, kind, gentle, eager to be a mentor to the young.
Included are the anecdotes of people who found Ken Millar charming and his wife Margaret threatening, and the perspective of folks who found Margaret the life of the party and Ken Millar a tough nut to crack. The reader is left with a feel for how complicated, deep, troubled and solid the Millar marriage was.
Nolan has a lovely technique of starting each chapter with an epigraph - a quote from something Millar or a fan, enemy or fellow writer wrote. Sometimes the quote is explained further in the chapter, sometimes it serves simply as enlightening bonus material. I appreciated these quotes - they left some dots for the reader to connect, and since most of the readers of this biography are probably mystery fans, it was a delightful gift to us.
Nolan also chooses material that’s fresh even for those who’ve read the letters Millar and Eudora Welty exchanged (published as Meanwhile There Are Letters). It made me aware of - and grateful for - the extensive research and scholarship that Nolan put into this work. He also manages to capture the drama of Millar’s daughter’s brushes with the law in a way that’s gripping without imitating the calloused sensationalism of a gossip magazine. Nolan brought to those moments all the compassion Lew Archer brings to his investigations.
Some of the descriptions about Millar’s difficult contract negotiations with Hollywood film producers, etc. included more detail than I needed, although I’m sure these negotiations did occupy a great deal of Millar’s attention and energy.
But overall this was a stellar biography. I found myself admiring Ken Millar as much as Tom Nolan and Eudora Welty did. In fact, I was afraid I would have to have a good hard cry at the inevitable ending (so sad in this biography, although that’s not the case in every biography). However, my edition is missing a single page (411-412) which effectively jarred me out of my tearfulness.
Originally published on my website, brightwingswellness.com.
Tom Nolan satisfies the reader on both counts. His research is thorough and his approach is fair. At the same time, he holds Macdonald/Millar in high regard, portraying a complex man who fought like the devil to get the recognition he thought he deserved, and to protect his daughter, yet who is also often described as tender, kind, gentle, eager to be a mentor to the young.
Included are the anecdotes of people who found Ken Millar charming and his wife Margaret threatening, and the perspective of folks who found Margaret the life of the party and Ken Millar a tough nut to crack. The reader is left with a feel for how complicated, deep, troubled and solid the Millar marriage was.
Nolan has a lovely technique of starting each chapter with an epigraph - a quote from something Millar or a fan, enemy or fellow writer wrote. Sometimes the quote is explained further in the chapter, sometimes it serves simply as enlightening bonus material. I appreciated these quotes - they left some dots for the reader to connect, and since most of the readers of this biography are probably mystery fans, it was a delightful gift to us.
Nolan also chooses material that’s fresh even for those who’ve read the letters Millar and Eudora Welty exchanged (published as Meanwhile There Are Letters). It made me aware of - and grateful for - the extensive research and scholarship that Nolan put into this work. He also manages to capture the drama of Millar’s daughter’s brushes with the law in a way that’s gripping without imitating the calloused sensationalism of a gossip magazine. Nolan brought to those moments all the compassion Lew Archer brings to his investigations.
Some of the descriptions about Millar’s difficult contract negotiations with Hollywood film producers, etc. included more detail than I needed, although I’m sure these negotiations did occupy a great deal of Millar’s attention and energy.
But overall this was a stellar biography. I found myself admiring Ken Millar as much as Tom Nolan and Eudora Welty did. In fact, I was afraid I would have to have a good hard cry at the inevitable ending (so sad in this biography, although that’s not the case in every biography). However, my edition is missing a single page (411-412) which effectively jarred me out of my tearfulness.
Originally published on my website, brightwingswellness.com.
January 26, 2021
This is a marvelous biography of Ross Macdonald, the pseudonym of Kenneth Millar, who wrote the eighteen Lew Archer mysteries, which the New York Times called the “finest series of detective novels ever written by an American.”
The well-research biography traces Millar’s life from his time at the University of Michigan, where he wrote a graduate thesis on Coleridge, to his career as a mystery writer, finding his voice in a private investigator.
Macdonald’s mysteries were the first mysteries I read when I finished my own thesis and was looking for a different kind of fiction. Each book is a psychological study of character and a dissection of families. It’s fascinating to read how Millar perfected his craft, advancing the form from Hammett and Chandler and discovering his own unique style. Nolan is the mystery/thriller reviewer at the Wall Street Journal and he does a great job of making Millar come alive. The hard work of fiction writing is there. And there’s his own difficult life with a troubled daughter. In his later years, Millar was stricken with Alzheimer’s, and these descriptions are particularly moving.
One of the most poignant passages is this observation on Millar’s struggle with Alzheimer’s from the author’s longtime friend, the writer Eudora Welty: “What hurts the most is that Ken knew what was happening to him, I mean he had to face that; ‘cause he had a brilliant mind, and this just slowly came about. It started with not being able to remember things. I had letters from him saying, ‘It scares me, my hands can’t write, what happened? . . . . It was the cruelest thing of course that could happen to anyone, but especially to Ken, I think. Just the very cruelest that could have come over him.”
The well-research biography traces Millar’s life from his time at the University of Michigan, where he wrote a graduate thesis on Coleridge, to his career as a mystery writer, finding his voice in a private investigator.
Macdonald’s mysteries were the first mysteries I read when I finished my own thesis and was looking for a different kind of fiction. Each book is a psychological study of character and a dissection of families. It’s fascinating to read how Millar perfected his craft, advancing the form from Hammett and Chandler and discovering his own unique style. Nolan is the mystery/thriller reviewer at the Wall Street Journal and he does a great job of making Millar come alive. The hard work of fiction writing is there. And there’s his own difficult life with a troubled daughter. In his later years, Millar was stricken with Alzheimer’s, and these descriptions are particularly moving.
One of the most poignant passages is this observation on Millar’s struggle with Alzheimer’s from the author’s longtime friend, the writer Eudora Welty: “What hurts the most is that Ken knew what was happening to him, I mean he had to face that; ‘cause he had a brilliant mind, and this just slowly came about. It started with not being able to remember things. I had letters from him saying, ‘It scares me, my hands can’t write, what happened? . . . . It was the cruelest thing of course that could happen to anyone, but especially to Ken, I think. Just the very cruelest that could have come over him.”
September 8, 2020
I'm sure future biographies of Ross Macdonald/Ken Millar will be more concise and focused, but until then this sprawling and meticulously researched bio full of anecdotes - contradictory at times - and excerpts from letters will be the one to consult. There is a little too much info here for the average reader, but fans should be delighted. Fans of his wife, novelist Margaret Millar, will find less to be exited about, as she comes across as a difficult and self-absorbed person, and one who was unnecessarily cruel to her husband during his decline due to Alzheimer's.
Despite the thoroughness of the book, I wish it had included a bibliography of Macdonald/Millar's work.
Despite the thoroughness of the book, I wish it had included a bibliography of Macdonald/Millar's work.
December 12, 2017
(4.5) A fitting, thorough biography for the great mystery writer. Delves deeply into the personal events that made Kenneth Millar, as well as the times he lived in for writers. "Ross Macdonald" may be my personal favorite mystery writer in large part because of the emotional depth he gave to his stories and the people within them. Tom Nolan helps the reader to understand the perspective Millar had that would allow him to write in such a way. A must read if you're a fan of Millar's work and want to learn about the man's fascinating life.
January 14, 2022
Ross Macdonald is one of my favorite crime fiction authors, and I religiously read Tom Nolan's reviews of crime fiction in the Wall Street Journal. This book is prodigiously researched and well written, and it often reads like a novel. Nolan really understands Macdonald.
However, this book is relentlessly depressing. Macdonald had a screwed up childhood, his wife had a screwed up childhood, they had a screwed up marriage, and their daughter was screwed up as a result. The book was so depressing that I abandoned it.
However, this book is relentlessly depressing. Macdonald had a screwed up childhood, his wife had a screwed up childhood, they had a screwed up marriage, and their daughter was screwed up as a result. The book was so depressing that I abandoned it.
June 30, 2022
Unnecessarily long. Too many unedited quotations. Ross Macdonald's life wasn't eventful; the biographer doesn't really know what to do with a huge amount of material he managed to gather over the years and as a result the book is boring. If it had been half as long, it would have been readable. As it is now, it can only be recommended to diehard Macdonald fans - like yours truly.
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