Love And Night: Unknown Stories

by Cornell Woolrich, Francis M. Nevins (Editor)

Before Cornell Woolrich wrote the stories and novels that have cemented his reputation as a master of noir fiction, he submitted short stories to American publications such as College Humor, McClure’s, Illustrated Love, Serenade, and Breezy Stories. These early works give glimpses of what Woolrich would later refine into the masterpieces that have established his fame.Francis M. Nevins, the author’s biographer, has collected here fifteen of Woolrich’s long-overlooked early stories. Nevins’ introduction provides a detailed historical background that puts these tales into the perspective of Woolrich’s life.

Genres: Short Stories

236 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Cornell Woolrich is widely regarded as the twentieth century’s finest writer of pure suspense fiction. The author of numerous classic novels and short stories (many of which were turned into classic films) such as Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Waltz Into Darkness, and I Married a Dead Man, Woolrich began his career in the 1920s writing mainstream novels that won him comparisons to F. Scott Fitzgerald. The bulk of his best-known work, however, was written in the field of crime fiction, often appearing serialized in pulp magazines or as paperback novels. Because he was prolific, he found it necessary to publish under multiple pseudonyms, including "William Irish" and "George Hopley" [...] Woolrich lived a life as dark and emotionally tortured as any of his unfortunate characters and died, alone, in a seedy Manhattan hotel room following the amputation of a gangrenous leg. Upon his death, he left a bequest of one million dollars to Columbia University, to fund a scholarship for young writers.

Source: [http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books_bi...]

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting to read this different - non-noir - side of Woolrich. Most of the stories are jazz-age romances quite in the style of F. Scott Fitzgerald, although some have noir trappings. Editor Francis M. Nevin’s introduction covers the Woolrich biographical details and also discusses the stories in the collection and how he chose them. Nevins also does a great job connecting these stories with Woolrich’s noir novels because a lot of scenes in these stories where recycled into the novels in different form. 5 stars for Nevin’s introduction. 2 stars for the stories, which were not that compelling other than the curiosity factor.

[Jim Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting for a historical look at the evolution of Woolrich's writing but the stories themselves didn't do anything for me.

[Eden Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog

Cornell Woolrich is the father of Noir fiction, and Francis Nevin's has been keeping his legacy alive for many years as editor of Woolrich's collected stories (Tonight, Somewhere in New York) as well as the definitive biography First You Dream, Then You Die. Cornell Woolwich, in a large part, defined the noir genre with titles like Black Path of Fear, Waltz Into Darkness, and Black Angel. He is the Alfred Hitchcock of the written word.
He also wrote lighter suspense novels such as the excellent I Married A Dead Man under his pseudonym William Irish, the basis of the terrific Barbara Stanwyk film No Man Of Her Own, in which an unmarried pregnant woman is mistaken for a newlywed pregnant woman after a deadly train wreck, and she guiltily continues the charade.

Love and Night - Unknown Stories falls a little further into the light, being the lesser-known collected stories that have been unavailable and unread for over 70 years. These fifteen stories, written between 1926 and 1939, still contain the Woolrich touch but are far from suspenseful or mysterious. These are light romantic stories of love and divorce in the carefree 1920's through depression of the 30's.
So light, many of them were originally published in magazines with titles like Breezy and College Humor.

They do have charm and if you are a completist you will love anything Woolwich has written. In fact, so excited was I to find more Woolrich that I thought it was an instant keeper, sight unseen as it were.
It's a wonderful thing that these have been preserved and promoted to a new audience, but I found them just alright. His writing is always great, but I give a lower rating for subject matter, and slight disappointment. Just a note to anyone looking for Woolwich, this is not the area to begin with.
Go read Rendezvous in Black or Night Has a Thousand Eyes.

[Karl]

This copy is signed by Francis M. Nevins the Editor.

1,000 copies published.