World Literary Awards

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Joseph Hansen

ジョセフ・ハンセン

Josefu Hansen

Pen Names: James Colton（Pseudonym used for early novels and some fiction）, Rose Brock（Pseudonym used for gothic novels in the 1970s）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1923-07-19 （Aberdeen, South Dakota, U.S.）
Died
2004-11-24 （Laguna Beach, California, U.S.） age 81
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Aberdeen, South Dakota (birth) → Minneapolis, Minnesota (moved as a child) → Altadena, California (family residence) → Laguna Beach, California (later life)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Poet, Crime writer
Active Years
1952-2004
Influenced By
Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler
Influenced
Michael Nava

Awards

Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award
1992
Category: 生涯功労賞
Organization: Private Eye Writers of America
Result: 受賞
Lambda Literary Award for Gay Mystery
1992
Work: A Country of Old Men
Category: ゲイ・ミステリ
Organization: Lambda Literary Foundation
Result: 受賞
Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction
1993
Work: Living Upstairs
Category: ゲイ・フィクション
Organization: Lambda Literary Foundation
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Fadeout

1970 Hardboiled / Crime fiction

Introduces Dave Brandstetter, an openly gay private investigator who embodies the hardboiled detective while addressing social themes.

CrimeIdentityHomosexualityJustice

A Country of Old Men

1991 Crime novel / Series

One of the later Brandstetter novels, dealing with relationships and crime from a mature perspective; winner of a Lambda Literary Award.

AgingMoralityCrime investigation

Living Upstairs

1993 Fiction

A mainstream novel exploring personal life and complex relationships; recipient of a Lambda Literary Award.

RelationshipsFamilyIdentity

Bohannon's Book

1988 Mystery / Short stories

A collection of five novellas featuring Hack Bohannon, a former deputy sheriff turned investigator and horse farm owner.

Law and justiceLocal communityMoral conflict

Bibliography

  • One Foot in the Boat
  • The Dog and Other Stories
  • Backtrack
  • Pretty Boy Dead
  • Brandstetter & Others: Five Fictions
  • A Smile in His Lifetime
  • Steps Going Down
  • Bohannon's Book: Five Mysteries
  • Bohannon's Country
  • Living Upstairs
  • Jack of Hearts
  • A Few Doors West of Hope: The Life and Times of Dauntless Don Slater
  • Blood, Snow, & Classic Cars: Mystery Stories
  • Bohannon's Women
  • Strange Marriage
  • Lost on Twilight Road
  • The Corrupter and other stories
  • Known Homosexual
  • Cocksure
  • Hang-up
  • Gard
  • The Outward Side
  • Todd

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Hardboiled tone with a restrained narrative voiceRealistic character-driven proseConcise, sharp sentence style
Recurring Motifs
Crime and professional ethicsLives and identity of homosexual menLoneliness and friendship

Health

  • Heart failure
    2004
    Died of heart failure at home in 2004; ceased activity thereafter

Legacy

By creating Dave Brandstetter, an openly gay private investigator, Hansen played a pioneering role in both LGBT literature and crime fiction. He received lifetime achievement and Lambda Literary awards, and a literary prize is named after him.

Academic Societies

  • Private Eye Writers of America
  • Lambda Literary Foundation

Archives

  • Joseph Hansen Papers (Online Archive of California)

In Popular Culture

  • The Joseph Hansen Award (literary prize named after him)

Quotes

  • "A gay man and a woman who happened to love each other."
    Source: The Guardian obituary / quoted in profiles and obituaries (2004)

Trivia

  • His wife Jane Bancroft was a lesbian; they were married for 51 years.
  • Their child Barbara later transitioned and took the name Daniel James Hansen.
  • Dave Brandstetter is considered a pioneering openly gay detective character.
  • He disliked the term "gay" and preferred to describe himself as "homosexual."