CWA KAA Gold Dagger
1 appearances
-
Edition 11 (1965) Winner
Ross Macdonald
ロス・マクドナルド
Rosu Makudonarudo
Aliases:
Kenneth Millar / Ken Millar
Pen Names:
John Macdonald（Used on early novels to avoid confusion with his wife and other writers）,
John Ross Macdonald（Used briefly as a pen name）,
Ross Macdonald（Primary pen name used for most fiction from the mid-1950s onward）
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1915-12-13 （Los Gatos, California, U.S.）
- Died
- 1983-07-11 （Santa Barbara, California, U.S.） age 67
- Nationality
- American, Canadian
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Los Gatos, California (birth) → Kitchener, Ontario (raised) → Santa Barbara, California (residence and base for writing)
Career
- Occupations
- Novelist, Short story writer, Critic
- Active Years
- 1944-1983
- Influenced By
- Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, W. H. Auden
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Western Ontario | Faculty of Arts / Humanities | History and English | Honours (学士相当) | — | Canada |
| University of Michigan | Graduate School | Literature | PhD | — | United States |
University of Western Ontario
Faculty of Arts / Humanities
/ History and English
Degree:
Honours (学士相当)
Country:
Canada
Graduated with an honours degree in History and English
University of Michigan
Graduate School
/ Literature
Degree:
PhD
Year of Graduation:
1952
Country:
United States
Wrote a dissertation on Samuel Taylor Coleridge; studied under W. H. Auden.
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Silver Dagger | The Chill | — | Mystery Writers of America | 受賞 |
| 1974 | Grand Master Award | — | — | Mystery Writers of America | 受賞（生涯功労） |
| 1982 | The Eye (Shamus Award Lifetime Achievement) | — | — | Private Eye Writers of America | 受賞 |
| 1982 | Robert Kirsch Award | an outstanding body of work | — | Los Angeles Times | 受賞 |
| 1965 | CWA Gold Dagger | The Far Side of the Dollar | — | Crime Writers' Association | 受賞 |
Silver Dagger
1964
Work:
The Chill
Organization:
Mystery Writers of America
Result:
受賞
Grand Master Award
1974
Organization:
Mystery Writers of America
Result:
受賞（生涯功労）
The Eye (Shamus Award Lifetime Achievement)
1982
Organization:
Private Eye Writers of America
Result:
受賞
Robert Kirsch Award
1982
Work:
an outstanding body of work
Organization:
Los Angeles Times
Result:
受賞
CWA Gold Dagger
1965
Work:
The Far Side of the Dollar
Organization:
Crime Writers' Association
Result:
受賞
Awards & Nominations
Edgar Allan Poe Awards
1 appearances
-
Edition 0 (1974) Winner
Los Angeles Times Book Prize
1 appearances
-
Edition 3 (1982) Winner
Shamus Award
1 appearances
-
Edition 1 (1982) Winner
Works
Major Works
The Moving Target
1949 Crime fiction (hardboiled)First Lew Archer novel; a hardboiled mystery involving family secrets and a complex plot.
family secretsidentity
Adaptations
- [Film] Harper / Jack Smight (1966)
The Drowning Pool
1950 Crime fiction (hardboiled)A Lew Archer novel set in Southern California centering on a dark mystery.
sense of placemoral ambiguity
Adaptations
- [Film] The Drowning Pool / Stuart Rosenberg (1975)
The Chill
1964 Crime fictionA Lew Archer novel notable for its psychological depth and intricate family history plot.
psychological guiltburied family past
The Underground Man
1971 Crime fictionA cleverly structured Archer novel about how family shadows and the past affect the present.
intersection of past and presentfamily burdens
Adaptations
- [TV movie / pilot] The Underground Man (TV adaptation) (1974)
Bibliography
- The Dark Tunnel (aka I Die Slowly) — 1944
- Trouble Follows Me (aka Night Train) — 1946
- Blue City — 1947
- The Three Roads — 1948
- The Moving Target — 1949
- The Drowning Pool — 1950
- The Chill — 1964
- The Far Side of the Dollar — 1965
- The Underground Man — 1971
Adaptations
- Harper (film, 1966) — adaptation of The Moving Target
- The Drowning Pool (film, 1975) — adaptation of The Drowning Pool
- The Underground Man (TV adaptation/pilot, 1974)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- Laconic hardboiled proseIntegration of psychological depth and poetic imageryIntricate, baroque plotting
- Recurring Motifs
- family secretslost or wayward childrenthe haunting past
Health
-
Alzheimer's disease1970年代–1983年（晩年）Cognitive decline in later years contributed to his death and affected his late creative output.
Legacy
Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer novels are regarded as some of mid-20th-century American mystery's most significant works, introducing psychological depth and literary sophistication to hardboiled fiction. He influenced critics and subsequent writers, and his works were adapted for film and television.
Academic Societies
- Mystery Writers of America (related)
In Popular Culture
- Film adaptations starring Paul Newman (Harper, The Drowning Pool) and TV adaptations brought his work into popular culture
Quotes
-
"...it is the sheer beauty of Macdonald’s laconic style—with its seductive rhythms and elegant plainness—that holds us spellbound. 'Hard-boiled,' 'noir,' 'mystery,' it doesn’t matter what you call it. Macdonald...dares to be both."
Source: Wall Street Journal (review) (2017)
Trivia
- Birth name Kenneth Millar (pronounced 'Miller' though spelled Millar).
- Used pen names John Macdonald, John Ross Macdonald, and Ross Macdonald.
- Daughter Linda was born in 1939 and reportedly died in 1970.