Ross Macdonald (1915–83,) born Kenneth Millar, was an American-Canadian writer known for his hardboiled detective fiction, blending psychological depth and social critique.
Born in Los Gatos, California, he grew up in Canada, studying at the University of Western Ontario and earning a PhD from the University of Michigan. After brief teaching, he turned to writing, adopting the name Ross Macdonald to avoid confusion with similar authors. His work established him as a successor to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.
Macdonald’s The Moving Target (1949) introduced private investigator Lew Archer, appearing in most of his novels. Early works like The Drowning Pool (1950,) The Way Some People Die (1951,) and The Ivory Grin (1952) built a cult following. Later novels, including The Galton Case (1959,) The Chill (1964,) and The Underground Man (1971,) earned acclaim for emotional depth and social commentary.
Other notable books include Black Money (1966,) Sleeping Beauty (1973,) and The Blue Hammer (1976.) Macdonald used crime fiction to explore family secrets, identity, and corruption in postwar America.
Two biographies examine his life: Tom Nolan’s Ross Macdonald (1999) and Meanwhile There Are Letters (2015,) edited by Nolan and Suzanne Marrs, compiling his correspondence with Eudora Welty.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Ross MacDonald
The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its disasters.
—Ross MacDonald
Topics: Books
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