Jim Thompson (Author)

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Jim Thompson (born September 27, 1906 in Anadarko , Oklahoma , † April 7, 1977 in Los Angeles ; actually James Myers Thompson ) was an American writer who mainly wrote noir novels.

Life

Jim Thompson was born the son of lawyer and auditor James Thompson. His father was a gambler and drunkard charged with embezzlement but escaped punishment by fleeing to Mexico. Jim Thompson was intelligent and well-read (he read, among others, Dostoyevsky ) and published small humorous texts in various newspapers as a teenager.

During Prohibition he worked as a bellhop in Texas. During this time, Thompson financed an excessive lifestyle with alcohol smuggling - including for Al Capone . He is said to have made up to $ 300 a week.

He was already an alcoholic at the age of 19 and also suffered a nervous breakdown . Thompson later worked in Texas oil fields. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in the 1930s and made a living publishing true crime stories . In 1931 he married and had two children.

He was the head of the Oklahoma Federal Writers Project, one of several programs created by the New Deal to help Americans through the Great Depression . In 1935 Jim Thompson became a member of the United States Communist Party , from which he left three years later.

In 1940 Jim Thompson moved to California and tried to gain a foothold in the Hollywood film industry , which initially failed. He published his first novel Jetzt und auf Erden in 1942. Four years later, the second work, Fear the Thunder, followed . After a few years of lull and various alcohol crises, Thompson wrote a total of twelve novels from 1952 to 1954, which were published by Lions Books in New York by 1957 . Three more novels were published by 1961.

Even if he had a little success with some novels, he remained an insider tip in the literary scene all his life. The McCarthy era had an impact. His fame only increased after his death, when some of his novels were successfully filmed: Getaway (1972; directed by Sam Peckinpah , starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw ) and Pop. 1280 (1981 as Der Saustall ; directed by Bertrand Tavernier , leading role: Philippe Noiret ).

As an actor, Jim Thompson can be seen in a minor supporting role (as Judge Grayle) in the remake Drive to Hell, Darling (1975; directed by Dick Richards, leading role: Robert Mitchum ). The film is based on a classic of Raymond Chandler's noir novels .

In the mid-1950s, Jim Thompson was working as a screenwriter in Hollywood. His best-known work of this phase are the scripts for the Kubrick films The Calculation Didn't Work Out and Road to Fame . His novels Ein Satansweib and Eine klasse Frau were also filmed .

In the early 1960s, Jim Thompson suffered a stroke . Until 1973 he wrote nine novels. Impoverished and bitter, Jim Thompson died on April 7, 1977 in Hollywood. After further strokes, mainly due to his severe alcoholism, he refused to eat some time before his death and eventually starved to death.

Because of his temporary membership in the US Communist Party, he was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

In his detective novels, Thompson shows that violence , greed and corruption are taken for granted in everyday American life .

His readers included Matthias Beltz , Stephen King (see: Quotes ) and Bruce Springsteen .

Works

Novels

  • 1942 Now and on Earth
  • 1946 Heed the Thunder
  • 1949 Nothing More Than Murder
  • 1952 The Killer Inside Me
    • Darling why are you so cold (German by Klaus von Schwarze), Heyne, Munich 1970
    • New translation: The murderer in me (German by Ute Tanner), Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna 1982, ISBN 3-548-10170-4
    • first complete translation: The murderer in me (German by Ute Tanner and Ulrike Wasel), Diogenes, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-257-22508-3
  • 1952 Cropper's Cabin
    • Love is not an alibi (German from Werner Gronwald), Heyne, Munich 1972
  • 1953 Recoil
    • Rückschlag (German by Christoph Hahn), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-548-10556-4
    • New translation: Revanche (German by André Simonoviescz), Diogenes, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-257-22764-7
  • 1953 The Alcoholics
  • 1953 Savage Night
  • 1953 The Criminal
    • Der Verbrecher (German by Olaf Kraemer), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-548-10656-0
  • 1954 The Golden Gizmo
  • 1954 Roughneck
  • 1954 A Swell-Looking Babe
    • A sweet child (German by Jürgen Behrens), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-548-10352-9
    • New translation: Eine klasse Frau (German by André Simonoviescz), Diogenes, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-257-22719-1
  • 1954 A Hell Of A Woman
    • Höllenweib (German by Jürgen Behrens), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-548-10506-8
    • New translation: Ein Satansweib (German by André Simonoviescz), Diogenes, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-257-22891-0
  • 1954 The Nothing Man
    • The Garnix man (German by Olaf Kraemer), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-548-10601-3
    • New translation: Not a whole man (German by Thomas Stegers), Diogenes, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-257-22889-9
  • 1955 After Dark, My Sweet ...
    • After dark - hate me darling so you can kill me! (German by Klaus ER von Schwartze), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-548-10266-2
    • New translation: After Dark, My Sweet (German by André Simonoviescz), Diogenes, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-257-22611-X
  • 1957 The Kill-Off
    • The killing (German by Jürgen Behrens), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-548-10549-1
    • New translation: Kill-Off (German by André Simonoviescz), Diogenes, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-257-22766-3
  • 1957 Wild Town
    • Dangerous City (German by Ute Tanner), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-548-10241-7
    • first complete translation: Dangerous City (German by Ute Tanner and Werner Rehbein), Diogenes, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-257-22510-5
  • 1959 The Getaway
    • Getaway - your chance is death (German by Günter Panske ), Bertelsmann, Munich / Gütersloh / Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-570-06432-8
    • first complete translation: Getaway (German by Günter Panske and Klaus Timmermann), Diogenes, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-257-22509-1
  • 1961 The Transgressors
  • 1963 The Grifters
    • Die Abzocker (German by Jürgen Behrens), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-548-10459-2
    • also: Grifters (same translation), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-548-22699-X
    • New translation: Muttersöhnchen (German by André Simonoviescz), Diogenes, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-257-22765-5
  • 1964 Pop. 1280
    • 1280 black souls (German from ER von Schwartze), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-548-10201-8
    • first complete translation: Twelve hundred and eighty black souls (by ER von Schwartze and André Simonoviescz), Diogenes, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-257-22566-0
  • 1965: Texas By The Tail
    • Cold feet on hot ground (German by Klaus ER von Schwartze), König, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-8082-0028-6
    • also: Texas an der Kehle (same translation), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-548-10532-7
  • 1967 South of Heaven
  • 1967 Ironside
    • The boss - Ironside chases the killer (German by Rüdiger Ruprecht), F. Schneider, Munich / Vienna 1970.
  • 1969 The Undefeated
  • 1970 Nothing But a Man
  • 1972 Child of Rage
  • 1973 King Blood
    • Kings Blood (German by Olaf Kraemer), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-548-10679-X
    • New translation: Der King-Clan (German by Michael K. Georgi), Diogenes, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-257-22890-2

Autobiography

  • 1953 Bad Boy
    • Bad Boy - an American youth (German by Jürgen Behrens), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-548-36539-6

Adaptations for stage, film and radio play

Literary template
script

Quotes about Jim Thompson

  • Stephen King: "One of my favorite authors - often copied, never matched - is Jim Thompson."

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Bad Boy autobiography
  2. ^ Matthias Beltz: Evil: Collected understatements. Frankfurt 2004, p. 797
  3. ↑ Bruce Springsteen: By the Book . In: The New York Times . October 30, 2014, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed December 31, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Stephen King: Big Jim Thompson: An Appreciation. In: Jim Thompson: Now And On Earth. Vintage Crime / Black Lizard, New York 1994, ISBN 0-679-74013-9 , foreword pp. VII-X
personal data
SURNAME Thompson, Jim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thompson, James Myers (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Anadarko (Oklahoma) , Oklahoma
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1977
Place of death los Angeles