Jonathan Latimer

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Jonathan Latimer (born October 23, 1906 in Chicago , † June 23, 1983 ) was an American writer and screenwriter. He gained a certain fame through his crime novels about the private detective William Crane and his novel Salomons Weinberg , which is considered a secret classic of its genre.

Life

Jonathan Latimer was born in Chicago on October 23, 1906. He grew up in Arizona and Illinois, where he attended Arizona's Mesa School and Knox College in Galesburg. He began his career as a reporter before moving to writing shortly thereafter. In the 1930s he wrote five novels about the private detective William Crane, a martini-soaked representative of the "hedonistic wing" of die-hard private detectives (as the main character portrays himself), as well as five books with other main characters from the late 1930s.

His first books had a strong influence from Dashiell Hammett , his 1941 published work Solomon's Vineyard (Salomons Weinberg), however, was very independent; the light tone of the Crane row had disappeared and was replaced by gloomy and violent scenes. The work brought him some trouble with higher authorities, it was only allowed to be published in the USA in the original version in 1988. From 1938 onwards, he wrote screenplays for crime films for Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , including Der gläserne Schlüssel (1942) and The Night Has Thousand Eyes (1948). He also wrote for the television series Lone Wolf and Charlie Chan .

For most of World War II (1942-1945) Latimer served in the Navy, then he moved to La Jolla, California, where he met Raymond Chandler; he also managed to get back into work as a screenwriter very quickly and successfully. In the 1960s and 1970s Latimer then worked for television, including as a writer for the crime series Perry Mason and Columbo . He continued his work until his death from lung cancer in 1983.

All of his books have been translated into German and (with the exception of Nacht des Horens ) have been published by Diogenes Verlag .

Filmography

Works

William Crane series

  • 1935: Murder at full moon ( Murder in the Madhouse )
  • 1936: Race against time / convicted innocently ( Headed for a Hearse )
  • 1936: corpse on the wrong track / who is Alice? ( The Lady in the Morgue )
  • 1938: A Corpse in Paradise / The Dead Don't Care ( The Dead Don't Care )
  • 1939: Red gardenia ( Red Gardenias )

Other works

  • 1937: The decapitated great uncle ( The search for my grand uncle's head )
  • 1940: Forbidden Jungle ( Dark Memory )
  • 1941: Solomon's Vineyard ( Solomon's Vineyard )

revised version under the title The Fifth Grave (1950)

  • 1955: Night of Horror ( Sinners and Shrouds )
  • 1959: The False Nun ( Black is the fashion for dying )

Web links

swell

Biography and list of novels at krimi-couch.de

Short biography and short information on three novels

personal data
SURNAME Latimer, Jonathan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American novelist and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH June 23, 1983