his birthday is tomorrow. he'd have been 101. the poet of noir. some of his writing can be truly awful, but at his best no one can beat him for page turning suspense.

just read an exhaustive (and exhausting) biography of him by francis nevins, which chronicles basically everything he wrote, good, bad or indifferent. so there's a lot to get through, but his life is interesting: a recluse who lived with his mother in a seedy hotel in manhattan and seldom ventured out. i also liked nevins' general take on woolrich's writing: that even when the plots are totally far fetched, somehow you're still sucked in. i reread the black angel, and, yep, that's what happens: the ending will give you chills.

now i'm reading nighwebs, a book of mostly previously uncollected stories. the first couple were not too inspiring, but they had their moments.

some other personal favorites are: the bride wore black (also love the truffaut movie with franky's inspired choice of bernard herrmann doing the soundtrack) and i married a dead man. recently reread marijuana, which is a pretty poor and unintentionally hilarious cautionary tale. (think twice before you take a puff: it may turn you into a homicidal maniac.)

any other woolrichheads out there?