Rescuing Classic Mystery Authors
by Leonard Picker -- Publishers Weekly, 5/28/2007
In 2002, Douglas Greene, the editor and cofounder of Crippen & Landru, started a line of Lost Classics, devoted to authors of the past who wrote traditional mysteries. The 23rd entry in the series is The Grandfather Rastin Mysteries by Lloyd Biggle Jr. (Reviews, May 14).
What led you to start Crippen & Landru?
In 1994, my wife, Sandi, and I started Crippen & Landru because most large publishers shy away from publishing collections of short stories. The purest form of the detective story is the short story, developed by Poe and perfected by Doyle. The invention of a problem for the sleuth to solve, the process of investigation and the surprising climax—these are what created the form.
Why the name Crippen & Landru?
They were two early 20th-century murderers. Sandi later pointed out that both were wife killers, but I was already committed to the name.
You've done story collections by such major contemporary writers as Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini, Peter Lovesey and Lawrence Block. Who are some of your Lost Classics authors?
Some authors are, or at least were, very well known. For example, we're publishing a series of collections of Erle Stanley Gardner's pulp stories. Others are unaccountably obscure. Who, for instance, has heard of Peter Godfrey or Joseph Commings? But they wrote marvelous stories which we're happy to collect.
How do you select titles for Lost Classics?
We're interested almost entirely in whether the stories deserve to be put in book form, and only secondarily whether the author has “name recognition.” We just signed a contract for a book by Vincent Cornier, to be edited by Mike Ashley. Cornier has been almost completely forgotten, but his tales about Barnabas Hildreth, written mostly in the 1930s, are bizarre and challenging. The best may be the story about a bullet fired 250 years ago that almost kills a modern victim.
Do you have a favorite Grandfather Rastin mystery?
Yes, “The Phantom Thief,” in which someone steals a broach, a Bunsen burner, a slide rule and $68 in cash. I like odd bunches.
What's the most challenging part of the job?
Trying to estimate the market for an author. With rare exceptions, we don't publish a long series of books by an individual writer, so we have little guidance about what sales to expect.
What obscure writer are you proudest of publishing?
Probably James Yaffe, well known as a playwright and chronicler of Jewish life, but also author of an ingenious series of mysteries featuring “Mom,” who solves crimes for her policeman son over dinner. My Mother the Detective was one of our earliest books and still one of my favorites.
