"James Ellroy: Demon
Dog of Crime Fiction began life as my thesis at the University of
Liverpool. After I graduated, Palgrave Macmillan accepted my proposal for a new
monograph on Ellroy, and I began to adapt my years of research on Ellroy into
book form. There were two elements of James Ellroy's career that I found
particularly fascinating. One is referenced in the title of my study: his
self-styled 'Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction' persona. I was determined to
find out the full extent that Ellroy's literary persona had played in shaping
his works. Was it a major factor in his writing or did Ellroy simply call
himself the Demon Dog to give a name to his often unhinged performances at book
readings and during interviews?
Another aspect of Ellroy’s work that interested me was the
gradual evolution of the text in both plotting and prose from character bio’s
to outline to first draft to finished novel. I was able to map out this process
when I visited the James Ellroy archive at the University of South Carolina
several years ago. It's fascinating to read the outline and drafts of The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential and White
Jazz against the published novels and see just how different these works
could have been.
Ellroy's literary persona, by contrast, was less visible in
the text, although he is fond of recurring dog motifs which could be read as
subversive clues to its presence. The Demon Dog moniker, however, was
frequently invoked during the hundreds of interviews Ellroy has given
throughout his career. I created an inventory of Ellroy interviews, partly so
that when I came to talk to Ellroy myself I would know which topics he had
already discussed at length and which subjects were overlooked. I interviewed
Ellroy four times and then edited the anthology Conversations with James Ellroy for University Press of
Mississippi.
Ellroy once said to journalist Ron Hogan 'Every interview I
give is a chance to puncture the myth I've created about my work and refine
it'. It was quotes like these that helped me to understand the purpose of
Ellroy's persona, but there were also events in Ellroy's life which I discuss
in James Ellroy: Demon Dog of Crime
Fiction as being central to the formulation of the Demon Dog role.
One such incident occurred early in his career. After his
first two novels were published, Ellroy moved to New York where he underwent a
sudden crisis in his career. He was unable to sell his third novel to a
publisher and his agent dropped him as a result. His solution was typically
bold and theatrical. The story goes (it may be somewhat apocryphal) that Ellroy
marched into the office of editor Otto Penzler and brashly introduced himself
as 'the Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction.' Penzler was naturally taken aback
by this uninvited guest, but he, and legendary agent Nat Sobel, took Ellroy on
as a client and essentially rescued his career. If Ellroy hadn’t brandished the
Demon Dog name, could his meeting with Penzler have been less successful I
wonder?
As I say in the introduction to the
book ‘Ellroy is an author at ease with his own sense of celebrity, but, in one
of the many contradictory sides of his character, he relishes his self-crafted
image as an outsider – too edgy, unpredictable and maverick to ever truly
belong to the Hollywood or publishing establishment.’ It is this enigmatic and
combative side to Ellroy’s character, I believe, which has complemented some of
the most accomplished and controversial crime fiction written over the past
thirty years, and why his work will continue to be debated by critics and
readers for many years to come. James
Ellroy: Demon Dog of Crime Fiction is my offering to this debate."
