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Gore Vidal's Thieves Fall Out should have died a quiet death Gore Vidal's Thieves Fall Out should have died a quiet death
(8 months later)
In the early 50s, Gore Vidal found himself short of cash. There were days, indeed, when he wasn't sure where the next bottle of champagne might come from. For a start, his "real" novels, published under his name, had been failing to find an audience big enough to support his high living. (He had recently moved into a stately home on the Hudson River called Edgewater, not Rhinebeck in New York.) So he turned to pulp fiction of various kinds. In the early 50s, Gore Vidal found himself short of cash. There were days, indeed, when he wasn't sure where the next bottle of champagne might come from. For a start, his "real" novels, published under his name, had been failing to find an audience big enough to support his high living. (He had recently moved into a stately home on the Hudson River called Edgewater, not Rhinebeck in New York.) So he turned to pulp fiction of various kinds.
Vidal was a fast writer, capable of spinning out a mystery or piece of pulp fiction in a few weeks, often using a Dictaphone. In 1953 he published Thieves Fall Out, written under the pseudonym of Cameron Kay (Kay was his grandmother's maiden name, and Cameron Kay was, in fact, Gore's great uncle, an attorney general in Texas). A paperback publisher brought out the book in 1953, and it quickly faded. For years, this book was known only to Vidal scholars and true fans, many of whom possess the frail paperback. Now a house called Hard Case Crime in New York will bring out a new edition, and it has stirred some backlash.Vidal was a fast writer, capable of spinning out a mystery or piece of pulp fiction in a few weeks, often using a Dictaphone. In 1953 he published Thieves Fall Out, written under the pseudonym of Cameron Kay (Kay was his grandmother's maiden name, and Cameron Kay was, in fact, Gore's great uncle, an attorney general in Texas). A paperback publisher brought out the book in 1953, and it quickly faded. For years, this book was known only to Vidal scholars and true fans, many of whom possess the frail paperback. Now a house called Hard Case Crime in New York will bring out a new edition, and it has stirred some backlash.
For a start, Gore (who was a close friend of mine) didn't want this republished. He was only 28 when he wrote it, and it wasn't much good. He asked for it to be forgotten, not republished. Gore's agent, however, gave the publisher Charles Ardai permission to reprint the book in the spring of 2015. Ardai told The New York Times that he intended to "put out a loving edition" of this old pulp novel, a third-rate piece of crime fiction that bears no resemblance to the novels of Vidal's maturity, such as Julian, Myra Breckinridge, Burr and Lincoln.For a start, Gore (who was a close friend of mine) didn't want this republished. He was only 28 when he wrote it, and it wasn't much good. He asked for it to be forgotten, not republished. Gore's agent, however, gave the publisher Charles Ardai permission to reprint the book in the spring of 2015. Ardai told The New York Times that he intended to "put out a loving edition" of this old pulp novel, a third-rate piece of crime fiction that bears no resemblance to the novels of Vidal's maturity, such as Julian, Myra Breckinridge, Burr and Lincoln.
I myself think it's a shame to see a bad novel by Gore Vidal put back into print. He also spun out a sequence of mystery stories under the name of Edgar Box, the name a kind of homage to Edgar Allan Poe (not Edgar Wallace, as some have thought). These are swift, simple mysteries that feature Peter Sargeant II, a man very like Vidal himself, a former journalist with some fancy social connections. Death in the Fifth Position (1952) is the first and best of this trilogy, and it's well worth reading.I myself think it's a shame to see a bad novel by Gore Vidal put back into print. He also spun out a sequence of mystery stories under the name of Edgar Box, the name a kind of homage to Edgar Allan Poe (not Edgar Wallace, as some have thought). These are swift, simple mysteries that feature Peter Sargeant II, a man very like Vidal himself, a former journalist with some fancy social connections. Death in the Fifth Position (1952) is the first and best of this trilogy, and it's well worth reading.
This isn't the case for Thieves Fall Out, which I have no doubt Gore would have preferred to die the quiet death it richly deserves.This isn't the case for Thieves Fall Out, which I have no doubt Gore would have preferred to die the quiet death it richly deserves.
That's not going to happen, though I doubt that readers will find it very enticing. This may be the last time it ever finds a new publisher. I hope so.That's not going to happen, though I doubt that readers will find it very enticing. This may be the last time it ever finds a new publisher. I hope so.
• Jay Parini's biography of Gore Vidal will be out next year.• Jay Parini's biography of Gore Vidal will be out next year.