Cornell Woolrich


Cornell George Hopley Woolrich was an American novelist and short story writer. He sometimes used the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley.
His biographer, Francis Nevins Jr., rated Woolrich the fourth best crime writer of his day, behind Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner and Raymond Chandler.

Biography

Woolrich was born in New York City; his parents separated when he was young. He lived for a time in Mexico with his father before returning to New York to live with his mother, Claire Attalie Woolrich.
He attended Columbia University but left in 1926 without graduating when his first novel, Cover Charge, was published. As Eddie Duggan observes, "Woolrich enrolled at New York's Columbia University in 1921 where he spent a relatively undistinguished year until he was taken ill and was laid up for some weeks. It was during this illness that Woolrich started writing, producing Cover Charge, which was published in 1926." Cover Charge was one of his Jazz Age novels inspired by the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald. A second short story, Children of the Ritz, won Woolrich the first prize of $10,000 the following year in a competition organised by College Humor and First National Pictures; this led to his working as screenwriter in Hollywood for First National Pictures. While in Hollywood, Woolrich explored his sexuality, apparently engaging in what Frances M. Nevins Jr. describes as "promiscuous and clandestine homosexual activity" and by marrying Violet Virginia Blackton, the 21-year-old daughter of J. Stuart Blackton, one of the founders of the Vitagraph studio. Failing in both his attempt at marriage and at establishing a career as a screenwriter, Woolrich sought to resume his life as a novelist:
When he turned to pulp and detective fiction, Woolrich's output was so prolific his work was often published under one of his many pseudonyms. For example, "William Irish" was the byline in Dime Detective Magazine on his 1942 story "It Had to Be Murder", source of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window and itself based on H.G. Wells' short story "Through a Window". François Truffaut filmed Woolrich's The Bride Wore Black and Waltz into Darkness in 1968 and 1969, respectively, the latter as Mississippi Mermaid. Ownership of the copyright in Woolrich's original story "It Had to Be Murder" and its use for Rear Window was litigated before the US Supreme Court in Stewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207.
He returned to New York where he and his mother moved into the Hotel Marseilles. Eddie Duggan observes that "lthough his writing made him wealthy, Woolrich and his mother lived in a series of seedy hotel rooms, including the squalid Hotel Marseilles apartment building in Harlem, among a group of thieves, prostitutes and lowlifes that would not be out of place in Woolrich's dark fictional world". Woolrich lived there until his mother's death on October 6, 1957, which prompted his move to the Hotel Franconia. In later years, he socialized on occasion in Manhattan bars with Mystery Writers of America colleagues and younger fans such as writer Ron Goulart, but alcoholism and an amputated leg left him a recluse. As Duggan writes:
Woolrich did not attend the premiere of Truffaut's film of his novel The Bride Wore Black in 1968, even though it was held in New York City. He died weighing 89 pounds. He is interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Woolrich bequeathed his estate of about $850,000 to Columbia University to endow scholarships in his mother's memory for writing students.

Novels

YearTitleAuthor CreditNotes
1926Cover ChargeCornell Woolrich
1927Children of the RitzCornell Woolrich
1929Times SquareCornell Woolrich
1930A Young Man's HeartCornell Woolrich
1931The Time of Her LifeCornell Woolrich
1932Manhattan Love SongCornell Woolrich
1940The Bride Wore BlackCornell Woolrich
1941The Black CurtainCornell Woolrich
1941MarihuanaWilliam IrishPublished in paperback only
1942Black AlibiCornell Woolrich
1942Phantom LadyWilliam Irish
1943The Black AngelCornell Woolrich
1944The Black Path of FearCornell Woolrich
1944Deadline at DawnWilliam IrishAlso published as an Armed Services Edition
1945Night Has a Thousand EyesGeorge Hopley
1947Waltz Into DarknessWilliam Irish
1948Rendezvous in BlackCornell Woolrich
1948I Married a Dead ManWilliam Irish
1950Savage BrideCornell WoolrichPublished in paperback only
1950FrightGeorge Hopley
1951You'll Never See Me AgainCornell WoolrichPublished in paperback only
1951Strangler's SerenadeWilliam Irish
1952Eyes That Watch YouWilliam Irish
1952Bluebeard's Seventh WifeWilliam IrishPublished in paperback only
1959Death is My Dancing PartnerCornell WoolrichPublished only in paperback
1960The Doom StoneCornell WoolrichPublished only in paperback
1987Into the NightCornell Woolrich

Short story collections

YearTitleAuthor CreditNotes
1943I Wouldn't Be in Your ShoesWilliam IrishAlso published as an Armed Services Edition
1944After-Dinner StoryWilliam IrishIncludes his noted 1941 novella "Marihuana". Also published as an Armed Services Edition
1946If I Should Die Before I WakeWilliam IrishPublished in paperback only
1946Borrowed CrimeWilliam IrishPublished in paperback only
1946The Dancing DetectiveWilliam Irish
1948Dead Man BluesWilliam Irish
1949The Blue RibbonWilliam Irish
1950Somebody on the PhoneWilliam IrishA.k.a "Deadly Night Call"
1950Six Nights of MysteryWilliam IrishPublished in paperback only
1956NightmareCornell WoolrichIncludes both previously published & unpublished stories.
1958ViolenceCornell WoolrichIncludes both previously published & unpublished stories.
1958Hotel RoomCornell Woolrich
1959Beyond the NightCornell WoolrichPublished in paperback only
1964The Dark Side of LoveCornell Woolrich
1965The Ten Faces of Cornell WoolrichCornell Woolrich
2010Four Novellas of FearCornell Woolrich

Selected films based on Woolrich stories