James Crumley

James Crumley
at Bouchercon Chicago, September 11, 2005
Born	James Arthur Crumley (1939-10-12)October 12, 1939 Three Rivers, Texas, U.S.
Died	September 17, 2008(2008-09-17) (aged 68) Missoula, Montana, U.S.
Occupation	author
Nationality	American
Citizenship	American
Education	Master of Fine Arts (creative writing)
Alma mater	Georgia Institute of Technology University of Iowa
Period	1969–2005
Genre	hardboiled detective crime
Notable works	One to Count Cadence The Last Good Kiss The Mexican Tree Duck
Notable awards	Dashiell Hammett Award 1994 The Mexican Tree Duck
Spouse	Martha Elizabeth (married c.1992) four previous marriages: Sandra "Charlie" Crumley Maggie Brown Judith Ann Ramey Bronwyn Pughe

James Arthur Crumley (October 12, 1939 – September 17, 2008) was the author of violent hardboiled crime novels and several volumes of short stories and essays, as well as published and unpublished screenplays. He has been described as "one of modern crime writing's best practitioners", who was "a patron saint of the post-Vietnam private eye novel" and a cross between Raymond Chandler and Hunter S. Thompson. His book The Last Good Kiss has been described as "the most influential crime novel of the last 50 years."

Crumley had a cult following, and his work is said to have inspired a generation of crime writers in both the U.S. and the U.K, including Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane and Craig McDonald, as well as writers from other genres such as Neal Stephenson, but he never achieved mainstream success. "Don't know why that is," Crumley said in an interview in 2001, "Other writers like me a lot. But up until about 10 to 12 years ago, I made more money in France and Japan than in America. I guess I just don't fit in anyplace" in the genre book marketplace."

Crumley's first published novel, 1969's One to Count Cadence, which was set in the Philippines and Vietnam, began as the thesis for his master's degree in creative writing from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1966. His novels The Last Good Kiss, The Mexican Tree Duck and The Right Madness feature the character C.W. Sughrue, an alcoholic ex-army officer turned private investigator. The Wrong Case, Dancing Bear and The Final Country feature another P.I., Milo Milodragovitch. In the novel Bordersnakes, Crumley brought both characters together. Crumley said of his two private detectives: "Milo's first impulse is to help you; Sughrue's is to shoot you in the foot."

Crumley, who was born in Three Rivers, Texas, grew up in south Texas, where his father was an oil-field supervisor and his mother was a waitress. According to Crumley, his father was a gentle man, but his mother was a forceful and violent woman. She insisted that Crumley attend church, but did not do so herself because she could not afford clothes decent enough for church.