Cornell George Hopley Woolrich ( ; December 4, 1903 – September 25, 1968) 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 True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...

of his day, behind

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

Erle Stanley Gardner Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author. He is best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, but he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces and also a series of nonfiction b ...

and Raymond Chandler.

Biography

Woolrich was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

; his parents separated when he was young. He lived for a time in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

with his father before returning to New York to live with his mother, Claire Attalie Woolrich. He attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

but left in 1926 without graduating when his first novel, ''Cover Charge'', was published. As

Eddie Duggan Eddie Duggan is a British photographer, film-maker, screenwriter, author and academic games historian. Photography Eddie Duggan's photographs of bands on the burgeoning music scene in 1970s London have been published in both the underground and ...

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 (a ''Rear-Window''-like confinement involving a gangrenous foot, according to one version of the story) that Woolrich started writing, producing ''Cover Charge'', which was published in 1926."

br>(1999) 'Writing in the darkness: the world of Cornell Woolrich' ''CrimeTime'' 2.6 pp. 113–126.
/ref> ''Cover Charge'' was one of his Jazz Age novels inspired by the work of

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

. 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 a 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 (the unconsummated marriage was annulled in 1933; Woolrich garnered no screen credits), Woolrich sought to resume his life as a novelist: Although Woolrich had published six 'jazz-age' novels, concerned with the party-antics and romances of the beautiful young things on the fringes of American society, between 1926 and 1932, he was unable to establish himself as a serious writer. Perhaps because the 'jazz-age' novel was dead in the water by the 1930s when the depression had begun to take hold, Woolrich was unable to find a publisher for his seventh novel, ''I Love You, Paris'', so he literally threw away the typescript, dumped it in a dustbin, and re-invented himself as a pulp writer. 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'' (February 1942) on his 1942 story "It Had to Be Murder", source of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock movie ''

Rear Window ''Rear Window'' is a 1954 American mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by John Michael Hayes based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder". Originally released by Paramount Pictures, the film st ...

'' and itself based on H.G. Wells' short story "Through a Window". François Truffaut filmed Woolrich's ''

The Bride Wore Black ''The Bride Wore Black'' (french: La Mariée était en noir) is a 1968 French film directed by François Truffaut and based on the novel of the same name by William Irish, a pseudonym for Cornell Woolrich. It stars Jeanne Moreau, Charles Den ...

'' 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 The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

in '' Stewart v. Abend'', 495 U.S. 207 (1990). He returned to New York where he and his mother moved into the Hotel Marseilles (Broadway and West 103rd Street). Eddie Duggan observes that " though 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 (20 West 72nd Street). In later years, he socialized on occasion in Manhattan bars with

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Awa ...

colleagues and younger fans such as writer

Ron Goulart Ronald Joseph Goulart (; January 13, 1933 – January 14, 2022) was an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy, and science fiction author. He published novelizations and other work under various pseudonyms: Kenneth Robeson, Co ...

, but

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

and an

amputated Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indiv ...

leg (caused by an infection from a too-tight shoe which went untreated) left him a recluse. As Duggan writes: Although he moved from Harlem's decrepit Hotel Marseilles to a more upmarket residence in the Hotel Franconia near Central Park, and later to the Sheraton-Russell on Park Avenue, Woolrich was a virtual recluse. Now in his 60s, with his eyesight failing, lonely, psychologically wracked by guilt over his homosexuality, tortured by his alcoholism, self-doubt, and a diabetic to boot, Woolrich neglected himself to such a degree that he allowed a foot infection to become gangrenous which resulted, early in 1968, in the amputation of a leg. After the amputation, and a conversion to Catholicism, Woolrich returned to the Sheraton-Russell, requiring the use of a wheelchair. Some of the staff there would take Woolrich down to the lobby so he could look out on the passing traffic, thus making the wizened Woolrich into a kind of darker, self-loathing version of the character played by James Stewart in Hitchcock's ''Rear Window''. With the type of closure that is usually only encountered as a literary device, the Woolrich story turns full-circle around the Oedipally charged foot motif, the writing career that apparently began with a period of confinement attributed to a foot infection ends with an amputation, and the deep Freudian resonance that amputation induces. 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 and was interred with his mother in the 'Shrine of Memories Mausoleum', Unit 1, Tier G, Crypt 102 at

Ferncliff Cemetery Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located at 280 Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, United States, about north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian. Fernc ...

Hartsdale, New York Hartsdale is a hamlet located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census. It is a suburb of New York City. History Hartsdale, a CDP/hamlet/post-office in the town of Green ...

. Woolrich bequeathed his estate of about $850,000 to Columbia University to endow scholarships in his mother's memory for writing students. His papers are also kept at the Columbia University Libraries.

Bibliography

Most of Woolrich's books are out of print, and new editions were slow to come out because of estate issues. However, new collections of his short stories were issued in the early 1990s. As of February 3, 2020, th
Faded Page
has seven titles available as ebooks in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

in Canada; these may be still under copyright elsewhere. In 2020 and 2021, Otto Penzler's "American Mystery Classics" series released new editions of ''Waltz into Darkness'' and ''The Bride Wore Black'' in both hardcover and paperback. Woolrich died leaving fragments of an unfinished novel, titled ''The Loser''; fragments have been published separately and also collected in '' Tonight, Somewhere in New York'' (2005).

Novels

Short story collections

Selected films based on Woolrich stories

* ''

Convicted In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of " not proven", which is co ...

'' (1938) (story ''Face Work''), directed by Leon Barsha * '' Street of Chance'' (1942) (novel ''The Black Curtain''), directed by

Jack Hively Jack Hively (September 5, 1910 – December 19, 1995) was an American film editor and film and television director whose career lasted from the 1930s through the 1980s. His father and his brother were also film editors. He began as a film editor ...

* ''

The Leopard Man ''The Leopard Man'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur, and starring Dennis O'Keefe, Jean Brooks, and Margo. Based on the book ''Black Alibi'' by Cornell Woolrich, it follows a series of violent murders in a small Ne ...

'' (1943) (novel ''Black Alibi''), directed by

Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat ...

* ''

Phantom Lady Phantom Lady is a fictional superheroine, one of the first such characters to debut in the 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books. Originally published by Quality Comics, the character was subsequently published by a series of now-defunct comic book com ...

'' (1944) (novel), directed by

Robert Siodmak Robert Siodmak (; 8 August 1900 – 10 March 1973) was a German film director who also worked in the United States. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of films noirs he made in the 1940s, such as ''The Killers'' (194 ...

* '' The Mark of the Whistler'' (1944) (story ''Dormant Account''), directed by

William Castle William Castle (born William Schloss Jr.; April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Orphaned at 11, Castle dropped out of high school at 15 to work in the theater. He came to the attenti ...

* ''

Deadline at Dawn ''Deadline at Dawn'' is a 1946 American film noir, the only film directed by stage director Harold Clurman. It was written by Clifford Odets and based on a novel of the same name by Cornell Woolrich (as William Irish). The RKO Pictures film rele ...

'' (1946) (novel), the only film directed by stage director

Harold Clurman Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS.

* '' Black Angel'' (1946) (novel), directed by Roy William Neill * '' The Chase'' (1946) (novel ''The Black Path of Fear''). directed by

Arthur Ripley Arthur DeWitt Ripley (January 12, 1897 – February 13, 1961) was an American film screenwriter, editor, producer and director. Biography In 1923, he joined the Mack Sennett studio as a comedy writer. In the 1920s, he worked closely with Fr ...

* '' Fall Guy'' (1947) (story ''Cocaine''), directed by Reginald Le Borg * '' The Guilty'' (1947) (story ''He Looked Like Murder''), directed by John Reinhardt * '' Fear in the Night'' (1947) (story ''Nightmare''), directed by Maxwell Shane * '' The Return of the Whistler'' (1948) (story ''All at Once, No Alice''), directed by D. Ross Lederman * '' I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes'' (1948) (story), directed by

William Nigh William Nigh (October 12, 1881 – November 27, 1955) was an American film Film director, director, screenwriter, writer, and actor. His film work sometimes lists him as either "Will Nigh" or "William Nye". Biography Nigh was born Emil Kreu ...

* '' Night Has a Thousand Eyes'' (1948) (novel), directed by

John Farrow John Villiers Farrow, KGCHS (10 February 190427 January 1963) was an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, in 1942 he was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

* '' The Window'' (1949) (story ''The Boy Cried Murder''), directed by Ted Tetzlaff * '' No Man of Her Own'' (1950) (novel ''I Married a Dead Man''), directed by

Mitchell Leisen James Mitchell Leisen (October 6, 1898 – October 28, 1972) was an American director, art director, and costume designer. Film career He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments. He directed his f ...

* '' The Earring'' (1951) (story ''The Death Stone''), directed by León Klimovsky * ''The Trace of Some Lips'' (1952) (story ''Collared''), directed by Juan Bustillo Oro * ''If I Should Die Before I Wake'' (1952), directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen * '' Don't Ever Open That Door'' (1952) (stories ''Somebody on the Phone'' and ''Humming Bird Comes Home'') directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen * ''

'' (1954) (story ''It Had to Be Murder''), directed by Alfred Hitchcock * '' Obsession'' (1954) (story ''Silent as the Grave''), directed by Jean Delannoy * ''The Glass Eye'' (1956), directed by Antonio Santillán * '' Nightmare'' (1956) (story), directed by Maxwell Shane * '' Escapade'' (1957) (story ''Cinderella and the Mob''), directed by

Ralph Habib Ralph Habib (Paris, 29 June 1912 – Paris, 27 June 1969) was a French film director of Lebanese origin. He started his film career with Pathé. He later worked as assistant director notably Jean Dréville and Jean-Paul Le Chanois before directin ...

* '' The Boy Cried Murder'' (1966) (story ''The Boy Cried Murder''), directed by George P. Breakston * ''

'' (1968) (novel), directed by François Truffaut * '' Mississippi Mermaid '' (1969) (novel ''Waltz into Darkness''), directed by François Truffaut * '' Kati Patang'' (1970) (novel ''I Married a Dead Man''), directed by

Shakti Samanta Shakti Samanta (13 January 1926 – 9 April 2009) was an Indian film director and producer, who founded Shakti Films in 1957, which is most known for films such as ''Anand Ashram'' (1977), Anusandhan /'' Barsaat Ki Ek Raat'' (1981), ''anay abhi ...

* '' Seven Blood-Stained Orchids'' (1972) (novel ''Rendezvous in Black''), directed by

Umberto Lenzi Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist. A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unr ...

* '' You'll Never See Me Again'' (1973), filmed for television, directed by

Jeannot Szwarc Jeannot Szwarc (born November 21, 1939) is a French director of film and television, known for such films as '' Jaws 2'', ''Somewhere in Time'', ''Supergirl'' and '' Santa Claus: The Movie''. He has also produced and written for TV. Life and c ...

* ''

Martha Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא‎) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness ...

'' (1974) (story ''For the Rest of Her Life''), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder * ''Gun Moll'' (1975) (story Collared), directed by

Giorgio Capitani Giorgio Capitani (29 December 1927 – 25 March 2017) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 40 films between 1954 and 2012. He also wrote for 12 films. He was born in Paris, France. Selected filmography * '' The Flam ...

* '' Union City'' (1980) (story ''The Corpse Next Door''), directed by Marcus Reichert * '' I Married a Shadow'' (1983) (novel ''I Married a Dead Man'') * '' Cloak & Dagger'' (1984) (story ''The Boy Who Cried Murder''), directed by Richard Franklin * '' I'm Dangerous Tonight'' (1990) (story ''I'm Dangerous Tonight''), directed by

Tobe Hooper Willard Tobe Hooper (; January 25, 1943 – August 26, 2017) was an American director, screenwriter, and producer best known for his work in the horror genre. The British Film Institute cited Hooper as one of the most influential horror fi ...

* ''

Mrs. Winterbourne ''Mrs. Winterbourne'' is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama (film and television), drama film starring Shirley MacLaine, Ricki Lake, and Brendan Fraser. It is loosely based on Cornell Woolrich's novel ''I Married a Dead Man'', which had already ...

'' (1996) (novel ''I Married a Dead Man''), directed by

Richard Benjamin Richard Samuel Benjamin (born May 22, 1938) is an American actor and film director. He has starred in a number of well-known film productions, including ''Goodbye, Columbus'' (1969), based on the novella by Philip Roth; ''Catch-22'' (1970), fro ...

* ''

'' (1998) (story ''It Had to Be Murder''), directed by Jeff Bleckner * '' Original Sin'' (2001) (novel ''Waltz into Darkness''), directed by

Michael Cristofer Michael Cristofer (born January 22, 1945) is an American actor, playwright and filmmaker. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for '' The Shadow Box'' in 1977. From 2015 to 2019, he played the role of Phillip ...

* '' Four O'Clock'' (2006) (story ''Three O'Clock'')

References

Sources

* Nevins, Francis M. Jr. (1988), ''First You Dream, Then You Die'', Mysterious Press. * Duggan, E. (1999) 'Writing in the darkness: the world of Cornell Woolrich' ''CrimeTime'' 2.6 pp. 113–126.

External links

* *
Radio adaptations of Cornell Woolrich's stories on the CBS radio show ''Suspense''
*
Cornell Woolrich Papers
at the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New York
"Cornell Woolrich and the Tough-Man Tradition of American Crime Fiction"
by Christine Photinos (''Clues: A Journal of Detection'' 28.2, 2010)
"The melodrama star as a noir film heroine: ''The Trace of Some Lips'' (1952)"
by Roberto Carlos Ortiz (article in Spanish about a Mexican adaptation of "Collared", by Cornell Woolrich)
Finding aid to Cornell Woolrich papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolrich, Cornell 1903 births 1968 deaths Writers from New York City American amputees American male novelists American mystery writers Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery Columbia College (New York) alumni Edgar Award winners American LGBT novelists 20th-century American novelists American short story writers American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) American Noir writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century LGBT people

Biography

Bibliography

Novels

Short story collections

Selected films based on Woolrich stories

References

Sources

Further reading

External links