The man who brought us the ultimate tough private eye, Mike Hammer, has died at the age of 88. I quite liked Mickey Spillane’s hard-boiled fiction, though goodness knows it never pretended to be Henry James or Proust (and was all the better for it, probably). Bob Bidinotto has a nice article saying farewell to the old fella. Here is a report over at Bloomberg. I am sure Hammer is laughing over a large bourbon somewhere before going out to tangle with treacherous dames and cut down the bad guys.
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4 comments to Mickey Spillane, RIP |
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My Gradparents tell of sharing a townhome with Mickey in Colorado Springs when he served the airforce as a flight instructor during WWII.
He and his wife were considered pillars of the military community and remained active with my Grandfather, Lt. Col William Cowan, in the Air Force retiree functions.
He was a regular guy and a man’s man. RIP and God Bless.
I remember some advice that Spillane gave to any aspiring writing. He said that he wrote the first and last pages of all his books first. Those first pages sold this book. Those last pages sold the next book.
The guy gave a good read and didn’t get bogged down in “literary” considerations. In short, he gave the readers what they wanted, and I can appreciate that. I don’t think Bill Shakespeare did any differently.
I read most of his books and liked them.
RIP.
Spillane, or Proust?
Mickey, by a country mile.