Guest FFB: Barry Malzberg and Charles Ardai on the last published Cornell Woolrich novel, as completed by Lawrence Block: INTO THE NIGHT

 From discussion lists, with permission:

Barry N. Malzberg:

The Woolrich novel which Lee Wright [who edited crime fiction for Random House and Simon & Schuster, as well as editing various anthologies before taking on her long-term publisher's editor gigs--TM] told me had been everywhere and rejected similarly was complete with a missing final chapter. I read the manuscript; it was okay with that gap...the missing chapter I suspect was actually written and dumped _or_ Woolrich thought better of it. Turned on an incestuous relationship with the dark lady revealed. I told Cornell how I thought it could be fixed (be explicit with the terrible final revelation) but he was in no condition to do that. After his death I volunteered to finish the novel, put the plea to Scott Meredith who with astonishing courtesy heard me out but decided that I was at that point utterly unknown. The Estate (Chase Manhattan Bank) recruited Larry Block to finish the novel. I could hardly be resentful; am grateful six decades on not to have been entangled.

As Woolrich's last agent (at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency) in his last terrible year and a half I tried to sell the novel stet to Lee Wright who said to me, "Dear, you're very new and don't know so I will tell you that Cornell has gone down a long, long way and everybody in NYC has seen and rejected this novel."

I should post this on Rara-Avis which cabal (with overlap here) would probably have even more interest but will leave it to our gang who are authorized to post it anywhere.

Charles Ardai, writer, editor, and publisher of the Hard Case Crime line:

Thanks, Barry, for that extra history, of much which I was unaware. The version of the manuscript Larry received for completion decades ago was also missing much of the first chapter (as well as the ending), as well as a handful of pages in the body of the book, so he filled in two big gaps (front and back) and bits and pieces throughout.

The opening that Larry crafted has always struck me as some of his best writing and wholly in keeping with Woolrich's view of life and the rest of the manuscript. Not an easy thing to write the beginning of an otherwise extant novel and have it tie seamlessly in to the rest, not just stylistically but in terms of everything that needs to be planted for reveals later to work properly, etc.

The ending (which was suggested by the last remaining pages Woolrich wrote) never entirely satisfied either Larry or me (or Mike [Francis M.] Nevins, who wrote the book's original afterword), because it imposed an 11th-hour happy resolution on material that was deeply and irreparably unhappy. So when Larry suggested that Hard Case Crime might bring the book out again, for the first time in 35+ years, part of the appeal was the opportunity to give it the proper, bleak Woolrich-ian ending it deserved (while being tinged, however horrifically, with romantic longing). That new ending, while it only alters the book's last few pages, I think goes a decent way to making the entire book a good deal stronger.

While we were in there tinkering, I also took the opportunity to fix up some errors that went uncaught the first time around -- for instance, Woolrich had the femme fatale see a photo of the dead woman's husband in the first chapter but then the plot of the final section hinged entirely on her not knowing what the husband looks like! That needed to be corrected, and a handful of other things needed some tweaks as well. It's not more editing than the book would have received (or should have) if it had sold when Woolrich was alive. And again, I feel it makes the book significantly stronger.

Is it the best he ever wrote? No. But I do feel it deserves to be in print, and at its best I feel it's a potent distillation of his themes and obsessions. 

And, Barry again, in response to a request about Barry's writing about Woolrich:

Thanks for your note. Maxim Jakubowski's Black is the Night (Titan 2022) is a "tribute anthology" published by the Titan division of Penguin/Random House, to which a lot of very good writers contributed pastiche or Woolrich-influenced fictions. It's outstanding and I was relieved to get a 1200 word vignette there after the deadline, Jakubowski being very receptive. There's a short-short story, "biographic pastiche" if you will, "Cornell", in the 4/72 Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, there is the openly influenced "The Interceptor" in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine for August 1972 and included Allen J. Hubin's Best Detective Stories of the Year annual (1973 volume), there is a profile in The Engines of the Night. 

My daughter (born 9/16/70) is "Erika Cornell"...

First edition: 1987

Text copyright 2023 by Barry N. Malzberg and Charles Ardai