Blues of a Lifetime: The Autobiography of Cornell Woolrich

Rating:
Summary: A must for all lovers of Cornell Woolrich
Review: This book really gives you an interesting insight into the mind of Cornell Woolrich. I loved it and recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about him.

Rating:
Summary: Even in his last years, Woolrich could work his magic
Review: This collection of supposed vignettes into Cornell Woolrich's life shows that, even in the last years of his life, he was able to work his word magic.

As noted by Francis M. Nevins Jr. in his biography of Woolrich, "First You Dream, Then You Die", Woolrich liked to tell different stories about his early life with little regard to consistency with the known facts or with other stories that he told. There isn't enough known about Woolrich to be able to say with certainty that these stories are or are not true, but it does not matter because they are fascinating nonetheless, and can stand with the best of his stories. Although they cannot, for the most part, be classified as belonging to his chosen field of mystery/suspense, they share many of the elements of his best work: vivid pictures of "everyday life", finding and telling the stories in ordinary situations, and a knack for making you feel for and with the characters.

While it is a fairly minor point, I found the introductory essay by Mark Bassett a bit annoying in the way that it contains bibliographical references that are i) in a different format than the actual bibliography; and ii) cannot be matched to any bibliographical entry in many cases. I had the sense that this essay was trimmed down or excerpted from a longer essay (possiby a thesis, given the publisher?), but not carefully editted.

In spite of that minor complaint, we should all be thankful to Mark Bassett for bringing these Woolrich tales to print.