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H. CRITICISM, BIOGRAPHY, and BIBLIOGRAPHY: An Annotated List
H1. Binyon, T.J. ‘Murder Will Out’: The Detective in Fiction. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1989: 31.
“ACCOUNTANCY: Again a trick seems to have been missed here. The accountant can come across as much fraudulent activity as the insurance investigator, though he is perhaps less likely to encounter murder. At the same time he can be much more of a free agent. Yet only two authors worth noting have made use of the profession. Both are accountants themselves, and both employ intricacies of income tax or company balance sheets to good effect. David Dodge (b. 1910) uses a Californian accountant, Whit Whitney, in a series of books -- Death and Taxes (1941) is the first ... ” [N.B. Clark Smith (b. 1919) is the other author discussed.]
H2. Brandt, Randal. “Al Colby,” The Thrilling Detective Web Site, June 1999. http://www.thrillingdetective.com/colby.html
H3. ———. “Breakfast with David Dodge,” A Second Helping of Murder: More Diabolically Delicious Recipes from Contemporary Mystery Writers, edited by Jo Grossman and Robert Weibezahl. Scottsdale, Ariz.: Poisoned Pen Press, 2003: 51-52.
Brief biographical sketch,with blurb and excerpt from Bullets for the Bridegroom. [buy this book]
H4. ———. “David Dodge,” [mini-biography] The Internet Movie Database. http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0230196/
H5. ———. “David Dodge (1910-1974),” The Thrilling Detective Web Site, June 1999. http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/dodge.html
H6. ———. “James ‘Whit’ Whitney,” The Thrilling Detective Web Site, June 1999. http://www.thrillingdetective.com/whitney.html
H7. Brandt, Randal, and Maria Brandt. “David Dodge Explores the Curves of the Côte d’Azur,” Mystery Readers Journal [Berkeley, Calif.] 16, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 29-31.
Critical essay discussing Dodge’s use of France as a setting for To Catch a Thief, Angel’s Ransom, and Carambola. Details the recurring use of images of southern France’s geography and the de facto uniform of the French beach -- the bikini. [Read the entire article here]
H8. Bruce, John. “Macondray Lane.” San Francisco Chronicle? (193-?).
Unlocated newspaper article about the Macondray Lane Players.
H9. Butler, Kendal Dodge. Afterword to The Last Match, by David Dodge. New York: Hard Case Crime, 2006: [315]-319.
Biographical sketch by the author’s daughter. [buy this book]
H10. Carroll, Jon. “There Are Strange People Out There,” San Francisco Chronicle (Jan. 16, 1996): B-8.
The article that (practically) started it all. [Also available online]
H11. Cockrell, Cathy. “Sleuthing Out Bay Area Mystery Novels.” Berkeleyan 34, no. 17 (Jan. 17, 2006): 5.
Article about librarian Randal Brandt and his online bibliography of Bay Area crime fiction, Golden Gate Mysteries. Discusses how his interest in David Dodge led to a wider interest in regional mysteries. [Also available online]
H12. Conquest, John. Trouble is Their Business: Private Eyes in Fiction, Film, and Television, 1927-1988. New York: Garland, 1990 (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities; v. 1151): 89-90; 364-365.
“Travel writer Dodge drew on his knowledge of Central and South America for three far-ranging books about Al Colby, a hardboiled, cynical, tough-guy detective-adventurer based in Mexico City. In earlier days, Dodge was an accountant and used this experience for four very different books about Whit Whitney, a tax accountant whom Sandoe counts as a PI because of his reluctant involvement in various murders. Though they have plenty of action and a medium-hardboiled atmosphere, there’s more witty dialogue and cocktails in the screwball comedy style. Both series have fine dialogue, fast pace and sound plotting.”
H13. “David Dodge,” San Francisco Chronicle (Apr. 5, 1999): E-2.
Overview of Randal Brandt’s website A David Dodge Companion (article is part of the Chronicle’s Pagemaster series). [Also available online]
H14. “David Dodge,” Wikipedia [German]. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dodge
Unsigned biographical sketch in German. Includes bibliography with titles of German translations and external link to a search of Dodge books in the catalog of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
H15. “David Dodge Bibliography: US - UK First Edition Books,” Classic Crime Fiction: The Ultimate Crime Fiction Website. http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/david-dodge.htm
H16. “David F. Dodge,” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_F._Dodge
Unsigned biographical sketch written by Randal Brandt. Includes bibliography, filmography, and external links.
H17. DeRosa, Steven. Writing With Hitchcock: The Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes. New York: Faber and Faber, 2001.
Examination of the relationship between director Hitchcock and screenwriter Hayes, who scripted To Catch a Thief (1955). Includes a complete synopsis of David Dodge’s novel and a comparison between the literary version and the screen version. [buy this book]
H18. “Dodge, David (Francis), 1910-,” Contemporary Authors 65-68: 173-174.
Includes bibliography.
H19. “Dodge, David (Francis), Aug. 1910-,” Current Biography Yearbook 1956: 153-155.
Reprinted from Wilson Library Bulletin, Mar. 1956.
H20. Dunn, Adam. “Girls, Guns and Money: A Revival of the Pulp Fiction Paperback Genre,” CNN.com (Nov. 7, 2005).
Article about Hard Case Crime in the Entertainment section. Gives brief plot description of Plunder of the Sun. [Available online]
H21. Gribbin, Lenore S. Who’s Whodunit. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1969 (Library Studies; no. 1): 44.
H22. Grossman, Lev. “Single Malts and Double Crosses: Hard Boiled Books,” Time Magazine 168, no. 14 (October 2, 2006): 69-70.
Article about Hard Case Crime. Features a quote from the opening sentence of The Last Match and a photograph of publisher Charles Ardai. [Also available online]
H23. Hagen, Ordean A. Who Done It?: A Guide to Detective, Mystery and Suspense Fiction. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1969: 121-122.
Includes entries in sections called “The Mystery Novel on the Screen” (To Catch a Thief, p. 464), “Scene of the Crime” (France: Carambola (Cannes) and To Catch a Thief (Riviera) , p. 483); South America: The Long Escape (Chile), Plunder of the Sun (Chile, Peru), and The Red Tassel (Bolivia), p. 493; Yugoslavia: The Lights of Skaro, p. 496), “Heroes, Villains-and Heroines” (Al Colby, p. 515; George MacLeod, p. 549; Lieutenant Webster, p. 583; “Detective” James Whitney, p. 584).
H24. Hamilton, Denise. “A Crime Line of Passion: Charles Ardai Has Gone From Dot-Comming It to Whodunits with Hard Case, a Retro-Style Content Provider,” Los Angeles Times (July 2, 2006): E-5.
Article about Hard Case Crime in the Calendar section of the Sunday edition of the L.A. Times. Discusses the origin of the manuscript for The Last Match: “Author David Dodge is most famous for ‘To Catch a Thief,’ but Ardai published his posthumous novel, ‘The Last Match,’ after a UC Berkeley librarian found an unpublished manuscript among his papers, typed it into the computer and sent it to Hard Case.”
H25. “Hard Case Crime: Must Retro Publisher,” Entertainment Weekly #884/885 (June 30/July 7, 2006): 117.
Article about Hard Case Crime in the Books section of the 2006 Summer Double Issue (#81 in the “Must List” of 113 people and things “we love right now”). Hard Case publisher Charles Ardai discusses The Last Match: “Fortunately, [Ardai] believes he has found [another book as exciting at Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid]: The Last Match, a ‘lost novel’ by David Dodge, ‘the guy who wrote the source book for Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief. He died in 1974, and we found this terrific, tough little novel among his papers.’” [Also available online]
H26. Harrison, Alan. Little Theatres. San Francisco: Works Progress Administration, 1940 (San Francisco Theatre Research 12).
Includes a history of the Macondray Lane Players.
H27. Haycraft, Howard. “The Whodunit in World War II,” Murder Cavalcade: An Anthology, by Mystery Writers of America, Inc. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946: 422-430.
Article examining detective fiction published during the war years. Reprinted from the New York Times Book Review, August 12, 1945. “But if the martial years have produced few mystery landmarks (in the sense that the first stories of Dorothy Sayers and S.S. Van Dine and Francis Iles and Dashiell Hammett are hallowed ground to the true whodunit addict) there has been no dearth of competent and entertaining new blood (no pun intended). No span of years can be called sterile which introduced, in America alone, such capable or better newcomers (in approximate order of their appearance) as Raymond Chandler, A.A. Fair, Craig Rice, Hugh Pentecost, Dorothy B. Hughes, Cornell Woolrich, the Lockridges, Elliot Paul, Marion Randolph, Cleve Adams, Lawrence Treat, Frank Gruber, Elizabeth Daly, Barber and Schabelitz, David Keith, Frances Crane, David Dodge, H.R. Steeves, Virginia Perdue, F.W. Bronson, Mitchell Wilson, Katherine Roberts, Mary Collins, Richard Sale, William Irish, Vera Caspary, H.R. Hays, Margaret Millar, A.R. Hilliard, Stanley Hopkins Jr., Lucy Cores, Ruth Fenisong, C.W. Grafton, Margaret Carpenter, Matthew Head, Samuel Rogers, Doris Miles Disney, Hilda Lawrence, H.W. Roden, Bruno Fischer, Rosemary Kutak, Joel Townsley Rogers—to name only those who come first to mind.”
H28. Herman, Linda, and Beth Stiel. Corpus Delicti of Mystery Fiction: A Guide to the Body of the Case. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1974: 131.
“Not only a great Hitchcock movie, but very fine reading.” Entry for To Catch a Thief under “Important Additional Titles.”
H29. Herron, Don. “Collecting San Francisco Mysteries.” Don Herron’s Official Website. http://www.donherron.com/collect_sanfran_mysteries.html.
Online version of the author’s 1981 article. Relates the story of Herron’s discovery of David Dodge and includes discussions of Death and Taxes, Shear the Black Sheep, Bullets for the Bridegroom, and It Ain’t Hay.
H30. ———. The Literary World of San Francisco & Its Environs. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1985: 99, 157.
“David Dodge lived here [121 19th Avenue] in the 1940s. He had worked as an accountant for McLaren, Goode and Company in the Financial District, but rose quickly to literary fame by creating one of the best detective series set in San Francisco, four novels featuring James Whitney, a hard-boiled Certified Public Accountant. The series began with Death and Taxes in 1941, a fast funny book along the lines of Hammett’s The Thin Man ...”
H31. ———. “Murder in the City: San Francisco Mysteries.” Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine, 12, no. 4 (Apr. 2002): 28-35.
An update, revision, and expansion of the author’s 1981 article. Relates the story of Herron’s discovery of David Dodge and includes discussions of Death and Taxes, Shear the Black Sheep, Bullets for the Bridegroom, and It Ain’t Hay. [buy this issue]
H32. ———. “San Francisco Mysteries.” Mystery, 3, no. 2 (Sept. 1981): 6-12, 57-59.
Article examines mystery and detective novels set in San Francisco. Relates the story of Herron’s discovery of David Dodge and includes discussion of It Ain’t Hay. Includes a 236-title checklist of San Francisco mysteries (“If I hadn’t had the wind knocked out of me by David Dodge’s cousin, I might get a little cocky now and claim this checklist is definitive. But I won’t play the sap again.”).
H33. ———. “San Francisco Mysteries.” The Argonaut: Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society, 4, no. 1 (Summer 1993): 6-12.
Revision of the author’s 1981 article. Relates the story of Herron’s discovery of David Dodge and includes discussion of It Ain’t Hay.
H34. Hubin, Allen J. Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography. New York: Garland, 1984: 119.
Includes entries under title, settings, and series indexes.
H35. ———. 1981-1985 Supplement to Crime Fiction, 1749-1980. New York: Garland, 1988: 32.
Entries for film versions of Plunder of the Sun and To Catch a Thief.
H36. ———. Crime Fiction III: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1749-1995. Oakland, Calif.: Locus Press, 2001 (CD-ROM).
Revision of Hubin’s earlier bibliographies, with similar categories -- hyperlinked for easy navigation of cross-references.
H37. ———. Crime Fiction IV: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1749-2000. Oakland, Calif.: Locus Press, 2005 (CD-ROM).
The last revised edition of Hubin’s monumental bibliography.
H38. Keating, H.R.F. Whodunit? : A Guide to Crime, Suspense and Spy Fiction. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982: 151.
“One of the exceptional suspense novelists of the forties and fifties, David Dodge may have deserted the mystery because of the equally exceptional success of his global travel books. His Poor Man’s and Rich Man’s guides to travel have been best sellers for many years. His first mystery was Death and Taxes (1941) and his first travel book the classic How Green Was My Father (1947). Dodge had literary style as well as being a fine story teller.”
H39. Landrum, Larry. American Mystery and Detective Novels: A Reference Guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999 (American Popular Culture): 141
“David Dodge wrote over a dozen mystery novels, many set in South and Central America, involving several series characters. Death and Taxes (1941) and four other [sic] novels featured a witty couple in the manner of the Charleses and the Norths. He also wrote the highly successful To Catch a Thief (1952). A series featuring John Abraham Lincoln began with Hooligan (1970).” [buy this book]
H40. Maddox, Jane. “David Dodge,” Wilson Library Bulletin 30, no. 7 (Mar. 1956): 494.
“David Dodge should be a happy man. He likes to travel and live abroad, and has found the ideal occupation to make this possible--free lance writing .... Dodge stands 6’ 1” tall, weighs 190 pounds, has hazel eyes and brown hair. He is tri-lingual, speaking French and Spanish as well as English. He is a Democrat. His recreations include guitar-playing, tennis, reading, and ‘always travel.’ ... He is also a prolific magazine writer. When at home, Dodge lives in Princeton, New Jersey, where his wife works with him as amanuensis.”
H41. McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. New York: ReganBooks, 2003: 490-496.
As part of the discussion of the film version of To Catch a Thief includes a description of Dodge’s novel. Also includes descriptions adapted from The Rich Man’s Guide to the Riviera. [buy this book]
H42. “McMillan [sic] to publish book on Mexico.” The News (Mexico, D.F.) (Mar. 29, 1967).
Announcement of publication of Fly Down, Drive Mexico (with photograph).
H43. Melendez, Albert J. The Subject is Murder: A Selective Subject Guide to Mystery Fiction. [Volume 1]. New York: Garland, 1986 (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities; v. 627): 72; 283.
Entries for Angel’s Ransom in the “Murder on the High Seas” category, and, inexplicably, The Lights of Skaro in the “Who Am I?: Amnesia and Murder” category.
H44. ———. The Subject is Murder: A Selective Subject Guide to Mystery Fiction. Volume 2. New York: Garland, 1990 (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities; v. 627): 159.
Entry for Bullets for the Bridegroom in the “Weddings and Honeymoons” category.
H45. Mesplède, Claude. Les années “Série Noire.” Tome 1, 1945-1959: bibliographie critique d’une collection policière. 2e éd. Amiens: Encrage Édition, 1995.
Includes plot summaries and publishing dates for Série Noire translations (Cf. p. 53, Trois Tondus et un Pelé [Shear the Black Sheep]; p. 58, Le Temps des Gros Sous [Death and Taxes]; p. 114, Le Calumet de la Guerre [It Ain’t Hay]; p. 231, La Rançon de l’Ange [Angel’s Ransom]).
H46. Mesplède, Claude, and Jean-Jacques Schleret. Les auteurs de la Série Noire, 1945-1995. Nantes: Joseph K., 1996: 143-144.
Includes biographical entry on Dodge and a list of his works published in translation as part of Série Noire, and other selected French translations; also includes entry for the television adaptation of Angel’s Ransom (p. 538). Also includes a complete list of series titles.
H47. ———. SN, Voyage au bout de la Noire: inventaire de 732 auteurs et de leurs oeuvres publiés en Séries Noire et Blème, suivi d’une filmographie complète. Paris: Futuropolis, 1982: 113-114.
Includes biographical entry on Dodge and a list of his works published in translation as part of Série Noire; also includes entry for the television adaptation of Angel’s Ransom (p. 427).
H48. Pearsall, Jay. Mystery and Crime : The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995: 90.
“Q: Didn’t the author of To Catch a Thief (1952) start out writing mysteries about a tax accountant?
A: Yes. David Dodge’s first four books featured Whit Whitney, a tax accountant and reluctant investigator. The first in the series is Death and Taxes (1941), and all four are in the screwball style of Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man (1934).”
H49. Sandoe, James. The Hard-Boiled Dick: A Personal Check-list. Chicago: Arthur Lovell, 1952: 3.
H50. Scott, Art. “Dodge, David (Francis),” Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers. 3rd ed. Chicago: St. James Press, 1991: 326-327. [Includes a comprehensive bibliography]
“Prior to becoming a writer, David Dodge was an accountant and he drew on this background in creating his first series character, Whit Whitney, a tax accountant and unwilling investigator of assorted murders. The first Whitney novel, Death and Taxes, is very much in the tradition of the screwball comedy mystery style which began with Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man and reached an apex in the Bill Crane novels of Jonathan Latimer. There is a good bit of action and a medium-hard-boiled atmosphere, but the focus is on sharp, witty dialogue, with much attendant consumption of cocktails. Whitney is a likable, generally bemused hero, not particularly happy with having to solve murders, but not lacking in brains and courage when called for. Kitty MacLeod, Whitney’s girlfriend (and later his wife), plays the Nora Charles role to Whit’s Nick in fine fashion. The four Whitney novels are consistently well-crafted and entertaining examples of the screwball style.
Dodge became a world traveler, and began a second career as a writer of humorous travel books. He dropped the Whitney series and thereafter drew on his familiarity with exotic locales for his later books. The Côte d’Azur is the setting for both Angel’s Ransom, a crackling suspense yarn involving the kidnapping of the kept woman [sic] of a rich American wastrel, and To Catch a Thief, Dodge’s best-known book, which Hitchcock made into a memorable movie with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
Central and South America was Dodge’s favorite locale, and the scenery figures prominently in the three continent-spanning adventures of Al Colby, a hard-boiled private investigator based in Mexico City. In contrast to Whitney, Colby is a cynical tough-guy detective-adventurer; the light touch of the Whitney novels is consequently absent in the Colby novels, but the crisp dialogue, fast pace, and thoroughly professional plotting are not.”
H51. Scott, Tom. “San Miguel de Allende: Echoes from the Plaza,” Mexico City News (Mar. 20, 1970).
“David and his wife Elva live in a cheerful and colorful San Miguel home that is part Mexican, part American, and entirely Dodge ... Elva Dodge agrees that she is the only person on earth who can decipher her husband’s illegible writing and mysterious shorthand. ‘If anything happens to me,’ she says, ‘he will have to sell shoes.’”
H52. Smiley, Robin H. “Nothing is Certain: Collecting David Dodge.” Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine, 12, no. 4 (Apr. 2002): 36-49.
Overview of Dodge’s career from a book collector’s point-of-view. Includes discussions and illustrations of every Dodge book and “David Dodge: An Informal Checklist,” a checklist of Dodge first editions (with price estimates for copies in collector’s condition). “NOTE: The website www.david-dodge.com is an excellent source of information, one of the few websites dedicated to an author that is worthy of its subject (p. 49).” [buy this issue]
H53. ———. “To Catch a Thief (Books Into Film).” Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine, 12, no. 4 (Apr. 2002): 61-62.
Comparison of the film and literary versions of To Catch a Thief. “The largest, and most unexpected, flaw in To Catch a Thief is that there is more wit than mystery in the film. The middle third of the picture seems to ignore the plot altogether. It seems ironic that David Dodge, best known as a travel writer, generates much more suspense in his novel than Hitchcock, the ‘Master of Suspense,’ does in his film (p. 62).” [buy this issue]
H54. Stevenson, W.B., comp. Detective Fiction. Published for the National Book League at the University Press, Cambridge, 1958 (Reader’s Guides, 3rd series): 17.
“An author who writes detective stories and thrillers, and is successful in both. His detective James Whitney, a public accountant, is tough and unscrupulous.” Entry for Bullets for the Bridegroom in section called “The Moderns,” which “includes those authors writing today from whom the reader may expect certain standards of logic, literacy, good plotting and characterisation. Their names have been chosen to exhibit the variety, freshness and vitality of modern detection (p. 9).”
H55. Williams, Wilda W. “Dark is the New Cozy,” LibraryJournal.com (Apr. 1, 2006).
Article about recent trends in crime and mystery fiction. Features a discussion of Hard Case Crime and mentions The Last Match, “a newly discovered unpublished novel from the late author of It Takes a Thief [sic!].” [Available online]
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