A regular there, he had many longstanding friends who have been portrayed as characters in his books.Ĭrumley died at St. Impressed by Chandler's writing, and that of Ross Macdonald, Crumley began writing his first detective novel, The Wrong Case, which was published in 1975.Ĭrumley served on the English faculty of the University of Montana at Missoula, and as a visiting professor at a number of other colleges, including the University of Arkansas, Colorado State University, the University of Texas at El Paso, Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.įrom the mid-80s on he lived in Missoula, Montana, where he found inspiration for his novels at Charlie B's bar. Crumley finally picked up a copy of one of Chandler's books in Guadalajara, Mexico. His master's thesis was later published as the Vietnam War novel One to Count Cadence in 1969.Ĭrumley had not read any detective fiction until prompted to by Montana poet Richard Hugo, who recommended the work of Raymond Chandler for the quality of his sentences. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the University of Iowa in 1966. He then attended the Texas College of Arts and Industries on a football scholarship, where he received his B.A.

Army from 1958 to 1961 in the Philippines. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology on a Navy ROTC scholarship, but left to serve in the U.S.

Thompson.His book The Last Good Kiss has been described as 'the most influential crime novel of the last 50 years.'Ĭrumley, who was born in Three Rivers, Texas, grew up in south Texas, where his father was an oil-field supervisor and his mother was a waitress.Ĭrumley was a grade-A student and a football player, an offensive lineman, in high school.

He has been described as 'one of modern crime writing's best practitioners', who was 'a patron saint of the post-Vietnam private eye novel'and a cross between Raymond Chandler and Hunter S. He attended the Georgia Institute of Te James Arthur Crumley was the author of violent hardboiled crime novels and several volumes of short stories and essays, as well as published and unpublished screenplays. Crumley was a grade-A student and a football player, an offensive lineman, in high school. Thompson.His book The Last Good Kiss has been described as 'the most influential crime novel of the last 50 years.' Crumley, who was born in Three Rivers, Texas, grew up in south Texas, where his father was an oil-field supervisor and his mother was a waitress.

James Arthur Crumley was the author of violent hardboiled crime novels and several volumes of short stories and essays, as well as published and unpublished screenplays.

The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley