James Ellroy (b.1948,) fully Lee Earle Ellroy, is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. He is well known for his crime and detective novels that examine sinister eras of modern American history, especially police corruption in Los Angeles in the 1940s.
Ellroy was born in Los Angeles. In 1958, his mother was murdered in a case that remains unsolved. As a young man, during more than a decade of petty crimes and sporadic homelessness, he spent much time reading in public libraries.
In 1979, Ellroy began his first novel, Brown’s Requiem (1981.) It was followed by several crime novels throughout the 1980s. The Black Dahlia (1987,) based on a case similar to his mother’s murder, was hailed as a tour de force; it was followed by three further novels, The Big Nowhere (1988,) L.A. Confidential (1990; film, 1997,) and White Jazz (1992,) together constituting the ‘LA Quartet.’
Ellroy’s most recent trilogy, which includes American Tabloid (1995) and The Cold Six Thousand (2001,) concerns politics and racism in American history.
Ellroy’s memoirs are My Dark Places (1996) and The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women (2010.)
Source: Wikipedia (via CC-BY-SA license) • READ: Works by James Ellroy
I like to be alone so I can write. But focus can hurt you. I don’t want to be some stress casualty in early middle age.
—James Ellroy
Topics: Stress
I am conservative by temperament. I disapprove of criminal activity. I am very solidly and markedly on the side of authority. The truth is I would rather err on the side of too much authority than too little.
—James Ellroy
The 1950s to me is darkness, hidden history, perversion behind most doors waiting to creep out. The 1950s to most people is kitsch and Mickey Mouse watches and all this intolerable stuff…
—James Ellroy
Topics: Twentieth Century, Gratitude