Craig Rice (author)


Craig Rice was an American author of mystery novels and short stories, sometimes described as "the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction." She was the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time Magazine, on January 28, 1946.

Early life

In 1908, Mary Randolph Craig reluctantly interrupted her globetrotting to return home to Chicago to give birth to her first child, Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig. Mary's husband, Harry Craig, a Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, native, was nicknamed Bosco. Soon after Georgiana's birth, Mary abandoned the child to return to her husband overseas, leaving Georgiana to travel from relative to relative. They returned in 1911 to meet their three-year-old daughter but then departed for Europe again, moving on to India when the war broke out. At that time, Georgiana found a permanent home in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, where she lived with her paternal aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Elton Rice, at 607 South Main St. The Rices raised Georgiana. Elton Rice has been credited with stirring her interest in mysteries by reading her the poems and stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

Writing career

Craig Rice’s first steps in publishing were as a writer for The Milwaukee Journal and The Chicago American. In 1930-31 she started working for radio stations, first WCLO and then the Beacon Syndicate in 1931. Her first fictional character, Professor Silvernail, was created for WCLO Syndicate Serials. For a number of years she tried unsuccessfully to write novels, poetry and music, but it was not until her first story of John J. Malone, which she published under her birth surname and adopted surname Craig Rice, that she enjoyed some hard-won success."
Gritty but humorous, Rice's stories uniquely combine the hard-boiled detective tradition with no-holds-barred, screwball comedy. Most of her output features a memorable trio of protagonists: Jake Justus, a handsome but none-too-bright press agent with his heart in the right place; Helene Brand, a rich heiress and hard-drinking party animal par excellence ; and John Joseph Malone, a hard-drinking small-time lawyer. Against the odds and often apparently more by luck than skill, these three manage to solve crimes whose details are often burlesque and surreal, sometimes to the point of Grand Guignol, and all involving the perpetually exasperated Captain Daniel Von Flanagan of the Homicide Squad. A few stories feature the team of Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak, small-time grifters who become involved in criminal situations and have to dig themselves free by solving the mystery.
Craig Rice also ghostwrote for George Sanders. Because of their friendship, many fans assumed that Rice ghostwrote the two wildly popular mysteries by Gypsy Rose Lee. "While the collaboration with Gypsy is often reported," J.F. Norris writes, "in the recently published and thoroughly well researched biography of Gypsy Rose Lee that Craig Rice DID NOT write either of Lee's comic mystery novels. This is supported with correspondence between Lee and Rice. Rice did, however, help craft the screenplay for The G String Murders which became the Barbara Stanwyck vehicle Lady of Burlesque." Her association with Sanders came about as a result of her work on the screenplays of two of The Falcon movies, The Falcon's Brother and The Falcon in Danger.
She collaborated with fellow mystery writer Stuart Palmer on screenplays and short stories and with Ed McBain on a novel for which she furnished the principal characters, Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak.

''Time Magazine''

On January 28, 1946, Craig Rice appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, the first female author ever to do so. The cover was created by Boris Artzybasheff.

Personal life

She had three children, two daughters and a son. "Craig Rice kept very few personal records. She was conventionally wed four times with other affairs." One of her husbands was beat poet Lawrence Lipton.
Like many of her characters, Rice was an alcoholic and made several suicide attempts. She also suffered from deteriorating health, including deafness in one ear and blindness in one eye with incipient glaucoma in the other. She died of a barbiturate and alcohol overdose, aged 49.

Novels and short story collections

John J. Malone and Jake and Helene Justus

Note

Films

The Amazing Mr. Malone 30-minute episodes, 1948, 1951. John J. Malone was played principally by Gene Raymond and also by Frank Lovejoy and George Petrie.

Television

The Amazing Mr. Malone
13 30-minute episodes starring Lee Tracy as John J. Malone.
"Although The Amazing Mr. Malone ran for only one season on ABC from September 1951 to March 1952 it is fondly remembered by older viewers as the first crime series to feature a wise-cracking relationship between a Chicago lawyer and a police Captain... which had originated in print, transferred successfully to the cinema, and then made it to TV—though not with the success it had enjoyed in the other two media.... All in all, The Amazing Mr. Malone deserved a better fate than the one to which it was condemned by poor ratings."