Otto Penzler on Merits of Mystery,
Pulp Fiction and Purple Prose
By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG
Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2007
Otto Penzler has been busy lately. In addition to running his lower Manhattan bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, he recently oversaw the publication of five books. These include "The Best American Crime Reporting;" "The Best American Mystery Stories 2007;" "Dead Man's Hand: Crime Fiction at the Poker Table;" and "The Vicious Circle: Mystery and Crime Stories by Members of the Algonquin Round Table."
The biggest hit, literally and figuratively, is "The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps," a 1,150-page collection of crime tales from such authors as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Cornell Woolrich. Bertelsmann AG's Vintage Books says there are now 32,000 copies in print, up from 20,000 when the title hit bookshelves on Nov. 6.
Mr. Penzler, 65 years old, has been a part of the literary scene since he started the Mysterious Press in 1975. That imprint published limited editions of such authors as Ross Macdonald, Stephen King and Ellery Queen. Mr. Penzler sold it in 1989 to what is today Lagardère SCA's Grand Central Publishing imprint. Mr. Penzler, who oversees the Otto Penzler Books imprint for Harcourt, was interviewed by phone by The Wall Street Journal's Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg.
The Wall Street Journal Online: Why mysteries?
Otto Penzler
Otto Penzler: First, I think most people are conservative. I don't mean politically conservative, but they like to be comfortable, to feel secure. In a mystery story, the social fabric — and this is most true for detective stories — has been torn apart in the form of a murder or a violent crime or a robbery. The detective, be he amateur, a private investigator, or a member of the police, comes along and restores that order by catching the bad guy. I think this desire is subliminal, by the way.
The other reason, and perhaps more vital, is that since cavemen, we like stories. Real stories. A good story has a beginning, middle and end. Mysteries have that.
There are very few real stories being written any more. The New Yorker for example, tends to publish stories that are slices of life. The prose is beautiful. But they aren't complete stories, they are part of a story. We find mysteries more fulfilling.
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