Relax. You ain't a number, but you are visitor since April 2, 1997.

-- The Criminal, 1953.

Born September 27, 1906, James Meyer Thompson grew up in Oklahoma to become one of the finest pulp novelists of The Cold War era. His life during the Depression and his up and down family history of working the wildcat oil fields of Texas seeped into Jim's dirt-under-the-nails writing as he created characters at displaying both brutality and empathy.

Thompson began his career as a more "traditional" writer, publishing his first two novels, Now and on Earth and Heed the Thunder as hardbacks. After these books failed to find wide audiences, Thompson found his voice in crime fiction, grinding out hellish tales for paperback mills such as Lion Books and Gold Medal. While on the surface indistinguishable from the rest of their kin, those who dropped a quarter on one of Thompson's novels were exposed to a vision of the world as seen through Thompson's eyes; much of it ugly, little of it good, where redemption goes for a premium and an unnerving honesty to oneself pervades.

Thompson's best known novel is The Killer Inside Me, the story of a doomed smalltown sheriff unable to control his bloodlust as circumstances force him to kill and kill again. Other notable books include Savage Night, The Getaway, and his often-overlooked novella masterpiece, The Criminal.

In the mid-fifties, Thompson began walking the long rough road to Hollywood. He worked with a young Stanley Kubrick on screenplays for two of the director's earliest films, The Killing (w/Sterling Hayden, from the novel Clean Break by Lionel White) and Paths of Glory (w/Kirk Douglas). What would seem a promising start never materialized, and Thompson's screen fortunes took a downward turn after that, and he spent the rest of his career writing unproduced screenplays and teleplays for low-rent television programs like Convoy and MacKenzie's Raiders.

Like jazz and Jerry Lewis, Thompson's writings found a life in France. Besides translating several of his novels, two films, Coup du Torchon (based on Pop. 1280) and Serie Noire (A Hell of a Woman), were made to much acclaim by French filmmakers.

A good number of Thompson's works have been put on screen by American filmmakers with varying degrees of success. These include The Getaway (twice, three times if you include the first half of the Rodriguez/Tarantino B-movie rave-up From Dusk 'til Dawn), The Grifters (nominated for four Oscars),and After Dark, My Sweet. The latest, This World, Then the Fireworks (w/ Billy Zane and Gina Gershon), was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 to a positive audience.

Two biographies of Thompson have been published. The first, Sleep With the Devil, by Michael McCauley, was published in 1991. Savage Art: a Biography of Jim Thompson by Robert Polito, was published by Knopf in 1995. Polito's book won both the Edgar and National Book Critics Circle awards.

Thompson died on April 7, 1977, and had his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean. As he had predicted, Thompson did not live to enjoy his own success.

-- Savage Night, 1953.

This site offers whatever links I can find about Thompson on the net. Sadly, that ain't much, but there are a couple of nuggets, and the number of pages devoted to Thompson have been growing in number and quality. A biblography is available, complete with a selection of cover art supplied by George Chastain (thanks for everything, G.C.) A partial list of Thompson's screenwriting ventures and films based on his work is also available from The Internet Movie Database.

Sites discussing the films This World... and The Getaway are here, and several informative reviews of Polito's biography have been linked to as well. As a bit of trivia, I've keyed in the lyrics to "Killer Inside Me" by MC 900 Ft. Jesus. The song accurately portrays the mind of the novel's damned protagonist, Lou Ford (the rest of the album's pretty good, too, if you like that trippy Acid Jazz sort of thing).

The jewel in the crown must be the link to "A Car in The Mexican Quarter," a story written by Thompson himself. If you would like to read more hard boiled, original fiction, a link to the Pulp Fiction (the genre, not the movie) site is provided on my a page of interesting and reciprocal links.

Like most labors of love, this site is far from complete or perfection. If you have any new information, or want to swap links, drop me a line.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leslie