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Donald Edwin Westlake was a noteworthy American author of the science fiction and crime genre. Being born in the year 1933, Westlake died in the year 2008 at the age of 75 after writing hundreds of novels and nonfiction books. Although the crime and science fiction genres were his specialty, he used to write in other genres as well. Westlake has been awarded the Edgar Award three times in his career. He was also one of the three writers to have won this award in three different categories. He was also bestowed with the highest honor of a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in the year 1993. Donald Westalke was born in the Brooklyn, New York and was raised in Albany. He was very fond of writing as a teenager and used to pen down anything that would come to his mind. But his dream of becoming an author was not achieved easily.
Donald Westlake had to face rejections more than 200 times in the beginning. It was after all those struggles that he sold his first story in the year 1954. Westlake joined the Champlain College of Plattsburgh in New York and continued to write and sell several short stories. He later attended the Harpur College in Binghamton and served in the United States Air Force for a period of two years after getting graduated. He became a full time writer after leaving the air force while still searching for a job in a literacy agency. With the hope of getting a job, Westlake moved to New York City in the year 1959. He wrote his first novel under his own name with the title ‘The Mercenaries’. This novel was published in the year 1960. In his career of 48 years as a full time writer, Westlake has written his novels under numerous pseudonyms. He has published his novels and short stories under his own name along with several pseudonyms including Richard Stark, Alan Marshall, James Blue, Ben Christopher, Andrew Shaw, Samuel Holt, Judson Jack Carmichael and a few others as well. Westlake has married three times and his latest marriage was with Abigail Adams, who is a writer of the nonfiction genre. He moved to Ancram along with his newly wedded wife in the year 1990.
Westlake suffered a heart attack in December 2008 and breathed his last breath. He was on a New Year vacation with his wife in Mexico. After his death, Abby Adams has opened Westlake Garden in the memory of Donald Westlake, which is allowed for public viewing during summers. Most of the novels written by Westlake have been set up in New York City. He was well known for his writing style and lively dialogues. Westlake has penned a number of famous characters with lively characteristics. Parker, a hard-boiled criminal and John Dortmunder, a fun flip-side of Parker are a couple of famous characters who feature in most of his novels. Several novels of Westlake have been adapted into motion pictures. Point Blank, Payback, Parker, Bank Shot, etc. are a few well known films adapted from Westlakes novels. Donald Westlake was also a screenwriter, having written the screenplay of films like The Grifters and The Stepfather. He even wrote a teleplay named Fatal Confession. His treatment written for the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies was adapted by many screenwriters for their movies. The following is a description of the first couple of books written by Westlake:
The first crime thriller written by Donald Westlake was ‘The Hunter’ which he wrote in the year 1962. Westlake used the pen name Richard Stark for this novel. The Hunter is a genuine crime thriller revolving around the life of the fictional character named Parker. Parker is a criminal by profession and specializes in armed robbery. He follows a pattern of committing a lucrative heist and enjoys a luxurious life along with his wife Lynn for a few months. He used to continue with his heist of crimes in order to prolong his luxurious life. He gets double crossed on one such heist by Mal Resnick, who convinces Lynn to shoot Parker while in Bed and enjoy the luxurious with him. Parker survives the attack, but gets imprisoned. Lynn moves ahead in life along with Mal. Parker escapes the prison using an identity theft and tracks down Lynn, who is left alone by Mal. She regrets her decision of betraying Parker and commits suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. Parker goes on the trail of Mal Resnick to avenge the his losses. He tracks down Mal and causes monetary losses to him by acquiring full knowledge about his business. He also kills his aids in the process. Finally, Parker decides to have a plastic surgery and change his appearance so as to enjoy the rest of his days peacefully in Florida. The novel was published by ‘Perma Books’ and later served as the basis of the crime thriller movies Point Blank starring Lee Marvin and released in the year 1967 as well as Payback starring Mel Gibson and released in the year 1999. Initially, Westlake wrote the novel as a stand-alone crime novel, but when the publishers asked him to rewrite the end of the novel, Westlake went on to write 23 more novels over the period of 46 years. The novel got re-issued in 2008 by the University of Chicago Press.
The next novel written by Donald Westlake under the pen name of Richard Stark and featuring Parker was named ‘The Man with the Getaway Face’ and was published in the year 1963. The novel was titled ‘The Steel Hit’ in the US. The plot of the second novel continues from the end of the second novel. Parker has surgically altered his appearance and escaped with Mal Resnick’s money. Soon he becomes desperate for money after spending all that he had and decides to join his old associates Handy McKay and Skimm. The group decides to loot and armored car in New Jersey. Parker and Handy realize that Alma, Skimm’s girlfriend is going to betray them. Moreover, one of the employees of Dr. Adler blackmails Parker to reveal his true identity to his enemies. Dr. Adler is the one who had performed the plastic surgery to alter Parker’s appearance. Soon Dr. Adler gets murdered and Parker gets the blame of murdering him. This leaves him in a web of treachery and unpleasant events. He has to again strive hard get himself cleared of all the blame. The novel takes interesting turns to show the ups and downs of Parker’s life. It depicts Parker’s clever mind to get out of every situation. This novel was also re-issued by the Chicago University Press in the year 2008. The cartoonist Darwyn Cooke adapted the novel into a short pamphlet in 2010. The adaptation served as the first chapter of Darwyn’s graphic novel adaptation and was released in the following year.
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3 Responses to “Donald E. Westlake”
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Any issues with the book list you are seeing? Or is there an author or series we don’t have? Let me know!
Thank you for offering the Book Series in Order. I’m homebound and depend on the library delivery service and the Phoenix online service (Kindle) to keep me supplied with books. When I start with a new author, I like to start at the beginning of his or her career.
When I finished the Reacher series, I went to you to find out if the author had other books written in other names.
Years ago my husband and I enjoyed the Donald Westlake Dortmunder series, and I am going to reread them. With the tremendous amount of books released every year, frequently neither the library nor the online carry print copies of older books.
Thank you for offering me a way to research new books and books I’ve loved in the past. The biographies are enjoyable, giving me additional insight.
Thanks to the pandemic, more and more people are turning to books for enjoyment and enlightenment.
I wish you well and hope for substantial profits for you in the future.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write that I truly appreciate it Linda! Cheers 🙂
Under an English Heaven
This is a book that I saw when vacationing on the island of Anguilla. It was not our book, so I never got a chance to read the entire book.
Its sort of fiction, but based on some fact, from what I remember. I will buy it, as I want to read the entire book. Ive friends who live on this island.
Heres a review:
“A non-fiction account of the 1969 British invasion of Anguilla written by a British novelist in 1972.
soualibra | Dec 18, 2020 |
Donald E. Westlake was better known as a crime writer, both humorous (the Dortmunder series) and serious (the Parker series) but here delivers the true story of the supposed revolt of Anguilla against the St Kitts and Nevis government (of which Anguilla was a part of) as high farce.
Obviously “Under an English heaven” is dated but still worth a read as it shows the “invasion” of Anguilla by British Royal Marines, where the Marines found the locals singing “God Save the Queen” and had no intention of rebelling against the British.