Margaret Millar
Encyclopedia
Margaret Ellis Millar (née Sturm) (February 5, 1915 - March 26, 1994) was an American
-Canadian mystery
and suspense writer.
Born in Kitchener
, Ontario
, she was educated there and in Toronto
. She moved to the United States
after marrying Kenneth Millar (better known under the pen name Ross Macdonald
). They resided for decades in the city of Santa Barbara, which was often utilized as a locale in her later novels under the pseudonyms of San Felice or Santa Felicia. The Millars had a daughter who died in 1970.
Millar often delivers effective and ingenious "surprise endings," but the details that would allow the solution of the surprise have usually been subtly included, in the best genre tradition. One of the distinctions of her books, however, is that they would be interesting, even if you knew how they were going to end, because they are every bit as much about subtleties of human interaction and rich psychological detail of individual characters as they are about the plot.
Millar was a pioneer in writing intelligently about the psychology of women. Even as early as the '40s and '50s, her books have a very mature and matter-of-fact view of class distinctions, sexual freedom and frustration, and the ambivalence of moral codes depending on a character's economic circumstances. Her earliest novels seem unusually frank. Read against the backdrop of Production Code-era movies of the time, they remind us that life as lived in the '40s and '50s was not as black-and-white morally as Hollywood would have us believe.
Many websites cite her as working as a screenwriter for Warner Brothers just after World War II
, but no further details are given as to what she may have worked on, even on imdb.com. Around that time, Warners bought the option on her novel The Iron Gates, with its chilling portrait of a woman descending into madness, but reportedly Bette Davis
and other prominent Warner Brothers actresses ultimately turned it down because the memorable protagonist is missing for the last third of the story. The film was never produced. In the early '60s, two of her novels (Beast in View
and Rose's Last Summer) were adapted for the anthology TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Thriller.
While she was not known for any one recurring detective (unlike her husband, whose constant gumshoe was Lew Archer), she occasionally used a detective character for more than one novel. Among her occasional ongoing sleuths were Canadians Dr. Paul Prye (her first invention, in the earliest books) and Inspector Sands (a quiet, unassuming Canadian police inspector who might be the most endearing of her recurring inventions). In the California years, a few books featured either Joe Quinn, a rather down-on-his-luck private eye, or Tom Aragorn, a young, Hispanic
lawyer
.
Sadly, most of Millar's books are out of print in America, with the exception of the short story collection The Couple Next Door and two novels, "An Air That Kills" and "Do Evil In Return", that have been re-issued as classics by Stark House Press in California.
.
In 1983 she was awarded the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America
in recognition of her lifetime achievements.
In 1987, critic and mystery writer H.R.F Keating included Millar's Beast In View in his Crime & Mystery: The 100 Best Books. He wrote:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-Canadian mystery
Mystery fiction
Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...
and suspense writer.
Born in Kitchener
Kitchener, Ontario
The City of Kitchener is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, she was educated there and in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. She moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
after marrying Kenneth Millar (better known under the pen name Ross Macdonald
Ross Macdonald
Not to be confused with John D. MacDonaldRoss Macdonald is the pseudonym of the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar...
). They resided for decades in the city of Santa Barbara, which was often utilized as a locale in her later novels under the pseudonyms of San Felice or Santa Felicia. The Millars had a daughter who died in 1970.
Styles and themes
Millar's books are distinguished by sophistication of characterization. Often we are shown the rather complex interior lives of the people in her books, with issues of class, insecurity, failed ambitions, loneliness or existential isolation or paranoia often being explored with an almost literary quality that transcends the mystery genre. Unusual people, mild societal misfits or people who don't quite fit into their surroundings are given much interior detail. In some of the books (for example in The Iron Gates) we are given chilling and fascinating insight into what it feels like to be losing touch with reality and evolving into madness. In general, she is a writer of both expressive description and yet admirable economy, often ambitious in the sociological underpinnings of the stories and the quality of the writing.Millar often delivers effective and ingenious "surprise endings," but the details that would allow the solution of the surprise have usually been subtly included, in the best genre tradition. One of the distinctions of her books, however, is that they would be interesting, even if you knew how they were going to end, because they are every bit as much about subtleties of human interaction and rich psychological detail of individual characters as they are about the plot.
Millar was a pioneer in writing intelligently about the psychology of women. Even as early as the '40s and '50s, her books have a very mature and matter-of-fact view of class distinctions, sexual freedom and frustration, and the ambivalence of moral codes depending on a character's economic circumstances. Her earliest novels seem unusually frank. Read against the backdrop of Production Code-era movies of the time, they remind us that life as lived in the '40s and '50s was not as black-and-white morally as Hollywood would have us believe.
Many websites cite her as working as a screenwriter for Warner Brothers just after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but no further details are given as to what she may have worked on, even on imdb.com. Around that time, Warners bought the option on her novel The Iron Gates, with its chilling portrait of a woman descending into madness, but reportedly Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
and other prominent Warner Brothers actresses ultimately turned it down because the memorable protagonist is missing for the last third of the story. The film was never produced. In the early '60s, two of her novels (Beast in View
Beast in View
Beast in View is a suspense novel and psychological thriller by Margaret Millar that won the Edgar Award in 1956 and was later adapted for an episode of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1964. It also made the list of The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time that was issued in 1995 by...
and Rose's Last Summer) were adapted for the anthology TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Thriller.
While she was not known for any one recurring detective (unlike her husband, whose constant gumshoe was Lew Archer), she occasionally used a detective character for more than one novel. Among her occasional ongoing sleuths were Canadians Dr. Paul Prye (her first invention, in the earliest books) and Inspector Sands (a quiet, unassuming Canadian police inspector who might be the most endearing of her recurring inventions). In the California years, a few books featured either Joe Quinn, a rather down-on-his-luck private eye, or Tom Aragorn, a young, Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
.
Sadly, most of Millar's books are out of print in America, with the exception of the short story collection The Couple Next Door and two novels, "An Air That Kills" and "Do Evil In Return", that have been re-issued as classics by Stark House Press in California.
Awards and recognition
In 1956 Millar won the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, Best Novel award for Beast in View. In 1965 she was awarded the Woman of the Year Award by the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
.
In 1983 she was awarded the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
in recognition of her lifetime achievements.
In 1987, critic and mystery writer H.R.F Keating included Millar's Beast In View in his Crime & Mystery: The 100 Best Books. He wrote:
"Margaret Millar is surely one of late twentieth-century crime fiction's best writers, in the sense that the actual writing in her books, the prose, is of superb quality. On almost every page of this one there is some description, whether of a physical thing or a mental state, that sends a sharp ray of extra meaning into the reader's mind."
"Paul Prye" Mystery Novels
-
- The Invisible Worm (1941)
- The Weak-Eyed Bat (1942)
- The Devil Loves Me (1942)
"Inspector Sands" Mystery Novels
-
- Wall of Eyes (1943)
- The Iron Gates [Taste of Fears] (1945)
"Tom Aragon" Mystery Novels
-
- Ask for Me Tomorrow (1976)
- The Murder of Miranda (1979)
- Mermaid (1982)
Other Mystery Novels
- Fire Will Freeze (1944)
- Do Evil in Return (1950)
- Rose's Last Summer (1952)
- Vanish in an Instant (1952)
- Beast in View (1955) (Edgar AwardEdgar AwardThe Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
for Best Novel, 1956) - An Air That Kills [The Soft Talkers] (1957)
- The Listening Walls (1959)
- A Stranger in My Grave (1960)
- How Like an Angel (1962)
- The Fiend (1964)
- Beyond This Point Are Monsters (1970)
- Banshee (1983)
- Spider Webs (1986)
- The Couple Next Door: Collected Short Mysteries. Ed. Tom Nolan (2004)
Other Novels
- Experiment in Springtime (1947)
- It’s All in the Family (1948)
- The Cannibal Heart (1949)
- Wives and Lovers (1954)
- The Birds and the Beasts Were There (1968) (memoir)
Further reading
Theme issue on Margaret Millar. Guest ed. Dean James. CLUES: A Journal of Detection 25.3 (Spring 2007). She features largely in Tom Nolan's biography of her husband, Ross Macdonald (New York: Scribner, 1999). ISBN 0-684-81217-7)External links
- 2 short radio episodes Chaparral and White Pelican from The Birds and the Beasts Were There, 1968. California Legacy ProjectCalifornia Legacy ProjectThe California Legacy Project began in 2000 as a project at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA and later partnered with Heyday Books in Berkeley, CA. The project uses a research team of SCU interns to create radio scripts for the radio anthology "Your California Legacy" on KAZU 90.3 FM,...
.