15 Facts About James Crumley

James Arthur Crumley was an American author of violent hardboiled crime novels and several volumes of short stories and essays, as well as published and unpublished screenplays.

James Crumley has been described as "one of modern crime writing's best practitioners", who was "a patron saint of the post-Vietnam private eye novel" and a cross between Raymond Chandler and Hunter S Thompson.

James Crumley, who was born in Three Rivers, Texas, grew up in south Texas, where his father was an oil-field supervisor and his mother was a waitress.

James Crumley insisted that Crumley attend church, but did not do so herself because she could not afford clothes decent enough for church.

James Crumley was a grade-A student and a football player, an offensive lineman, in high school.

James Crumley attended the Georgia Institute of Technology on a Navy ROTC scholarship for about a year before leaving to serve in the US Army from 1958 to 1961; during his service, he was assigned to the Philippines.

James Crumley had not read any detective fiction until prompted to by Montana poet Richard Hugo, who recommended the work of Raymond Chandler for the quality of his sentences.

James Crumley finally picked up a copy of one of Chandler's books in Guadalajara, Mexico.

James Crumley died at St Patrick Hospital in Missoula on September 17,2008, of complications from kidney and pulmonary diseases after many years of health problems.

James Crumley had five children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

James Crumley's death prompted an "outpouring of affection" from the citizens of Missoula.

None of the books that James Crumley wrote ever became bestsellers, but he had a cult following devoted to his writing and received frequent critical acclaim.

James Crumley worked on a number of drafts of the screenplay for the film adaptation of the comic strip Judge Dredd, though none of his ideas were used in the final film.

James Crumley's commissioned but unproduced screenplay for the film The Pigeon Shoot was published in a limited edition.

Additionally, James Crumley provided the commentary for the 2002 English-language French film L'esprit de la route by Matthieu Serveau.