Mystery writer Ross Macdonald is born
Detective novelist Kenneth Millar better known by his nom de plume Ross Macdonald was born on this day in 1915 in Los Gatos California.He wrote 24 mystery novels 20 of them featuring detective Lew Archer.Macdonalds literary approach to the hard-boiled detective novel helped elevate the genre.His character Lew Archer first appeared in The Moving Target (1949).
Archers streetwise no-nonsense exterior protected an introspective and thoughtful character.Other books featuring Archer include The Galton Case (1959) The Name Is Archer (1955) and The Underground Man (1971).Macdonald was born in Los Gatos but moved to Canada as a young boy after his parents divorce.Captain of the boys debating time in a town called Kitchener he later married the captain of the girls team Margaret Strum who also became a successful mystery novelist under her married name Margaret Millar.Macdonald taught school in Toronto and took a Ph.D.
in American literature at the University of Michigan in 1951.While he was serving in the U.S.Navy during World War II his wife bought a house in Santa Barbara where the couple settled and lived until Ross Macdonalds death from Alzheimers disease in 1983.
The couple was active in environmental conservation and Ross Macdonald founded a conservation group called Get Oil Out after an oil spill off Santa Barbaras coast in 1969.
