“Quirky” is the one that Lawrence Block used. “Cool” is not an adjective often associated with Willeford, born 100 years ago this year. A Variety review calls it “a marble-cool art-fraud thriller.” The film had its world premiere in September at the 76th Venice International Film Festival. But Willeford’s work is due for a revival now that his 1971 novel The Burnt Orange Heresy has been made into a film starring Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Debicki, Claes Bang and, in a small but crucial role, Sir Mick Jagger. He is a cult figure to some, and otherwise just occasionally mentioned among the roll call of hard-boiled writers. These days few readers care quite so passionately about Willeford’s writing. Librarian Erin Purdy sent me photos showing that that copy of Sideswipe had SIX bullet holes.) “The Charles Willeford Archive, Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, Broward County Library.” Fortunately the Broward County Public Library has Willeford’s papers, so I checked with them. Willeford recalled that the book had been shot once, but a 1988 news story said five times. There are plethora of Willeford anecdotes, but I think that one might be my favorite. One asked, “Have you alerted the FBI?” He replied, “No, it’s always good to get feedback.” When Willeford mentioned this to some friends they became concerned for his safety. Accompanying the book was a note, written in all-caps, saying “It’s a crime to charge $15.95 for shit like this.” It was signed, “A Dissatisfied Customer.” When he opened it, he found a hardbound copy of Sideswipe that someone had shot. His widow Betsy says that not long after that book came out, Willeford got a package in the mail. One of the Hoke Moseley sequels was called Sideswipe. On the strength of those four books, the Atlantic magazine dubbed him “the unlikely father of Miami crime fiction.” He followed it up with three more off-kilter books about his unlikely hero, the leisure-suit-wearing Sergeant Hoke Moseley of the Miami Police. Then, in 1984, he wrote a poker-faced comic thriller called Miami Blues that suddenly made him a hot commodity. He spent three decades cranking out pulp fiction classics like Pick-Up and Cockfighter that earned him very little money and hardly any notice from the critics. Orphan, hobo, painter, poet, boxer, book critic, decorated tank commander, actor, truck driver, teacher, author and inveterate prankster-Charles Willeford led a life that could provide him with a zillion stories, each one touched with his distinctive view of the world.
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