Michael McDowell (author)
Encyclopedia
Michael McEachern McDowell (June 1, 1950 – December 27, 1999) was an American novelist and screenwriter
. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from Harvard College and a Ph.D in English from Brandeis University
in 1978. Stephen King
once described him as "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today".
horror novel dealing with a Victorian criminal family's exquisite revenge
upon the family of a sternly bigoted New York
judge. These were followed by his epic Blackwater (1983), a fifty-year family chronicle of a wealthy Southern dynasty with a supernatural ally, originally published in six short volumes, and the surreal
Toplin (1985)
McDowell collaborated with his close friend Dennis Schuetz in writing four mysteries starring Daniel Valentine and Clarisse Lovelace. Vermillion (1980), Cobalt (1982), Slate (1984), and Canary (1986). These were published under the pseudonym Nathan Aldyne. They are light mysteries set in and around Boston and Provincetown. Daniel is a gay social worker turned bartender and Clarisse is a straight real estate agent and later a lawyer.
In the early 1980s, McDowell released two psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Axel Young. Both books (especially the second) were over-the-top parodies of Sidney Sheldon-type suspense novels. Blood Rubies in 1982 and Wicked Stepmother in 1983.
McDowell also wrote the novelization of the movie Clue in 1985. The movie was based on the board game and featured three different endings.
In the mid-1980s, McDowell wrote a series of light mysteries for Ballentine Books, featuring characters reminiscent of Nick and Nora Charles, originally created in Dashiell Hammett and popularized by the influential Thin Man movies. The series included Jack and Susan in 1953 (1985), Jack and Susan in 1913 (1986) and Jack and Susan in 1933 (1987). The books chronicled the adventures of an eternally youthful couple and their ever-changing dog. According to an interview, McDowell had contracted to do one for each decade of the century, but he bowed out of the contract after three.
His screen credits include Beetlejuice
(1987), and collaborations on The Nightmare Before Christmas
(1993) and Thinner
(1996). He also wrote horror/fantasy/thriller teleplays for a number of television series.
. According to his bio in the 1985 edition of Toplin, McDowell lived in Massachusetts
. He also maintained a residence in Hollywood with his sister Ann and adventurer-filmmaker Peter Lake. The bio described a typical day: McDowell "writes in the mornings and spends the rest of the day looking out of the window in hope that something interesting will happen" and "collects photographs of corpses". He specialized in collecting photographs of train-decapitation victims and plaques from baby caskets. McDowell's life partner of 30 years was the theatre historian and director Laurence Senelick.
McDowell died in 1999 in Boston, Massachusetts from AIDS
-related illness. His unfinished novel Candles Burning was "completed" by Tabitha King
, wife of Stephen King, and published in 2006.
"I am a commercial writer and I'm proud of that", he said in the book Faces of Fear
in 1985. "I am writing things to be put in the bookstore next month. I think it is a mistake to try to write for the ages."
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from Harvard College and a Ph.D in English from Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
in 1978. Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
once described him as "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today".
His works
The Amulet (1979), Cold Moon Over Babylon (1980), and The Elementals (1981) were paperback original supernatural horror stories set in the South. Gilded Needles (1980), was a non-supernatural, historicalHistorical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
horror novel dealing with a Victorian criminal family's exquisite revenge
Revenge
Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...
upon the family of a sternly bigoted New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
judge. These were followed by his epic Blackwater (1983), a fifty-year family chronicle of a wealthy Southern dynasty with a supernatural ally, originally published in six short volumes, and the surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
Toplin (1985)
McDowell collaborated with his close friend Dennis Schuetz in writing four mysteries starring Daniel Valentine and Clarisse Lovelace. Vermillion (1980), Cobalt (1982), Slate (1984), and Canary (1986). These were published under the pseudonym Nathan Aldyne. They are light mysteries set in and around Boston and Provincetown. Daniel is a gay social worker turned bartender and Clarisse is a straight real estate agent and later a lawyer.
In the early 1980s, McDowell released two psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Axel Young. Both books (especially the second) were over-the-top parodies of Sidney Sheldon-type suspense novels. Blood Rubies in 1982 and Wicked Stepmother in 1983.
McDowell also wrote the novelization of the movie Clue in 1985. The movie was based on the board game and featured three different endings.
In the mid-1980s, McDowell wrote a series of light mysteries for Ballentine Books, featuring characters reminiscent of Nick and Nora Charles, originally created in Dashiell Hammett and popularized by the influential Thin Man movies. The series included Jack and Susan in 1953 (1985), Jack and Susan in 1913 (1986) and Jack and Susan in 1933 (1987). The books chronicled the adventures of an eternally youthful couple and their ever-changing dog. According to an interview, McDowell had contracted to do one for each decade of the century, but he bowed out of the contract after three.
His screen credits include Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros...
(1987), and collaborations on The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
(1993) and Thinner
Thinner (film)
Thinner is a 1996 horror film directed by Tom Holland and written by Michael McDowell with the screenplay by Tom Holland. The film is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.-Plot:...
(1996). He also wrote horror/fantasy/thriller teleplays for a number of television series.
The Amulet
The Amulet was meant as a motion-picture screenplay (a collaboration with one of McDowell's friends), in which the freak-accidents were contrived first, then padded with an incidental story to support them. The basic premise in the story is that of an evil, possessive woman who bequeaths a cursed necklace to a female rival neighbor. The gift brings death to anyone that receives or finds it. The bauble makes its rounds throughout the small working-class town, and eventually falls in the clutches of her much-hated ingenue daughter-in-law. Like many McDowell's novels, the setting is usually somewhere in the American south (such as Alabama).Cold Moon Over Babylon
Nathan Redfield discovers some valuable property. Unfortunately this land legally belongs to the poor but proud Larkin family who don't wish to give up their blueberry farm. Nathan resorts to murder, but regrets ever having messed with these seemingly humble, peace-loving folks.Katie
"Katie never killed with kindness," was this paperback's tagline. Like The Amulet, a naive young woman crosses paths with a female homicidal maniac (in this case, a young hammer-wielding psychic who dispatches mother's customers requesting palmistry service). The story takes place largely in Boston, and ends in New York City.Gilded Needles
An immigrant German family - led by matriarch Lena Shanks - exact revenge upon a Gramercy Park judge and his children. The motley Prussian characters include lesbian wrestlers who don opium-laced Thai fingernails to subdue their victims.The Elementals
McDowell's most-Gothic novel, the story concerns two related Southern families joined by marriage and reunited by a funeral. The families spend a terrifying summer vacation on a jetty of land, in the Gulf of Mexico, that is cut-off from the Alabama mainland when the tide rolls in. The third Victorian house on this 'island' has remained empty and is overrun by sand-dunes. The entire resort is haunted by elemental spirits, able to control the elements (sand, water, etc.), and, in essence, reanimate dead relatives.Blackwater
McDowell's "Mysterious Saga of the Caskey Family" Blackwater serial novels (6 total) consist of the following titles: The Flood, The Levee, The House, The War, The Fortune, and Rain. The series chronicles fifty-years in the lives of the Caskey family, matriarch of which is able to transmogrify into a crocodilian creature.Personal life
McDowell was born in Enterprise, AlabamaEnterprise, Alabama
Enterprise is a city in the southeastern part of Coffee and Dale Counties in the southeastern part of Alabama in the Southern United States. The population was estimated to be 25,909 in the year 2009....
. According to his bio in the 1985 edition of Toplin, McDowell lived in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. He also maintained a residence in Hollywood with his sister Ann and adventurer-filmmaker Peter Lake. The bio described a typical day: McDowell "writes in the mornings and spends the rest of the day looking out of the window in hope that something interesting will happen" and "collects photographs of corpses". He specialized in collecting photographs of train-decapitation victims and plaques from baby caskets. McDowell's life partner of 30 years was the theatre historian and director Laurence Senelick.
McDowell died in 1999 in Boston, Massachusetts from AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
-related illness. His unfinished novel Candles Burning was "completed" by Tabitha King
Tabitha King
Tabitha King is an American author and activist. She is married to writer Stephen King.-Family:King met her husband, author Stephen King, in college through her work-study job in the Fogler Library. Their daughter Naomi Rachel was born in 1970. They married on January 2, 1971...
, wife of Stephen King, and published in 2006.
"I am a commercial writer and I'm proud of that", he said in the book Faces of Fear
Faces of Fear (interview book)
Faces of Fear is a World Fantasy award-winning book where writer, critic and lawyer Douglas E. Winter interviews seventeen contemporary British and American horror writers about their life and art. The writers are V. C. Andrews, Clive Barker, William Peter Blatty, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell,...
in 1985. "I am writing things to be put in the bookstore next month. I think it is a mistake to try to write for the ages."
Screenwriting credits
- BeetlejuiceBeetlejuiceBeetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros...
(1987) (story and original screenplay) - MonstersMonsters (TV series)Monsters is a syndicated horror anthology series which originally ran from 1988 to 1991 and reran on the Sci-Fi Channel during the 1990s. As of 2011, Monsters airs on NBC Universal's horror/suspense-themed cable channel Chiller in sporadic weekday marathons.In a similar vein to Tales from the...
(two episodes) - The Nightmare Before ChristmasThe Nightmare Before ChristmasThe Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
(1993) (co-writer) - ThinnerThinner (film)Thinner is a 1996 horror film directed by Tom Holland and written by Michael McDowell with the screenplay by Tom Holland. The film is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.-Plot:...
(1996) (screenplay from Stephen King's book)
Under the name Nathan Aldyne
- Vermillion (1980)
- Cobalt (1982)
- Slate (1984)
- Canary (1986)
Under the name Preston Macadam
- Michael Sheriff, The Shield: African Assignment (1985)
- Michael Sheriff, The Shield: Arabian Assault (1985)
- Michael Sheriff, The Shield: Island Intrigue (1985)
External links
- Michael M. McDowell Collection Browne Popular Culture Library, Bowling Green State University