Edmund Naughton Explained

Edmund Naughton
Birth Name:Edmund J. Naughton
Birth Date:7 March 1926
Birth Place:Borough of Manhattan, New York, New York, USA[1]
Death Date:[2]
Alma Mater:Boston College
Fordham University
Years Active:1953–1984
Occupation:Writer, journalist

Edmund Naughton (1926–2013) was an American writer and journalist whose first novel, McCabe (1959), was the basis for the 1971 film McCabe & Mrs. Miller. The film, directed by Robert Altman, is now considered a masterpiece. After 1958, Naughton lived in France and England. Between 1959 and 1984, Naughton published six novels in the genres of westerns and crime fiction. The first two were published in French translation as well as English; the last two were published only in translation.

Naughton was born and raised in New York City and educated in Catholic schools. He received a bachelor's degree from Boston College in 1948,[3] and an M.F.A. degree from Fordham University in 1953. He became a police reporter for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky.[4] As described in a short biographical notice, "he stayed for 5 years on the police beat, which he worked down to an average of an hour & a half's work per day. The rest of the time he spent playing cards and drinking beer with policemen. Once he went on an actual manhunt with them. He wrote McCabe in 1957-1958, largely out of his experience on the police beat, transposing his characters to the West." In 1958 Naughton moved to Paris, France, where he worked for the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, and as an English teacher.[5]

McCabe, which had been well-reviewed by Nelson C. Nye in The New York Times,[6] was translated into French as La Belle Main in 1960,[7] and into German as Keine Chance für McCabe in 1966.[8] He published his second novel, The Pardner, in 1971, which was also promptly translated into French (as Oh! collègue).[9] [10] In association with the 1971 film based on it, McCabe was published in new editions and a new translation into Italian (I Compari). The novel was last reprinted as a mass market paperback in 1992.[11]

Naughton published four more novels. A Case in Madrid was published in 1973 and The Maximum Game in 1975.[12] [13] Two more novels appeared only in French translation: Les Cow-boys dehors! (1982 - Wild Horses) and Grand Noir et le petit Blanc (1984 - White Man, Black Man).[14] [15] French critic included Naughton in the Dictionnaire des littératures policières (lit. Dictionary of Crime Literature). Mesplède writes that Naughton lost his job as a journalist in Louisville following public revelations that he was homosexual, and that this episode motivated his emigration from the United States to Europe.[16]

Film adaptation of McCabe

The adaptation of Naughton's novel for the film McCabe & Mrs. Miller gave him wide recognition; the film is considered a masterpiece by prominent critics, and was entered into the U.S. National Film Registry in 2010.[17] [18] [19] [20] [21] The story of the adaptation has been told by several film historians.[22] [23] The rights to McCabe were purchased in 1968 by producer David Foster through Naughton's agent in Paris, Ellen Wright.

Ben Maddow was hired to write a screenplay based on the novel, and there are two versions of his work in the archives of the Margaret Herrick Library. Maddow had made substantial changes to the plot of the novel. In October 1969 Robert Altman had been signed to direct a film adaptation of the novel. Brian McKay was hired to write a second, independent screenplay. A later "shooting screenplay" is available in archives.[24] Only McKay and Altman were listed as screenwriters in the film's credits. Critic Matthew Dessem has compared the actual film with the Maddow and McKay screenplays and with Naughton's novel. Dessem concludes that the structure of the final film is reasonably faithful to Naughton's original novel.[25]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: New York, New York, Birth Index, 1910-1965 [database on-line]. ]. Lehi, UT, USA . Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. . 2017 .
  2. Web site: United States Social Security Death Index . FamilySearch . Edmund J Naughton, 09 Sep 2013. May 20, 2014 . The entry also gives Naughton's date of birth as March 7, 1926.
  3. News: B.C. men write for national magazine . The Heights . Boston College . XXXII . 13 . December 7, 1950 . 2016-10-27.
  4. News: The Courier-Journal . May 2, 1954 . Edmund Naughton . 130 . Edmund Naughton is a Courier-Journal police reporter from New York who loves "Western" movies, and has hitch hiked through the West. When he met Sergeant House on the police beat he naturally became interested in a bronco-busting detective. .
  5. Book: Naughton, Edmund . McCabe . Leisure Books . 1991 . 9780843930252 . 23129272. This book is a paperback reprint of the 1959 novel; see Book: Naughton, Edmund . McCabe: a Novel . MacMillan . New York . 1959 . 908603122 .
  6. News: Nye . Nelson . Western Roundup . December 6, 1959 . a distinctly unusual bit of Western realism . subscription . The New York Times .
  7. Book: Naughton, Edmund . La Belle Main . Gilberte Sollacaro (translation) . fr . Gallimard . 1960 . 460578114 . Translation of McCabe.
  8. Book: Naughton, Edmund . Keine Chance für McCabe . de . Lore Treplin (translation) . Rowolt . 1966 . 73837841.
  9. Book: Naughton, Edmund . The Pardner . 1972 . Berkley Pub. Corp. . 19319482 .
  10. Book: Naughton, Edmund . Oh! collègue . Rosine Fitzgerald (translation) . 1971 . Gallimard . 9782070484362 . 462112922.
  11. Web site: Search results for 'mccabe "edmund naughton"' . WorldCat .
  12. Book: Naughton, Edmund . A Case in Madrid . 9690280 . Curtis Books . 1973.
  13. Book: Naughton, Edmund . The Maximum Game . 1975 . 9780446765848 . 17537691 . Warner Books.
  14. Book: Naughton, Edmund . Les Cow-boys dehors! . Rosine Fitzgerald (translator) . 1982 . Gallimard . 9782070488780 . 461746239.
  15. Book: Naughton, Edmund . Grand Noir et le petit Blanc . 1984 . Gallimard . 9782070489626 . 420189359.
  16. Book: fr . Dictionnaire des littératures policières . Claude . Mesplède . 2 . Nantes . Joseph K. . 2007 . 978-2-910-68645-1 . 315873361 . 413–414.
  17. Web site: Ebert . Roger . Roger Ebert . McCabe & Mrs. Miller . November 14, 1999 . Chicago Sun Times . October 27, 2016 . February 16, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130216140545/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19991114%2FREVIEWS08%2F911140301%2F1023 . dead .
  18. News: McCabe and Mrs Miller . Brooks . Xan . Until now, I always had the bold, bawdy Nashville filed as the ultimate Altman movie. I'm now wondering if this minor-key masterpiece might not just have the edge. . May 3, 2007 . The Guardian.
  19. Web site: Chaw . Walter . TCM Greatest Films Classic Collection – Western Adventures . The father of contemplative American classics like Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, like The Wild Bunch, packs every bit the wallop of relevance and currency that it did over three decades ago. No hint of hyperbole, they are two of the best films ever made. . Film Freak Central . https://web.archive.org/web/20100409062728/http://filmfreakcentral.net/dvdreviews/tcmwesterns.htm . 2010-04-09.
  20. News: Yanick . Joe . Moviemaker . Criterion Crash Course: Moviemaking Lessons from Criterion's McCabe & Mrs. Miller . October 16, 2016 . 'Masterpiece' is a word that gets bandied around far too often, to the point of devaluing its meaning. In reality, few moviemakers have a masterpiece in them. In the grand scheme, most people’s best work still falls short of transcendent greatness. 1971’s McCabe & Mrs Miller arguably marks the first of numerous masterpieces from the late Robert Altman..
  21. News: 'Empire Strikes Back', 'Airplane!' Among 25 Movies Named to National Film Registry . December 28, 2010 . The Hollywood Reporter . Mike . Barnes . 2012-11-26.
  22. Book: McGilligan, Patrick . Robert Altman: Jumping Off the Cliff . 339 . Macmillan . 1989 . 9780312304676 . 18521062.
  23. Book: Niemi, Robert . The Cinema of Robert Altman: Hollywood Maverick . Columbia University Press . 2016 . 9780231850865 .
  24. Web site: Robert Altman's and Brian McKay's screenplay for McCabe & Mrs. Miller by La Familia Film . . 2016-10-29 . Image of an original typescript; the location of the actual typescript isn't given.
  25. Web site: The making and unmaking of McCabe & Mrs. Miller . Matthew . Dessem . The Dissolve . October 2, 2014 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20171024053558/http://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/774-the-making-and-unmaking-of-mccabe-mrs-miller/ . 2017-10-24.

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