Nebraska Authors

Jim Thompson came to himself as a writer in Lincoln in the early 1930s, under the tutelege of Lowry Wimberly. He is considered one of "Wimberly's Boys." Growing up in Oklahoma, in the Nebraska Sandhills, and in Texas, Thompson knew an unforgiving world of labor and want that colored his writing in later years.

Thompson's mother was from the Nebraska Sandhills. When Thompson first enrolled in the University it was in the Ag College, later he enrolled in the English department. After graduation, he served as Director of the Federal Writers Project in Oklahoma in the 1930's. Thompson married Alberta Hesse, a Lincoln, Nebraska native, in 1931. In 1942, he wrote his first book with autobiographical references to Lincoln. Between 1942 and 1973, he published 29 novels, all but three in paperback form as originals. Thompson suffered a stroke in 1975 and died two years later. Thompson's work experienced a late 20th century revival and re-publication as his novels served as the basis for film scripts: 'The Grifters', 'The Kill-Off' and 'After Dark, My Sweet' all appeared on the screen in the 1990s.

Along with Mignon Eberhart, Thompson was one of the great early giants of American crime fiction to come from Nebraska. Yet the contrast between the two Nebraska writers could not be greater, where Eberhart's heroines find their way, in some crisis or exotic locale, to middle class dreams and ideals, Jim Thompson's stories savage middle class ideals and pursue them into nightmares. Writer Donald Westlake was a particular admirer of Thompson's work. In one of Thompson's publisher's blurbs, Stephen King calls Thompson "my favorite crime writer."

Novels which became films: The Killing, 1956, directed by Stanley Kubrick; Paths of Glory,1957, directed by Kubrick; The Getaway,1972, directed by Sam Peckinpaw; The Killer Inside Me,1975, directed by Burt Kennedy; Serie Noire, 1978, directed by Alain Corneau; The French film Coup De Torchon ('Clean Slate,'), 1980 was adapted from Pop. 1280, directed by Bertrand Tavernier, it was nominated for an Academy Award in 1982 for Best Foreign Film; The Grifters 1991, adapted from Thompson's novel by Donald Westlake.

See the biography by Robert Polito, Savage Art: A biography of Jim Thompson, 1995.
Also David A. Taylor, Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America, 2009, a book which accompanies the NEH funded documentary film by the same title, which features Thompson.

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