Wright / VanDine

…from whence came Philo Vance

S. S. VanDine was the pseudonym under which Willard Huntington Wright wrote his mystery novels, which starred the American wealthier-than-thou sometime-sleuth, Philo Vance.

Philo Vance was a household name in the 1920s and 1930s. VanDine published eight books in that time period and his character, Vance, was one of only two notable ‘gentlemen’ detectives in the American school of mystery writing.¹

If you are not familiar with the books but are perhaps familiar with old school Hollywood, Philo Vance was the character best brought to life on screen by future Thin Man actor, William Powell. The way Vance was played on screen though was slightly more suave than the way he behaved on paper. And the way the author behaved in real life is another story all together.

Who was Wright? And why VanDine?

The short answer to the first question is “an unimportant author of arty material and a tactless critic who loathed the mystery genre.” Which is largely the reason for the latter. When people think you’re an unmitigated ass and you write scathing reviews of reasonable material, they’re not going to feel welcoming toward you when you turn around and produce the type of book you propend to loathe.

It’s not all that uncommon of a story, I think. Someone has their sights set on grandeur so they pretend to be high falutin’. (Rearrange the letters a bit and you get faultin’. And Wright had a few faults.) But then, a man’s gotta eat. So out the window goes all the fancy language and high artistic ideals and into the pocketbook goes the money that writing mysteries can make.

Wright did not want it to be known that he had stooped so low as to start writing whodunnits, however. So it took a while before Scribners (his original publishers) released the information regarding the truth behind the pseudonym.

Writer / Character

There are some things about VanDine’s character Philo Vance that I suspect are autobiographical. The way Vance is described — how he dresses, his posture, his interest in show dogs, his (decorative) walking cane, his moustache, his stature, etc. — one would think that Wright was describing himself. (See photo above.) Vance’s mannerisms — his abruptness, his aloofness, his I-know-more-than-you-and-don’t-ask-me-to-explain [yet] attitude toward his social inferiors (a group which includes the district attorney, with whom Vance works to solve cases on the down-low) — are softened versions of Wright’s own pretentious snobbery.

Wright would not be the first person to put himself into his mysteries. Dorothy Sayers did it with Harriet Vane in her Peter Wimsey series, Ngaio Marsh did it with the New Zealand ingenue Roberta Grey in A Surfeit of Lampreys, Agatha Christie wrote herself into the character of crime fiction writer Ariadne Oliver, and I’ve no doubt John Sanford is currently and continually doing so with Virgil Flowers.

Furthermore, Wright would not be the first to soften his true reflection in the more flattering light of pen and ink. By most accounts — I exclude Scribners’ attempt to shield their author’s reputation when they printed his final book², which was actually a first draft; The Winter Murder Case showcases only VanDine’s writing process, not his polished product — the man was tetchy, inconsiderate, full of his own sense of superiority, and believer in his own power of “specialness” (taught to him by his parents) even though his lack of ability to make friends, control his spending, or keep a job would seem only to contradict it.

But despite the author’s flaws, I *like* the character he created.

And despite the fact that VanDine ‘went Hollywood’ (which was considered THE WORST during the era in which he lived), I *like* (mostly) what Hollywood did with Philo Vance.

As for what *I* would do with Philo Vance?

Well, let’s just say that I believe the cane he’s so fond of twirling about as a walking stick could be put to better uses…

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Letters V W

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¹The other is Elizabeth Daly’s Henry Gamadge, not so much a pampered gentleman as an educated one. (He is a rare book dealer.) Daly wrote between 1940 and 1953 and was one of Agatha Christie’s favorite authors to read.

²The note from the editor in that edition, later reprinted by Otto Penzler, basically said that VanDine had a contract with them and that he always delivered. His writing process is described as a 1-2-3, from {1} first-draft short novella lacking detail to {2} second-draft fleshing out moderate story to {3} final copy of robust detailed mystery. The short editor’s essay extols the virtues of the conscientious debtor — Wright contracted to write the VanDine books as a way out of debt — and talks about how sensitive and art-conscious the man was in life. In reality, he was a profligate spender, a lavish liver, a drug and alcohol addict, and too damn full of himself to do (or be) any good.