It has taken several months to plow through all the material for the most recent page updates, mainly due to the addition of the most recent, and probably last, of Don’s grandchildren (right). But also because it’s just a lot of material. There are still several non-fiction works to curate and transcribe, which will be forthcoming in the next update, Read More …
Unbeknownst to everyone at the time, the birth of Donald Westlake–82 years ago today–would eventually result in the immaculate conception of more than a dozen other personalities all living within the same man. The best known of these, of course, is Richard Stark, creator of the Parker series. Tucker Coe took up residence a couple decades later and told five Read More …
The Getaway Car headlines the 54 new pages that have been added to the site. The other 53 cover short fiction and short non-fiction gathered from the original periodicals found in the Westlake library. Nine of the short non-fiction pages include the full piece, reproduced as large images from the original publications, most of which were not reprinted in The Read More …
New Year’s Eve marked five years of life on Earth sans the creative genius and ebullient personality of Donald Edwin Westlake, etc, etc. I have not and will not make a practice of recognizing that date in publishing and personal infamy on this site, which, in itself, stands as a daily tribute to his memory. Instead, I will tend to Read More …
With 164 separate entries in the new master bibliography so far, we’re still only up to 1967. Ultimately, this table will become a comprehensive list of everything ever published under the name of Donald E. Westlake or one of his many pseudonyms. The current bibliography, listing novels, shorts, fiction, non-fiction and pseudonyms in separate tables, will not be replaced. It Read More …
The chronological trove of published novels and collections isn’t the only treasure in Don’s personal library. There are also several storage bins of periodicals containing Don’s published short stories, articles, essays and even a poem! This is a mountain of work that needs to be tackled if the DEW bibliography is ever going to be complete. The work has begun Read More …
Don’s seventh grandchild After a hiatus as I moved my family from Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley and witnessed the birth of my “way above average cute” daughter (according to a third party, honest!), I’m busily trying catch up on the latest DEW-related news and updating this website as quickly as possible. On to the report. New eBooks from our Read More …
After a bit of a hiatus, the work on rebuilding Don’s bibliography continues. I’m building a spreadsheet that will become the sortable master list for every edition in Don’s personal library. Look for a sneak peek next week. In the meantime, below is a list of book pages with new images from the many editions in the library. Some are Read More …
I apologize for the delay in approving comments over the past month or so but I have a good excuse. My wife and I welcomed our first child, Madelyn Elizabeth Westlake, into the world on June 24th. She is Don’s seventh grandchild but hopefully not his last. My only sorrow is that she will never get to meet her amazing Read More …
The project of rebuilding the Westlake bibliography continues and there are still a few surprises to be found. Yet another pseudonym has been uncovered but it mostly belongs to another author, Laurence Janifer (aka Larry Mark Harris). The title in question was very likely finished by Don when Harris was unable to meet his deadline. You can read about it Read More …
The epic project of building a database and uploading images from every copy of every book in Don’s personal library has begun. The full collection containing one copy of every edition of every book in print, and in every language, numbers in the hundreds. Several hundreds. So far, I’ve been able to catalog the first 41. The 41st book in Read More …
Along with the other back-end trouble I had with the old host, I lost the ability to embed audio files in a reliable way. Well, that’s all over now, thanks partly to the migration, improvements in the new WordPress update and the existence of SoundCloud. There are currently only three audio tracks on the entire site and all three are Read More …
At long last, the site has been migrated over to the new host and the back-end works again! I have full control of the website for the first time in months. Big, tremendous thanks to those who left messages or sent emails offering to help. Sorry for the lack of communication but I have to pay the bills, too, and Read More …
Content Management Systems can be easy to work with. A simple blog is a no-brainer for blogger or wordpress. But the more complex the site, the more complex the issues CMS has to handle, the more quirky the system gets. While it hasn’t had an impact on the functionality of the site (as far as I can tell), the partially-working Read More …
Welcome and thanks for visiting the official website of crime novelist and MWA Grand Master Donald E. Westlake, aka Richard Stark, aka Tucker Coe, aka Curt Clark, aka Samuel Holt, aka Timothy J. Culver, aka J. Morgan Cunningham, aka Judson Jack Carmichael (what’s with all the “J” names?), and (grudgingly) aka Edwin West. The blog section (here) will be where Read More …
