Kenneth Ross Sold at Auction Prices

Kenneth Millar. Autograph manuscript signed at head of page with his alternate name ("Ross Mcdonald’).

138. [Detective Fiction.] Kenneth Millar. Autograph manuscript signed at head of page with his alternate name (“Ross Mcdonald’), 1 page (8 x 5.25 in.; 203 x 133mm), [no place, no date but ca. 1964], with emendations in pencil; browned; matted and framed with a color photograph of Millar. Ross Mcdonald declares his first story was a parody of Sherlock Holmes. The author writes in full: My first story was published I a high school magazine when I was fifteen. It was, ominously, a parody of Sherlock Holmes. That same year, 1931, I discovered Dashiell Hammett and the fact that writing and the fact that writing could and should be about contemporary life; and met Margaret Millar. Though I’d never wanted to be anything but a writer, I got sidetracked for some years in the groves of Academe scholarships. The war tore me loose from the University of Michigan Graduate School and revived my urge to write. My first book of any importance, if only because Nelson Algren liked it was Blue City, published in 1947 by Alfred Knopf. My nineteenth book and twelfth novel about Lew Archer is being published by Knopf in January 1965. Its title is The Far Side of the Dollar. Margaret and I live in a canyon just outside Santa Barbara and feed birds. Estimated value: $300 - $500