Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich was born December 4, 1903. He lived his early years in Mexico before moving to America to live with his mother. Woolrich was best know for penning the short story that Alfred Hitchock based the film, "Rear Window" on. He went on to be the father of American "noir fiction', with his numerous short stories published in the pulp fiction magazines of the 1930's and 40's as well as his legendary "black" series of novels, many of which have been turned into major motion pictures.
Cornell Woolrich was a protege of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who inspired Woolrich's first three novels. Getting a Hollywood contract in the late 1920's he worked as screenwriter, marrying and quickly divorcing a producer's daughter, after he came to grips with his sexual identity.
Moving back to New York City Cornell Woolrich lived out the remainder of his life, living with his mother in hotels, until his death on September 25, 1968. Cornell Woolrich historian and biographer, Francis M. Nevins Jr., writes in his preface to the recent reprint of "Manhattan Love Song" of his last days, " his last year spent in a wheelchair after the amputation of a gangrenous leg, thin as a rail, white as a ghost, wracked by diabetes and alcoholism and self-contempt".
"First You Dream, then You Die" Cornell Woolrich
Updates: July 21 2009. New cover added for "Love and Night"
July 15 2009. Redesigned home page. New covers added for Black Angel, Black Path of Fear and Into the Night.
coming soon: foriegn cover updates plus archives of Francis M. Nevins Jr. columns.
Cornell Woorich and his Mother