Jonathan Latimer

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Latimer attended Mesa Ranch School in Mesa, Arizona. He then studied at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1929.{{cite web |title=Jonathan Latimer (1906-1983) |url=http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/latimer.html |website=thrillingdetective.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307114629/http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/latimer.html |archive-date=March 7, 2021 |url-status=dead}}

During World War II, Latimer served in the United States Navy. After the war, he moved to California and continued his work as a Hollywood screenwriter, including 10 films in collaboration with director John Farrow.{{cite web|last1=Angelini|first1=Sergio|title=J is for Jonathan Latimer|url=https://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/j-is-for-jonathan-latimer/|website=Tipping My Fedora|date=25 July 2012 |publisher=wordpress|accessdate=9 April 2016}}{{Cite web|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf509nb30s/entire_text/|title=Latimer (Jonathan) Miscellaneous Scripts and Screenplays|website=oac.cdlib.org|access-date=2020-03-17}}

Latimer became a journalist at the Chicago Herald Examiner and later for the Chicago Tribune, writing about crime and meeting Al Capone and Bugs Moran, among others.{{cite news|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf509nb30s/|title=Register of the Jonathan Latimer, Miscellaneous Scripts and Screenplays|work=Online Archive of California}} In the mid-1930s, he turned to writing fiction, starting with a series of novels featuring private eye William Crane, in which he introduced his typical blend of hardboiled crime fiction and elements of screwball comedy.{{Cite web|url=http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930912/Latimer,%20Jonathan|title=Latimer, Jonathan|website=PBworks|access-date=2020-03-17}}{{Cite web|url=https://tomrizzo.com/author-jonathan-latimer/|title=Author Jonathan Latimer|website=tomrizzo.com|access-date=2020-03-17}}

Latimer died of lung cancer in La Jolla, California on June 23, 1983, aged 76.{{cite news |title=Jonathan Latimer Dies at 76; Writer of 'Perry Mason' Show |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/25/obituaries/jonathan-latimer-dies-at-76-writer-of-perry-mason-show.html |work=The New York Times |agency=AP |date=25 June 1983}}

• Murder in the Madhouse (1935){{cite news |last1=Case |first1=Elizabeth N. |title=Thrills and Chills for Mystery Fans |work=The Hartford Daily Courant |date=21 April 1935 |page=6E |quote=Murder In The Madhouse by Jonathan Latimer; published forThe Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Co. Inc. Garden City New York.|via=Newspapers.com}}
• Headed for a Hearse (1935) filmed 1937 as The Westland Case; Preston Foster as Crane
• The Lady in the Morgue (1936) filmed 1938 (aka The Case of the Missing Blonde in the UK); Preston Foster as Crane
• The Dead Don't Care (1938) filmed 1938 as The Last Warning; Preston Foster as Crane
• Red Gardenias (1939)

• The Search for My Great Uncle's Head (1937) (as Peter Coffin){{cite news |last1=Stevens |first1=Rodney |title=Lots of diverse reading in Publishers Weekly |work=Anderson Independent-Mail |date=24 September 1989 |page=4B |quote=Jonathan Latimer's "The Search for my Great Uncle's Head". Better a head, perhaps, than some of these books.|via=Newspapers.com}}
• Solomon's Vineyard (1941 (UK)) (published in paperback in 1951, first unexpurgated US edition 1988, and republished in 2014 under the title The Fifth Grave){{cite news |last1=Richardson |first1=Maurice |title=The Crime Ration |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-observer-latimer/96310429/ |work=The Observer |date=26 October 1941 |via=Newspapers.com |location=London |page=3}}
• Sinners and Shrouds (1955){{cite news |last1=Richardson |first1=Maurice |title=Crime Ration |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-observer-maurice-richardson-crime/115053648/ |work=The Observer |date=5 August 1956 |via=Newspapers.com |location=London |page=7}}
• Black Is the Fashion for Dying (1959)

• Dark Memory (1940){{cite news |last1=Simmons |first1=Fritz Raley |title=Impressions and Expressions |work=News and Record |date=21 April 1940 |via=Newspapers.com |location=Greensboro, NC |page=6D |quote=Dark Memory is entertaining}}

• A Joke's a Joke (1938){{cite news |title=Important Features |work=The Pittsburgh Press |issue=307 |volume=54 |date=1 May 1938 |via=Newspapers.com |page=1 |quote=This Week Magazine features a story, "A Jokes a Joke", by Jonathan Latimer}}

• The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) (based on a novel by Louis Joseph Vance)
• Topper Returns (1941) (original screenplay)
• The Glass Key (1942) (based on the Dashiell Hammett novel)
• Night in New Orleans (1942) (based on a novel by James R. Langham)
• Nocturne (1946)
• They Won't Believe Me (1947) (based on a story by Gordon McDonell)
• Sealed Verdict (1948)
• The Big Clock (1948) (based on the Kenneth Fearing novel)
• Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948) (based on the Cornell Woolrich novel)
• Beyond Glory (1948)
• Alias Nick Beal (1949) (with Mindret Lord)
• Copper Canyon (1950)
• Submarine Command (1951), screenplay from his own story, starring William Holden
• The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951)
• Botany Bay (1952)
• Plunder of the Sun (1953) (based on the David F. Dodge novel)
• Back from Eternity (1956)
• The Unholy Wife (1957) (co-authored with William Durkee)
• The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays (1957) (with Frank Capra)
• The Unchained Goddess (1958) (with Frank Capra)
• The Whole Truth (1958)
• 32 episodes of the Perry Mason television series{{cite web |last1=Rode |first1=Alan K |title=TV's Mightiest Mouthpiece—The Noir Roots of Perry Mason |url=https://alankrode.com/tv-s-mightiest-mouthpiece-mdash-the-noir-roots-of-perry-mason/ |website=One Way Street |date=7 February 2017 |quote=Perhaps the most notable of the show’s writers was Jonathan Latimer, who penned 32 episodes from 1958 to 1965.}}
• The Greenhouse Jungle (from the second season of the Columbo television series, 1972){{cite web |title=Jonathan Latimer |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba17b55d5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190319025911/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba17b55d5 |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 March 2019 |website=British Film Institute |quote=1972, The Greenhouse Jungle, Teleplay}}

• Phantom Raiders 1940, 2nd in a series of Nick Carter movies starring Walter Pidgeon

• Hard boiled American crime fiction for a discussion of Solomon's Vineyard, the publication of which was suppressed in the United States for a long time.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://libraries.ucsd.edu/speccoll/findingaids/mss0133.html Jonathan Latimer Miscellaneous Scripts and Screenplays] MSS 133. [http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/sca/ Special Collections & Archives], UC San Diego Library.
• {{Books and Writers |id=latimer |name=Jonathan Latimer}}
• {{IMDb name|0490206}}

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Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:American male novelists

Category:American male screenwriters

Category:American mystery writers

Category:1906 births

Category:1983 deaths

Category:Deaths from lung cancer in California

Category:United States Navy sailors

Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:20th-century American screenwriters

Category:Novelists from Chicago

Category:Screenwriters from Illinois

Category:Knox College (Illinois) alumni

Category:Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction