Editing Lew Archer (section)

==Profile==
Initially, Lew Archer was similar to (if not completely a derivative of) [[Philip Marlowe]], the pioneering sleuth created by [[Raymond Chandler]] in the 1930s. However, Macdonald eventually broke largely from that mold. Archer's principal difference from the tough Marlowe is that he is much more openly sensitive and empathetic. Also, whereas Chandler's books were primarily studies of Marlowe's character and code of honor, Macdonald used Archer as a lens to explore the relationships of the other characters in the novels. Macdonald wrote, "Certainly my narrator Archer is not the main object of my interest, nor the character with whose fate I am most concerned," nor the novels' "emotional center."<ref name="Macdonald1973"/>

Another difference was that Marlowe prowled the city of Los Angeles during the 1940s, while Archer followed the populace outward and primarily worked the suburbs in the 1950s.  Like Marlowe, Archer observes changing American society.  In 1962's ''[[The Zebra-Striped Hearse]]'', Archer hunts a missing girl who may be dead, possibly murdered.  His path repeatedly crosses a group of young surfers who own a [[hearse]] painted whimsically in zebra stripes.  To the youngsters, death is remote and funny.  To the world-weary detective, it's close and grim.

Lew Archer is largely a cipher, rarely described.  His background is most thoroughly explored in ''[[The Moving Target]]'': he got his training with the Long Beach, California, Police Department, but left (Archer himself says he was "fired") after witnessing too much corruption. Subsequent novels mentioned details of Archer's life only in passing. In ''Black Money'' (1966) Archer mentions that he's about 50 years old, thus born circa 1916. In ''[[The Doomsters]]'' a sheriff mocks his 6'2" and blue eyes.  As old failures plague him, we learn he once "took the strap away from my old man", that he was a troubled kid and petty thief redeemed by an old cop, that he sometimes drank too much, that his ex-wife's name is Sue, and he thinks of her often. During [[World War II]], he served in [[military intelligence]] in the [[United States Army]], again mentioned in ''The Doomsters''.

Archer is sometimes depressed, often world-weary. An almost Greek sense of tragedy pervades the novels as the sins of omission and crimes of sometimes-wealthy parents are frequently visited upon their children, young adults whom Archer tries desperately to save from disaster. This use of Greek drama was deliberate, as in ''The Galton Case'' (1959) being based on a loose interpretation of the [[Oedipus]] myth.<ref name="Macdonald1973">Macdonald, Ross (1973). On Crime Fiction. Santa Barbara : Capra Press, Series title: Yes! Capra chapbook series ; no. 11</ref> Tom Nolan in his ''Ross Macdonald, A Biography,''<ref>Tom Nolan, ''Ross Macdonald, A Biography'', Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999 {{ISBN|0-684-81217-7}}</ref> wrote of the author, "Gradually he swapped the hard-boiled trappings for more subjective themes: personal identity, the family secret, the family scapegoat, the childhood trauma; how men and women need and battle each other, how the buried past rises like a skeleton to confront the present. He brought the tragic drama of [[Sophocles]] and the psychology of [[Sophocles|Freud]] to detective stories, and his prose flashed with poetic imagery." Philosophical references underlined the thoughtful tone of the novels, with ''[[The Chill (Macdonald novel)|The Chill]]'' (1964) having mentions of [[Parmenides]], [[Heraclitus]] and [[Zeno's paradoxes#Achilles and the tortoise|Achilles and the tortoise]], while ''Black Money'' (1966) briefly discusses [[Henri Bergson]].

Two recurring characters of note are Arnie and Phyllis Walters, who appear in several of the novels and seem to enjoy a warm friendship with Archer. Arnie is a private detective in [[Reno, Nevada]], about 470 miles north of Los Angeles, where Archer's investigations sometimes lead, due to Nevada then both having some of the most liberal marriage and divorce laws in the nation and being one of the only states with legalized [[casino gambling]] (and its associated [[organized crime]] presence). 
 
Archer's name pays a double homage: first to [[Dashiell Hammett]] ("Miles Archer" was [[Sam Spade]]'s murdered partner in ''[[The Maltese Falcon (novel)|The Maltese Falcon]]''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kreyling |first=Michael |title=The Novels of Ross Macdonald |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=2005 |page=[https://archive.org/details/novelsofrossmacd0000krey/page/18 18] |url=https://archive.org/details/novelsofrossmacd0000krey |url-access=registration |isbn=1-57003-577-6}}</ref>), {{clarification needed span|text=while [[Lew Wallace]] was the author of the novel ''[[Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ|Ben Hur]]'' (1880).|reason=What does this have to do with it? No connection is established.|date=April 2025}}<ref>Tom Nolan, editor, ''Ross Macdonald: The Archer Files'', Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, Introduction: "Archer in Memory" p. xiii.</ref>