Profile of Gerald Kersh on Famous Like Me

Gerald Kersh was a British writer. Born in 1911, he began to write at the age of 8. After leaving school he worked as, amongst other things, a cinema manager, bodyguard, debt collector, fish & chip cook, travelling salesman, French teacher and all-in-wrestler whilst attempting to 'make it' as a writer.

He finally managed to get his first novel Jews Without Jehovah published in 1934 but in this autobiographical tale of growing up poor and Jewish he had not sufficiently concealed the identities of some of the characters and a member of his family sued for libel: as a result the book was quickly withdrawn. He had more luck with Night and the City which was published in 1938 and has been filmed twice, most notably with Richard Widmark in 1950 although there is also a 1992 version with Robert de Niro in the title role. This story of a tough London gangster on the make shows that Kersh was a master in terms of his knowledge of the London underworld.

Kersh was drafted into the army during the war, and ended up writing for the Army Film Unit. Despite apparently 'deserting' Kersh ended up in France during the liberation where he discovered that many of his French relatives had ended up in Hitler's extermination camps. After the war, Kersh continued to enjoy commercial success, mainly because of his short stories. However from about the mid 1950s onwards he started to suffer from poor health, and he also ran into money troubles (specifically relating to his failure to pay income tax). However Kersh continued to publish novels and stories, some of which were commercially and critically successful.

After his death in 1968 Kersh became deeply unfashionable and his work was almost completely forgotten. However in recent years there have been signs of a revival: in many ways he pioneered the British gangster story, which has become fashionable again with films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (directed by Guy Ritchie). Harlan Ellison is a huge fan of Kersh.

Works

• Jews without Jehovah (1934)
• Men Are So Ardent (1935)
• Night And The City (1938) (ISBN 0743413040)
• I Got References (1939) stories
• The Nine Lives of Bill Nelson (1942)
• Brain and Ten Fingers (1943)
• They Die with their Boots Clean (1943)
• Selected Stories (1943)
• The Dead Look On (1943)
• Faces in a Dusty Picture (1944)
• The Horrible Dummy and Other Stories (1944)
• The Weak and the Strong (1945)
• An Ape, A Dog And A Serpent (1945)
• Sergeant Nelson of the Guards (1945)
• Clean, Bright and Slightly Oiled (1946) stories
• Neither Man nor Dog: short stories (1946)
• Sad Road to the Sea (1947) stories
• The Song of the Flea (1948)
• Clock without Hands (1949) stories
• The Thousand Deaths of Mr. Small (1951)
• The Brazen Bull (1952) stories
• Prelude to a Certain Midnight (1953) (ISBN 0486245365)
• The Great Wash (1953) The Secret Masters in USA
• The Brighton Monster and Other Stories (1953)
• Guttersnipe (1954) stories
• Men Without Bones (1955) stories
• Fowlers End (1958)
• On an Odd Note (1958) stories
• Men Without Bones (US) (1960) stories
• The Ugly Face of Love and Other Stories (1960)
• The Best of Gerald Kersh (1960) edited by Simon Raven
• The Implacable Hunter (1961)
• More Than Once Upon A Time (1964) stories
• The Hospitality of Miss Tolliver (1965) stories
• A long cool day in hell (1966)
• The Angel and the Cuckoo (1966)
• Nightshade and Damnations (1968) stories
• Brock (1969)
• The Terrible Wild Flowers: Nine Stories (1980)
• Karmesin. The World's Greatest Criminal - or Most Outrageous Liar (2003) stories (ISBN 1932009035)

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