Photo by Justin Vaughan
“The infinite small and great conflict of wills out of which is woven drama — is it not plentiful in Richmond?”
Indeed, it is.In the nearly 100 years since Richmond's Mary Johnston wrote these words, in an introduction to the eclectic new literary journal, The Reviewer, the city has left its indelible mark in countless books.
As we all know, and as authors have learned, Richmond lends itself to a variety of moods, from the offbeat (who could ever forget large-thumbed Sissy Hankshaw, of Tom Robbins’ 1976 novel, “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,” learning to hitchhike by going up and down Monument Avenue?) to the gritty (get a load of “The Devil’s Triangle,” the latest in the Howard Owens mysteries, wherein reporter Willie Black investigates what caused a pilot to slam a small aircraft into a packed Sheppard Street bar).
Gruesome plots have long been a Richmond staple — you might even say they’re the city’s chief literary export.
What is it about this city that lends itself to the dark, the strange, the twisted?
Who among us can’t drop a few lines from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”? But did you know that the legendary author — who began his literary life at the Southern Literary Messenger, at the corner of 15th and Main streets — practically invented the detective genre?
The best-selling mystery writer David Baldacci doesn’t belong in Poe’s company, but he does share the master’s fascination with crime, and his Richmond roots run deep. Baldacci grew up here, named a character after the city (Alan Richmond, the murdered president of “Absolute Power”) and, for the last 16 years, has provided backing for Virginia Commonwealth University’s annual Cabell First Novelist Award.
In Patricia Cornwall’s Scarpetta series, crime and Richmond have long been entwined. The heroine, medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, works in Shockoe, and Cornwall shadowed real-life examiner Marcella Fierro to nail down details.
What is it about this city that lends itself to the dark, the strange, the twisted?
Beyond those popular airport novels, there’s the 2010 anthology of “Richmond Noir,” edited by Andrew Blossom and Brian Castleberry, as well as a short story collection, “Richmond Macabre: Nightmares From the River City,” edited by Beth Brown and Phil Ford. Another 2016 story collection, this one aimed at younger readers — “River City Secrets,” edited by Lana Krumwiede — offers dark tales set in Hollywood Cemetery, Tredegar Iron Works and The Jefferson Hotel.
The tales of Dennis Danvers have used Richmond as backdrop, including “The Watch,” from 2003, which plopped Russian anarchist Prince Alexeivich Kropotkin in Oregon Hill, to 2016’s “Bad Angel,” in which the city is stalked by a troubled winged spirit.
If this love of the dark and fantastical can be traced to Poe, it remains to be seen whether the more grounded, realist direction that Johnston anticipated in 1921 will ever develop legs.
But thanks to writing programs at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond, to writer’s organizations such as the James River Writers that support the efforts of newbies and vets, to independent bookstores like Chop Suey Books and Fountain Bookstore, and to the vital community of book clubs, the scene is alive and well. Read on through our Reading, Writing & Richmond feature and see for yourself.
