Person:Clifford Knight (12)

DEATH: California Death Index, 1940-1997 Name: KNIGHT, CLIFFORD R Social Security #: 572442062 Sex: MALE Birth Date: 7 Dec 1886 Birthplace: KANSAS Death Date: 3 Jul 1963 Death Place: LOS ANGELES Mother's Maiden Name: Father's Surname:

BIOGRAPHY: Knight (Clifford) Papers http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt5s2006rw/bioghist/345722010 Knight was born on December 7, 1886 in Fulton, Kansas; attended Washburn College and University of Michigan; assistant professor, Signal Corps Officers Training School, Yale University, 1918-19; subeditor, Kansas City Star, 1920-29; contributed fiction and short stories to several magazines, including Collier's and Argosy; wrote mystery novels, including Tommy of the Voices (1918), The Affair of the Scarlet Crab (1937), The Affair of the Heavenly Voice (1937), and The Affair of the Ginger Lei (1938).

http://members.aol.com/MG4273/blochman.htm#Knight Clifford Knight Knight's "The Affair at the Circle T" (1946) has the sort of detailed Background common in his fiction, in this case, of a Nevada dude ranch. Most of his books' backgrounds are locations out West, or in the Pacific. The solution to the mystery, discovered by his series detective Professor Huntoon Rogers, turns on science. There is also a routine investigation of alibis in the tale. All in all, it shows signs of the Realist tradition.

Huntoon Rogers first appeared in The Affair of the Scarlet Crab (1937), a book set against a Background of a scientific expedition to the Galapagos Islands. Many of the characters in the book are University professors; University settings are frequent among Realist school writers. So are boats and shipping. Puzzle plot elements are skimpy in this not very inspired mystery; the best ideas involve the second murder, and follow Realist school traditions of alibis and the "breakdown of identity". The storytelling is also grim and depressing, and the book is not recommended. This book does not seem like a pure example of the Realist school. It also shows signs of the Van Dine tradition. Rogers is a genius amateur detective; he is an English professor, not a scientist. And the characters seem like the sort of intelligentsia that often show up in Van Dine school books, although they are scientists, not the arts oriented scholars of Van Dine novels.

The Affair of the Scarlet Crab seems oddly anticipatory of Michelangelo Antonioni's film L'Avventura (1959 - 1960). This is discussed in the article on Antonioni.

After World War II, Knight abandoned Rogers to write about non-series detectives. Knight's Death of a Big Shot (1951) shows several similarities with Erle Stanley Gardner. The hero is a Rogue, who uses his skills to help an innocent working woman caught in a jam, like many Gardner heroes. The setting, a Southern California fruit ranch, recalls the agricultural communities of Gardner's Doug Selby books. Some of Knight's imagery also relates to the film noirs that were popular in his time. Hit men often showed up in films; Charles McGraw played them in Robert Siodmak's The Killers (1946) and Anthony Mann's T-Men (1947). Highway Patrol barricades, and searches for fugitives show up in both the prose of Karl W. Dexter, and in such films as Joseph H. Lewis' Gun Crazy (1949). One might also note that the opening chapters of Death of a Big Shot constitute a prototypical Road tale, several years before Beat writers made being On the Road (1957) fashionable in mainstream literature.

This does not mean that Knight's book is derivative. In fact, its opening chapters (1 - 5) are strikingly original. These sections are more thriller than mystery; they also contain a delicate love story, and lots of entertainment value. They are only marginally related to the mystery plot that follows, although Knight does return to their plot briefly with some interesting material at the end of Chapter 15. The later mystery sections of the novel disappoint. They also change the position of the hero in unpleasant ways. In the early sections, he is a powerful, clever rogue who does a lot to help the heroine. He, and the author, are also ingenious about both his hit man work, and his ways of aiding the heroine. In the later book, the world starts closing in on him, a much less fun thing to read about. One wishes Knight had stuck to his guns, and written a whole book about the protagonist in his opening pages.

PASSPORT: U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 Name: Clifford Reynolds Knight Birth Date: 7 Dec 1886 Birth Place: Fulton, Kansas Residence: Parsons, Kansas Passport Issue Date: 22 Jul 1911 Passport Includes a Photo: N Source: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925 (M1490) Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: Passport Applications, 1795-1905; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1372, 694 rolls); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

CENSUS: 1900 United States Federal Census Name: Clifford R Knight Home in 1900: Parsons Ward 2, Labette, Kansas Age: 13 Estimated Birth Year: abt 1887 Birthplace: Kansas Relationship to head-of-house: Son Father's Name: Westley Mother's Name: Belle Race: White Occupation: Household Members: Name Age Westley Knight 51 Belle Knight 37 Allielah a Knight 15 Clifford R Knight 13 Frank W Knight 10 Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Parsons Ward 2, Labette, Kansas; Roll: T623 485; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 123.

1910 United States Federal Census Name: Cliford r Knight Age in 1910: 23 Estimated Birth Year: abt 1887 Birthplace: Kansas Relation to Head of House: Son Father's Name: Wesley E Father's Birth Place: Massachusetts Mother's Name: Belle T Mother's Birth Place: Iowa Home in 1910: Parsons Ward 2, Labette, Kansas Marital Status: Single Race: White Gender: Male Household Members: Name Age Wesley E Knight 53 Belle T Knight 47 Cliford r Knight 23 Clarence W Knight 20 Dale H Poole 26 Leela Poole 25 Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Parsons Ward 2, Labette, Kansas; Roll: T624_443; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 146; Image: 1115.

1920 United States Federal Census Name: Clifford R Knight Home in 1920: Webb City Ward 1, Jasper, Missouri Age: 33 years Estimated Birth Year: abt 1887 Birthplace: Kansas Relation to Head of House: Son Father's Name: Wesley C Father's Birth Place: Massachusetts Mother's Birth Place: Iowa Marital Status: Widow Race: White Sex: Male Able to read: Yes Able to Write: Yes Image: 469 Household Members: Name Age Wesley C Knight 61 Clifford R Knight 33 Frank W Knight 30 Mabel C B Knight 27 Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Webb City Ward 1, Jasper, Missouri; Roll: T625_922; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 70; Image: 469.

1930 United States Federal Census Name: Clifford Knight Age: 43 years Estimated birth year: 1886 Birthplace: Kansas Relation to Head-of-house: Head Race: O Home in 1930: Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii Territory Occupation: Author - Private Practice Image Source: Year: 1930; Census Place: Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii Territory; Roll: T626_2633; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 16; Image: 0595.