"The best American noir of the century" by Ellroy and Penzler (eds) (Windmill, 2010)

Stories from 1923 to 2007, each preceded by up to a page of detailed notes about the author - Mickey Spillane (who had an interesting life), Ed McBain (who was born "Salvatore A. Lombino" then changed his name to Evan Hunter), Patricia Highsmith (the only woman), etc.

In the introduction, definitions are attempted -

• common features of American noir are "venetian blinds, railroad tracks ... a femme fatale ... menacing alleys, seedy hotel rooms"
• "the two subcategories of the mystery genre, private detective stories and noir fiction, are diametrically opposed, with mutually exclusive philosophical premises. Noir works ... are existential, pessimistic tales about people, including (or especially) protagonists, who are seriously flawed ... the central figures in noir stories are doomed to hopelessness" (Otto Penzler)

A few of the authors were more popular in France than the States. Suicide (not always by the most guilty character) ends a few pieces. Later stories are more literary (not surprising, given that some of the authors are Lit Profs, etc). 1st-person characters admit to being a little strange.

The first story, "Spurs" by Tod Robbins was what the infamous "Freaks" movie (which I've seen) was loosely based on. It says that "Ellroy is arguably the most influential American crime writer of the late twentieth century" - here's a sample - "Mo contracted stomach cancer about that time and got the word: half a decade tops - enjoy life while you can. Cash skimmed off Jerry Katzenbach's books provided class A treatment. Mo held his own against the big C. Jerry K. got bum press for his whorehouse, kiboshed it, and banished Mo to the Coast, where Mickey Cohen welcomed him with open arms, using his juice to get Mo's two statch-rape indiscretions plea-bargained to bubbkis".

I liked Mackinlay Kantor's "Gun Crazy", David Goodis's "Professional Man", Cornell Woolrich's "For the rest of her life" (from 1968 - a leap in sophistication compared to earlier stories), Stephen Greenleaf's "Iris", Lawrence Block's "Like a bone in the throat", and William Gay's "The paperhanger".