Scarface - Trail, Armitage

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Résumé :
Maurice Coons, writing under the pseudonym Armitage Trail, gathered the elements for 'Scarface' when living in Chicago, where he became acquainted with many local Sicilian gangs. He prowled the murky streets of Chicago's gangland with a friend every night for two years, returning home to put to paper and write a book which somewhat documented his experiences. The resulted novel was 'Scarface', and it was worth the effort. Not just a thinly disguised biography of Al Capone, 'Scarface' is a gangster tale surprisingly rich with character and atmosphere. The source for the 1932 Howard Hawks picture, as well as the Brian de Palma remake.

Biographie:
Armitage Trail (1902-1930) was an American novelist best known for Scarface, a work that became closely associated with early portrayals of organized crime in American literature. His writing reflects the atmosphere of the prohibition era and its impact on urban life and criminal enterprise....

Sommaire:
A crime novel centred on the rise and consolidation of power within the American underworld, tracing the career of a figure shaped by ambition, violence, and opportunity. Set in an urban landscape defined by prohibition-era conditions, the narrative follows the gradual expansion of criminal enterprise alongside the personal transformation required to sustain it. Armitage Trail constructs the work through a sequence of escalating actions, emphasizing the relationship between organization and control. The focus remains on the mechanics of power-alliances, enforcement, and the management of risk-while allowing character to emerge through decision and consequence. The tone is direct, with restraint applied to both violence and commentary. Positioned within early twentieth-century American crime fiction, Scarface provides a narrative counterpart to contemporary accounts of organized crime, contributing to the development of the gangster novel. Its continued recognition reflects its role in shaping later representations of criminal ascent and the structures that support it....