"George V. Higgins, the author of The Friends of Eddie Coyle and 25 other novels, wrote gripping, ultra-realistic stories about individuals in crisis: criminals, police officers, lawyers and politicians. His work has been cited as a major influence by authors ranging from Elmore Leonard and James Ellroy to David Mamet. His first published novel, the bestselling The friends of Eddie Coyle, was hailed by the Observer as one of the top 20 American novels of the 20th century. In addition, Higgins wrote 4 nonfiction books, scores of short stories, newspaper and feature-length magazine journalism, literary criticism and book reviews, and hundreds of columns for three major newspapers. This itemization does not take into account his parallel careers as a prosecutor and U.S. Attorney, a lawyer in private practice, and a professor and teacher of writing. The Higgins archive contains documentation of all these activities, and is organized into series ." --Jeffrey Makala, "The George V. Higgins archive"
