From The Hardboiled Dicks Tucked away in the back pages of Ron Goulart's classic collection of detective fiction from the pulps, The Hardboiled Dicks (1965), is a short list of hard-boiled writers worth he considered worth investigating, along with a few suggested titles and even a cursory overview. Hardly definitive or essential, but it is interesting. The … Continue reading Ron Goulart’s Informal Reading List
Tag: Writers & Writing
Frederick Nebel
Pseudonyms include Grimes Hill, Lewis Nebel & Eric Lewis (1903-1966) He was born LOUIS FREDERICK NEBEL on November 3, 1903. He dropped out of high school at fifteen, allegedly after only one day of classes. He worked the docks and checked cars. He became a valet and, in some versions of his biography, a sailor on a tramp … Continue reading Frederick Nebel
Carl Hiaasen
(1953 -) "If you were pursuing your cousin's kidnapper across Florida, you would want a man like Skink at your side. Maybe." -- Kirkus Reviews on Skink--No Surrender Okay, let's admit it. Florida has, er, problems. Fortunately, journalist, muckraker and novelist CARL HIAASEN has it covered, in one of the most-entertaining string of comic novels the … Continue reading Carl Hiaasen
Some Things About Howard Browne
Pseudonyms include John Evans, Alexander Blade, William Brengle, Lawrence Chandler, Ivar Jorgensen, Alexander Blade, Jack Lait, Lee Mortimer, John Pollard, Mickey Spillane and Lee Francis (1907-1999) One possible reason HOWARD BROWNE is given such short shrift these days is that he was just too darn good at too many things at once. Some remember him as a … Continue reading Some Things About Howard Browne
Leigh Brackett
(1915-1978) "Hawks liked my dialogue and called my agent. He was somewhat shaken when he discovered that it was Miss and not Mister Brackett, but he rallied bravely and signed me on anyway..." -- Leigh Brackett "In walked a rather attractive girl who looked like she had just come in from a tennis match. She … Continue reading Leigh Brackett
Who Was Nicholas Carter?
And who wrote all those Nick Carter stories? In a way, Nick Carter, arguably the most published character in American literature, had two daddies. John R. Coryell was the man who actually wrote the first Nuck Carter story, "The Old Detective's Pupil; or, The Mysterious Crime of Madison Square," in the September 18, 1886 issue of Street … Continue reading Who Was Nicholas Carter?
Frank Gruber’s “Fool-proof” 11 Point Formula for Mystery Short Stories
By Frank Gruber In 1966, prolific pulpster Frank Gruber published Brass Knuckles, a collection of short stories featuring Oliver Quade, the "Human Encyclopedia." It was Gruber's only collection of his work to be published during his lifetime, and it's got to have one of the most gawd-awful covers I've ever seen on the cover of … Continue reading Frank Gruber’s “Fool-proof” 11 Point Formula for Mystery Short Stories
They Also Served: George Sutton
EDITOR OF BLACK MASK Although editor Joseph T. "Cap" Shaw gets most of the attention for making Black Mask magazine what it was, it was actually GEORGE W. SUTTON, JR., the pulp's second editor, succeeding F.M. Osborne, who turned the boat around. And just in time, too, because in the pulp's first few years, the emphasis … Continue reading They Also Served: George Sutton
They Also Served: Joseph “Cap” Shaw
EDITOR OF BLACK MASK (1926-36) "Shaw was the finest coachwhip I ever met in an editor's chair. In my thirty-five years of freelance fiction, no one stands out so." -- Lester Dent, in a letter to Philip Durham "We wrote better for him than we could have written for anybody else." -- Raymond Chandler, in … Continue reading They Also Served: Joseph “Cap” Shaw
Authors & Creators
This site focusses on the detectives; not, for the most part, on their creators, or, as WB head Jack Warner so elegantly put it, those "schmucks with Underwoods." Still, sometimes an author's work can't really be covered solely by a discussion of his or her creations. In some cases, their work is so significant and/or … Continue reading Authors & Creators