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Black Mask (magazine)
''Black Mask'' was a pulp magazine first published in April 1920 by the journalist H. L. Mencken and the drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine was one of several money-making publishing ventures to support the prestigious literary magazine ''The Smart Set'', which Mencken edited, and which had operated at a loss since at least 1917. Under their editorial hand, the magazine was not exclusively a publisher of crime fiction, offering, according to the magazine, "the best stories available of adventure, the best mystery and detective stories, the best romances, the best love stories, and the best stories of the occult." The magazine's first editor was Florence Osborne (credited as F. M. Osborne). Editorial control After eight issues, Mencken and Nathan considered their initial $600 investment to have been sufficiently profitable, and they sold the magazine to its publishers, Eltinge Warner and Eugene Crow, for $12,500. The magazine was then edited by George W. Sutton (1922†... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Maltese Falcon (novel)
''The Maltese Falcon'' is a 1930 detective novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine '' Black Mask'' beginning with the September 1929 issue. The story is told entirely in external third-person narrative; there is no description whatsoever of any character's thoughts or feelings, only what they say and do, and how they look. The novel has been adapted several times for the cinema. The main character, Sam Spade (who also appeared later in some lesser-known short stories), was a departure from Hammett's nameless detective, The Continental Op. Spade combined several features of previous detectives, notably his cold detachment, keen eye for detail, unflinching and sometimes ruthless determination to achieve his own form of justice, and a complete lack of sentimentality. In 1990 the novel ranked 10th in Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time list by the Crime Writers' Association. Five years later, in a similar list by Mystery Writers of America, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Cain (author)
George Carroll Sims (May 30, 1902 – June 23, 1966), better known by his pen names Paul Cain and Peter Ruric, was an American pulp fiction author and screenwriter. He is best known for his novel ''Fast One'', which is considered to be a landmark of the pulp fiction genre and was called the "high point in the ultra hard-boiled manner" by Raymond Chandler.''Danger Is My Business: An Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines'', by Lee Server (Chronicle Books, 1993) (p.70). Sims enjoyed a brief career in Hollywood as a screenwriter during the 1930s, including writing the screenplay for the Boris Karloff vehicle ''The Black Cat''. He died in North Hollywood in 1966. Career Sims moved to Los Angeles in 1918 and began working as a screenwriter in 1923. '' Black Mask'' first published ''Fast One'' as five novelettes in 1932. It was then published in book form by Doubleday in 1933. ''The New York Times'' described it as “a ceaseless welter of bloodshed and frenzy, a su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Gruber (writer)
Frank Gruber (born February 2, 1904, Elmer, Minnesota, died December 9, 1969, Santa Monica, California) was an American writer. He was a writer of stories for pulp fiction magazines. He also wrote dozens of novels, mostly Westerns and detective stories. Gruber wrote many scripts for Hollywood movies and television shows and was the creator of three TV series. He sometimes wrote under the pen names Stephen Acre, Charles K. Boston and John K. Vedder. Career Gruber said that as a nine-year-old newsboy, he read his first book, ''Luke Walton, the Chicago Newsboy'' by Horatio Alger. During the next seven years he read a hundred more Alger books and said they influenced him professionally more than anything else in his life. They told how poor boys became rich, but what they instilled in Gruber was an ambition, at age nine or ten, to be an author. He had written his first book before age 11, using a pencil on wrapping paper. Age 13 or 14, his ambition died for a while but several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cornell Woolrich
Cornell George Hopley Woolrich ( ; December 4, 1903 – September 25, 1968) was an American novelist and short story writer. He sometimes used the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley. His biographer, Francis Nevins Jr., rated Woolrich the fourth best crime writer of his day, behind Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner and Raymond Chandler. Biography Woolrich was born in New York City; his parents separated when he was young. He lived for a time in Mexico with his father before returning to New York to live with his mother, Claire Attalie Woolrich. He attended Columbia University but left in 1926 without graduating when his first novel, ''Cover Charge'', was published. As Eddie Duggan observes, "Woolrich enrolled at New York's Columbia University in 1921 where he spent a relatively undistinguished year until he was taken ill and was laid up for some weeks. It was during this illness (a ''Rear-Window''-like confinement involving a gangrenous foot, according to one versi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casey, Crime Photographer
''Casey, Crime Photographer'' (also known as ''Crime photographer''; ''Flashgun Casey''; ''Casey, Press Photographer''; ''Stephen Bristol, Crime Photographer'') was an American media franchise that lasted from the 1930s until the 1960s. Created by crime writer George Harmon Coxe, the photographer Casey was featured in radio, film, theater, novels, magazines and comic books, and television. Launched in a 1934 issue of the pulp magazine ''Black Mask'', the character Jack "Flashgun" Casey, was a crime photographer for the newspaper ''The Morning Express''. With the help of reporter Ann Williams (portrayed on radio and TV by Jan Miner), he solved crimes and recounted his stories to friends at The Blue Note, their favorite tavern. ''Black Mask'' '' "Flashgun" Casey'' began in the ''March 1934'' issue of '' Black Mask'', in the story "Return Engagement". This story was later used in the film ''Here's Flash Casey''. Twenty more stories appeared in the magazine over the next decades ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Harmon Coxe
George Harmon Coxe (April 23, 1901 – January 31, 1984) was an American writer of crime fiction. He is perhaps best known for his series featuring crime scene photographer Casey, Crime Photographer, Jack "Flashgun" Casey, which became a popular Radio programming, radio show airing through to the 1940s. Early years Coxe grew up in Olean, New York, where he was born, and Elmira, New York. He graduated from Ernie Davis Academy, Elmira Free Academy, then attended Cornell and Purdue for one year each and then worked for newspapers in New York, Florida, and California. After working for a printer for five years, he became a full-time writer. Overview Coxe started writing around 1922, initially working as a newspaperman and penning stories for nickel-and-dime pulp magazine, pulp fiction publications. To maximize his earnings, he originally wrote in many genres, including romance and adventure stories. But he was especially fond of crime fiction and soon made it his specialty. He wr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh B
Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day France * Hugh of Austrasia (7th century), Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia * Hugh I, Count of Angoulême (1183–1249) * Hugh II, Count of Angoulême (1221–1250) * Hugh III, Count of Angoulême (13th century) * Hugh IV, Count of Angoulême (1259–1303) * Hugh, Bishop of Avranches (11th century), France * Hugh I, Count of Blois (died 1248) * Hugh II, Count of Blois (died 1307) * Hugh of Brienne (1240–1296), Count of the medieval French County of Brienne * Hugh, Duke of Burgundy (d. 952) * Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy (1057–1093) * Hugh II, Duke of Burgundy (1084–1143) * Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy (1142–1192) * Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy (1213–1272) * Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy (1294–1315) * Hugh Capet (939–996), King of France * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adventure Novel
Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of romance fiction. History In the Introduction to the ''Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction'', Critic Don D'Ammassa defines the genre as follows: D'Ammassa argues that adventure stories make the element of danger the focus; hence he argues that Charles Dickens's novel ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is an adventure novel because the protagonists are in constant danger of being imprisoned or killed, whereas Dickens's ''Great Expectations'' is not because "Pip's encounter with the convict is an adventure, but that scene is only a device to advance the main plot, which is not truly an adventure." Adventure has been a common theme since the earliest days of written fiction. Indeed, the standard plot of Medieval romances was a series of adventures. Following a plot framework as old as Heliodorus, and so durable as t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Fiction
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and Louis L'Amour from the mid-20th century. The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the popularity of televised Westerns such as '' Bonanza''. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside a few west American states, only carry a small number of Western fiction books. History Pre-1850s The predecessor of the western in American literature emerged early with tales of the frontier. The most famous of the early 19th-century frontier novels were James Fenimore Cooper's five novels comprising the '' Leatherstocking Tales''. Cooper's novels were largely set in what was at the time the American frontier: the Appalachian Mountains and areas west of there. As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katherine Brocklebank
Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christian era it came to be associated with the Greek adjective (), meaning "pure", leading to the alternative spellings ''Katharine'' and ''Katherine''. The former spelling, with a middle ''a'', was more common in the past and is currently more popular in the United States than in Britain. ''Katherine'', with a middle ''e'', was first recorded in England in 1196 after being brought back from the Crusades. Popularity and variations English In Britain and the U.S., ''Catherine'' and its variants have been among the 100 most popular names since 1880. The most common variants are ''Katherine,'' ''Kathryn,'' and ''Katharine''. The spelling ''Catherine'' is common in both English and French. Less-common variants in English include ''Katheryn'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 – May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, author, women's suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for ''The Miami Herald'', she became a freelance writer, producing over one hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book '' The Everglades: River of Grass'' (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson's influential book ''Silent Spring'' (1962). Her books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, enabling her to advance her causes. As a young woman, Douglas was outspoken and politically conscious of the women's suffrage and civil rights movements. She was called upon to take a central r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Todhunter Ballard
Willis Todhunter Ballard (December 13, 1903 – December 27, 1980) was an American writer, known for his Westerns and mystery novels. Pseudonyms Ballard was a prolific pulp writer, most notably for the legendary mystery magazine '' Black Mask'' under the name W.T. Ballard. He also authored several mystery and crime novels under that name. Ballard wrote western novels as Todhunter Ballard and the following pseudonyms: Jack Slade, Hunter D'Allard, Clay Turner, John Hunter, Sam Bowie, Parker Bonner, Brian Fox, and Clint Reno. He wrote numerous teleplays for shows such as ''Death Valley Days'' and ''Shannon''. Personal Ballard was born on December 13, 1903, in Cleveland, Ohio. Ballard attended schools in Cleveland and Westtown, Pennsylvania. In 1926 he graduated from Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio. He was married to Phoebe Dwiggins, daughter of Clare Victor Dwiggins, the popular American cartoonist known as "Dwig." He died December 27, 1980. Work Ballard wrote thousands ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
