Re: RARA-AVIS: Henry / Frank Kane

Laurent Lehmann (llehmann@club-internet.fr)
Thu, 16 Oct 1997 19:27:24 +0000 On 16 Oct 97 at 8:25, Frank Glenewinkel wrote:

> Amongst other writers James mentioned Henry Kane and Frank Kane.
> Where these really two different writers?
> I am not sure where I have heard it but I was somehow under the
> impression that it were two pseudonyms for a single ghostwriter.

Frank Kane (1912 or 1919 ? - 1968) wrote 37 novels. He created PI Johnny
Liddell in 1944 for a pulp, and wrote 29 novels about him. He also wrote
novelizations for _The Line-Up_ (I don't know this series; anybody care
to enlighten me ?) and _Johnny Staccato_ (using the pen name Frank Boyd).
He also wrote for the radio: The Shadow, The Fat Man (don't know this
series either; was it about a PI ?), Gangbusters,... and for TV : Mike
Hammer, S.A.7, The Investigators.

Henry Kane (1918 - ? ) was initially a lawyer. He wrote 60 novels. About
30 of those starred PI Peter Chambers. Other short-lived serial
characters were PIs Marla Trent and McGregor. He also wrote the movie
adaptations of McBain's _Cop Hater_ and _The Mugger_.

Peter Chambers was also the pen name of British writer Dennis Phillips
(1924 - ? ). He first used the alias Peter Chester for five novels, then
wrote 32 books about US PI Mark Preston under this name.

All of these authors wrote pretty standard '50s PI stories (the 'generic
PI' Pronzini refered to), and seem all but forgotten these days, except
for a handful of PI aficionados like me :-) . IMHO, Henry Kane was the
best of the three. Are there any other forgotten long-series writers like
those ? Gary ?

Laurent
____
"When you're slapped, you'll take and like it"
Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon,
from Hardboiled by P. Thompson & S. Usukawa.
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