RARA-AVIS: Ballard

From: Kent Johnson ( kjohnson@slip.net)
Date: 12 May 2000


>Richard Moore wrote:
>I also enjoyed Neil McNeil's series but not as
>much as his work under his own name W.T. Ballard. Back then I wasn't aware
>of his Black Mask history but discovered him by reading the paperbacks based
>in Vegas.

After WWII Ballard said that you couldn't give detective stories away, so he turned to writing westerns as Todhunter (the T. in W.T.) Ballard. The novel GOLD IN CALIFORNIA which won a Spur award is quite good, but his others are pretty padded and uninteresting. His western short stories however are great. He particularly had a knack for romantic comedy. Unfortunately, those stories are mostly buried in the pulps -- he really deserves a short story collection.

________________

Kent Johnson San Francisco kjohnson@slip.net

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