Rene,
Re the Browne/Spillane anecdote:
> I don't recall where I saw the anecdote, it
may've
> been here even but
> according to Browne he'd asked Spillane's manager
if
> Spillane would
> write a fantasy story for a rather piddling fee
by
> the Mick's usual
> standards. The agent replied that Spillane
didn'
> work for that kind of
> cabbage but he did say he had a real stinker of
a
> story that everyone in
> creation had rejected. When Browne read it, he
found
> it unpublishable &
> somehow wrangled the agent into letting
him
> completely rewrite the story
> from scratch while advertising it as a
Spillane
> story. Apparently, sales
> for that issue of Fantastic went through the
roof.
When Browne told the story at a dinner I attended he never
said the story was absolutely unpublishable. What happened
was that the week before the magazine was due to appear,
Spillane did an inteview with LIFE magazine. In the course of
the interview, Spillane, who had no idea that his agent had
finally managed to sell the piece, told the same story that
Browne had already bought. Browne was now faced with having
to publish a story in which the surprise ending had been
given away, by the author himself no less, in one of
America's most popular magazines. Trying to salvage
something, he wrote a new story, trying to replicate
Spillane's style as best as he could, using the original
title.
The best part of the story is what happened later. Spillane,
incensed that anyone had put his name on a story he hadn't
written, phoned Btowne to ream him out. Browne explained the
predicament he was in and tried to apologize, saying that, as
a writer himself, he understood how upsetting this must have
been to Spillane.
"I've never heard of you," snorted Spillane. "What the hell
have you written?"
"Well, said Browne, "I don't write under my own name. I write
as John Evans."
"Evans?" said Spillane. "You mean the HALO books? Damned good
books!"
Suddenly, Browne was no longer a fraudulent user of the
Mick's name, but a fellow mystery writer, and all was
forgiven.
JIM DOHERTY
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