RARA-AVIS: Day Keene; Farewell, My Lovely

James & Livia Reasoner (liviajames@itexas.net)
Thu, 18 Dec 1997 23:11:51 -0600 All the recent mentions of Day Keene on the list prompted me to recall that
I have a pirated edition (published by Unibooks, whoever they were) of his
novel _Homicidal Lady_ that has the same cover art as my first novel,
_Texas Wind_. And the art doesn't have anything to do with the plot of
Keene's novel, either, just as it had nothing to do with mine.

Keene wrote quite a few stories for the pulps besides the two in Black
Mask. For Ace G-Man Stories, he wrote the following: "It Could Happen
Here" (Sept.'40), "Wake Up, America" (Jan.'41), "Last of the Fighting
Ainsleys" (Sept.'41), "What So Proudly We Hail" (Oct.'42), "Herr Yama From
Yokohama" (Feb.'43), and possibly others. "Herr Yama From Yokohama" was
reprinted in _The Super Feds_, ed. by Don Hutchison and published by
Starmont House in 1988. Keene's story "Rhapsody in Blood", from Dime
Mystery Magazine, Jan.'43, is reprinted in _The Defective Detective in the
Pulps_, published by Bowling Green Popular Press in 1983. Keene also wrote
at least one adventure story that was published in the pulp Short Story
during the Forties (don't have that issue available at the moment, but I'll
try to remember to look it up), as well as other assorted pulp mystery
stories. And he wrote a Western novel called (I believe) _Guns Along the
Brazos_. I have a lot of his novels but have read only a few of them. All
the ones I've read have been very entertaining, though. He was a good
storyteller, which comes as no surprise considering the era in which he
wrote.

I have to 'fess up: I didn't reread _The Maltese Falcon_. But I am
rereading _Farewell, My Lovely_ for the first time in almost thirty years.
I had forgotten just how good it is. Chandler's style is justly praised,
but he was also very good at the sheer nuts-and-bolts of moving the story
along. Again, not a surprise considering the era and the apprenticeship he
served in the pulps.

James Reasoner


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