I have read two Horace McCoy novels and both were excellent.
I would rank THEY SHOOT HORSES DON'T THEY very high. Even
though I read it after the movie, it still blew me away. I
read I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME much more recently and while
it did not impact me as much as HORSES, it was quite a good
novel about the Hollywood 1930s that interested so many
writers. I recommend both novels.
Considering how much I liked those two. It is surprising that
I have not read the others. And I have the other four. If
anyone has reprinted in one volume his Black Mask and other
short stories, I am not aware of it. If there has been one,
let me know as I would love to read them.
His short stories were noticed beyond the pulp audience. As a
short story lover, over the years I have accumulated various
editions of the annual O'Henry and "Best Short Stories of the
Year" collections. I have always been impressed how the
editors in the 1920s, 30s and 40s paid attention to popular
fiction, including the pulps. Beyond the stories reprinted,
the "Best" series (edited for years by Edward J. O'Brien)
included an honor roll that always included pulp stories and
also ran brief bios of various writers. For example, the 1928
edition included a bio of H.P. Lovecraft. Here is the brief
bio on Horace McCoy from THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF 1931
edited by Edward J. O'Brien (Dodd, Mead 1931):
"McCoy, Horace. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, April 14, 1897.
High school education. Left home in 1914 to drift from town
to town in the old South and landed in Dallas in 1917.
Enlisted in the National Guard, Troop G, 112th Cavalry, built
Camp Bowie, Texas for 26th Division and then transferred to
the Air Service. Went to France in 1917. Engaged in
Aisne-Marne, Lys-Somme, Toul Sector, St. Mihiel and
Meuse-Argonne offensives. Was wounded at Barrancourt by
machine gun fire. After the Armistice wandered over France
and Italy. Learned a lot about life from amateur acting in
the Dallas Little Theatre. Resigned newpaper work in 1929 to
devote his time exclusively to fiction writing, and has
contributed to a majority of the leading pulp-paper
periodicals. Lives in Dallas in a tiny apartment alone with
his war trophies, his typewriter, and his ambitions. Destests
any sort of intrusion, has no friends in Texas, and wants
none."
I have always felt that McCoy was one of those writers who
had tremendous potential but ended up devoting most of his
energy to Hollywood potboilers. His first credited screenplay
was an insignificant Bela Lugosi movie "Post Inspector" in
1936, the year after HORSES saw print. He did many others
over the next couple of decades, most long forgotten. There
were a few "A" pictures like "Gentleman Jim" with Errol Flynn
but most were forgotten programmers. I'm sure they paid well
but I wonder if they matched up to the
"ambitions" he mentioned when he was living in that tiny
Dallas apartment in 1931.
Richard Moore
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