Reading an interesting book often sends me to abebooks.com
where I buy a gaggle of books by that writer. Most recently
this happened to me after reading SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE
WRITERS, BUT I WOULDN'T WANT MY DAUTHER TO MARRY ONE
(Sherbourne Press 1970) by Robert Turner, a guy who came up
in the pulps and prospered in the digest era.
Turner admitted he had had bad luck with novels and spent far
more time discussing his short stories. He was most proud of
being a regular in
"Manhunt," the highly influencial digest that began in 1953,
prospered through most of the 50s but retreated into reprints
and poorly paid new material in the 1960s. In its heyday,
"Manhunt" was a proving ground for young writers like Evan
Hunter and hot writers like Mickey Spillane, Ross Macdonald,
Richard Prather and "big names" like Erskine Caldwell, James
Farrell, B. Traven, and James M. Cain.
"Manhunt" meant so much to Turner that he resented the fact
that they never published his picture along with his bio
while publishing more than one on Hal Ellson, trumpeted as
the author of "Duke." It bugged him so much that he dashed
off a parady of Ellson and sent it to his agent Scott
Meredith as a joke. Meredith surprised Turner by not only
liking the story by selling it to "Playboy."
There are lots of stories like that in Turners autobiography.
But my enjoyment and appreciation increased immensely once I
recieved via abebooks the collection SHROUD 9 (Powell Books
1970). Turner mentioned this collection in his autobio
published the same year. As he noted, Powell was a publisher
willing to take risks. I recall Powell as the first publisher
of Karl Edward Wagner and the publisher of interesting
collections by Charles Fritch and Donald Wolheim. I remember
it more as a SF and fantasy publisher and always thought
Forrest J. Ackerman must have been the editor or close to the
editor because A.E. Van Vogt and other Ackerman clients were
all published by Powell.
I decided to take a chance on Turner's SHROUD 9, even though
every description by booksellers echoed the blurb that
indicated it was a fantasy/horror story. "Eighteen stories of
ghoulish terror..." it reads.
In fact, the overwhelming majority of the stories are from
mystery digests including 11 from "Manhunt." Those that were
published elsewhere were also crime or mystery stories.
So I heartily recommend SHROUD 9 to anyone who hungers for
stories from
"Manhunt" but who doesn't want to pay the heavy price issues
now bring. Turner was a mainstay of the magazine and I have
to say several of his stories are as hardboiled as they come
and others really explore new territory in plotting. Having
read the stories behind the stories in SOME OF MY BEST
FRIENDS just makes the reading more delicious. Neither book
is common but there are reasonable copies of Shroud 9
available and you can keep your eye out for copies of the
autobio.
I've picked up a few of Turner's novels but have missed out
on several mysteries. I want to find the one that Evan Hunter
sold for him when Hunter was working for Scott Meredith. It
was for a struggling paperback house that published novels
under the Falcon imprint. The fee was $250 down and
another
$250 on handing in an approved manuscript. The whole thing
went smoothly and he collected the second fee but then Hunter
called him and told him he had to add 5000 words to the end
of the novel. The way Turner managed it was pretty slick and
won Hunter's admiration. Hunter had personal experience with
the publisher as they published his first mystery the
legendary THE EVIL SLEEP!
(1952) as well as another the same year THE BIG FIX, later
reprinted by Gold Medal as SO NUDE, SO DEAD as by Richard
Marsten. The story of the upped word count had special
meaning for me as I once had to add 5000 words to a novel
manuscript after handing in a complete version at the
original word length. It is tough as nails to do.
Anyway, get both if you can but most certainly the story
collection. Good stuff!!
Richard Moore
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