--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Crider"
<macavityabc@...> wrote:
>
> In my Sheriff Dan Rhodes novels one of the
characters is a big fan
of Ed
> McBain's 87th Precinct books, and I had a little fun
with the
various pen
> names in one book. I also included McBain's birth
name and even
threw in a
> Simpsons reference. I got a very nice letter from
McBain about
it, but his
> main purpose wasn't to compliment me. It was to let
me know that
his legal
> name was Evan Hunter.
>
> Bill Crider
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
removed]
This reminds me of aspects of Hunter's Smithsonian
appearance
(mentioned in an earlier post) circa 1982 that bother me to
this day. As I mentioned earlier, this was before the general
lionizing of mystery writers and to be invited to be a guest
of the Smithsonian Institute was understandably a very big
deal for each of the writers.
I knew the organizer Michele Slung because she had selected
one of my short stories for an anthology she edited and I
introduced myself at the first event. Thereafter, I would
arrive somewhat early and chat with her and with the
evening's author as the crowd arrived. Without it ever being
discussed, I think Michele liked having someone else there
who was knowledgable about the writer's career and could help
put them at ease. Donald Westlake and Eric Ambler were among
the other participants.
I recall that Hunter seemed very nervous. He struck me as
someone who was genuinely shy and uncomfortable in this type
of setting. He grabbed the issue of Manhunt I had brought as
if the recognizable artifact could serve as a life preserver.
We chatted for some minutes and I immediately liked
him.
He gave his talk and then opened it up for questions. The
audience members seemed shy and reluctant to say anything. I
lobbed up some softballs and kept things moving. I considered
this part of my unofficial duties during the series.
But that night the questions from the audience lagged more
than usual and I kept having to dig deeper. Eventually, I
cheerfully asked something like: "Wasn't your birthname S.A.
Lombino?" His face flushed and he stammered like a guilty
witness in a Perry Mason novel. I've read his later comments
on hsi name change to Pete Hammil and others but that night
he was undone by the question. He sort of confirmed it but
not quite and he questioned how it mattered and then turned
it back on me in a bit of a counter-attack.
Now I didn't mean anything by it and didn't consider it the
revelation of the ages. It was fairly well known and he had
published stories under the byline S.A. Lombino. I had no
agenda in asking the question other than causing a rumble of
interest in the audience (and let's be honest here, a bit of
a "look ma! I know something special!"). Heck, I even knew
that Scott Meredith always pushed changing names that seemed
too ethnic.
His reaction caught me by surprise and slammed the black hat
on me as far as the rest of the audience was concerned. I
stewed on this for a while as the questions from the others
continued to be slow in coming and my back got up. I was a
little pissed off. At that time I had spent most of my
working life in the media and if he thought that was a tough
question, he didn't know much about tough questions. So I
threw him a couple that were very tough...firmly based on
fact but so tough that I blush today to remember them. It's
one of those times I would love to have back.
Richard Moore
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 25 May 2006 EDT