--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Ed Lynskey
<e_lynskey@...> wrote:
>
> There's been recent discussion of Frank Gruber and
in the
> rara-avis archives. I finished reading his short,
fast-paced
> _Swing Low, Swing Dead_ Johnny Fletcher mystery and
liked it.
> Gruber has a colloquial, breezy pulp prose style.
Fletcher's
> wrestling sidekick, Sam Cragg, adds to the fun. This
plot
> concerns a purloined rock-and-roll song titled
"Apple Taffy".
> My paperback is a Belmont PBO without a publication
date
> included. Anybody have any idea (1960s)?
>
> Ed Lynskey
>
I have the same Belmont edition. It was published in 1964 and
was
(I believe) the last Johnny Fletcher/Sam Cragg novel and the
only one to be published as a paperback original. All the
others first had a hardback edition by Rinehart.
It was a fun series and "breezy" describes it well. I also
liked his Otis Beagle series, although his stand-alones may
have been a slight cut above any of his series. It has been
too many years since I read any of them for me to be a good
judge now.
Gruber's greatest contribution to this form of fiction is
likely his memoir THE PULP JUNGLE (1967), possibly the best
first-hand account of a pulp writer. A shorter form of that
memoir was published with his collection OF Black Mask
stories BRASS KNUCKLES (1966). He died in 1969.
Richard Moore
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 06 Jun 2006 EDT