In his interview with Ed Gorman, Willeford listed his 3
favorites as Burnt Orange Heresy, Cockfighter, and High
Priest of California. The latter was, I believe, his first
novel published, by Royal Giant in 1953. He said the
"characterization of Russell Haxby ... is the best I've ever
done." What's interesting is that this publication was with a
newsstand pulp fiction company that depended on putting out a
lot of books (the _High Priest_ was do-a-dos with a book
first published by a hardbound pulp fiction concern in the
30s) and must have told him his novel had to be of a certain
length, have a emphasis on action, sex, violence but within
"decent" limits, and be fit for quick
"throwaway-type" reading. What editing he got beyond this
advice is probably unknowable. And yet it doesn't seem to
have stopped him from writing as well as he did when having a
reputation and being free to write without
interference.
Aren't the pulp, newsstand paperbacks with strict,
pragmantic, sold as everyday commodities, less likely to
count as talented writers' own favorites? Maybe Dell or
Fawcett Gold Medal, but Royal Giant, or Beacon
(a soft core sex publisher CW also wrote for at the beginning
of his career)?
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