I have no idea why Keene claimed that 1943 story was his
first, as he was
definitely publishing regularly in the pulps before that. I
own a copy of
the January 1941 issue of Ace G-Man Stories, in which the
Keene novelette
"Wake Up, America!" appears. (The blurb for the story, from
the table of
contents page: "How could John Lone Wolf, Indian G-Man,
organize that
rag-tail, bob-tail squadron of do-or-die commercial pilots in
time to turn
back the swarms of winged invaders--while he himself posed as
Federal
Traitor Number One!") I also have the April 1942 issue of
Detective Tales,
containing the Keene story "Murder Is My Sponsor". ("When the
Homicide
Squad finds your boss murdered, right after you've been
fired; when they
find your wife slain, right after her infidelity has been
revealed, you're
on a spot like Jim O'Hara--whose only friends were a
stout-hearted girl and
a non-existent radio detective!") I noticed that two of the
Keene stories
I've looked at in the past day feature ethnic heroes: "Wake
Up, America!",
mentioned above, and "Herr Yama from Yokohama", from
yesterday's post,
which has a Japanese-American hero. I don't know if that
means anything,
but I noticed it anyway.
The Keene Western novel was indeed _Guns Along the Brazos_,
published by
Signet in 1967. Another pulp I dug out of my collection today
is the
November 25th, 1943, issue of Short Stories, which features
the Keene story
"Seven Against the Gods", which is about an escape from a
French penal
colony.
Changing the subject to _Farewell, My Lovely_, I ran across
this passage
that I like: (Marlowe is answering a question about being a
PI) "There's
not much money in it. There's a lot of grief. But there's a
lot of fun,
too. And there's always the chance of a big case."
Now, my question is: was that just Marlowe talking about
being a PI--or
Chandler talking about being a writer?
James Reasoner
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