Juri Nummelin (jurnum@utu.fi)
Wed, 24 Nov 1999 14:30:09 +0200 (EET)
On Tue, 23 Nov 1999, Kevin Burton Smith wrote:
> The thing is, Baker and Nietzel's book, while a real
treat for P.I.
> fans, is pretty weak when it comes to pulp eyes, so
it may not mean
> too much that they're not listed. It concentrates
almost exclusively
> on P.I.s published in books.
I think the problem is what someone on this list pointed out:
the pulp scene is so exhaustive that it would be almost
impossible to check out every single P.I. and story. And
there are imitations, made in Germany and Sweden and here in
Finland also. And since Finland has always been with closer
cultural contacts with those countries than the United
States, it's possible that the P.I's I listed are actually
Swedish or German. I'm actually compiling an anthology of
crime stories of the famous Finnish song writer, Reino
Helismaa, who wrote for the Finnish pulps in the 30's and
40's. And most of them are in the hardboiled vein. There's a
P.I. called Pete Slade and stuff like that.
> It's a great book, mind you. It's just too bad there
isn't something
> similar on pulp eyes. Ron Goulart's entertaining
DIME DETECTIVES is a
> pretty good starting point, but it doesn't have any
of the ones you
> listed. Does anyone know of a good reference source
on detectives
> from the pulps?
Michael L. Cook's "Mystery, Crime and Espionage Magazines"
(or something like that) from 1983 proved very valuable to
me. In it there are listed almost all the crime pulps with
the lists of authors and sometimes their heroes. And included
are many little-known authors like Emile Tepperman, William
Corcoran and Hunt Collins. I've read that Cook has a complete
index of the stories published in the pulps, but haven't been
able to track it down. I don't know whether there are
characters mentioned. St. James Press's "Twentieth Century
Crime and Mystery Writers" includes many pulp authors and
their heroes.
But it's a pity, just like Kevin said, that there are no good
source books on pulp fiction. I believe it's something of a
fad in the US, but has anyone made any good source book on
it?
Meanwhile I'll just skip the P.I's I mentioned. And sigh with
a relief.
Juri jurnum@utu.fi
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