Both "versions" of the circumstances surrounding Howard
Browne buying and rewriting a Spillane short story are
related in Browne's INCREDIBLE INK memoir. The excerpt on the
website must have left out the "Life" magazine part of the
story. Browne sought a Spillane story at the suggestion of
the publisher Bill Ziff. It was an unpublishable dog even
though Spillane was at the time as hot as a writer could be.
Browne got a letter from the agent saying he could make any
changes and then ghosted "The Veiled Woman." At some point
during the time before publication, Life magazine did the
spread where Spillane related the original "The Woman With
Green Skin." Browne saw the article and knew "I had my
ace-in-the-hole if it ever came to it, which it did!" It was
the Life article stepping on the story that backed Spillane
off, although it did help matters when Spillane learned that
Browne wrote the "Halo" books under the name John
Evans.
I almost didn't buy INCREDIBLE INK because of the expense but
I'm glad I did.
As I've stated here before, I consider Browne's THE
TASTE OF ASHES (1957) one of the great PI novels of all
time.
Richard Moore
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