RARA-AVIS: On Daly

From: Juri Nummelin ( juri.nummelin@pp.inet.fi)
Date: 27 Feb 2007


Stephen Mertz says in his article Brian T. pointed out:

"It is recorded fact that Daly, in the pages of Black Mask in 1923, produced the first hardboiled private eye story, predating Hammett's first Continental Op tale by a number of months."

Isn't it always a bit dangerous to point out someone or something was the first one? There certainly were hardboiled stories before that and there certainly were private eye stories before that. I've read Gordon Young's story about Everhard, who was a private-eyeish hero who likes to shoot and doesn't even shake hands with anyone. I seem to remember that he was more hardboiled than Race Williams, who likes to show off, which Everhard never did.

Gordon Young had lots of Everhard stories in the Adventure pulp magazine from 1917 to 1921 - so they stopped a year before Daly wrote his first story in Black Mask!

Juri



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