I heard today from Charles Runyon, who’s been battling the flu. Going through his records, he’s come up with the following changes to his bibliography, posted here a couple of days ago.
● “Rum and Chaser” was the title put on one of my stories by Scott Meredith (or somebody working there at the time; perhaps Terry Carr) but that didn’t go down with the editor of
Manhunt, who replaced it with my original title, “The Last Kill.” At least I think that was my original title; I used to have the magazine (
Manhunt, April 1961) but I don’t seem able to find it now. Probably best to just leave out “Rum and Chaser” entirely.
The book entitled Something Wicked (Lancer, pb, 1973) is included in Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, but tracking down a copy has proven to be a very difficult task. Both Victor Berch and I had come to the conclusion that it has never been published. The next comment from Charles confirmed my growing suspicion:
●
Something Wicked was apparently the title put on
Dorian-7 by the inheritors (if that is the right word) of the Lancer properties. At the time I was trying to switch from Scott Meredith to Richard Curtis and there was considerable confusion. Richard reported making several visits to the SM agency to winnow out all my stuff, but I do not recall getting paid for anything entitled
Something Wicked. Maybe I did; my wife can’t find her financial records for that era so perhaps we could just sweep that little paradox under the carpet of the past. (Does this mean The Curse is actually working? Chills and premonitions.)
So that it may be read more easily, I’ve moved the article entitled “The Curse of Dorian-7” to the primary Mystery*File website.
●
A Killer is a Lonely Man was my title for
To Kill a Dead Man (Major, 1976). [The former title sometimes appears as an unpublished book written by Charles.] It would be more appropriate in my case to retitle it
To Revive a Dead Man because I’m about ready to make a major effort to resurrect my corpse which has been mouldering away (according to the report in
SF Encyclopedia) since 1987.
All of these changes are now in place. Thanks again to Charles Runyon and Ed Gorman for helping put together all of the pieces on this project, as they have. And to Charles, it’s great to have you back!