Mon 1 Jul 2019
Pulp Stories I’m Reading: FRED MacISAAC “The Corpse Goes East.”
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Stories I'm Reading[12] Comments
FRED MacISAAC “The Corpse Goes East.” Novelette. First published in Ace-High Detective, August 1936. Probably never reprinted.
Designed by Popular Publications as a companion to Dime Detective Magazine, their mainstay detective pulp, the August 1936 issue of Ace-High Detective was the first of only seven before it was discontinued. One can only guess, but poor distribution and low sales were both probably to blame. The authors appear to be the same as were used in Dime Detective, but I have the feeling that their better material ended up in the latter, and not this new kid on the block.
Truth in blogging. The cover image you see there to the right is not mine. My copy of this first issue is has no covers, and I had to borrow the image you see from the Internet. My copy is still readable, of course, and over the next few weeks, I will doing so and reporting on the results here. Other authors whose stories are to come are William E. Barrett, Norbert Davis, Thomas Walsh and a handful of others.
Up first, though, is “The Corpse Goes East,” by author Fred MacIsaac, who wrote hundreds of stories for the pulps, both detective fiction and some very early science fiction. Although he is noted for his many serialized novels in such magazines as Argosy and Detective Fiction Weekly, relatively few of them were published later in hardcover form, and he’s all but forgotten today.
The leading protagonist in “The Corpse Goes East” is neither a PI nor a policeman in any shape or form, but almost assuredly your next best guess, a young attorney by the name of Tom Franklin. While still struggling financially, he has a girl friend — or he would, if he ever has enough money to ask her out on a date.
Things pick up between them, though, when the girl comes by his office as a client. Her aunt, it seems, has disappeared, and the niece thinks foul play is involved, most probably at the hands of her much younger gigolo husband. That the aunt is also wealthy has a good deal to to with the motive, if indeed she is no longer among the living.
What Franklin soon discovers, besides a lack of a trail at all, is that she left her apartment on her own, it was without a stitch of clothing, as her wardrobe is completely present and accounted for. But neither is she (or her body) in the building. It has been searched thoroughly.
This begins as a detective story, a rather stiff and formally told one, but toward the end the action picks up considerably. Tom Franklin gets by by impersonating a policeman far too often, as far as I was concerned, but maybe that’s only fair, since the police do not deserve any awards for their work on the case. This is a routine story, if ever there was one, and middling enjoyable. On the other hand, though, it would have been considerably less than that if in 1936 you were reading Ellery Queen or John Dickson Carr, two authors with whom Fred MacIsaac was never in the same league.
July 1st, 2019 at 9:23 am
Fred MacIsaac presents one of the more interesting puzzles as a pulp writer. During the approximate period of 1924-1936 he was one of the most successful authors and published dozens of serials in ARGOSY, DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY, THE POPULAR. Many were reprinted in hardcover. He had the very popular Rambler series in DIME DETECTIVE also.
Yet in 1940 he committed suicide. I believe he was in his early fifties. One of the big reasons for his suicide may be the fact that his biggest market, the Munsey magazines, just about stopped buying his fiction. He had done well over a hundred serials for them in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s.
It’s been rumored that there was a change in editors and a decrease in circulation at ARGOSY and DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY and as a result they considered MacIsaac as part of the problem and stopped publishing him in the late 1930’s.
This all happened very fast and his income just about dried up completely. It’s also been rumored that he suffered a tremendous writers block. But no one really knows why he killed himself in 1940.
July 1st, 2019 at 12:23 pm
Thanks, Walker. I’d remembered some of this before writing my review, but when I couldn’t find anything to corroborate it online, I decided not to mention it. Obviously his death is still a mystery.
July 1st, 2019 at 11:04 am
There appeared to have been a mini-recession in 1937 or so that ended a bunch of magazines, like Captain Hazzard. So it’s likely that Ace High Detective was a victim of that.
July 1st, 2019 at 12:27 pm
You’re right. There may have been some outside factors that helped hasten the magazine’s demise. But whatever the reason, mini-recession, lack of appeal, or poor distribution, from the very few copies I’ve ever seen offered for sale to collectors today, it just couldn’t have sold all that well.
July 2nd, 2019 at 1:31 pm
Going back to what Walker said, without knowing for sure there was a change of editors, there was a clear turnover in writers in the 1936-ish era. Not only was MacIsaac out but also George Worts and Ray Cummings. With Cummings it may well be that his style of SF was getting too archaic while Worts may have gotten too many offers from the slicks but that all of them were gone at the same time speaks of a change in editors.
July 2nd, 2019 at 1:57 pm
As far as MacIsaac’s work no longer being in favor, yes, a change of editor and a sense that MacIsaac’s rather formulaic style had out of style, that could easily be the reason. Some writers can adapt as time goes on, others can’t.
July 2nd, 2019 at 11:23 pm
Since MacIsaac was so prolific and wrote so many serials for ARGOSY and DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY, the quality of his work is all over the place. Some of his fiction I’ve enjoyed and some I thought routine. Max Brand also suffered from being too prolific. One third of his work was good, one third mediocre, and one third poor.
MacIsaac’s best work was probably his Rambler series in DIME DETECTIVE. All novelets about a roaming newspaper reporter who gets involved in crime cases. They had humor and hardboiled elements which made for fast moving stories like Fred Nebel’s Cardigan series. Altus Press has reprinted the series.
February 13th, 2020 at 2:31 pm
Interesting. This prompted me digging into circulation data for the Munsey Mags and MacIsaac’s history with them. His last published story with DFW was in 1939, and he was still pretty regular in Dime Detective. Circulation for the Munsey group was pretty static over the last few years of the 1930s, with a few upward surges when Munsey debuted Double Detective and All AMerican Fiction. In fact, the circulation of the Munsey mags was on the rise until February 1940 when it started to sag. MacIsaac was still publishing regularly in 39 with eight stories, but mostly in Dime Detective. It’s true that DFW seems to have dried up for him. Not sure what the pay rate was for DD and if it was lower than DFW, but the stories were assuredly shorter since MacIsaac often had the serials in DFW. A change of editing policy sure would have explained that. Regardless, MacIsaac’s suicide note read: “This is a case of suicide. I’m ill, tired, and going broke.”
I second Walker’s statement about MacIsaac’s productivity. There’s little wonder that he burnt out. I’m currently gathering up the issues of his “The Strike-Breaker” in DFW and looking forward to reading it.
February 13th, 2020 at 8:28 pm
A lot of good investigation and analysis there, David, but unless MacIsaac ever told anyone in writing what was going on in his life, I suppose we’ll never know for sure. Except for the suicide note. That’s really telling.
May 13th, 2021 at 1:29 pm
Here is an interesting newspaper clipping about Mrs. MacIsaac selling off furniture and moving out of their home after Fred’s suicide. Evidently he never saved any of his massive earnings during his heyday as a pulp writer. Gruber said he was making $50,000 a year at the height of the Great Depression.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15216842/fred-macisaac-home-auction/
May 13th, 2021 at 4:25 pm
Thanks, Ned. That’s quite a list of furnishings and a nice looking house, too. All in all, a sad ending to Fred MacIsaac’s life and his career as a writer.
September 20th, 2023 at 12:33 pm
[…] Previously reviewed from this first issue of Ace-High Detective: FRED MacISAAC “The Corpse Goes East.’ […]