Thu 23 Jul 2020
A Pulp Fiction Review by Jeff Meyerson: RON GOULART, Editor – The Hardboiled Dicks.
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Reviews[12] Comments
REVIEWED BY JEFF MEYERSON:
RON GOULART, Editor – The Hardboiled Dicks: An Anthology and Study of Pulp Detective Fiction. Sherbourne Press, hardcover, 1965. Pocket 50560, paperback, 1965.
This excellent anthology has an introduction by Goulart and eight stories originally published in Black Mask, Detective Fiction Weekly and Dime Detective between 1932 and 1941. Goulart says that he hopes to rescue a few hardboiled detectives from oblivion. He has certainly chosen fine stories for it.
Probably the best story in the book is Lester Dent’s “Angelfish,†about Oscar Sail, which is almost as good as the earlier “Sail.†It’s unfortunate that Dent didn’t write more short stories of this type rather than the Doc Savage stories. Two other excellent stories are Raoul Whitfield’s “China Man,†about island detective Jo Gar in the atmospheric Philippines, and Norbert Davis’s tough and amusing “Don’t Give Your Right Name,†featuring Max Latin.
Richard Sale’s A Nose for News†and Frederick Nebel’s “Winter Kill†have newspapermen as detectives, while others feature a cabby (John K. Butler’s “The Saint in Silverâ€), encyclopedia salesman Oliver Quade (Frank Gruber’s “Death on Eagle Cragâ€), and crooked detective Lester Leith (Erle Stanley Gardner’s “Bird in the Handâ€). There isn’t a weak story in the bunch. Recommended.
July 23rd, 2020 at 5:26 pm
Thanks, Steve. I assume I wrote “Angelfish” rather than “Angelfist.”
July 23rd, 2020 at 5:33 pm
Yes, you had it right. This old fanzine was printed in now badly fading black ink on blue mimeo paper, and it’s impossible to use a scanner on. I had to type the whole review in by hand. I caught most of my mistakes but not that one!
July 23rd, 2020 at 5:30 pm
It is difficult to forget the one book that, once read, changed my life forever.
The stories in this book — and as Jeff says, there’s not a clunker in the bunch — were nothing like the ones I’d been reading in then current paperbacks and those I’d checked out from the library. A whole window of possible reading had just opened up!
I agree with Jeff that the Lester Dent story is the best, but do you know, the one that’s stayed with the longest is the one with the cabby detective by John K. Butler.
I don’t know why, but it really somehow struck the right chord with me.
July 23rd, 2020 at 8:53 pm
I had the same experience with this anthology and with the impact of Butler’s Steve Midnight stories, even if it took me twenty years to find more of them. Other than Hammett and Chandler this was my intro to hard boiled pulp fiction and to the many of the writers, though of course I knew Gardner and Gruber from other work.
In many ways this is still the best overall hardboiled anthology, every story a gem, and Goulart’s introduction is worth the entire book.
July 24th, 2020 at 1:33 pm
A flawless, groundbreaking book that has always held a prominent position on my shelf & in my heart.Today we gripe about doorstop books. This was a doorway book. Yes, I knew Hammett, Chandler, Spillane but this is the one that gave me my first glimpse of what was out there.
July 24th, 2020 at 4:37 pm
I’m like everybody else.
Seeing this book made me think immediately of “The Saint in Silver” by John K. Butler.
And reading the anthology for the first time in the early 1980’s.
July 24th, 2020 at 4:50 pm
I have a copy of this one, bought sometime in the mid-1980s after reading a review, or hearing mention of it at a mystery convention. It’s very good, and I should consider a reread of it.
Thanks to Steve and Jeff.
July 24th, 2020 at 6:27 pm
My thoughts exactly, Richard. Since I know where my copy is but I can’t get to it, I decided to buy the least expensive copy I could find online, and I just bought it.
You all may see reviews of some (or all) of the stories in it posted on this blog over the next few months.
July 24th, 2020 at 10:12 pm
I love this book beyond all reason and still remember where and when I bought it more than 50 years ago, and how wonderful it felt to read all those stories for the first time.
July 24th, 2020 at 10:20 pm
I think a lot of readers of this blog have key turning points in their lives regarding books, radio shows, comic books, movies, or even TV shows they will remember forever. I know I do, all five.
July 25th, 2020 at 6:47 am
This book had a big influence on me also. Seeing these storie made me realize it was possible to collect BLACK MASK, DIME DETECTIVE, and DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY in addition to the easily obtainable SF pulps. I contacted Ron Goulart and he sold me his detective pulps at a couple dollars each. This led to me compiling extensive runs of all three magazines.
Decades later Ron wrote in my copy “To Walker, whose life I ruined”.
July 27th, 2020 at 3:46 pm
Back when I first read his book, I had no idea that I’d ever meet Ron in person, but for several years, we’d see each other at the local comic book show every month and talk about pulps, comic books and radio shows. You know. The good stuff.
Consider my life ruined too.