Fri 27 Mar 2009
Western Author CLAY RANDALL – A Checklist.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Western Fiction[12] Comments
A Checklist:
Clifton Adams deserves a checklist and a page to himself, but that will have to wait for another day. One of his several pen names, however, was Clay Randall, and it was as the latter that he wrote a series of “Amos Flagg” westerns.
The latter came up recently in the comments following my review of one of the Buchanan books, a series also published by Gold Medal.
The Randall books are relatively scarce, but not very expensive. I’m surprised to see that I have only two of them, both in the Flagg series. Not having read any of them — a deficiency in myself that I will have to remedy soon — I’ll have to rely on James Reasoner’s comment, and I’m quoting: “The Amos Flagg novels are somewhat similar to [the TV series] Gunsmoke, as I recall, but only in the same sense that any town-set Western series with a lawman as the central character would be.”
Note that not listed here are a dozen or so western stories that Adams wrote as Clay Randall for the pulp magazines, perhaps more. The first two novels were published in hardcover; all of the others are paperback originals. Amos Flagg is the leading character in the last six.
Six-Gun Boss. Random House, hc, 1952. Pennant P10, pb, 1953. “A range detective works undercover to rid the range of rustlers.”
When Oil Ran Red. Random House, 1953. Pennant P48, pb, 1954. “A range war in the Cherokee Strip sets cattlemen against oilmen.”
Boomer. Permabook M3077, pbo, 1957. “An oil worker has to defend his rigs against crooks who have gunned his boss down.”
The Oceola Kid. Gold Medal s1342, pbo, 1963. Leisure, pb, 1974. “The kid is drawn into a range war.”
Hardcase for Hire. Gold Medal s1357, pbo, 1963. Belmont Tower, pb, 1974. “A bounty hunter travels to Choctaw country after a man he’s never seen.”
Amos Flagg — Lawman. Gold Medal k1482, pbo, 1964. Belmont Tower, pb, 1973
Amos Flagg — High Gun. Gold Medal k1596, pbo, 1965. Belmont Tower, pb, 1973. “Four notorious killers drift into Sangaree County.”
Amos Flagg Rides Out. Gold Medal k1677, pbo, 1967. Belmont Tower, pb, 1973.
Amos Flagg � Bushwhacked. Gold Medal d1760, pbo, 1967. Belmont Tower, pb, 1973.
Amos Flagg Has His Day. Gold Medal D1946, pbo, 1968. Belmont Tower, pb, 1973, as The Killing of Billy Jowett. “The town figures the sheriff is due some recognition on Amos Flagg Day.”
Amos Flagg — Showdown. Gold Medal D2098, pbo, 1969. Belmont Tower, pb, 1973. “A tinhorn gambler becomes the new town marshal.”
March 27th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Thanks for the Clay Randall checklist. I’ll look forward to the complete Clifton Adams list, an unjustly forgotten or at least neglected writer. I think High Gun is the Amos Flagg book I read. I guess the prices will be going up a little as some of us look for them.
Down the line if you or someone gets a chance I woulnd’t mind seeing a checklist of the Bradford Street books. I have one somewhere in an old copy of Paperback Parade or something similar, but would enjoy an update. The Street books sometimes get unfairly pushed aside in favor of the pulp Jim Hatfield series that they were a later incarnation of. I seem to remember that one of them had a lost valley with a touch of sf to it. Nothing great, but they were fun to read and well enough written.
March 28th, 2009 at 8:40 am
David,
You’re thinking of Bradford Scott, one of the pseudonyms of A. Leslie Scott. That list in Paperback Parade was done by Al Tonik, who knows more about Scott than anybody else, and was complete as far as I remember, except for the fact that one or two of the original pulp novellas featuring Walt Slade have been reprinted in recent years by Leisure. I agree that the books are fun, both the Walt Slades and the Jim Hatfields, and there are weird elements in a number of them.
Bradford Street was a name used on various movie novelizations during the Sixties and may have been a house-name, but that’s just a guess on my part.
March 29th, 2009 at 3:49 am
Readers in the wider English-speaking world will probably find the Amos Flagg books easier to come by than many Gold Medal originals, because the Belmont Tower editions also appeared in the UK and Commonwealth countries in various budget-priced paperback series. I have High Gun in “Flamingo Books” and Rides Out in “Centurion Books”. The covers are rather wishy-washy efforts, using generic art probably already much-syndicated, but for anyone who likes the ’60s stuff (as I think everyone knows I do!) the stories are most enjoyable. James’ allusion to Gunsmoke elements is correct. But Flagg is no more a Dillon copy than are the heroes in some of the yarns I’ve done for Hale’s Black Horse Westerns, e.g. Sam Hammond in A Gunfight Too Many, or Ross Kemp in 1994’s The Sheriff and the Widow (now available free online at Gary Dobbs’ tainted-archive.blogspot.com ).
March 29th, 2009 at 6:43 am
Of course. Bradford Scott. I actually read a couple of the Street novelizations (In Like Flint), but off hand the two names blended.
I’ve only read one or two of the Hatfield books, but in the day read quite a few of the Walt Slade El Halcyon (the Hawk) books. They are pulp, but good pulp, and as James Reasoner said at times ventured into a bit of the off beat.
The book I’m thinking of involves a lost valley and dinosaurs. I know there was a Hatfield book like that, and I think a Slade too.
In comparing Amos Flagg to Gunsmoke I mostly meant that they were about a town marshall rather than a drifter like Buchanan or a wandering gunfighter. The one I read and vaugely remember could have been a Gunsmoke episode, but as easily a Lawman or other similar show too.
There was a British comic strip by Harry Bishop that was Gunsmoke in all but name down to likenesses of all the characters. It ran for a number of years.
I remember a few books based on Bonanza, and Even Hunter even wrote one from the short lived The Chisholms, but I can’t recall if there was ever a Gunsmoke paperback tie in. I know Wild Wild West inspired one from Signet by Richard Wormser and years later a series by Robert Vaughn (the western writer, not the actor), and there were single entries for Maverick and Have Gun Will Travel (the latter I think long after the series was off the air). Steve Frazee wrote books for Whitman based on Maverick, Cheyenne, High Chapparal, and Disney’s Zorro aimed at younger readers. Other than that I don’t recall many of the western series inspiring paperback tie ins although they certainly inspired their fair share of comics and many western films were novelised.
Of course I may just have missed them, but in general despite the popularity of westerns in paperback it doesn’t seem like all that many paperback tie ins were published considering the number and popularity of western series. At a time when even minor detective series like Johnny Staccato, Markham, Most Dangerous Game, and even the first version of Ripley’s Believe it or Not inspired paperback tie ins (the Ripley’s written by Stephen Marlowe about an investigator for Ripley’s)the westerns seem curiously under represented.
I’m sure there’s a reason, but off hand I can’t think of it. Western readers have always been one of the strong backbones of the paperback industry whether they recived any respect for it or not, and I can’t imagine that there were no fans of reading westerns who didn’t also follow some tv series. I think Frank Gruber did one Tales of Wales Fargo book, and the Stuart Lake and Richard O’Connor bios of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson were released tying in to those series, but for the most part I don’t recall many tie ins for western series when you consider the mass of tie ins for mystery and science fiction series.
March 29th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
There have been a number of Gunsmoke tie-in novels from various publishers: one from Popular Library and four from Award Books while the show was still on the air, then three from Berkley and several (I’ve lost track of the number) from Signet in the past ten years. Plus I think there were some Whitman juveniles. I don’t recall ever reading any of them, though.
Harry Whittington’s Whitman juvenile tie-in for Bonanza is pretty darned good, though, as you’d expect.
March 29th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
I meant to post something earlier about tie-in novels for TV Westerns. I think there are a lot more than David realizes.
Moe Wadle did a complete guide to TV tie-in paperbacks a while ago. (It may not include the most recent series of Gunsmoke books by Joseph A. West.) I wish I could find mine, so I could be more specific. And I’m reluctant to re-invent the wheel, so to speak, so I’ll keep looking!
— Steve
Moments later: Aha! Wikipedia has a list of the Gunsmoke books. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunsmoke and scroll down.
Still reading: James, you’re right about the Gunsmoke book from Popular Library (by Chris Stratton) but Wikipedia doesn’t include it.
More: Wikipedia also doesn’t include the fourth Award book, Cheyenne Vengeance. Looks like there’s a wiki article to be revised!
March 29th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
I wonder if Chris Stratton was a pseudonym. The name showed up on a number of tie-ins and novelizations for a few years, but that’s all that I know of. The fact that it appears on books from different publishers makes me think it wasn’t a house-name.
“Jackson Flynn”, the author of the four Gunsmoke tie-ins from Award Books, was a house-name, though. Don Bensen wrote #1, 3, and 4. #2 is by Gordon D. Shirreffs.
March 29th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
We’re getting far afield from Clay Randall by this time, but I hardly think that matters!
Here’s what Al Hubin has to say about Chris Stratton. This list was taken from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, so keep in mind that these are his crime and mystery credits only.
STRATTON, CHRIS. Pseudonym of Richard Hubbard, ?-1974. Other pseudonyms Marie Eyre & Regina Hubbard. [The latter two pen names were used solely for gothics.]
Change of Mind (Pyramid, 1969, pb) Novelization of film.
Dead on Arrival (Award, 1972, pb) Novelization of the “Adam 12” TV series.
A Fine Pair (Popular Library, 1969, pb) Novelization of film.
The Hostages (Award, 1974, pb) Novelization of the “Adam 12” TV series.
Rock! (Pyramid, 1970, pb) Novelization of the “Then Came Bronson” TV series.
The Runaway (Award, 1974, pb) Novelization of the “Adam 12” TV series.
The Ticket (Pyramid, 1970, pb) Novelization of the “Then Came Bronson” TV series.
Underground (Popular Library, 1970, pb) Novelization of film.
In the CFIV entry under his own name Hubbard has another seven titles, including two of the Nick Carter paperbacks from Award in the 1970s.
March 31st, 2009 at 3:25 am
Interesting discussion – thanks, guys. I can also recommend Whittington’s juvenile for Bonanza. Did he ever write a bad book?
March 31st, 2009 at 3:49 am
By the way, the Wikipedia article says this:
Whitman Books published Gunsmoke by Robert Turner in 1958 and Gunsmoke: “Showdown on Front Street” by Paul S. Newman in 1969; both books were based on the TV series.
Are these Big Little Books? Paul S. Newman was a comics artist and illustrator and he did some Big Little Books, so that must be the case here too, but is the one by Robert Turner also a BLB?
February 7th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
[…] checklist of the western novels Adams wrote as Clay Randall can be found here earlier on this […]
October 11th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Correction to an entry above which states that Moe Wadle did a guide to TV Tie-ins. That is wrong, I wrote and self-published a book THE MOVIE TIE-IN BOOK which is only a guide to movie tie-ins and does not list TV tie-ins. It is copyrighted 1994. Thanks. Moe Wadle himself.