Tue 16 Oct 2007
The Mysterious FRANK CASTLE.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Crime Fiction IV[11] Comments
Last week on his blog, Pulpetti, Juri Nummelin discussed the career of Gold Medal paperback writer Frank Castle, prompted by his (Juri’s) discovery of one of Castle’s books that was published in Finland but never in this country.
This turns out, as Juri explains, not to have been an uncommon event. Several other American authors apparently had some of their books published in Finnish but never in English, including Dean Owen, Bruce Cassiday and Robert Sidney Bowen. Here’s the cover of the Castle book, the title of which, roughly translated, means “The Sowers of the Doom.”
If you’re interested, Juri does the obliging thing and translates the first few paragraphs back into English.
The post prompted several comments about Castle’s career, and just a few minutes ago, I chipped in with the following:
Not much seems to be known about Frank Castle. You and the other commenters seem to have covered almost everything he did, unless you count his role as The Punisher for Marvel Comics beginning sometime around 1974. But maybe that was a different Frank Castle. And like the comic book guy, maybe our Frank Castle wasn’t his real name either.
For his mystery fiction, here’s what appears in Al Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV:
FRANK CASTLE. Born in New Mexico; graduate of University of Oklahoma; magazine and book writer. Pseudonym: Steve Thurman.
Move Along, Stranger (n.) Gold Medal 1954
Dead–and Kicking (n.) Gold Medal 1956 [California]
The Violent Hours (n.) Gold Medal 1956 [Los Angeles, CA]
Lovely and Lethal (n.) Gold Medal 1957 [California]
Murder in Red (n.) Gold Medal 1957 [New Mexico]
Vengeance Under Law (n.) Gold Medal 1957 [New Mexico; Past]
Hawaiian Eye (n.) Dell 1962 [Hawaii]
STEVE THURMAN
Night After Night (n.) Monarch 1959 [Ship]
“Mad Dog” Coll (n.) Monarch 1961 [New York City, NY; 1932] Novelization of film: Columbia, 1961.
I haven’t put together a list of the westerns Castle wrote under both names, but at a quick glance, he may have written more of those than he did crime novels. (And I’ve only realized this just now, but there’s at least one book overlap between his western novels and the crime fiction that’s already been listed.)
I’ve read some of his Gold Medals, but since that was when they first came out, I couldn’t tell you anything about them. I do remember a few of the covers, though. (See above.)
October 17th, 2007 at 4:17 am
Thanks for this, Steve. The original title of Castle’s book is given in the book itself, I didn’t translate it myself. It’s pretty clumsy, The Sowers of the Doom, though.
October 17th, 2007 at 4:46 am
And hey, you write “Chadwick book”!
October 17th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Juri, Thanks for clearing up where the title in English came from, and I’ve fixed the place where I called Castle “Chadwick.” Obviously I had Joseph Chadwick on my mind, another Gold Medal writer who did both westerns and mysteries. Sometimes my mind wanders. –Steve
October 17th, 2007 at 9:35 am
I read one of his westerns and it was not very good:
Gun Talk At Yuma
October 17th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Bruce, I read your review, and no, I’m not tempted to find my copy of the book and read it. But I may. Some day. Or not.
Hope you don’t mind my borrowing your cover scan. I love that bullseye image.
— Steve
May 14th, 2013 at 7:46 pm
I purposely seeked out some tv novels based on the WB shows from the early 60’s including Hawaiian Eye from 1962…
Here I am buying and reading it 52 years later after it was published! I found it entertaining and the writing to be good…
Frank stuck to the given personalities that were formed on the show, but managed to pull off a good little novel based on the series..
There is a bit of noir in the style.
I noticed he did write one tv script for the show, but I have yet to see it.
December 13th, 2013 at 8:58 pm
I’m about to read a novel called “Doctors and Wives” by Val Munroe and according to a Libary of Congress entry that name is a pseudonym of Frank Castle
January 31st, 2016 at 9:54 am
CASTLE, FRANK (P.). 1910-1994. Add: died in Linn, Oregon, and buried in Portland; listed as a stenographer with a tile company in the 1940 census; Chief Bosun’s Officer in U.S. Navy during WWII. He also wrote under the names Steve Thurman and Val Munroe
January 31st, 2016 at 9:56 am
There’s a listing of Frank P. Castle magazine works, don’t know if it’s complete: http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/s/s1093.htm
May 4th, 2023 at 6:04 am
This link may or may not help. Geographically speaking, this coincides, with Marc’s mention of an obit that has Frank Castle interned in Portland, Oregon.
https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv86889
August 27th, 2023 at 11:15 am
Just read “Fort Desperation,” about a disgraced West Point grad who redeems himself when sent West to an outpost battling Apaches. As they say, a “ripping yarn.”