At the tail end of a previous posting on pulp writer Carl Buchanan, aka James Robert Peery, including a long bibliography, I closed with the following:

    “In addition, James Robert Peery had a letter published in the July 1939 issue of Clues, which neither Victor nor I have seen. If anyone has a copy of the magazine, we’d love to know what he had to say.”

   Thanks to the assistance of pulp collector Paul Herman, I now have a copy of that issue. Not only did Peery have a letter quoted, but some of the others who write in had interesting things to say as well.

H. L. Melleney:

    “I got a kick out of ‘The Drums Drone Death,’ by J. Allan Dunn, in the last issue of Clues. This fellow Dunn certainly knows his locale, and the character, John Carter, is swell. I would like to read some more John Carter yarns, with the New Hebrides background.”

Editor: “Mr. Dunn is now writing a John Carter complete novel for Clues.”

Ray Robinson:

    “Your all-star authors for Clues are a splendid choice. I want to compliment you especially on J. Allan Dunn.

    “His ‘The Drums Drone Death’ makes the New Hebrides really there for us. His character is alive and human. Let us have more of these interesting stories.

Editor: “Mr. Peery, whose new book is a sensation, used to be our ‘Carl Buchanan.'”

James Robert Peery:

    “Heap long time I have been a reader of Clues — from ’way back when I sold the former editors an occasional short or novelette under my Carl Buchanan pseudonym. The Donald Wandrei yarn [“The Painted Nudes”] in the current issue is good. Also liked the short story [“ Murder Is a Pipe”] by [Otis Adelbert] Kline — but the best yarn in the April issue was by J. Allan Dunn. Note that you asked for reader comment on this one. I believe a John Carter series would go over in a big way. Of course, I read from the point of view of a writer — can’t quite relax and enjoy a story for admiring or criticizing technique of the author.

    “I think your readers appreciate authenticity. Personally I’d like to see John Carter in action again. I get bored with these super-detectives. The change to a human, red-headed young fellow feeling his way is quite a relief. The locale should provide Dunn with plenty good ideas for plots.

    “You’re doing a swell job of editing. Keep up the good work!”

   Unfortunately, in spite of this groundswell of support from readers for another story about John Carter, about whom I know nothing more than this, it never happened. I could have missed it in my search through the Cook index, true, but “The Drums Drone Death” appears to have been the only story that J. Allan Dunn ever had published in Clues. If the novel was ever written, it was published elsewhere.