Sat 6 Jul 2019
Pulp Stories I’m Reading: WILLIAM E. BARRETT “Skeleton Key.”
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Stories I'm Reading[10] Comments
WILLIAM E. BARRETT “Skeleton Key.” Novelette. First published in Ace-High Detective, August 1936. Probably never reprinted.
To pulp readers of long standing, William E. Barrett is best known for his fifteen stories in Dime Detective Magazine about a chap nicknamed Needle Mike. As described in relation to all fifteen being reprinted in two volumes by Altus Press, Needle Mike was “[A] millionaire playboy with a yen for excitement, young Ken McNally disguises himself as the gray-haired, gold-toothed, jaundiced-looking proprietor of a seedy tattoo parlor in the ‘tenderloin’ district of St. Louis. His unusual occupation frequently brings him into contact with underworld denizens who, willingly or accidentally, embroil him in criminal activities.”
Totally outrageous and totally unforgettable. William E. Barrett, the author, however, were no mere pulp writer. He later became a well-known bestselling novelist, with [according to Wikipedia] three of his books made into films:
The Left Hand of God, starring Humphrey Bogart.
Lilies of the Field based on his novel The Lilies of the Field, featuring Sidney Poitier.
Pieces of Dreams, based on The Wine and the Music.
“Skeleton Key” was never made into a film, but perhaps it could have been. It begins on a dark and stormy night (not Barrett’s words, but is true) as a young fellow named Jeff Madison is forced to stop at an isolated cabin for shelter and finds himself confronted with a very strange scene: a dead man with three knives in his chest sitting at a table across from a skeleton. On the table are a pair of dice.
One man is there before him, and two more in separate automobiles soon stop, also forced to stop in the storm, or so they say. With no way to contact the authorities, all five go to bed for the night. Which of course is when the action begins.
That’s the setup, and it’s a good one. The explanation is much more complicated, and after all the resulting gunfire ended, Jeff Madison finally learns what was behind it all. Did I forget to tell you that Madison has a secret of his own? On his way to the cabin he found a suitcase filled with $50,000 in cash. I’m afraid I did. How do you like that? Not surprisingly, it is the key to everything.
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Previously reviewed from this first issue of Ace-High Detective: FRED MacISAAC “The Corpse Goes East.’
July 8th, 2019 at 8:13 pm
Barrett is always worth reading, and a not as rare as you might think example of a writer who parlayed an early pulp career into best seller status. Like others he honed his skills and abilities Though more pulp writers are forgotten than became famous a surprising number had the kind of success beyond the pulp Barrett did.
July 8th, 2019 at 9:13 pm
I’ll go you one better and say that I can’t think of another pulp writer who had more success in non-genre fiction than Barrett.
He had a long and interesting life, mostly making a living as a writer.
There’s a long article about him here:
http://www.ageofaces.net/authors-artists/william-e-barrett/
July 9th, 2019 at 1:06 pm
A couple others that had big success were MacKinlay Kantor who went on to write best sellers like ANDERSONVILLE and SPIRIT LAKE but was a pulp writer during the twenties and early thirties. Also Richard Sale who was big as a pulp writer but then went on to Hollywood as a successful writer and director.
July 9th, 2019 at 6:55 pm
You’re right, Walker. Both Sale and Kantor went on to consderable success after writing for the pulps. I had considered Sale as a possible rival to Barrett, but decided that Barrett had bettered him as far as success later on was concerned. That’s a subjective feeling on my part, however, and anyone can feel free to disagree.
I’d forgotten about Kantor, though. He didn’t do a lot of work for the pulps, especially when compared to either Sale or Barrett, but he really became a respected and well-known writer later on. I think I’d maybe have to say that Barrett and he are tied.
July 9th, 2019 at 8:55 pm
Edison Marshall, Van Wyck Mason, and Leslie Turner White all were regulars on the bestseller list, some before the pulp era ended, and here C.S. Forester and Horatio Hornblower were first published in the pulps as was John Buchan. Dornford Yates made his American debut in BLUE BOOK, and writers like Arch Whitehouse who were fairly familiar names in popular history began in the Aviation pulps.
And we really can’t downplay Hammett, Chandler, Gardner, Steve Fisher, and Stout.
Re Sale and Barrett, I would give Barrett the literary edge, but Sale managed to parlay his talents more widely with film direction and television production, and about equal in terms of books to screen if not in the quality of the product.
And it should be noted Tennessee Williams made his debut in WEIRD TALES and William Burroughs in BLACK MASK.
July 9th, 2019 at 9:19 pm
All great examples of pulp writers pulling themselves out of the “ghetto,” David, but most of them don’t fall into the category of “a pulp writer who had more success in non-genre fiction than Barrett.” Emphasis on non-genre fiction, whatever that means, but it does mean that examples such as Gardner, Hammett and Chandler don’y qualify. Some of the others may, though!
July 9th, 2019 at 11:24 pm
David, I’m not sure who you are referring to when you mention William Burroughs appearing in BLACK MASK. Burroughs was the famous figure in the Beat Generation and wrote Naked Lunch and Junkie. But under what name did he appear in BLACK MASK?
Perhaps you mean someone else?
July 9th, 2019 at 11:47 pm
Walker, from the FictionMags Index, Burroughs did appear in Black Mask, but only in the August 1974 issue, as reprinted bit of miscellany entitled “The Coldspring News: Sunday, September 17, 1899.”
I suppose they stuck this in to help sell the magazine, but it didn’t help. This was the first issue of an attempt to revive the magazine, but a second one never came out.
July 10th, 2019 at 6:42 am
Thanks Steve. I always think of BLACK MASK as the 340 issues that appeared during 1920-1951 but the 1974 revival issue definitely counts. Also there have been 4 or 5 recent issues published by Altus Press. Black Mask lives!
July 10th, 2019 at 7:41 pm
Coming from Altus Press soon:
The Complete Cases of the Blue Barrel, Volume 1 (The Dime Detective Library)
by William E. Barrett
illustrated by John Fleming Gould
Written at the height of Dime Detective’s popularity, author William E. Barrett (Lilies of the Field) penned this series featuring newspaperman Dean Culver, whose column—The Blue Barrel—dispensed gossip on the criminal underworld. No one called Dean Culver the Blue Barrel—for no one knew he was the author of the underworld-gossip column signed with that name each night in the Morning Star. If the easy-money players had ever guessed that the man who paid them off was the Walter Winchell of the other side of the law, he’d he cashing in his own checks at the first turn of the wheel, instead of those of the gamblers he spun it for.