Wed 29 Dec 2021
Pulp Stories I’m Reading: STEVE FISHER “You’ll Always Remember Me.â€
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Stories I'm Reading[12] Comments
STEVE FISHER “You’ll Always Remember Me.†Short story. First published in Black Mask, March 1938. Reprinted in Best American Noir of the Century, edited by James Ellroy & Otto Penzler (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010).
When you think of “juvenile delinquents,†what probably comes to your mind first (well, it does mine) are the gangs of young hoodlums who obsessed the country everywhere in the 1950s, largely in big cities but small towns in the middle of nowhere as well.
Well, what this this story does is to remind you that kids could be bad in earlier time periods as well, but maybe only without the accompanying gangs. The young 14-year-old narrator of “You’ll Always Remember Me†is, for example, as bad as they come.
It seems that the older brother of the girl that Martin Thorpe is seeing is about to be hanged for the killing of their father, and he’s run out of appeals. It won’t matter if I tell you that it won’t long for you to decide who really did it. The only question is, is he going to get away with it?
You’d think that another mysterious, unexplained death would be enough for one story that’s only 18 pages long (in the hardcover reprint anthology), but what I found really chilling was the death of a very sick kitten. I guess it’s all in perspective. One thing’s for sure. The title is absolutely right on.
December 29th, 2021 at 10:13 pm
It’s ironic juvenile delinquency was much more wide spread during the depression than in the more prosperous Fifties, but the Dead End Kids weren’t as sexy as James Dean and Sal Mineo.
I wonder if Fisher would hold a higher position today if he was associated with a series character. He certainly wrote hard boiled well.
December 29th, 2021 at 11:04 pm
Well, he did write two books about Lt. Commander Sheridan Doome, one under his own name and one as Stephen Gould. I don’t know anything about him (Doome), and I don’t think many other people do, either.
I have been thinking about Fisher, though, and the kinds of stories he wrote, and his Wikipedia entry seems to back me up on this. I think he wrote “noir” more than “hard boiled,” but since I’m never sure where the line is between the two, I can’t expand on the thought any more than to suggest it. “You’ll Always Remember Me” seems to be a very nicely produced mixture of each.
December 30th, 2021 at 9:12 pm
This is a perfect example of the type of story Cap Shaw would never have bought for the MASK, but which Fanny Ellsworth was willing to try out. Shaw and the hard-boiled Hammett style looms large in BLACK MASK history and deservedly so, but count me among the few who believe Ellsworth’s tenure as editor has been vastly underrated and underappreciated.
December 30th, 2021 at 9:49 pm
You’re quite right. This is the kind of story Hammett and the other hard-boiled guys might not even be capable of writing.
December 30th, 2021 at 9:27 pm
By the way, Fisher created Sheridan Doome in 1935 for a series of short stories that ran in THE SHADOW MAGAZINE. Doome was the ace investigator of U.S. Naval Intelligence. During the first World War he was caught in a fiery explosion that severely damaged his torso and essentially burned his face off. Despite his horribly grotesque appearance Doome was known to have a kindly empathic nature, although he was a relentless bloodhound when on a case. Fisher dedicated his first Doome novel to SHADOW editor John Nanovic.
Fisher’s second series character for the SHADOW pulp was Danny Garrett, a streetwise shoeshine boy who often aided the police in tracking criminals down. My recollection is that Fisher used the Gould byline for Doome stories but Grant Lane for the Shoeshine Kid series.
December 30th, 2021 at 9:53 pm
When I said
“I don’t know anything about him (Doome), and I don’t think many other people do, either.”
…up there in an earlier comment, I knew that I should have added, “other than the people who read this blog.”
Or in other words, this is more about Doome than I ever knew before, by a long shot. Thanks, Ed!
December 30th, 2021 at 10:00 pm
Checking Grant Lane as a pen name for Fisher, it is true, in a sense, as it was a “house name” used by Street & Smith for other authors as well as Fisher, including William Bogart.
While I was busy Googling I came across this very well done biography of Steve Fisher. He had quite a career: the pulps, the slicks, movies, TV series, and toward the end of his life, hardcover novels again. Here’s the link:
https://www.ageofaces.net/authors-artists/steve-fisher/
December 31st, 2021 at 1:43 am
Fisher was closer in many ways to Woolrich or James M. Cain than Hammett or Chandler, but he did do some hardboiled PI work.
I WAKE UP SCREAMING and HOMICIDE JOHNNY are probably his two best remembered novels in the genre.
He wrote some well received mainstream novels too including the basis for the Cary Grant film DESTINATION TOKYO.
I had forgotten about the Doone stories but was thinking more of hardboiled character for MASK or one of the other more prestigious zines than the popular hero pulp venues. The Doone stories, while well written, are clearly in the hero pulp vein.
He had a successful career by any measure, but isn’t as well remembered as a pulp writer per se.
January 3rd, 2022 at 10:59 am
An earlier Mystery*File review of this story:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=61058
January 3rd, 2022 at 11:18 am
My goodness, Bill, I’d forgotten about that earlier review. Not the story, but that I actually reviewed it!
Thanks!!
April 18th, 2023 at 8:41 am
I think J.D. Salinger read “You’ll Always Remember Meâ€. He tamed Martin Thorpe to Holden Caulfield and wrote one of the best novels ever: The Catcher in the Rye.
Herbert Huber
Germany
June 3rd, 2023 at 7:05 am
[…] detective Duncan McLain, created a new series for Black Mask. With stories like Fisher’s “You’ll Always Remember Me” and Woolrich’s If the Dead Could Talk, there’s a good argument to be made that […]