Sat 16 Apr 2022
Diary Review: RON GOULART, Editor – The Hardboiled Dicks.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Pulp Fiction[17] Comments
RON GOULART, Editor – The Hardboiled Dicks. Sherbourne Press, hardcover, 1965. Pocket, paperback, 1967.
Eight stories from the pulp-age detective magazines, when violence and action were the keywords. The question is, are these stories merely representative, or were they chosen to be among the best of each author’s work? If the majority of pulp stories were below these in quality, they deserve obscurity, but if these are indeed only meant as typical examples, future digging might be quite rewarding. Overall rating: 3 stars.
[Note: Rather than reprint the entirety of the eight stories in one fell swoop, what I’ve decided to do is post them on this blog two at a time, over the next few weeks.]
NORBERT DAVIS “Don’t Give Your Right Name.†PI Max Latin #2. Novelette. First published in Dime Detective Magazine, December 1941. Reprinted in The Complete Cases of Max Latin (Steeger Books, 2013). Max Latin, not-so-honest private eye, solves the murder of another detective working on a case connected with a job of Latin’s. Too many coincidences when thought about afterward, but is effectively done. Characterization is complete, but ending comes fast. (3)
JOHN K. BUTLER “The Saint in Silver.†Steve Midnight #4. Novelette. First published in Dime Detective Magazine, January 1941. Collected in The Complete Cases of Steve Midnight, Volume 1 (Steeger Books, 2016). Steve Midnight, a cab driver, takes a fare on part of a treasure hunt and becomes involved in the narcotics habit of a religionist’s wife. Well told story, in Southern California surroundings. (3)
— November 1967.
April 16th, 2022 at 9:14 pm
I have praised this ground breaking collection so many times that I’m sure many readers will say “not again, Walker!”
Like Steve, I also read it in 1967 but at the time I was in the army which interrupted my goal of collecting every SF and fantasy magazine in existence. I had tried to find detective pulps at the SF conventions without much success. I actually thought that the detective pulps did not survive like the SF pulps because adults were not interested in saving copies like the SF fans who were often teenagers and young men in their twenties.
Ron Goulart showed me the error of my ways because this collection proved the detective pulps were indeed out there in the wild. I immediately wrote Ron and asked him if cared to sell me his detective pulps. Not only did he send me two big boxes of Black Mask, Dime Detective, and Detective Fiction Weekly, but he only charged me two or three dollars each.
This book super charged me to quickly compile complete sets of Black Mask and Dime Detective and almost all the over 900 issues of Detective Fiction Weekly and the over 1000 issues of Detective Story.
I have to admit I liked the two stories a lot more than Steve. If I had given them “3” which is sort of a mediocre rating, I probably would not have tried to collect complete sets of Black Mask and Dime Detective.
Decades later, Ron Goulart wrote in my copy of this excellent collection, “To Walker, whose life I ruined”.
April 16th, 2022 at 9:29 pm
Yes, you’re right, Walker. A “3” is only a midrange rating, sort of like a “C”. And yet, as soon as I started typing up these first two mini-reviews for the blog, both of the stories came back to me. Not all the details, but still, that has to count something, doesn’t it? Quite a lot, I’d say.
April 16th, 2022 at 10:48 pm
Perhaps the most influential anthology I ever read. The introduction alone opened a whole new world for me.
I tracked down every writer in it, most new to me then (I was 17 and a senior in High School) though there were exceptions like Gruber. Back then finding them wasn’t easy, and I am still searching for more stories by some of them, but over the years reprints and ebooks have made it much easier.
This was fairly representative of BLACK MASK and DIME DETECTIVE if not the genre as a whole. I’m sure Goulart went out of his way to find the best stories of each individual writer in his opinion, but honestly in every case there were others equal to these from my reading of them.
But”3″? What were you giving an A + to then?
April 16th, 2022 at 11:50 pm
That’s a good question. I guess I’d have to say I was comparing them to Ellery Queen, John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, Samuel R. Delany and so on. Looking ahead, the only author in Ron’s book I gave a (4) to was Frank Gruber. No 5’s. But I’d also have to say that the authors and stories in this book simply turned my reading — and collecting — life around.
April 17th, 2022 at 7:05 am
Steve, your last sentence where you say that the stories in this book “…simply turned my reading-and collecting-life around.” indicate that the stories probably should have been rated higher than a “3”. Perhaps closer to a “4” because of the historical significance and influence. Also as David points out the introduction alone opened up a new world for so many readers and collectors.
A very influential anthology indeed.
April 17th, 2022 at 7:33 am
Had I but Known.
April 17th, 2022 at 8:00 am
Yes, an outstanding anthology and one that led me to Shaw’s collection and many others, when I read it in the mid-’70s. I too was surprised by the ‘3’ rating.
April 17th, 2022 at 8:21 am
Add me to the list of those tremendously influenced by this anthology. A real eye-opener, to be sure. Before reading it, the only hardboiled detective I was aware of was Mike Shayne, who I’d discovered a couple of years earlier at the local bookmobile.
April 17th, 2022 at 2:02 pm
I just noticed that this book was reviewed by Jeff Meyerson on July 23, 2020. Steve, your comments back then show that you liked the stories a lot more than the “3” rating we have been talking about. Our memories are failing as time passes…
April 17th, 2022 at 3:56 pm
Au contraire, if I may. At least in my case, my memories have improved and gotten more vivid as time as gone on. The 3’s were what I thought of them at the time. I’m rating my memories now.
April 17th, 2022 at 3:58 pm
And guess what. I’ve just found my copy of Ron’s book and I will be going through it, story by story, and telling you exactly what I think of each of them now.
April 17th, 2022 at 6:41 pm
Steve,
I just dug out my copy in my TBR pile and read the first story in the book by Norbert Davis,
and if your highest rating is 5 stars, I give
it a 5! I’m going to read along and comment
on all your reviews. Looking forward to more posts. Thanks!
April 19th, 2022 at 4:59 am
Weirdly enough, I’m probably the youngest of the commenters AND the only person in this group to have read one of these stories in the original pulp format before I came across this book.
I bought a mixed lot of pulps on EBay and found a coverless Dime Detective among them. The first story in that issue featured Inspector Allhoff and Butler’s story was the other highlight.
That issue convinced me that Dime Detective in the 1940s was worth collecting. Beat up copies come up for sale from time to time. They used to be cheaper. Ah, for the good old days of 5 years ago 🙂
April 19th, 2022 at 4:11 pm
Right you are. Even coverless DIME DETECTIVE’s from the 40s are worth their weight in … something. From the 30s even more so!
April 25th, 2022 at 11:14 pm
[…] Note: I first wrote a review of this story in 1967. I posted it on this blog a while ago. Follow the link and you can read it here. […]
May 1st, 2022 at 10:09 pm
[…] Note: Part one of this four-part review can be found here. […]
May 3rd, 2022 at 11:32 am
[…] Note: I first wrote a review of this story in 1967, and I posted it on this blog a few weeks ago. Follow the link and you can read it here. […]