Tue 10 May 2022
Diary Review: RON GOULART – The Hardboiled Dicks (Part Three).
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Pulp Fiction[19] Comments
Note: Part two of this three-part review can be found here.
FRANK GRUBER “Death on Eagle’s Crag.†Oliver Quade #8. First published in Black Mask, December 1937. There is a tremendous contrast between the mild-mannered encyclopedia salesman Oliver Quade, and the extreme amount of violence that occurs as escaped convicts take over a secluded resort. (4)
RICHARD SALE “A Nose for News.†Daffy Dill #2. First published in Detective Fiction Weekly, December 1, 1934. Unlikely circumstances cause Daffy Dill to be fired from his newspaper job, and he becomes involved in a kidnapping plot while hunting up a story to regain it. Did not seem too believable even while reading it. (2)
LESTER DENT “Angelfish.†Oscar Sail #2. First published in Black Mask, December 1936. Private eye Oscar Sail is hired to steal aerial photos of oil fields and risks his life in a hurricane to save a girl. Vivid picture of the storm’s violence at sea saves the story. (3)
ERLE STANLEY GARDNER “Bird in the Hand.†Lester Leith #33. First published in Detective Fiction Weekly, April 5, 1932. Lester Leith manages to steal stolen jewels under the watchful eyes of the police. Quite entertaining and amusing except for weak beginning. Gardner’s style is very noticeable; less emphasis on violence. (3)
May 10th, 2022 at 8:13 am
You’re a tough grader. Glad you weren’t my math teacher. What were you giving 5/5’s to circa 1967?
May 11th, 2022 at 12:24 pm
I never graded on a curve, even when I was teaching math. If everyone deserved an A, everyone got an A.
Back in 1967, though, authors I would have given a 5 to would do include Hammett and Chandler. The authors in Ron’s book were new to me, so they were the ones I was comparing these to.
For these stories, the one I’d most likely change ratings for would be Lester Dent (5) and Frank Grover (maybe a 3).
May 10th, 2022 at 7:54 pm
Not the best of the Daffy Dill stories I’ll agree. The Gruber was much better than I expected a series about an encyclopedia salesman, and the Sail story changed how I looked at Dent and got me interested in his non Doc stories.
I love the Lester Leith stories, they are only marginally hard-boiled, but I won’t quibble because they are so much fun. He shared the pages of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY with H. Bedford-Jones Riley Dillon and it is interesting to compare the two scoundrels in residence adventures.
May 11th, 2022 at 12:29 pm
Lester Leith hardboiled? I’d say not at all, especially as time went on. I also think the stories he was in became more and more formulaic. I wouldn’t care to read too many in a row.
May 11th, 2022 at 1:24 pm
Steve, the dent is really the one I was thinking about as deserving better than a “Câ€â€”it’s kinda considered a classic of the genre along with Sail and I think Dent regarded it as his best work due to his desire to please Joseph Shaw.
May 11th, 2022 at 1:30 pm
And daffy dill with a “d†kinda scared me a bit in terms of harsh grading. I mean it’s daffy dill! It’s Richard Sale! And if there’s no curve then comparing anything by Richard Sale with anything published in 2022 by any American writer of crime fiction—I’d go with Sale. Granted your review was ‘67–so who could’ve foreseen the drowned hopes in tepid depths of swamp retreaded genre writing of today.
May 11th, 2022 at 8:05 pm
So others tell me.
But not as vividly.
May 11th, 2022 at 8:43 pm
I think much of the discussion revolving around these reviews come down not to the stories themselves, but to the impact this anthology had for so many of us.
It’s a bit of a shock to see such a cool analysis of something that was so important to us. It’s like someone trying to judge the stories in THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES as if every one of them hadn’t been an astonishing revelation rather than being just stories with flaws and weaknesses.
Prior to this I knew Hammett and Chandler, knew who Whitfield and Nebel were, knew Gruber only through his novels, and had never heard of Davis or knew Dent did much beyond Doc Savage. But the only writers I had read out of this list were Gardner and Gruber, and not writing anything remotely like these.
As a result, all these stories and writers were revelatory, striking, and fired my desire to learn more about the origins of the genre.
The stories and Goulart’s introduction opened a door to a world where admittedly the stories were sometimes raw, cliched only because they were creating the cliches, and far from the more polished product I was used to reading. At the same time that very rawness that sense of a new voice that had once marked BLACK MASK and DIME DETECTIVE was invigorating.
In one sense I still look for and respond to that rawness, it’s a quality I still respond to whether I am reading Carroll John Daly, Robert Leslie Bellem, or Richard Prather, all writers whose energy can overwhelm their weaknesses.
I have to disagree on the Leith stories though, even while granting I probably wouldn’t want to read more than one or two at a sitting because they are formulaic. I just find it an entertaining formula that usually works for me. I find the Leith stories fun in the same way I did the Perry Mason novels. I liked the formula and enjoyed the variations played endlessly on it, but with any formula if you don’t buy into it the weaknesses overwhelm the other values.
But to be perfectly frank these stories and this anthology are so vital to my development as a reader, writer, and critic that I find it almost impossible to be objective about them.
There are a handful of anthologies from this general era that have the same kind of impact on me because of the doors they opened in literary terms. I can’t imagine how harshly I would judge the stories in NICK CARTER MASTER DETECTIVE, and yet that was a vital book for me. So was Eric Ambler’s TO CATCH A SPY amd Hans Stefan Santesson’s THE AWARD ESPIONAGE READER.
Then too, and I’ll be painfully honest about myself here, you were in college when you first read this, and I was graduating high school. It makes a difference in how we responded.
May 12th, 2022 at 12:55 am
“It’s a bit of a shock to see such a cool analysis of something that was so important to us. It’s like someone trying to judge the stories in THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES as if every one of them hadn’t been an astonishing revelation rather than being just stories with flaws and weaknesses.”
Some background. Back when I wrote these mini-reviews, I had no idea how importunate Ron’s book was going to be to so many people, including myself. I had no idea if I was ever going to be able to read any of the authors again, at least not any of their stories from the pulps. I had no idea that I’d ever meet Ron Goulart, much less become a good friend. I was in college at the time, back in Ann Arbor. The only pulps I’d ever seen were all science fiction titles from the early 50s. BLACK MASK meant nothing to me.
I had no idea that anyone would ever see these reviews besides myself. Consider them honest thoughts about the stories at a particular time and place, age, and reading experience. Reading the stories themselves now, I am happy with my mini-synopses. I think they’re quite good. The ratings were incidental, and it’s been fun discussing them now. Other than that, they are what they are, and I’ve have enjoyed arguing with my younger self about them too.
I finished re-reading these last four yesterday. You’ll read my new thoughts about them here on this blog soon, both strengths and weaknesses. Do stay with me. Glad to have you all along!
May 12th, 2022 at 4:51 am
Steve,
Your retro reviews make me nostalgic for copy shops, lines at the USPO, and 2-month waits for commentary on your work.
Them wuz the days!
May 12th, 2022 at 11:06 am
You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.
May 12th, 2022 at 11:30 am
Absolutely right, Steve. Across the board.
May 13th, 2022 at 1:34 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. […]
May 14th, 2022 at 10:46 am
No post should have exactly 13 comments.
May 14th, 2022 at 11:37 am
Aw Steve, you messed it up! The 13th and final comment was on Friday the 13th!
May 14th, 2022 at 12:11 pm
I am in California this weekend and am suffering from a serious case of time lag. I missed that. That’s what I call downright spooky!
May 15th, 2022 at 12:15 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. […]
May 16th, 2022 at 8:08 pm
[…] 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. […]
May 17th, 2022 at 12:36 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. […]