Search Results for 'peery'


   Suzanne Peery Schutt and I have made an addition to the previous posting on her father, James Robert Peery. Here’s her email to describe it.

   Steve, I don’t have a scanner, but my husband says he can use one at his office to get a photo to you. I know exactly which one I want to send, if I can find it. You know that feeling, don’t you? My father is sitting at the typewriter with books in the background…taken in the late 30’s. Do you think you could add it? Best wishes, Suzanne

   My reply? Of course I can, and I have. Follow the link above.

   Carl Buchanan has come up before on this blog, in particular in this post made last January. At the time it had just been discovered that “Carl Buchanan” was the pen name of James Robert Peery, a fact which produced a flurry of activity, including a list of the stories he’d done for the detective pulp magazines.

   I won’t reproduce the list of his short fiction here — you can follow the link above for that — but here now is the revised entry for Buchanan as it presently exists in Part 9 of the online Addenda for the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin:

BUCHANAN, CARL. Pseudonym of James Robert Peery, 1900-1954, q.v. Born in Mississippi; served in U.S. Army’s Signal and Intelligence Divisions in WWI; worked in banking and cotton before settling into journalism; published two mainstream novels under his real name. Under this pen name, the author of a number of short stories for the US detective pulp magazines and three crime novels published in the UK, included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. See below.
      The Black Cloak Murders. Pearson, UK, hc, 1936. Setting: North Carolina.

Carl Buchanan: Black Cloak Murders

      Night of Horror. Mellifont, UK, pb, 1939.
      The Red Scorpion. Mellifont, UK, pb, 1939.

[UPDATE] A week or so ago, I received an email from Suzanne Peery Schutt, who has agreed to allow me to share it with you. She says:

    “My sister-in-law sent me your web site, and I just wanted you to know that I am the daughter of James (Jim) Peery. He was a brilliant man who died at age 54. His two novels are Stark Summer, 1939, and God Rides A Gale, 1940. These were the war years and it was difficult making a living as a writer, so he moved to Jackson from Eupora, working as news editor of radio station WJDX and was Mississippi correspondent for United Press.

    “He died of a thrombosis way too soon, at age 54. I was a junior in college. I cherish my memories: I never had to look up a word in the dictionary as he knew them all. I have no copies of the pulp magazine stories; I was just a child but remember him at the typewriter in the parlor of the family home in Eupora. It was built in 1908 and is still standing despite damage from Katrina. The family who owns it now has renovated it and I go back at least 3 times a year to see it and remember my wonderful heritage.

    “Daddy was married to his childhood sweetheart, Sudie Leigh, and my mother. Mother was a school teacher and superintendent of education for Webster County. For a time, she supported the family so that Daddy could write his two novels.

    “I live in Clinton, am married to Wallis Schutt, an engineer, and we have three grown children. I am an avid reader and quilt maker.”

            Best regards,

              Suzanne Peery Schutt

James Robert Peery


[UPDATE #2] 12-11-07. In the interest in keeping this entry on Mr. Peery complete, here are the combined listings of his pulp stories written as Carl Buchanan, as far as Victor Berch and I have been able to determine them, taken in part from The FictionMags Index:

BUCHANAN, CARL

Blind Trail, All-Star Detective Stories Oct. 1930
The Crag Island Murders, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly Apr 1932
Crimson Goblet, (ss) Clues Aug 1934
The Head That Lived, Super Detective Stories July 1935
Hot Car Wreckage, All-Star Detective Stories Apr. 1932
Finger for Sale, (ss) Clues Oct 1935
Laughter in the Chapel, (ss) Clues Apr 1934
The Monk’s-Hood Murders, All-Star Detective Stories July 1930
Murder By Candlelight, Mystery Apr. 1933
Murder in the Rain, The Underworld Magazine Aug. 1931
The Mystery of the Two Glasses, (ss) Clues Jul #2 1930
Red Haven, (ss) Clues Dec 1934
The Red Scorpion Murders, World Man Hunters Feb. 1934
Rhapsody in Blood, (ss) Clues Feb 1934
Right Guy, (ss) Clues Aug #1 1930
Rope’s End, Murder Stories Sept-Oct 1931
Screams of the White Cockatoos, (ss) Clues Jul 1934
Sweet Racket!, (ss) Clues May #2 1930
The Time of the Crime, (na) The Thriller Dec 9 1933
2 Minutes from Murder, (ss) Clues Mar 1935

   Victor adds “There is one other [detective] tale under the name Robert Peery, who, I assume, is our man.”

The Spy Champion, Startling Detective Stories Mar 1930

   To which I agree, and although it is has not yet been confirmed that Robert Peery is indeed James Robert Peery, here again from The FictionMags index are the following:

PEERY, ROBERT

The Bat Patrol, (ss) Eagles of the Air Jan 1930
Battle Madness, (ss) Battle Stories Nov 1931
Brood of the Black Eagle, (nv) Battle Stories Nov 1929
Bullet Bait, (ss) Battle Stories Apr 1931
The Claws of the Yellow Eagle, (ss) War Birds Jun 1929
Condemned to Die, (ss) Battle Stories Feb 1930
A Corner in Bully Beef, (ss) Over the Top Jan 1929
Dan Comes Back!, (ss) Flyers Nov 1929
The Decoy Battery, (ss) Battle Stories Jun 1929
Decoy of Death, (ss) Battle Stories #65 1935
Dog Robber and the Spy, (ss) Triple-X Magazine Oct 1929
A Dog-Robber in No-Man’s Land, (ss) Battle Stories Jan 1932
Fixed Bayonets, (ss) Battle Stories Dec 1929
Forward by Squads, (ss) Battle Stories Aug 1930
Fury in the Blue, (ss) Battle Stories May 1929
Handcuffed in No-Man’s Land, (ss) Battle Stories Feb 1932
A Hero in Spite of Himself, (ss) Battle Stories Sep 1930
Hidden Guns, (ss) Complete Flying Novel Dec 1929
The Lost Mine Murders, (ss) Triple-X Western Aug 1931
The Mystery Gun of Company B, (ss) Battle Stories Jun 1931
Off With Your Stripes!, (ss) War Stories Mar 27 1930
On Enemy Wings, (ss) Battle Stories Jul 1929
On Wings of Despair, (ss) Zoom Apr/May 1931
The Phantom Murder, (ss) Triple-X Magazine Dec 1929
Punishable with Death, (ss) Battle Stories May 1931
Sadie Was There!, (ss) War Novels Feb 1929
The Spy at Regimental, (ss) Battle Stories May 1930
The Spy of Mercier Trench, (ss) Battle Stories Mar 1930
The Spy with the Bandaged Hand, (ss) Battle Stories Jan 1930
The Stranded Platoon, (ss) Triple-X Mar 1930
The Suicide Job, (ss) War Stories Oct 11 1928
That Bum From Mott Street, (ss) War Stories Mar 14 1929
Thirteen to One, (ss) War Birds Aug 1929
To the Last Gun, (ss) Battle Stories Oct 1930
Tunnel of Death, (ss) Battle Stories Nov 1932
Written in Blood, (ss) War Novels Jul 1930

   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.

   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.

CLUES July 1939

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!”

Sincerely yours,

      James Robert Peery
         Eupora, Mississippi


   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.

   John Herrington is one of the more prolific contributors to the continuing flow of Addenda to Allen J. Hubin’s Revised Crime Fiction IV. He describes his recent activity as follows:

    “What I am doing, out of ennui after Christmas, is going through CFIV at random and picking out authors, with a handful of titles or more, whom Allen has yet to find any information on – then googling them. Slow old business as for every name I find something, there are a score or more that remain anonymous.”

The information that follows arrived in a recent email to Al. To provide the proper context, I’ve included the full entries for each of the authors as they presently stand in CFIV, with John’s comments following:

TINSLEY, REBECCA
* * *The Judas File (Headline, 1995, hc) [Charlotte Carter; Ireland]
* * *Settlement Day (Headline, 1994, hc) [Charlotte Carter; London]

Tinsley

   This lady is a journalist, having written in New Statesman, Times, Telegraph etc., and once worked for BBC. Very involved in Humans Rights according to Internet references to her. But no date of birth.

TANNER, JANET
* * *Daughter of Riches (Century, 1992, hc) [Australia] St. Martin’s, 1993.
* * *Deception and Desire (Century, 1993, hc) St. Martin’s, 1995.
* * *Folly’s Child (Century, 1991, hc) St. Martin’s, 1992.

Tanner

   Janet Tanner has written all her life, hundreds of short stories published worldwide before she turned to novel writing. No date of birth. though she is a grandmother with young grandchildren.

TORGERSON, EDWIN DIAL
* * *The Cold Finger Curse (U.K.: Falcon, 1933, hc) [Sgt. Pierre Montigny; New York City, NY]
* * *The Murderer Returns (Lane, 1931, hc) [Sgt. Pierre Montigny; Montreal, Canada] Smith, 1930.

Torgerson

   Found at the website for the Archives Collections at the University of Mississippi:

“The son of a Swedish-immigrant architect, Torgerson was born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1896 and spent part of his early childhood in Oxford. After graduating from high school, he worked for a number of newspapers and edited Hearst’s American Weekly. Torgerson also wrote short stories that appeared in well-known periodicals, including several detective tales. His first full-length novel, The Murderer Returns, takes place in Montreal, Canada. The principal clue is a set of paw prints left in the snow by a cat. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood after MGM invited him to write a screenplay based on one of his mysteries, and he died there the following year.”

From The FictionMags Index, the following magazine short stories (an incomplete listing):

TORGERSON, EDWIN DIAL
* * The Challenger, (ss) McCall’s Jul 1937
* * Heart and Carrots, (ss) McCall’s Nov 1931
* * High Game, (ss) Argosy Dec 31 1938
* * No Questions Asked, (ss) Detective Story Magazine Apr 8 1919
* * One-Horse Bank, (ss) The American Magazine Feb 1936
* * The Second-Seer, (ss) Argosy Sep 13 1919
* * Uneasy Money, (ss) The American Magazine Mar 1935

   From the same University of Mississippi website comes the first discovery of the year. I’ll begin with the present CFIV entry:

BUCHANAN, CARL
* * *The Black Cloak Murders (Pearson, 1936, hc) [North Carolina]
* * *Night of Horror (Mellifont, 1939, pb)
* * *The Red Scorpion (Mellifont, 1939, pb)

Buchanan

   “Carl Buchanan was the pseudonym used by James Robert Peery on The Black Cloak Murders published in London by C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd. in 1936, with later translations in Spanish and Danish. Set in the southern United States, a murderer seeks information concerning a treasure buried in Europe at the end of World War I. Peery was born outside Stewart, Mississippi in 1900 and grew up in Eupora. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Army’s Signal and Intelligence divisions. Once home, he worked in banking and cotton before settling into journalism. Pulp magazines accepted several pot-boilers submitted by him under a penname. Peery reserved his real name for two literary novels that appeared in 1938 and 1940.”

Again from The FictionMags Index:

BUCHANAN, CARL
* * The Crag Island Murders, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly Apr 1932
* * Crimson Goblet, (ss) Clues Aug 1934
* * Finger for Sale, (ss) Clues Oct 1935
* * Laughter in the Chapel, (ss) Clues Apr 1934
* * The Mystery of the Two Glasses, (ss) Clues Jul #2 1930
* * Red Haven, (ss) Clues Dec 1934
* * Rhapsody in Blood, (ss) Clues Feb 1934
* * Right Guy, (ss) Clues Aug #1 1930
* * Screams of the White Cockatoos, (ss) Clues Jul 1934
* * Sweet Racket!, (ss) Clues May #2 1930
* * The Time of the Crime, (na) The Thriller Dec 9 1933
* * 2 Minutes from Murder, (ss) Clues Mar 1935

   [Steve again.] One of the books published by James Robert Peery under his real name is God Rides a Gale (Harper & Brothers, 1940). Curiously, the ABE seller who has a copy of this book describes it thusly: “Inscribed by the author: ‘For Ted Lewis – Greetings! Jim Perry – JKR.’ The second of two literary novels by this Mississippi-born author, who also published mysteries with a co-author under the pseudonym Carl Buchanan.”

Peery

Peery’s first literary novel does not appear for sale on the Internet, nor at present is there an entry for James Robert Peery in CFIV. Al Hubin says: “I’ll add brief notes to the Tinsley and Tanner entries (in Addenda #9); the Torgerson information is pretty well what I have in the Revised CFIV. But the Peery info (along with his 1954 death date) will go into #9 with pleasure.”

   Online presently are Addenda installments 1 through 8. Look for Part 9 shortly.


[UPDATE: 01-22-07]
Taken from an email sent by Victor Berch:

Steve:

To Carl Buchanan’s repertoire, you can add the following:

Blind Trail, All-Star Detective Stories Oct. 1930
The Head That Lived, Super Detective Stories July 1935
Hot Car Wreckage, All-Star Detective Stories Apr. 1932
The Monk’s-Hood Murders, All-Star Detective Stories July 1930
Murder By Candlelight, Mystery Apr. 1933
Murder in the Rain, The Underworld Magazine Aug. 1931
The Red Scorpion Murders, World Man Hunters Feb. 1934
Rope’s End, Murder Stories Sep-Oct 1931

There was one other tale under the name Robert Peery, who, I assume, is our man:

The Spy Champion, Startling Detective Stories Mar. 1930.

>> Thanks, Victor. I’m inclined to agree with you about that last story.    –Steve