My Want List

I have a number of rather large literary projects on the go, both with members of the Editorial Board and with individuals whom I have encountered on the World Wid Web, a truly fascinating mechanism to meet and correspond with people without the involvement of Canada Post or it’s counterparts in other nations. There surely must be a time when these organizatons must go the equivalent of bankrupt, and their service doesn’t improve with age either! In the process of creating a book, or books, I need content; I cannot create an omelette without eggs, the same way a creative writer does. Hence for each project I have a want list of stories, books, magazine appearances, newspaper appearances and or digest appearances. I shall endeavour to list them here by author. This blog entry is a work in progress, and I shall emend and update it, as well as link to it in the future. I shall be eternally grateful, as well as pleased to reimburse the reader for out-of-pocket expenses for any items on these lists that can be supplied, either by e-mail attachment or by the equivalent of that dinosaur Canada Post alluded to above.

“White Slave Girls of East End Chinatown” by Sax Rohmer World’s Pictorial, ca. 1920.

“Wainwright T. Morton and McGarvey” by Donald Barr Chidsey: The Carrion Clue(Dime Detective Magazine Mar 15 1935); The Scar Clue (Dime Detective Magazine June 15, 1935); Once Too Often (Detective Fiction Weekly April 29 1939); The Jawbones of Nightmare Swamp (Detective Fiction Weekly Apr 5 1941)

Henry St. Clair Whitehead: Mechanics of Revision (Writer’s Digest, September 1927); The Project Method (Date unknown); The Occult Story (The Free-Lance Writer’s Annual, 1927)

Fraklin H. Martin: (in collaboration with Edward Agnew for WWI Air Adventure Stories) Lone Eagle (Aces, September 1932); The Cloud Crasher (Wings, August 1932); Dealers in Death (Wings, October1934); God Help the Hun (Wings, January 1935); Song of the Eagle (War Birds, June 1937)

Frederick Nebel:  (in collaboration with Edward Agnew for WWI Air Adventure Stories) Skyrocket Scott (Wings, March 1928); Birdmen of Borneo (Air Stories, September 1927); Bolt From the Blue (Air Stories, October 1928); High-Flying Highbinders (Air Stories, March 1930); South of Saigon (Air Stories, June 1930); Boomerang Barnes (Air Adventures, January 1929); The Scourge of the South Seas (Flying Stories, 3 parts, September–November 1929).

Raoul Whitfield: (in collaboration with Edward Agnew for WWI Air Adventure Stories) The want list consist of 54 stories, instead of an individual list, here is a link to the web page where the entire table of contents can be reviewed and the wanted pulps are highlighted in red.http://www.batteredbox.com/LostTreasures/57-WWIWhitfield.htm

Nictzin Dyalhis:  (In collaboration with Robert Weinberg for The Nictzin Dyalhis Portfolio) The Whirling Machete (Underworld, December 1933)

Seabury Quinn: (In collaboration with Gene Christie from The Case Files of Major Sturdevant) The Washington Nights’ Entertainment: No. 2 Not seen? When V3#4; The Washington Nights’ Entertainment: V4#1; The Washington Nights’ Entertainment: V4#2; The Washington Nights’ Entertainment: No. 3 Not seen; “The Shrine of Seven Lamps” Real Detective Tales, V5#2 (September-October 1924; “No. 9. Voodoo” Real Detective Tales, V5#3 (November 1924)

Baroness Emmuska Oczy: The Miser of Maida Vale (Doran, 1925)

 

The Suicide Squad in the Pulps

Another Lost Treasure that is on the verge on going to press is The Compleat Adventures of the Suicide Squad. These are the escapades of 3 American gentleman, a blond, a red-head and a dark haired fellows who go through life before and during the Second World War rescuing blond ladies, usually in a red dress from impossible situations from dastardly villains. This is not enduring literature for the ages, but it was a great escapist literature for our grandfathers. The Boche don’t fare very well, and there’s a great poster of the Squad defacing a propaganda poster of Adolf Hitler. The Japanes fare less well, with Oriental thugs being decimated en masse, with never a scratch nor injury to the members of the Squad. There are a total of 23 stories, almost all appearing in Ace. G-Man Stories. You can check out the website at: http://batteredbox.com/LostTreasures/17-SuicideSquad.htm. There are also a great batch of covers to illustrate the Dustjacket, and the internal illustrations are full of action. The project will go to press, just as soon as Robert Weinberg completes his introduction, and with a bit of publihser’s luck, it will be ready for Pulpfest in Columbia, Ohio at the endof July!

 

 

Lost Treasures from the Pulps in 2011

There are many projects underway, and many have been delayed because of the amount of effort involved in Arkham House projects. I get many inquiries about these projects, and each one of them requires an explanation which is time consuming, and so this post should address all questions simultaneously. I can also update it as time goes by. Many of these projects are far advanced, and on the verge of going to press.

The Compleat Adventures of Luther McGavock and Others

 by Merle Constiner. Page count not fixed. Hard Cover Folio 462+pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-794-7 @ $75.00

This is a project that has been on the list for almost six years now. There is one earlier collection of Constiner featuring the Adventures of “The Dean.” There are a total of 12 stories in Black Mask and 11 that feature Luther McGavock. These stories will be published with the permission of Keith Alan Deutsch. When compiled this was a slim volume, and so a decision was taken to include Constiner tales from other Pulpmagazines and amend the title accordingly. I am still looking for a couple of these additional stories, and the remainder are now included and with the proof reader. The volume is now substantial and I can only say the delay will eventually well reward the reader’s wait. All the illustrations and covers that accompany the stories have been scanned. The Dustjacker is approved.

The Compleat Adventures of the Suicide Squad

by Emile Tepperman. Hard Cover Folio 400+ pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-752-7 @ $75.00.

This volume collectes the 23 stories, some serialized in Ace G-Man Stories. The text is complete and proof read. All the illustrations and covers that accompany the stories have been scanned. The Dustjacker is approved. The delay has been the integration of the text and illustrations; and simply requires a weekend’s work when there is nothing more pressing to do. Perhaps it will get done in March, in Florida?

The Tong of Terror: The Adventures of Jimmy Wentworth

by Sidney Herschel Small. Hard Cover 400+ pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-775-6 @ $75.00

This volumes collects 30 stories featuring Jimmy Wentworth, a police officer born in China who battles the Chinese Tongs in San Farancisco. Some stories are serialized and there are a total of 75 pulps episodes in the series. The text is complete and the illustrations are scanned and ready for integration. The volume has been proof read. The dustjacket has been designed. I note that I still have to apply for a CIP data, and this will follow shortly. The project still requires a couple more weekenda, with nothing else on deck.

The Compleat Adventures of Donald Everhard

by Gordon Young, with an Introduction by Richard Bleiler. HC 2V 1012 pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-784-8 @ $150.00

This set of two volumes was originally suggested by Richard Bleiler, and has received significant contributions from many sources. The last page of the last story arrived in February 2011. All but one story appeared in Adventure Magazine. All the stories are scanned and appear chronologically by date of publication. There are two covers which will be used on the Dust Jacket. This will be a 2 volume collection with alot of content — 957,500 words actually. There are 27 stories, many are serialzied with 6 parts.

The Compleat Zambra the Detective

by Headon Hill with an Introduction by Bob Adey) Hard Cover Folio 500+ pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-626-1 @ $75.00

This series was suggested by Bob Adey, and he has provided all the content from obscure British magazines from the beginning of the 20th century. Some short stories, and Novellas and at least one Novel. The text has been scnned, but needs another proof reading. (I am an imperfect proof reader, as well as an imperfect webmaster.) The work contines, and this project is unlikely to appear in 2011, but we will try.

Strange Ocean Vistas of Philip M. Fisher

Philip M. Fisher, with an Introduction by Rodney Schroeder, and comprehensive commentary byGary G. Garner. Hard Cover Folio 500pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-530-1 @ $90.00

This project commenced back in 1998 at the suggestion of Gary Garner. The dustjacket has been completed, and features a great oil painting of a Zeppelin. Completing this project is currently not in my hands to do, but I am optimistic that work will proceed again shortly. The project so far received has been proof read.

The Satan Hall Omnibus

by John Carroll Daly. Hard Cover 482+ pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-754-1 @ $90.00

This volume collects 24 stories from Detective Fiction Weekly (some serials) and 2 stories from Black Mask. A couple of the tales proofed to be very elusive, but all are now scanned and proof read. There are many pulp covers to include on the Dust Jacket. All the internal illustrations are scanned and need to be integrated into the text. (437.000 words)

Mr. Chang and Rafferty

by E.A. Apple, writing as A.E. Apple. Hard Cover Folio 4 Volumes ISBN 978-1-55246-829-6 @ $350.00

This project collects all the adventures of Mr. Chang (2-1/2 volumes) and Mr. Rafferty (1-1/2 volumes). The text has now been assembled, and the proof reading is almost complete. There are many pulp covers to include from Detective Story Magazine. The author’s family still lives in Canada, and is looking forward to the publication with enthusiasm. Mr. Chang is Canada’s version of Fu Manchu; and Rafferty is Apple’s incarnation of Raffles. There are a total of 1,286,735 words.

Introducing Mr. Chang . . . 

by E.A. Apple. TPB 290 pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-943-9 @ $28.00

This is a small volume, designed as an introudction to the four volume set above. It features novelized, expnaded version of two of the stories contained in the project above, namey Mr. Chang and Scotland Yard and Mr. Chang’s Crime Ray. The book is set up like an Ace Double with the back story inverted and essentially two cover pages and one ISBN

The Otis Adelbert Kline Omnibus

by Otis adelber Kline 2 perhaps 3 Volumes ISBN 978-1-55246-834-0 @ $price not set

This is another very ambitious project which has been stalled. I set the project aside altogether when I was unable to reach I felt was a reasonable agreement with Kline’s estate representative. Since the author passed away in 1996. It is my clear understanding that alll his published writing is out-of-copyright in Canada in 1997. I shall proceed on this understanding without the involvement of the estate. The problem is to find the time, and in the meantime an excellent project languishes in my In-Basket. I would estimate that is over 50% acomplete, and needs another proof reading.

The Adventures of Philip Strange

by Donald H. Kehoe. 4 Volumes ISBN 978-1-55246-837-1 @ $300.00

This is another huge project which is now essentially complete. There are a total of 64 stories, all contained in a single isse. One story proved elusive, but is now scanned and all of them have been proof read. The final step is scanning the illustrations which is problematic since most all the first page illos scan two pages. The pulp covers are all interesting but bear little revelance to the covers. This is but one character series contain in Flying Aces by Kehoe, but it is the one he is most remembered for. The set of 4 DJ’s has been designed and they are ready to fly. There are a total of 1,110,561 words

An Adventure Trilogy

by Arthur Douglas Howden Smith 3 vol. Set ISBN 978-1-55246-817-3 @ $60.00

This project contains 3 prequel novels which were serialized in Adventure Magazine to Treasure Island. They are; The Doom Trail,  Beyond the Sunset and Porto Bello Gold. Treasure Island is my childhood favourite, so to learn how the gold got there in the first place is de rigeur. The books have been scanned and partially proof read. Still looking for some original Dustjackets for the book editions to illustrate. This book will not be published in 2011.

The Yellow Menace

by Louis Tracyand introduced by John D. Squires, Trade Paperback 221pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-872-2 @ $30.00.

This is a pet project of John Squires and I started to work with him in 2003. It is a novel which was originally serialized in the newspapers, and was syndicated to accompany the appearance of the silent movie which is now lost in the sands of time, although many photos still remain. It is presently with the proof reader, and I must integrate the photos, taken from a French translation into the reconstructed text. There are 80,000 words and an excellent commentary with much additional ephemeral illustated material collected by Squires.

The Schemes of Dr. Nikola

by Guy Boothby, with an introduction by Rick Lai and Aislise Bulfin. HC 400+pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-883-8 @ $75.00

This is a collection of five novels featuring a Moriarty type villain-hero.  The five are: A Bid for Fortune — Doctor Nikola Returns — The Lust of Hate — Dr. Nikola’s Experiment — Farewell, Nikola. I am still waiting for the original magazine illustration to accompany the text. Aislise is assembling them in Ireland. Otherwise the project is ready to go, but could use another proof reading. There are 380,147 in the project.

The Compleat Adventures of Robert Lauriston Jones and Others 

by Charles B. Stilson,  Hard Cover 504 pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-885-2 @ $60.00

This project was originally suggested by Kevin Cook, and scanned by Brian Earl Jones of Detroit. It consists of two serialized novels from the pages of All-Star Weekly — A Man Named Jones and Land of the Shadow People as well as 8 unrelated short stories. The project is complete, and the dustjacket is presently being created by Patricia Visneskie. It will be a big book and contains 200, 000 words.

The Compleat Adventures of Gillian Hazeltine

by George F. Worts, Hard Cover Folio, 3 Volume 1000+pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-916-3 @ Price not set as yet

This is an ambitious project, by the author of an earlier lost treasure — Peter the Brazen. It collects 25 Novels, Novellas and Short stories. It collects the adventures of a lawyer who always wins his seemingly hopeless cases and drives the District Attorney mad in the process. The stories originally appeared in Argosy Magazine, and they were difficult but not impossible to assemble with the help of Randy Vanderbeek who has a lengendary collection of pulp magazines. There are 858, 399. The project has been proof read, but the illustrations must all be scanned and integrated. There are many pulp covers to select for the Dustjackets.

The Illusions of Norgil The Magician

by Walter Gibson. Hard cover 500pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-921-7 @ Price not set as yet.

Norgil is a Magician Detective who solves 23 cases in this collection. The stories first appeared in Crime-Busters and Mystery Magazine. They are still under copyright, and I have to track down the Walter Gibson estate representative. 2/3 of the stories were collected by Otto Penzler when the author was still alive, but volume 3 never appeared.

The Adventurers: The Wings of Danger

by Arthur A. Nelson,  HC 400pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-889-0.

this project was originally suggested by Kevin Cook, and I’m still waiting for the photocopies to scan. The story has already been published as an inexpensive trade paperback, and may well be abnadoned altogether. This happens.

The Nictzin Dyalhis Portfolio

by Nictzin Dyalhis.  Hard Cover 350pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-887-6 @ Price not set as yet

This volume collects the serialized novels from Weird Tales and short fiction from elsewhere. I am still looking for one story — “The Whirling Machete” from Underworld. I always appreciate help! the rest is scnned but could use another proof reading.

Inspector West Goes to War

by John Creasey, introduced by Francis M. Nevins. Hard Cover Folio 500+pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-946-0 @ $75.00

This volume collects all five Inspector West Novels that Creasey wrote during WWII. They are elusive now, and I obtained all five copies on loan from the collection of Robert Briney. The five novels are: Inspector West Takes Charge — Inspector West Leaves Town — Inspector West at Home — Inspector West Regrets — Holiday for Inspector West. The cover illustrations were made to order by Laurie Fraser Manifold, and are delightful. Mike Nevins introduction is comprehensive and compelling. There are 409,270 words to digest.

The Crime Magnet

by Sax Rohmer, with an introduction by Gene Christie, and an essay by John Robert Colombo) Trade Paperback 221+pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-950-7 @ $30.00

This is an uncollected series of stories that appeared in This Week. They are now out-of copyright in Canada, NOT in the USA. The magazine is elusive, and copies were obtained from The Library of Congress microfilm. The magazine is oversized and difficult if not impossible to scan. The stories are being transcribed by JRC; and Larry Knapp has agreed to supply as many of the original illustrations as possible. This is indeed a work in progress. Stay tuned.

The Compleat “Needle Mike” 

by William E. Barrett.  Hard Cover 400+ pp. ISBN 978-1-55246-949-1 @ $60.00

This is a series of 16 short stories from the pages of Dime Detective, featuring a detective who crated tattooes. I obtained all the pulps from Randy Vanderbeek, and they are scanned and in the pile to go to Florida for layout and proofing in March 2011.

 

Only 258 e-mails in the Backlog now!

In April 2009 my computer got indigestion and crashed when Windows Express couldn’t cope, and then the new computer crashed again in September when the motherboard died. I lost my e-mails with the first crash, but retained them intact the second time around. I am playing catchup now, and I am only now sorting through the e-mail generated from my web site since  June 2009. Poor business man! and very slow on fulfilment to the frustation of many of my customers. There were other issues but no point in boring you with real life here.

Bob Weinberg and I are now working hard to put the finishing touches on The Arkham House Mission Statement and Forthcoming List (2010-2014). It’s not rocket science, one new book each year, one old book per year, and we can annouce we are scheduling Seventy-Five Years of Arkham House in 2014. This volume will highlight those Stanton and Lee titles missed the first time around, and other information not including in 60 Years. The editorial team is in place and reflects the length and depth of the collector-scholar community. The Arkham Brotherhood and Sisterhood will come together.

 

In re: Drs. J. de Grandin & S. Trowbridge

Since I published The Compleat Adventures of Dr. Jules de Grandin in three volumes at the end of August 2001, I have been asked many times what ever motivated me to undertake such a project? I would attempt at the time to give a simple explanation to the questioner, but I found myself repeating the same concatenation of facts and events, and frequently leaving out a number of the pieces of the mosiac for the sake of brevity.
I can say with a considerable degree of certainty that what follows is more or less what happened, although the people mentioned may place, and likely will place a different spin and perspective on the situation.
First of all I was born in 1946, so I can’t attest to have read these stories in my childhood! I remember that my father had a magazine rack in his Pharmacy when I was a child. It disappeared in the early 1950s when the pharmacy converted to selling only pharmaceuticals and therapeutic nostrums, and stopped selling candy and magazines. I hesitate to confess I missed the candy more than the pulps.
I first heard of Dr. Jules de Grandin and his adventures from a colleague William Nadel in one of those long evening telephone conversations about everything in general and nothing in particular. Bill and I have been collaborating on book entitled A Sherlock Holmes Old Time Radio Show Companion since January 1991; this collaboration still continues today, and the book is yet to be published. I usually see him at least once a year in New Year City in January on the Sherlock Holmes Birthday weekend sponsored by The Baker Street Irregulars, usually in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel or at one of the events. The Radio Show Companion progresses very slowly, I have a working galley, but Nadel’s onging research into date of radio show performances, and the chapters on Edith Meiser are still a work in progress. In any case on one of my irregular telephone calls to motivate Bill to do a chapter and send it to me, he deftly changed the subject and mused about how he had read Dr Jules de Grandin stories as a child in Weird Tales magazine, and how difficult they were to find, and collecting them would be a good idea. He didn’t know exactly how many they were but there could be up to a 100 of them. Bill commented that Dr. Jules de Grandin and his sidekick Dr. Trowbridge were noted as the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of the Supernatural Sleuths. The conversation then drifted to Jacques Futrelle (The Thinking Machine stories), Baroness Orczy (The Old Man in the Corner stories, and The Scarlet Pimpernel), R. Austin Freeman (Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke) and Maurice LeBlanc (Arsène Lupin). At the end of it, the seed was planted for de Grandin project and this was in 1996, or perhaps earlier. The seeds were also planted for the other Detectives as well.
I was talking with Peter Ruber the next day. Peter and I conversed virtually daily by phone back in those days, because we were collaborating on a collection of the writings of Charles Emerson Vincent Starrett. This project too, is still today, very much a work in progress; it is entitled The Vincent Starrett Memorial Library. Twelve of the twenty-four volumes have now appeared in print, and the other 12 volumes exist electronically on my computer’s hard drive, and are all virtually complete in text, and await an assortment of things such as a final proof reading, or the design of a dustjacket.
Well back to de Grandin, Peter knew of the Jules de Grandin stories. In fact he mentioned that August Derleth had published two of Seabury Quinn’s books — Roads (Arkham House) and The Phantom Fighter (Mycroft and Moran). Peter thought it would be a good idea to try and find the copyright holder who was either the second wife or the son Seabury Quinn, Jr. to seek permission to proceed with the project.
But in the meantime he had already assembled a collection of essays that Quinn wrote for Weird Tales entitled “Weird Crimes” and “Servants of Satan” and we decided to start with this collection. Initially the plan was for two separate publications, but as the page proofs came together, it was apparent that a single volume would suffice.
Over the course of the nine months this search continued, and Peter finally found the son living in retirement in The Bronx in New York. He was very agreeable to the project, and knew nothing of the second wife who had married his father after he had his first stroke. She had been his nurse prior to the marriage, and the son and the step mother did not get along well, and he had not heard about her in over 10 years. I subsequently found information about the registration of her death in a small community outside of Boston in 1986, and therefore did not pursue the matter further. Seabury Quinn’s filing cabinet likely followed with the widow to Massachusetts, and is now lost in the sands of time!
Peter also knew that Seabury had written editorials for Casket and Sunnyside, a trade magazine serving the Funeral Home Industry. When Quinn stepped down as the Editor of this magazine he assumed the responsibility of Editor for another trade magazine produced by The Dodge Chemical Company of Boston Massachusetts. There were some current issues of this magazine available from the local mortician, but I was initially unable to unearth any archive, and none of the Reference Libraries I checked had a run of this journal. I contacted John Dodge at Dodge Company Headquarters, and he graciously invited me to the company library in Boston because they had a complete bound run available to refer to. I visited the library for two days in May 1997, and worked through every issue of the magazine. Quinn started to write for the magazine in 1936. Each magazine contained an editorial, and also a column entitled “This I Remember” by Jerome Burke. This column was written by Quinn, but published under the pseudonym Jerome Burke. There were over 145 of these separate columns, and then in the early 1970s, three years after his death, the columns started a second run, and they still appear in the quarterly magazine published today. I made a second set of photocopies of this series, and sent it along to Peter Ruber, who felt, that these would be of limited interest to those who read Quinn’s weird and horror fiction. And so, I set the project aside until the Jules de Grandin project was completed.
In the fall of 1997 Peter Ruber sent me a photocopy from Weird Tales of two of the Jules de Grandin adventures. Neither of them inspired me. I did read them with interest, and I spoke with Allen Hubin in White Bear Lake Minnesota who kindly forwarded a Seabury Quinn Bibliography from one of the many reference works on his shelves. Allen and I first talked of his major reference work Crime Fiction II. He was working to produce a CD-ROM version entitled Crime Fiction III. More recently Allen Hubin and I are now collaborating to publish his magnum opus Crime Fiction IV, a comprehensive bibiliography of crime fiction from 1749 through 2000.
In January 1998, I flew out of Buffalo airport to attend the Sherlock Holmes’s Birthday Weekend in New York City. The weather was inclement and I drove to Alden New York the night prior to the trip to overnight with Carl Thiel. We had a great evening of conversation after a trip to McDonald’s and I retired to the spare bedroom, with the room lined with shelves of books. I found a couple of items of great interest on those shelves that evening, but in particular a couple of collections of the A.J. Raffles stories by E.W. Hornung and a couple of paper back collections of Jules de Grandin stories with commentary by Robert Weinberg. Carl let me borrow them on a read and return basis. I read these with great interest on the flight to New York from Buffalo and the return flight three days later.
I was more inspired with the Raffles character, and on my next trip to Sauk City, Wisconsin I visited “Place of Hawks,” the home of August Derleth and chatted with April his daughter and her husband David Rajel. I got permission to borrow the Raffles titles from the library of August Derleth to scan them at my leisure. I got Mr. Justice Raffles, on interlibrary loan. I borrowed a copy of the play from Richard Lancelyn Green, but the A.J. Raffles Portfolio and The Collected Works of E. W. Hornung is the subject of another article, but while E.W. is a great story teller he is hardly the subject of interest for the Weird or Horror story afficiado!
I returned the Raffles books a couple of months later in the spring and had a long talk with Dave Rajel at that time. The subject turned to Seabury Quinn, and David went upstairs and came back with Roads and The Phantom Fighter from the Family collection of Arkham House titled. I borrowed these two volumes next and returned them the next day after visiting Giedrerich’s print shop in Prairie de Sac to make copies. Roads fascinated me, and the collection of stories in The Phantom Fighter sparked my interest to read more.
I mentioned this to Dave when I returned the books, and he grinned mischievously, and took me down downstairs to the basement room across from the Derleth’s Detective and Weird and Horror Fiction library. He showed me a wonderful collection of Weird Tales Magazines carefully preserved in mylar folders. I happened to have the Quinn bibiliography list that Hubin had sent me in the car.
The rest of the day was a write off. I meticulously worked through the many, many volumes of Weird Tales — in immaculate condition — I might add, something that was totally lost on me in my ignorance. These issues dated back to the early 1920s, and they were obviously accumulated by Derleth starting as a teenager.
The pile selected fit nicely into an Archive Box. The next day was a write off as well, standing patiently in front of a photocopier at Giegerich’s. I was ably assisted by Henry Russell who kindly made high definition colour reproductions of all the covers that featured de Grandin stories. I also first discovered that Quinn had written other weird-horror fiction besides the De Grandin tales. Starting in the late thirties, I discovered many other Quinn stories, that had illustrated covers. These were not listed in the list from Hubin, and this was a temporary loose end. I made photocopies of them as well, but laid the project aside in lieu of completing the de Grandin collection.
I now had a list of a total of 93 stories that I was looking for. I had a total of 63 from the Derleth archives. All I had to do was scan and proof read these, and continue to look for more. The foxed pulp paper and the Weird Tales text font in two columns, combines to be a difficult scan, and so the proof reading proved to be a lenthy and laborious process which I plodded away on through 1998 and early 1999 while I contined to work on various other Derleth collections including In Lovecraft’s Shadow and The Final Adventures of Solar Pons. Now each of these books have their stories as well! but those are both the subject of another essay and another day.
In June of 1999 my internet provider decided to go out of business, and I was left with no e-mail service (gav@gbd.com) for the summer. I quite enjoyed it, but when I got a new service in August and a new and present e-mail address (gav@bmts.com), I retrieved a batch of 300 messages in one lump from the business who inherited the server equipment of my original provider. I worked my way meticulously through these messages, and there were a couple of frustrated messages from Alice Bentley of The Stars Our Destination a purveyor of books in Chicago who wanted to purchase a wholesale quantity of In Lovecraft’s Shadow and other Derleth titles for her inventory. I was travelling to Sauk City to attend the Walden West Festival in late September. It was held early that year to accommodate the visit of Ramsay Campbell. I offered to personally deliver the order because I was passing through Chicago and could save her the postage expense. Alice and I shared coffee that morning that I delivered the books, and we got to know each other. She mentioned that she had purchased her mail order book business from Bob Weinberg and that Mail Order was a significant part of her business, and Mail Order was where most of the Derleth titles sold.
I asked where did Bob Weinberg live? She told me and furthermore gave me his address and phone number in the South Chicago suburbs. The car was however still loaded with books and I continued my trip to Sauk City. I delivered Bourland to James P. Roberts and The Weird Western Adventures of Haakon Jones to Aaron P. Larson. I also delivered books to Arkham House and to The August Derleth Society. The car was empty but I did have a working page proofs of the de Grandin Omnibus with me. It was a memorable weekend (an understatement). Ramsay Campbell gave a great presentation, and I met the founder of the August Derleth Society Richard Fawcett and his wife Jayne who were visiting from Uncasville, Connecticut. Dick Fawcett had a look at the de Grandin project as it existed at that time and gave me strong encouragement to continue it to completion. He also noted that he would very much like to see Roads back in print.
I called Bob Weinberg that Friday evening, and we made arrangements for me to visit him at his home, upon my return visit from Sauk City. Bob and I met the next Tuesday afternoon. I didn’t have any problem finding his home. I showed him the De Grandin page proofs for the 63 stories and asked if he could help with the remainder. He went to the garage and came back with a set of his 6 paperbacks which he had collected some 30 plus of the stories. I posted Carl’s two volumes back to him when I got home the next day)
Over the course of the next nine months I worked with Bob to collect the remaining stories. I would borrow the selected volumes of Weird Tales on my way to Sauk City. I would make the copies and Henry would make copy of the requisite colour covers. and I would return the volumes on my return trip to Shelburne.
In mid-2000 I received an e-mail from Jim Rockhill of Dowagiac, Michigan. He had posted an inquiry to the August Derleth Society Web Site, and I had received it for a reply. I called Jim, and we discussed many matters relating to Derleth and other Weird and Horror Fiction authors. I asked him if he would be interested in proof reading the de Grandin Stories? He agreed. I suggested that as he was proofing the stories, he should consider writing an essay for Volume Three and he agreed to do this as well.
Dick and Jayne Fawcett and I met Seabury Quinn Junior for Dinner in New York City in January 2001, and Seabury agreed to write a brief commentary for Volume 2.
Bob Weinberg also agreed to written additional commentary for Volume one. On one of my subsequent visits to Bob’s place I discussed the other Weird Fiction by Quinn, and he gave me a mimeographed list of the contents of Weird Tales. This was useful, and I compiled a definitive list of all Quinn’s other appearances in the magazine, as well a selection of other Quinn writings that also appeared in the pulps.
Bob suggested that Seabury had written a series of five short stories featuring Carlos the Murderer entitled The Vagabond-at-Arms. I suggested that would make a great “next” project when the de Grandin Volumes were completed. This volume was published in late 2001.
The page proofs had grown from one volume to two volumes and finally three volumes. Initially the stories were all added to the end of the computer file, and then they were sorted in the order of their first appearance in Weird Tales and divided into the three separate volumes.
I attended Walden West Festival in Sauk City again in October 2000. I met Dwayne Olson and Philip Ramon one of the principals behind Fedogan and Bremer. He suggested that I should work with Charles McKee who ran an on-line book shop on the internet. I was in touch with Charles, and he arranged to take prepublication orders for The Compleat Adventures of Jules de Grandin.
Bob Weinberg had been invited to attend the Festival as the Guest Speaker. He spoke on Derleth’s weird and horror fiction as it appeared in Weird Tales. We had a great weekend together and visited Place of Hawks and met with the Derleth family as well as travelling around Sauk City to see all the familiar sites including the Railroad Bridge which has now been blown up — but that’s another story. Bob presented his latest publication Horror of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History to April Derleth, a collection of magazine and horror fiction art work. In fact this publication was the reason that there was a delay in the deGrandin project. I picked up the last of the covers illustrations and the remaining stories which were contained in volumes that had been sent to Bob’s printer for this latest publication. The accumulation of text and covers was now complete. A total of 92 stories and one novel in addition to 35 different colour covers. A set of page proofs was prepared and dispatched to Jim Rockhill, who had already been working on the project for some time.
Jim carefully worked through the page proofs, and did an excellent job over the next 6 months of proof reading the stories.
I was also introduced to Philp Ramon at this Walden West Festival. He was one of the co-owners of Fedogan and Bremer, and he suggested I get in touch with Charles McKee who ran in web site in British Columbia. Charles listed all the F&B publications, and Philip though that Charles would be interested in also listing the publications of The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box.
I was in touch with Charles and he was interested, especially in the de Grandin project, and he mounted a campaign to obtain pre-publication orders. this was very successful, and in large measure accounts for the print printing of one hundred sets selling out before they were received. Likewise the second printing of sixty sets; a third printing of sixty sets; and a fourth printing of forty sets. Now Charles McKee has teased me about this low initial print run, and I suppose to a degree the criticism is justified — but here’s my excuse. I use a printer in Kitchener which is a 125 kilometer drive from home, and that’s 250 kilometers roundtrip. Now sixty sets of three is a nice comfortable load for my jeep with the read seat down. A larger printing simply wouldn’t fit and it would make a necessity of two trips. These sets are expensive to produce, and when you are printing and custom binding them individually, it is simply not necessary to maintain a large inventory. There is no economy of scale in producing larger print runs, until you get above 500 sets.
There was one printing problem in Volume 2 of the first printing. Four lines of text at the end of one story on page 662 ran into the cover of the next story on the same page. This was corrected for the second printing retaining the same pagination. Otherwise the various printings are identical.
The prepublication price of the set of three volumes was $225.00 plus shipping. The current price is $250 plus shipping. This is not likely to change in the foreseeable future.
I have received many compliments on the production standards for the set. I take no credit for this whatsoever. The text blocks are printed two up by a Xerox Docutect printer at M&T InstaPrint of Kitchener Ontario on 70 lb Plainefield white, grain short paper. These text block are knifed in two and sent shipped for custom binding by Bookshelf Bindery of Ridgetown, Ontario with black buxom with gold embossing on the front board and on the spine. The distinctive woven red ribbon bookmark comes from a spool I acquired in Nairobi, Kenya where I served as a Flight Surgeon in the Canadian Armed Forces for six weeks in 1993. But that’s another story!
The logo used for the set was designed by Henry Lauritzen for Peter Ruber in 1968 for his Candlelight Press when he was publishing the works of August Derleth. Peter invited me to adopt it and I have with considerable pride. It features a candle, book and deerstalker cap, and the the name — The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box — derived from the fact that most of the publications are Sherlockian scholarship and pastiches, and Dr. John H. Watson kept his papers for his Sherlock Holmes cases in a Battered Tin Dispatch Box in the vaults of Cox and Company in London. This building was destroyed in WWII in the German Blitz bombing of London in 1940. Since I use a microcomputer to compile the various literary projects, and they are stored on the computer’s hard drive and are managed with a silicon chip, I substituted “silicon” for “tin” and hence the name. One than one person has frankly told me its a silly name, not memorable and too long. I agree on the first and third counts, but the problem is I like it! and that’s the end of that discussion.
I have been criticized for the assembled two part full colour dustjackets. Some collectors have recoiled in horror when they learn I used Scotch 3M invisible tape to reinforce the assembly with Lepage’s two way stick glue. I take full responsibility for this decision. I attribute the two part DJ to a matter of cost. The Colour Docutect 80 has a limitation in size to 11 x 17″. These folio size volumes require an oversized DJ. A minimum length of 2 x 8½” + spine + width of front and back flap is required. The cost of doing three jackets by the traditional route for a small print run is simply prohibitive.
I picked the first printing up at the end of August 2001 and had them all in the mail before departing for Door County for the 1st Reunion of Canonical Conference and Caper. A thoroughly memorable weekend. The last before September 11th!
I received positive feedback from many of the purchasers, and they requested more Seabury Quinn. I took up the Vagabond project once again, and worked on This I Remember (March 2002). I also produced a new edition of Roads (June 2002) using the original Weird Tales text and new illustrations by Paul Churchill.
I have now collected all the other Quinn appearances in Weird Tales, as well as other pulp magazine appearances of Quinn’s weird and horror fiction. It looks as if this form another two similar size volumes. But the difference is there will be not so many covers to illustrate. These stories will fit into another volume which I have tentatively titled The Other Weird Fiction of Seabury Quinn (Volume 4)
I have also started to collect all the Professor Forrester Detective Stories series, The Major Harvey Sturdevant of the Secret Service stories and Captain Sir Haddingway Ingraham Jameson Ingraham (Hiji) stories which appeared in Short Stories. Aomw of these titles are proving quite elusive, and interested readers should contact me at the e-mail listed above for the current want list. There’s about 12 stories on the list.
Adding up all the appearance my count comes to approximately 300 stories. Now Seabury Quinn himself relates in an introduction to The Phantom Fighter, that he published over 500 short stories. Was his memory playing a trick on him, or are there still more than 200 stories to find in the pulps? Did he ever publish under a pseudonym? Other than the “This I Remember” series by Jerome Burke I don’t know of any other pseudonyms.
When Seabury Quinn died on Christmas Eve in 1969 virtually none of his writing was in print. I can say with some pride that Seabury Quinn and the character he created are now back in print, and they are likely to remain so for the forseeable future.
I had dinner with his son Seabury Quinn, Junior at The Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station in New York City in early January 2003. It was a great seafood repast and a great evening of conversation, cheese and cigars. We talked of his father and his writing—
So there you have it, my recollection of how I came to publish the three volumes of The Compleat Adventures of Jules de Grandin by Seabury Quinn — good memories all!

This was an article I wrote for Pulpcon a couple of years ago now. It appeared in their magazine, but almost a year late, but it did appear. At Pulpcon 2007, I was welcomed by a number of members of Peaps to the group and I was very flattered, and regretted not being able to visit Brian’s suite to dialogue. It was suggested that I had not included by “autobiography” with my first contribution, and I set about to do so, but realized that the article above contained most if not all of what I was going to say, so why reinvent the wheel?
The following eight pages further outline the various pulp projects that will occupy my time in the next couple of years. I welcome you constructive comments to expand and improve them.
The first page announces the Secret Six, a six-pack of projects from Argosy which have been referred to in previous editions of Peaps, but also The Satan Hall Omnibus. The six-pack also refers to the Editorial Board (The Sacred Six) which meets irregularly, but keeps in touch electronically. I also include the Table of Contents for Gillian Hazeltine by Worts, The Philip Strange Stories by Kehoe, and The A.E. Apple series of Mr. Change and Mr. Rafferty adventures. Collectively these contain quite a few words which will be attacked one pulp at a time.

 

Pulpwood Proofing

A Thousand Fops or How I Got Into the Proofreading Biz

by Rodney Schroeter

At the 2004 Windy City Pulp and Paperback Show, I was on a mission.

Obviously, I was looking for pulps, originals, books, and any other miscellanea that struck my fancy. But my mission went even beyond that.

I’ve been to every annual Windy City show since it started in 2001. In the years since, I’ve picked up lots of small-press publications that reprint the kind of pulp fiction that makes me smile, clench my teeth, widen my eyes so that the whites show all around, and chuckle insanely, causing my wife to wake in alarm and order me to turn off the light.

And when I did finally turn out the light, I could not easily fall asleep. It was rage that kept me awake. The seething resentment that had built up, causing my skin temperature to rise, as I read publication after publication.

All those typographical errors!

How could they publish books with all those typos? Didn’t anyone actually read them before the manuscripts were sent off to the printer in Timbuktoo?

I don’t think the science of psychology is advanced enough to explain why I developed my razor-sharp ability to catch errors as I read. (Actually, I don’t think psychology is advanced at all, but that’s another rant.) Part of it has to do with my decision to master the English language. (I haven’t done that, quite yet.)

I think, also, that my error-catching mindset is due to the fact that I deliberately chose to never mentally skip over errors. I remember a nice lady that my mother knew, when I was ten, lending me some science fiction paperbacks. Even back then, I didn’t let the publisher get away with anything; I circled and corrected each error with my orange-ink cigar-pen before I returned them to her.

In contrast, most normal people would shrug it off. An error? OK, I know what it should be; let’s move on. But for me, it’s like tripping over a carpet.

Thus, at the 2004 Windy City convention, I stopped at each publisher’s table, gave them a spiel about how I could help improve their product, and submitted a business card. I’d also put an ad in the show’s program and here, for posterity, it is:

Publishers!

You put a lot of work into your book or periodical. But your publication’s attractive, professional look is all too easily undermined–made amateurish and substandard–by only a handful of typos.

I can help! My eagle eye, and mastery of the English language, make my proofreading skills and ability to spot typos unsurpassed.

And I’ll do it for free!!–the first time I work with you. Thereafter, you’ll find my fees so reasonable, my services so invaluable, that you wouldn’t consider going to press without first subjecting your manuscript to my stern scrutiny.

Have a project in the works? Please e-mail me!

Rodney Schroeter
Proofreader
sreels@execpc.com

Several publishers offered polite, “We’ll let you know” responses. As I walked down an aisle in the dealers’ room, one such publisher caught up with me. “Come to think of it,” he said, “I do have something you could work on.”

I returned to the tables of Dr. George Vanderburgh, owner of the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box press. I have asked him just what the Dickens that phrase means, but he simply responds with a cagey smile that it’s a reference to a Sherlock Holmes adventure. (Dr. George is a serious Sherlockian.)

“I have this project that needs proofing,” he said, bringing forth two thick spiral-bound manuscripts from one of his boxes. It was The Compleat Adventures of the Moon Man, written by Frederick C. Davis. I’d never heard of the character; working with Dr. George would prove to invaluably enhance my knowledge of pulp authors and characters. (Another recent tremendous boost to my pulpwood education is Robert Sampson’s 6-volume work, Yesterday’s Faces, which I’ll write about at some point.)

“Can you have this done in a month?” Dr. George asked. I thrust out my chest and said, “Sure!”

It was no idle boast. Proofing that nearly 800-page set of 38 stories was about all I did for the next few weeks, but I got her done. The absolute worst aspect of that job: I did not have the source material. So I was left guessing on a lot of mysterious typos, which will no doubt lead to pulp fiction historians, centuries from now, sneeringly making light of my work on that edition.

Dr. George has provided me, for subsequent projects, with that much-needed source material, so I have been able to check the input whenever that wacky OCR program has garbled up the output beyond all recognition.

And those subsequent projects? Here they are, to date:

(Most are part of a series called Lost Treasures from the Pulps, edited by and/or with input from Robert Weinberg and other collectors/pulp historians.)

2005, The Compleat Adventures of the Green Ghost, by G.T. Fleming-Roberts. Edited by Garyn Roberts. 2 volumes.

2006, The Compleat Great Merlini Saga, by Clayton Rawson. 2 volumes.

2006, The Compleat Park Avenue Hunt Club, by Judson P. Philips. Edited by Garyn Roberts. 2 volumes.

2007, The Other Seabury Quinn Stories, by Seabury Quinn. 2 volumes.

2009, The Compleat Saga of John Solomon, by H. Bedford-Jones. 3 volumes.

2009, The Macabre Quarto, by August Derleth (jointly published by the August Derleth Society and Arkham House). 4 volumes.

2009 (forthcoming), The Compleat Adventures of The Suicide Squad, by Emile C. Tepperman.

Incomplete and unpublished, The Strange Ocean Vistas of Philip M. Fisher.

In-process, The Compleat Adventures of Luther McGavock, by Merle Constiner.

In-process, The Compleat Adventures of Satan Hall, by Caroll John Daly.

Finally: In case you’re wondering, “What’n’e heck does that title refer to?” Well, that was one of the most interesting boners the OCR program pulled on my most recently-completed project, The Suicide Squad. The output: “a thousand fops”. The input? “a thousand Japs”. (This was published during World War II, so that kind of thing was OK then.)

Rodney Schroeter, in Wisconsin

 

Re: Henry St. Clair Whitehead

It was Bob Weinberg’s idea in the first place. I discussed the project with April Derleth since her father had published two volumes of Whitehead’s fiction in the 1940’s — Jumbee and West India Lights. April agreed and I borrowed the Arkham archival copies of the two books in dustjacket. plan to the art work from the two Arkham editions and add a third volume containing other uncollected stories from the pulps. One story “The People of Pan” that was already collected merited a Weird Tales cover, and that story will be published in the third volume.

Right in the middle of this project I learned that Christopher and Barbara Roden of Ash Tree Press were also publishing the same project in three volumes, and the first volume had already been released. The stories were already in the public domain when Derleth published them, so there was no question of infringing any copyrights.

I telephoned Christopher to advise him that I was proceeding with the same project, and continued to collect the stories. The majority were from Weird Tales and many had been published in various anthologies over the past twenty years. I did not want to abandon this project especially since Arkham House had published the two volumes already, and both had been out of print for years

Before I can project I still have to find three of the stories, and one correspondent has advised there may be some more htat don’t have bibliographic data available which makes them even more difficult to locate. I append the list below, if anyone can assist I would be most grateful.

Want List for Whitehead

1. The Gladstone Bag, (ss) Black Mask Sep 1925

2. Gahd Laff!, (ss) Black Mask Jun 1926

3. The Return of Milt Drennan, (ss) Mystery Stories Jan 1929

4. The Great Circle, (ss) Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror Jun 1932; Bizarre Fantasy Tales Fll 1970

5. Ruby the Kid, (ss) Nickel Western Apr 1933

6 Litrachoor, (pm) The Writer; Omniumgathum, ed. Jonathan Bacon & Steve Troyanovich, Stygian Isle Press 1976;
The Writer Etchings & Odysseys #6 1985

 

A Zeppelin on the Horizon

Many years ago now, I received an e-mail from a gentleman who wanted to reprint the Fantastic Fiction of Philip M. Fisher. I agreed to do the project, and he sent me some of the stories that he had already digitized. There was a lot of other material to find, and I set about the task. The gentleman who first suggested the project grew impatient, and I suspect did not like my approach to the project and sought another publisher, and the project as he perceived it has already been published.

Last year I thought everything was ready to publish and then Rodney Schroeter pointed out after he had completed the proof reading and also scanned an additional novel that I didn’t know about, pointed out to me that there were Fisher short stories listed by Bill Contento that were not in the table of contents of the project.

In the meantime I found a great Zeppelin cover which was adapted from an oil painting by Donald Purdon. Donald had painted it for the late Ann Skein Melvin, and her husband David Skein Melvin arranged with the artist for the necessary permissions.

The project still lacks a small list of short stories which I will enumerate below under the front cover and wrap around Dustjacket illustrations.

The Fisher Want List

The Admiral’s Uniform, (ss) Sunset Magazine May 1924
El Capitan’s Revenge, (ss) Munsey’s Aug 1922
Compass, (ss) Sea Stories Jul 20 1923
Kin Lee, (ss) Munsey’s Oct 1922
Platonic, (ss) Breezy Stories Aug 1920

My colleague Kevin Cook has suggested that these stories are almost impossible to locate — but I’m still going to wait and hope for the best. I will publish what I have in another year or so, and THAT is one sure way that the missing stories surface!

 

“The Suicide Squad” in the home stretch.

Last weekend, Rodney Schroeter sent me his proofed version and corrected version of the “Suicide Squad” project as an attachment. When I see him again this weekend at the American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin we will exchange the various paperwork and the projects we collaborated and are collaborating on at present.

The next step is to place the various internal and cover illustrations in the text of the stories, and print another set of page proofs with assorted captions.

The series is about 3 F.B.I agents who take on impossible tasks before and during the US entry into WWII and these fellows always rescue the beautiful lady in the red dress. All three and survive the ordeal to fight again in the next issue. This is not great literature but it is entertainment. Especially when you consider the pulps they appeared in are rare and hard to find, and the copies that have survived are either in the hands of serious collectors, or in libraries, with restricted access, and rules which make it very difficult to actually read them. And if this enough trouble, the pulp paper that the magazines are printed on is NOT acid free, and the magazines are slowing self-destructing as I write this.

Here’s a detailed table of contents of the collection. Bob Weinberg had a complete run of this pulp to share with me. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised (but I haven’t checked) that the list you can find on the internet will not be identical. But frankly I don’t want to take the time to double check — it is simple not necessary. I would say that I would like to be wrong on this point.

However, the list in Bob Weinberg’s and Lohr McKinstrey’s Hero Pulp Index is accurate, but incomplete lacking the last entry, and that’s another large project that progresses slowly but relentlessly to a publication conclusion.

1. Mr. Zero and The F.B.I. Suicide Squad (Ace G-Man Stories, May-June 1939)
2. The Suicide Squad Reports for Death (Ace G-Man Stories, July-August 1939)
3. The Suicide Squad’s Last Mile (Ace G-Man Stories, September-October 1939)
4. The Suicide Squad Pays Off (Ace G-Man Stories, November-December 1939)
5. Coffins for the Suicide Squad (Ace G-Man Stories, January-February 1940)
6. The Suicide Squad—Dead or Alive! (Ace G-Man Stories, April 1940)
7. Shells for the Suicide Squad (Ace G-Man Stories, June 1940)
8. Suicide Squad’s Murder Lottery (Ace G-Man Stories, August 1940)

No Story (Ace G-Man Stories, September 1940)

9. The Suicide Squad and the Murder Bund (Ace G-Man Stories, November 1940)
10. The Suicide Squad in Corpse-Town (Ace G-Man Stories, January 1941)
11. The Coffin Barricade (Ace G-Man Stories, March 1941)
12. The Tunnel Death Built (Ace G-Man Stories, May 1941) 201
13. Wanted—In Three Pine Coffins (Ace G-Man Stories, September 1941) 220
14. The Suicide Squad’s Private War (Ace G-Man Stories, December 1941) 236
15. —For Tomorrow We Die! (Ace G-Man Stories, February 1942) 256
16. The Suicide Squad’s Dawn Patrol (Ace G-Man Stories, April 1942) 273
17. The Suicide Squad Meets the Rising Sun (Ace G-Man Stories, June 1942) 288
18. So Sorry, Mr. Hirohito! (Ace G-Man Stories, August 1942)
19. Move Over, Death! (Ace G-Man Stories, October 1942)
20. Targets for the Flaming Arrow (Ace G-Man Stories, December 1942)
21. Blood, Sweat and Bullets (Ace G-Man Stories, February 1943)
22. The Suicide Squad and The Twins of Death (Ace G-Man Stories, August 1943)

23. The Masked Marksman’s Command Performance (Spider Magazine ??)

 

Introducing Norgil The Magician …

This morning I completed a set of photocopies of the 23 short stories by Walter Gibson featuring Norgil, a Magician Detective. The Mysterious Press completed 2/3 of the series back in the 1970’s with two volumes. I had a list of all 23 cases and borrowed a set of the original pulps from Randy Vanderbeek, a member of The Sacred Six (The Editorial Board of The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box). Ordinarily this procedure would not be worthy of commentary in a blog — but the list I obtained somewhere on the internet was seriously flawed. Three of the titles had been (I suspect) purposely altered. However the list below is accurate to the best of my ability, and I post it here! and invite comments!

The Compleat Portfolio of Norgil the Magician

by Walter Gibson as Maxwell Grant

1. Norgil (Crime Busters, November 1937)
2. Ring of Death (Crime Busters, January 1938)
3. Murderer’s Throne (Crime Busters, February 1938)
4. The Second Double (Crime Busters, March 1938)
5. Drinks on the House (Crime Busters, April 1938)
6. Chinaman’s Chance (Crime Busters, May 1938)
7. The Glass Box (Crime Busters, June 1938)
8. The Mad Magician (Crime Busters, July 1938)
9. The Ghost That Came Back (Crime Busters, August 1938)
10. The Silver Venus (Crime Busters, September 1938)
11. Double Barrelled Magic (Crime Busters, November 1938)
12. Magician’s Choice (Crime Busters, December 1938)
13. Old Crime Week (Crime Busters, February 1939)
14. Murder in Wax (Crime Busters, April 1939)
15. The Mystery of Moloch (Crime Busters, June 1939)
16. $5,000 Reward! (Crime Busters, July 1939)
17. A Chest of Ching Ling Foo (Crime Busters, September 1939)
18. The Blue Pearls (Mystery Magazine, December 1939)
19. The Lady and the Lion (Mystery Magazine, January 1940)
20. Crime in the Crystal (Mystery Magazine, March 1940)
21. Too Many Ghosts (Mystery Magazine, May 1940)
22. Battle of Magic (Mystery Magazine, July 1940)
23. Tank-Town Tour (Mystery Magazine, November 1940)