Pulp Poem of the Week

The men

with dirty faces

and calloused hands

said nothing.

David Goodis

The Blonde on the Street Corner

1954

Author Photograph: P. J. Wolfson

P. J. Wolfson, author of Bodies Are Dust (one of the great early noirs), is the one in the yellow shirt with the blue stripe around the collar. Photograph posted here with the kind permission of Jon Wolfson.

Pulp Poem of the Week

the face of a

Vassar undergraduate

smelling a

dead cat

Richard Stark

The Dame

1969

Book Review: Richard Stark, The Black Ice Score (1968)

More support for the International Parker Theorem: The more Parker gets involved in international intrigue, the less interesting he becomes. The best Parker books convince you that they take place in the real world of professional thieves. Those books that fall under the International Parker Theorem convince you that some of the Parker novels should have been left out of print. Grade: C-

Dispatch from the Gil Brewer Collection

I’m spending my spring break in Laramie, Wyoming, at the American Heritage Center working in the Gil Brewer Collection. A couple of tidbits folks might find interesting:

1. On November 26, 1956, Brewer signed a contract with Lion Books to write four novels for them. I have no idea why Brewer never actually wrote anything for them. I have not seen Lion mentioned anywhere in the Brewer papers other than on this contract.

2. On July 17, 1958, Brewer signed a contract with Tower Publications to write a book titled Backwoods Bikini under the pseudonym of Zack Holland. This is more exciting than the Lion business because I suppose it’s just barely possible this book is actually out there somewhere. As with the Lion contract, however, I have not seen this mentioned anywhere else in the Brewer papers, and a quick check of online sources has not turned up the existence of any such book. Nevertheless, I thought I should make everybody aware of it, just in case. (And if you’ve got a copy, shoot me an email, and I’ll tell you where to send it.)

Pulp Poem of the Week

I saw to it that

it happened

fast and clean.

It was something

like working

in a butcher shop,

only my job

pays better,

the hours

are shorter,

and there isn’t

the mess.

Max Allan Collins

Quarry [a.k.a. The Broker]

1976

Pulp Poem of the Week

Kill yourself
into a hole,
and the chances are
a time comes
when you have to
kill yourself out.

Dashiell Hammett
The Dain Curse
1929