Friday, January 28, 2011

FORGOTTEN BOOK: RUE MORGUE NO. 1

My choice for this week's forgotten books is truly forgotten.  I read the book about 25 years ago and then completely forgot about it.  According to my notes, I enjoyed it greatly, but now I can't remember much about it.  Perhaps someone reading this this can help jog my memory on some details.

     Rue Morgue No. 1 is a 1946 anthology edited by Rex Stout and Louis Greenfield published by Creative Age Press in New York.  My foggy memory tells me that this was planned as the first of a series, although no others appeared.  Anyway, here are nineteen mystery/crime stories taken mainly from the detective pulps (Black Mask, Detective Magazine, Detective Tales, Popular Detective, Speed Detective, and possibly others), with a sprinkling from the slicks (Atlantic Monthly, Cosmopolitan, Woman's Home Companion), and from Weird Tales.  Here's the line-up:
  • The Listening House, Paul Hoffman
  • What More Can Fortune Do?, H. Bedford-Jones
  • It Had to Be, Dorothy Dunn
  • Slay-Mates, Charles Larson
  • The Green God's Ring, Seabury Quinn
  • Gun from Gotham (Sleep for a Dreamer), Robert Leslie Bellam
  • Second Childhood, Jack Snow
  • Cold Figures!, William Hellman
  • The Watchers, Ray Bradbury
  • Manhattan Manhunt, Matt Taylor
  • Dead As in Blonde, D. L. Champion
  • Death in the Tank, Hugh Speer
  • Death Lies Waiting, Roland Phillips
  • Need a Body Cry, H. Wolf Salz
  • Suicide, Frank Kane
  • Midnight Rendezvous, Margaret Manners
  • I'll Slay You in My Dreams, Bruno Fischer
  • Murder Is Stupid, Kerry O'Neil
  • The Cat's Eye, John Van Druten
     Some pretty heavy hitters here from the old pulps:  Bedford-Jones, Quinn, Bellam, Bradbury, Champoin, Kane, Fischer, etc.  To my knowledge, the anthology has never been reprinted.  Abebooks has copies listed going for $9.50 and very much above.  I really need to get a copy and re-read it.  Sounds like just my cup of tea.

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     This week's guest host for Friday's Forgotten Books is Kerrie Smith over at Mysteries in Paradise (mysteries-paradise.blogspot,com).  Patti Abbott is taking a well-deserved break and will be back in a few weeks.  Meanwhile, we carry on, or -- in this week's case, we Kerrie on.  **groan**
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 28, 2011 at 10:37 AM

    There are some dandy names on that contents list. I've not heard of this before. It's added to "the list".

    ReplyDelete
  2. KerrieJanuary 28, 2011 at 2:59 PM

    Hello Jerry. This week's edition of Friday's Forgotten Books is now up at MYSTERIES in PARADISE. Thanks for participating.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Evan LewisJanuary 28, 2011 at 5:15 PM

    Good line-up. "Sleep for a Dreamer" is a Dan Turner story, I believe. Was this the first reprinting of a Turner tale? Could be.

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  4. pattinase (abbott)January 31, 2011 at 9:52 AM

    Still looking at your choices and wondering why I've read so few of them.

    ReplyDelete