FOR KITTY (2)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGorjBVag0I

FOR KITTY

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ga9Bs4fzSY

CATHERINE KEANE HOUSE (MARCH 7, 1949 - AUGUST 7, 2022)

 Fifty-two years.

Not long enough.

MAD #1 (AUGUST 1952)

 Hard to believe, but it's been 70 years since MAD first appeared on the newsstands and began joyfully corrupting the minds of our nation's youth.  One of the old EC line, MAD began as a comic book founded by the great Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William C. Gaines, remaining in comic book format for 23 issues before expanding to a magazine format.  Over the years there has been no cow too sacred for the usual gang of idiots to skewer.  There is an argument to be made that MAD was instrumental in producing a generation that dared to question everything, bringing about the major sociologic and cultural changes of the Sixties and beyond, but that stance just obscures the basic point that the magazine was funny and that biting satire had enthralled a new generation.

Before there was Alfred E. Neuman (who, with his "What, me worry?" catchphrase, debuted in November 1954), there was Melvin.  Melvin, alas, did not have staying power.  The first issue of MAD was written by Kurtzman and illustrated by such legends as Wally Wood, Will Elder, Jack Davis, and John Severin.  This first issue parodied "the old dark house" tale of terror, the dystopian science fictional future, the tough gangster crime story, and the "quiet, clean-cut stranger going into a tough, lawless town" western.  Funny stuff, well-drawn, but lacking the laser-sharp satirical focus soon to come.    The eventual switch to a magazine was not made to avoid the Comics Code Authority (a self-governing board established in 1954 as a knee-jerk reaction to Dr. Frederick Wertham's "great comic book scare," as promulgated in his book Seduction of the Innocent), but because of the switch MAD did manage to avoid the Authority's strictures.

After 550 issues, scores of "Specials," paperback compilations, and original paperback titles, the magazine died in 2018.  This date can be disputed because the magazine was "rebooted" on a subscription-only basis, but this attempt was weak tea.  The magic had gone.  The magazine was dead.  What we are left with are golden memories.  Like Bob and Ray, Stan Freberg, Ernie Kovacs and a few others from that time, MAD made a generation grow up and question everything, doing it all with a mile.  Sic transit gloria Neuman.

Here's the first issue:

https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/CB/MAD_1952_10.pdf

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE RELUCTANT HANGMAN

The Reluctant Hangman and Other Stories of Crime by Grant Allen, edited by Tom and Enid Schantz and published by Aspen Press of Boulder, Colorado, in an edition of 500 copies, 1973

Tom and Enid Schantz became involved in the mystery community in 1970, which led to their being awarded the 2001 Raven by the Mystery Writers of America.  They were founders of the Rue Morgue Bookstore and The Rue Morgue Press.  Through their Rue Morgue Press, they brought deserving but lesser known Age (and other) mystery writers back to the pubic forefront, including Kelley Roos, Glyn Carr,  Constance and Glenyth Little, Manning Coles, Catherine Aird, Gladys Mitchell, Stuart Palmer, Michael Gilbert, Clyde B. Clason, Lucy Cores, Frances Crane, Margaret Scherf,  Juanita Sheridan, and many others.  With Barbara Peters and Jim Huang, they founded the The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

Before it became the Rue Morgue Bookstore of Boulder, Colorado, it was The Aspen Bookstore, started in New York.  Its associated publishing company The Aspen Press became one of the premier publishers of Sherlockania in the world, in addition to bringing back such classics a Melville Randolph Post's The Methods of Uncle Abner, R. C. Lehmann's The Adventures of Picklock Holes, James Francis Thierry's The Adventure of the Eleven Cuff-Buttons, Robert Barr's The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs, Richard Mallett's Watson's Revenge, Eden Philpotts My Adventure in the Flying Scotsman, Edmund Pearson's The Adventure of the Lost Manuscript, and others.

Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen (1848- 1899) was a Canadian-born science writer and novelist who helped promote the theory of evolution in the later half of the nineteenth century.  He was the author of An African Millionaire (1897), a classic collection of crime stories featuring the ultimate con man Colonel Clay (who only had one victim, an African millionaire whom he would fleece over and over).  His most controversial (and successful) novel was The Woman Who Did (1895), which told of an independent woman who has a child out of wedlock -- promulgating starling (for the time) views on womanhood and marriage.  This was followed by The British Barbarians (1895), an early time travel story.  Allen was working on Hilda Wade, an episodic detective story when he died, dictating the last chapter to his neighbor and friend Conan Doyle; I don't know whether Doyle merely transcribed that chapter or rewrote it for the book's publication in 1899.  In all, Allen wrote about thirty novels (a number of them thrillers), several well-regarded collections of short stories, and many non-fiction books, article, and essays on subjected ranging from naturalism, philosophy, travel, esthetics, and art.

The Reluctant Hangman collects just three short stories, two of which were from Allen's 1887 collection The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories.

The title story was first published in The Strand Magazine, March 1891, under the title "Jerry Stokes."  The story's title appears to have been change only for this booklet.  I don't know if it was ever published in one of Allen's collections during his lifetime.

Jerry Stokes is a public hangman ("Executions performed with punctuality and dispatch; for terms, apply to Jeremiah Stokes, Port Hope, Ontario").  He is proud of his work and truly believes he makes the area safer for all by dispatching murderers ho may have otherwise gone on with their crimes.  Jerry Stokes is not one for doubts because he cannot picture a jury ever convicting an innocent person to die.  He is also a believer in fairness.  On principle, he refuses to attend any murder trials, fearing the appearance of a hangman might unduly influence a jury.  He is happy and satisfied with his lot in life.  Until.

Richard Ogilvy was a lawyer accused of poisoning his wife for her money.  The two were known to argue.  He had recently purchased some rat poison.  And the doctor who attended the case was convinced Ogilvy had murdered his wife.    The public also appeared convinced,  A mob tried to get at him before the trial.  Jerry Stokes, who witnessed the mon violence, was upset -- the mob was not playing fair.  For the first time in his life, Jerry Stokes determined to attend a trial.  when Ogilvy pled not guilty, Jerry was stunned.  He considered himself a connoisseur and judge of murderers after having executed so many of them and Ogilvy did not act like any murderer he had ever known.  Jerry Stokes became convinced of Ogilvy's innocence.  In fact, as Jerry observed the behavior of the accusing doctor at the trial, he became convinced the doctor was guilty -- the doctor had the same look as the many murderers Jerry had known.

Then the impossible to Jerry's mind happened.  The jury, in short shrift, fund Ogilvy guilty.  How could a jury make such a mistake?  A mistake that would end Ogilvy at the end of Jerry's rope.  Canadian law allowed a six-week period before an execution, just in case any new evidence might appear.  As the six weeks passed, Jerry was in agony at the thought that an innocent man migh thang -- that he would be the one to hang an innocent man.  What would an honest executioner do, knowing that his career and reputation, as well as a human life hangs in the balance?

The remaining two stories in this small collection are 'The Great Ruby Robbery" (from The Strand Magazine, October 1892) and "The Conscientious Burglar" (from The Strand Magazine, June 1892).  The first is a "fair play puzzle story," well-told and entertaining.  The second is about an impulsive young artist which concludes with a satisfying happy ending.

All three stories are available to be read online.  If you are interested in the book itself, a copy will set you back anywhere from $12 to $30.

RANGER BILL: A BOY AND THE BOMB

 Here's one I have never heard of.  Ranger Bill was a long-running Christian radio program from the Moody Bible Institute.  It aired from 1950 to 1964, moving in 1956 from a 15-minute program to a half hour.   The program has been syndicated and is supposed still running somewhere.

Ranger Bill Jefferson (Miron Canaday)is the chief forest ranger in the small town of Knotty Pine, somewhere alone the edge of the Rockies.  He lives with his mother.  Ranger Bill is "a well-built leader capable of accomplishing nearly anything."  Bill works with "Stumpy" Jenkins (also Miron Canaday), "the Old Timer," who is an ace marksman prone to telling jokes. Another forest ranger is Gray Wolf (Ed Ronne, Sr.), a Dakota Indian who speaks broken English; Gray Wolf serves as a bridge between modern forestry practices and the traditional ways of his people.   Henry Scott is Bill's teenage ward who helps out with many of the ranger's tasks.

In this undated episode, Bill gets secret orders to escort Hal Dever to the Army Proving grounds to test a bomb timing device.  Hal has been ignoring his son Jim.  Jim takes the timer, accidently setting it off.  Tick, tick, tick...

A Confession:  I just stumbled across this on YouTube and have not listened to the episode.  I probably never will.  (Back when I was a little lad, I saw one episode of Davey and Goliath and have never recovered.  Brrr.)  In case you are braver than I, here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDtkGSJsagc

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES OF THE CENTURY

The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century, edited by Tony Hillerman (series editor, Otto Penzler), 2000

People may quibble over individual choice here but all the selections are more than worthy, making this 800-page doorstop of a book with its 46 stories first published from 1903 to 1999 an essential collection for anyone interested in the art of the short story in the genre -- where "mystery" also encompasses the detective story, the crime story, and the suspense story.  A number of these tales will be familiar, but many may not.  

Among my many favorite are Melville Davisson Post's "Naboth's Vineyard," featuring the now (I fear) underappreciated Uncle Abner, Raymond Chandler's "Red Wind," with one of the greatest opening paragraph in all of literature, Stanley Ellin's "The Moment of Decision," from one of the absolute masters of the short story, Evan Hunter's "First Offense," one of his many tough tales of juvenile delinquency from the vastly under-rated magazine Manhunt (and from his vastly under-rated collection The Jungle Kids), Stephen Greenleaf's "Iris," which wowed me when I first read it in 1984, and Donald E. Westlake's "Too Many Crooks," because who does not love Dortmunder?

Dip in anywhere and enjoy.

The Stories:

• O. Henry, "A Retrieved Reformation" (from Cosmopolitan, April 1903; featuring Jimmy Valentine)
• Willa Cather, "Paul's Case" (from McClure's Magazine, May 1905)
• Jacques Futrelle, "The Problem of Cell 13" (from Boston American, October 30, 1905; certainly the most famous -- if not the best-- of Futrelle's The Thinking Machine stories)
• Frederick Irving Anderson, "Blind Man's Bluff" (from The Adventures of the Infallible Godahl, 1914; the Fictionmags Index list this as first appearing in The Saturday Evening Post, May 24, 1913)
• Melville Davisson Post, "Naboth's Vineyard" (from Illustrated Sunday Magazine, June 4, 1916; an Uncle Abner story)
• Susan Glaspell, "A Jury of Her :Peers" (from Every Week, March 5. 1917; later published separately in a stand-alone limited edition in 1927)
• Dashiell Hammett, "The Gutting of Couffignal" (from Black Mask, December 1925; a Continental Op story)
• Ring Lardner, "Haircut" (from Liberty, March 28, 1925)
• Wilbur Daniel Steele, "Blue Murder" (from Harper's, October 1925)
• Ben Ray Redman, "The Perfect Crime" (from Harper's, August 1928)
• James M. Cain, :The Baby in the Icebox" (from American Mercury, January 1933)
• John Steinbeck, "The Murder" (from North American Review, December 1933)
• Damon Runyon, "A Sense of Humor" (from Cosmopolitan, September 1934)
• Pearl S. Buck, "Ransom" (from Cosmopolitan, October 1938;  Buck was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature but her impact on Twentieth Century culture probably came from her novel The Good Earth -- when Robert de Graff first floated the idea of a cheap mass-market pocket-sized paperback, the popular response to Buck's novel spurred him to partner with Simon & Schuster to create Pocket Books in 1939 and the paperback revolution was born, increasing American literacy significantly.  We owe a lot to Mrs. Buck, if only for that alone.   That's my off-topic comment for today.)
• Raymond Chandler, "Red Wind" (from  Dime Detective, January 1938; featuring John Dalmas; several of the stories featuring Dalmas were rewritten and/or expanded to feature Philip Marlowe)
• James Thurber, "The Catbird Seat" (from The New Yorker, November 14, 1942)
• Cornell Woolrich, "Read Window" (from Dime Detective, February 1942, under the title "It Had To Be Murder; also published under the pseudonym "William Irish"
• William Faulkner, "An Error in Chemistry" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, June 1946; featuring "Uncle" Gavin Stevens)
• Harry Kemelman, "The Nine Mile Walk" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, April 1947, featuring Nicky Welt; Kemelman's first short story)
• "Ellery Queen" (Frederik Dannay & Manfred B. Lee") - The Adcenture of the Presidents Half Disme" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, February 1947; featuring Ellery Queen)
• John D. MacDonald, "The Homesick Buick" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, September 1950)
• "Ross Macdonald" (Kenneth Millar), "Gone Girl" (from Manhunt, February 1953, as "The Imaginary Blonde" by "John Ross Macdonald;" featuring Lew Archer)
• Stanley Ellin, "The Moment of Decision" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March 1955)
• Evan Hunter (born S. A. Lombino; name legally changed to hunter in 1952), "First Offense" (from Manhunt, December 1955)
• Margaret Millar, "The Couple Next Door" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July 1957)
• Henry Slesar, "The Day of the Execution" (from Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 1957)
• Patricia Highsmith, "The Terrapin" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, October 1962)
• Shirley Jackson, "The Possibility of Evil" (from The Saturday Evening Post, December 18, 1965; this one won an Edgar Award for Best Short Story)
• Flannery O'Connor, "The Comforts of Home" (from Everything That Rises Must Converge, 1965; Fictionmags Index indicates that the story was first published in The Kenyon Review, Fall 1960)
• Jerome Weidman, "Good Man, Bad Man" (from The Saturday Evening Post, July 1, 1967)
• Joe Gores, "Goodbye, Pops" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, December 1969; winner of an Edgar Award for Best Sort Story)
• Harlan Ellison, The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" (from Bad Moon Rising, edited by Thomas M. Disch, 1973; winner of an Edgar Award for Best Short Story)
• Robert L. Fish, "The Wager" (from Playboy, July 1973) 
• Joyce Carol Oates, "Do with Me What You Will" (from Playboy, June 1973)
• Stephen King, "Quitters, Inc." (from Night Shift, 1978)
• "Jack Ritchie" (John George Reitci), "The Absence of Emily" (from Ellery /Queen's Mystery Magazine, January 28, 1981; winner of an Edgar Award for Best Short Story)
• Lawrence Bloch, "By Dawn's Early Light" (from The Eyes Have It, edited by Robert J. Randisi, 1984; a Matt Scuddwr story; winner of an Edgar award for Best Short Story; later expanded into novel When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes.)
• Stephen Greenleaf, "Iris" (from The Eyes Have It, edited by Robert J. Randisi, 1984; a John Marshall Tanner story)
• Sara Paretsky, "Three-Dot Po" (from The Eyes Have It, edited by Robert J. Randisi, 1984; a V. I. Warshawski story)
• Sue Grafton, "The Parker Shotgun" (from Mean Streets, edited by Robert J. Randisi, 1986; a Kinsey Millhone story)
• Donald E. Westlake, "Too Many Crooks" (from Playboy, August 1989; a Dortmunder story)
• James Crumley, "Hot Springs" (from Murder for Love, edited by Otto Penzler, 1996)
• Brendn DuBois, "The Dark Snow" (from Playboy, November 1996)
• Michael Malone, "Red Clay" (from Murder for Love, edited by Otto Penzler, 1996; winner of an Edgar Award for Best Short Story)
• Tom Franklin, "Poachers" (from Texas Review, Spring 1998; winner of an Edgar Award for Best Short Story)
• Dennis Lehane, "Running Out of Dog" (from Murder and Obsession, edited by Otto Penzler, 1999)

And because I love to carp, no stories by John Dickson Carr, Edward D. Hoch, Bill Pronzini, Ed Gorman, and so many others?

Which of these stories/authors are your favorites?  Do you have a nomination for a best short story that is not listed above -- one that has stuck with you over the years?

NOTE:  This volume should not be conflated Great American Mystery Stories of the Twentieth Century, an anonymously-edited volume issued by the Franklin Library in 1989.  That volume has only half as many stories and half as many pages the Hillerman book.  Although, to be fair, several of the stories repeat in both volumes.