Much to comment on in the last Rara, from Fanny Ellsworth to
Nick Tosches to Dwight V. Swain.
Juri, I'm curious (but pleased) that anyone would be
researching Dwight V. Swain. He was a regular in the pulps
during the 1940s writing SF, westerns and mysteries. He had
many stories in the Ziff-Davis pulps based out of Chicago
such as Amazing, Fantastic Adventures, Mammoth Detective, and
Mammoth Adventure. That's how he and Howard Browne knew each
other.
One of the editors at Ziff-Davis was William L. Hamling, who
left to form his own publishing company based in the suburb
of Evanston. Swain wrote many stories for Hamling including
"Bring Back My Brain!" in a 1957 issue of Imagination. In the
early 1950s Hamling was asked by a young man named Hefner to
partner with him on a new magazine called Playboy but Hamling
turned him down. Once Hefner became a big success, Hamling
began his own magazine Rogue, which published some good
fiction, and he also began a paperback house Regency Books,
which are highly collectable today. Harlan Ellison was an
editor there for a time and Regency published his MEMOS FROM
PURGATORY. Hamling also published pornography.
But I digress. Although he ghosted a Nick Carter novel and
had a few stories in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Swain's
primary activity for many years was teaching on the faculty
of the University of Okaloma. At the Pasadena Bouchercon,
Swain told me that whenever Hamling was prosecuted for
pornography (which was often) he would call on Swain to
testify as an expert on the First Amendment. Dwight said he
enjoyed it and the fees.
Eventually Hamling was convicted. Oddly enough, he was
convicted over issues arising from his republication of an
official US government document, namely the report of the
Presidential Commission on Pornography. Hamling's edition
was, of course, illustrated.
After his retirement from teaching, Swain made it to several
conventions, wrote a few columns for Mystery Scene on the
pulps, and eventually sold one last novel. Sadly, Dwight
committed suicide not long after that. He was a great old guy
and a good story teller.
E. Borgers asked about a Nick Tosches novel, which I have not
read. However, I have read many other things by Tosches and
he blows me away with his quirky, tough style and nasty
humor. His bio of Sonny Liston (called NIGHT TRAIN in the UK)
is more about the mob than boxing. His bio of Dean Martin
(DEANO) is being filmed by Martin Scorsese. I also like his
poems from the point of view of Robert Stack, such as "I, as
Robert Stack, Address My God."
But I must get back on topic. Bill asked about Fanny
Ellsworth. She took over Black Mask from Joseph Shaw with the
December 1936 issue and continued through the April 1940
issue. Before 1936 she had for many years been editor of the
very successful Ranch Romances with an office across the hall
from Shaw. Frank Gruber in his wonderful THE PULP JUNGLE says
Ellsworth was in her early thirties when she took over Black
Mask and described her as "an extremely erudite woman. You
would have through she would be more at home with a magazine
like Vogue or Harper's..."
Apologies for the long post!
Richard Moore
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