Here's part 3 of our second 3-part salute to Richard Sale. On Friday I reviewed Sale's second novel, Is A Ship Burning, and yesterday I posted three Detective Fiction Weekly covers in a Candid Jones Cover Gallery.
Candid was Richard Sale's second busiest series character. I'm not sure how many stories he appeared in. I believe I have eight featuring Candid alone, plus two team-ups with Daffy Dill. If anyone has a list of all the Candid stories, I'd sure like to see it.
By the time Candid made his debut in this January 9, 1937 issue, Daffy Dill had already appeared in at least 16 adventures. Thanks to a list compiled by collector Monte Herridge, I now know that Daffy starred in at least 55 stories (plus the two team-ups).
Why was Daffy more popular? Well, he was just daffier, I guess. Daffy's way with words is more distinct, sometimes bordering on the outlandish, while Candid is a more traditional hardboiled narrator. That's not meant as a criticism, because Sale does a fine job here. I offer the comparison only as an explanation for why Candid toiled in Daffy's shadow. If you haven't met Daffy, you should check out the story I posted a while back, "A Dirge for Pagliaccio".
Be advised: No pulp magazines were harmed in the production of this post. This story came to me twenty some years ago just as you see it, the pages already removed from the mag. I was buying a lot of pulps with Sale stories at the time, and some kindly dealer threw it in as a bonus.
As always, i'm very thankful formake me discover the country of detective pulps. The PDF version is a nice plus too.
ReplyDeleteAll history new to me. And thanks for the time you put into this.
ReplyDeleteDitto from me, Mr. Lewis!
ReplyDeleteWhat fun, and a great way to start this beautiful Sunday morning. Thanks, Evan.
ReplyDeletePlease remind me again, anyone, please, have these been collected and reprinted, and if so by whom?
ReplyDeleteSadly, no. I can't think of any Candid Jones stories that have even been included in anthologies. I know of only three Daffy Dills that have been reprinted - click the "Dirge for Pagliaccio" link for locations.
ReplyDeleteThis is great. Thanks so much. I really wish it was possible to find more of these and the Daffy Dill stories. It's funny, but when I started reading the pulps, a few years ago, I assumed that the most common reprints would be the hard-boiled crime stories. That's probably because I didn't know much about the pulps beyond Hammett and Chandler and heroes like The Shadow. But there aren't many newer reprints available of writers like Nebel, Sale, Davis, Whitfield, even Gardner. Someday...
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping . . .
ReplyDelete