Max Brand: Western Giant: The Life and Times of Frederick Schiller Faust

by William F. Nolan (Editor)

Called the King of the Pulps, Frederick Schiller Faust, aka Max Brand, wrote nearly 400 Westerns from The Untamed to Destry Rides Again —a total of more than 220 books in this genre. Yet Max Brand also created Dr. Kildare (of books, films, and television) and wrote under twenty-one pseudonyms, in another dozen genres. This book removes the mask, with deeply personal memoirs from family, friends and fellow writers, taking us through his orphaned boyhood on the brutal ranches of California, his frustrating decades in Italy, as both a classical poet and a fast-action pulpist, to his heroic death as a war correspondent on the World War II battlefields. Faust’s life story is augmented by a complete bibliography of his work—over a thousand books, stories, and films—plus the first listing of works about Faust.

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

William F. Nolan is best known as the co-author (with George Clayton Johnson) of Logan's Run -- a science fiction novel that went on to become a movie, a television series and is about to become a movie again -- and as single author of its sequels. His short stories have been selected for scores of anthologies and textbooks and he is twice winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Special Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

Nolan was born in 1928 in Kansas City Missouri. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute and worked as an artist for Hallmark Cards. He moved to California in the late 1940s and studied at San Diego State College. He began concentrating on writing rather than art and, in 1952, was introduced by fellow Missouri native (and established writer) Ray Bradbury to another young up-and-coming author, Charles Beaumont. Moving to the Los Angeles area in 1953, Nolan became along with Bradbury, Beaumont, and Richard Matheson part of the "inner core" of the soon-to-be highly influential "Southern California Group" of writers. By 1956 Nolan was a full-time writer. Since 1951 he has sold more than 1500 stories, articles, books, and other works.

Although Nolan wrote roughly 2000 pieces, to include biographies, short stories, poetry, and novels, Logan’s Run retains its hold on the public consciousness as a political fable and dystopian warning. As Nolan has stated: “That I am known at all is still astonishing to me... "

He passed away at the age of 93 due to complications from an infection.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was reading Zane Grey: Romancing The West , and at one point the author mentions that Max Brand began writing his own westerns after being shown a Zane Grey story by an editor. That reminded me of this book, so I decided it was a good time to read it.

First of all, I learned that Max Brand was one of dozens of pen names used by Frederick Schiller Faust. And that while he had written all of his life, he only wrote his Western pulp stories and novels in order to earn money. His real passion was classic poetry. He never cared for the popular Westerns he wrote, never even reading them after the last word was written on paper: his wife corrected typing errors, then sent them right off to the publishers.

One major difference cited between Zane Grey's works and those of Brand is that Grey insisted on portraying the locations of his stories accurately. If he described a certain area of high desert, it really existed somewhere. But Brand "would first establish the potential -- physical, emotional, or mental -- within his protagonist, and make certain that the reader was aware that this cardboard figure would be fleshed out, and the potential achieved, sometime during the course of the tale." His settings were more vague, sort of a created West rather than the actual West. But the stories were fast-moving, intense, and very entertaining.

I had heard of Max Brand for years, but had never read him until I began to visit at a local nursing home, reading to various patients. I made friends with one lady who was still able to read her own books, and she was absolutely floored that I had never read Brand. She loaned me one of hers, and we began trading books back and forth for as long as she was in the home. I liked the writing style, the action of the stories, and the way he seemed to understand not only the personality and power of horses, but the bond that develops between a horse and his rider.

This book was divided into two sections. The first part was made up of short chapters collected from many people who knew and worked with Brand. From a daughter to an old college pal, each essay gives an insight into the man's personality. The word genius is used a lot. He seemed a man outside of his proper time, struggling to fit into the modern world, but full of joy for life even with a bad heart which doctors said would kill him if he did not slow down. Perhaps he felt he did not have the time to slow down, perhaps he felt he would rather Live than simply wait to die. He certainly filled each day of his life with as much living as he could. But he never missed typing his 14 pages a day, seven days a week for nearly all of his adult life.

The second part of the book is made up of critic's comments on various titles, then a listing of all of his works separated by pen name, and many other lists of stories, plays, and poems this extremely prolific man produced. Did you know that Faust created the character of Dr. Kildare? That was in 1940. I was surpised about that and would love to read the five books featuring this character. (There may have been others, but I'm thinking of the five I saw with 'Dr. Kildare' in the title.)

Faust was a fascinating man. He seemed to have fewer demons chasing him than Zane Grey dealt with, but those pursuing Faust were just as tormenting. He wanted to be known as a classic poet, but he cranked out high quality 'pulp' stories in order to put food on the table (not only his own but also friend's and anyone that he felt needed a boost). He would spend hours each day working on his poetry, then shift to the Westerns. He drank a lot. He lived high, wide and handsome, always with the threat of that dodgy heart that gave him trouble over the years but was not what killed him. That took a mortar hit in Italy in 1944 when he was embedded with a platoon of soldiers as a war correspondent who had expected to tell the story of the battle for Santa Maria Infante. Instead, as Jack Delaney (one of the soldiers in the platoon) concludes in his
contribution to this book: "He'll never be able to write our story now. That died with him. But his story lives on with us."

[Lee Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, super interesting book on Max Brand (Frederick Faust) who wrote over 1,000,000 words a year and used 21 pennames, yet despite his success in the pulps and various genres wanted nothing more than to be a respected poet. Contains some awesome first hand accounts from people in his life that really added a lot of richness, too.