The Max Brand Companion:

by Vicki Piekarski (Editor), Jon Tuska

Frederick Schiller Faust is not a name many readers recognize, but who does not know the name Max Brand? How many avid readers of Max Brand's western classics are familiar with the 18 other pseudonyms used by Faust? Or that the author of Destry Rides Again penned the Doctor Kildare series? Or that Faust worked as a screenwriter, often without credit, on numerous Hollywood films? Or that Faust thought of himself as a poet, writing prose, as he put it, to pay the bills? Or that, to pay the bills, he constantly strove to surpass his record of some 20,000 publishable words a day—and that he sold 99 percent of the fiction he wrote? The Max Brand Companion serves to tell the reader about the man as well as the author, charts the history of Faust's work and its derivations, and presents works by Faust himself indicative of the scope and range of his imagination. It is the essential guide to a major American author as well as one of the most popular writers of the 20th century. Frederick Schiller Faust was a physically large man with enormous appetites, yet he suffered most of his life from an enlarged heart. In World War I, he went to Canada to enlist, but, frustrated by the slow pace of getting overseas, he deserted twice. By the time the United States entered World War II, Faust was overage and the only way he could see combat was to go as a correspondent. On the night of May 11, 1944, Faust was killed by a mortar shell fragment while accompanying a nighttime attack on a German strongpoint in Italy. According to one report, his last words were Those other wounded boys need help more than I do. Take them! The Max Brand Companion is the essential guide to one of the most popular writers of the 20th century as well as a major American author. The Max Brand Companion serves to tell readers and researchers about the man as well as the author, charts the history of his work and its derivations, and presents works by Faust himself which are indicative of the scope and range of his imagination. Contributors include family members, associates, and some of the leading writers on western fiction.

576 pages, Hardcover

First published December 30, 1996