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The Black Mask Boys
The Black Mask Boys: Masters in the Hard-Boiled School of Detective Fiction
A collection of vintage detective fiction gives tribute to many of the masters in the hard-boiled school of detective fiction and the legacy of the "Black Mask," the magazine that made them famous
273 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
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76 people want to read
About the author
William F. Nolan
372 books241 followersWilliam 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 11, 2015
Here's one for my hard-boiled book collection.
William F. Nolan who has won two Edgars, is known for his expertise in the field of writers of the "Black Mask." (Nolan's Bio is quite extensive.)
Most of the short stories in this fine book have not been published since the 1930's when they were originally published the first time in "Black Mask." And some of the authors I've never heard of such as Carroll John Daly or Federick Nebel and my favorite Raoul Whitfield. His real name, too.
My favorite story was by Dashiell Hammett but they were all good. Some were more polished than others but they were all good.
Reading from another link about writing, Chandler says this: The things that last — or should — I admit they sometimes miss — come from deeper levels of a writer’s being, and the particular form used to frame them has very little to do with their value. The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated. He certainly nailed the quality of the written word. And...
The essence of a book:
When a book, any sort of book, reaches a certain intensity of artistic performance, it becomes literature. That intensity may be a matter of style, situation, character, emotional tone, or idea, or half a dozen other things. It may also be a perfection of control over the movement of a story similar to the control a great pitcher has over the ball.
At the time (1930's-40's) there were editors and writers who disdained hard-boiled and noir saying it should not be considered real literature. Then I read that that was the reason the Edgar Awards were created.
Everyone knows I love hard-boiled and noir regardless of what others may say. I say to them phooey.
William F. Nolan who has won two Edgars, is known for his expertise in the field of writers of the "Black Mask." (Nolan's Bio is quite extensive.)
Most of the short stories in this fine book have not been published since the 1930's when they were originally published the first time in "Black Mask." And some of the authors I've never heard of such as Carroll John Daly or Federick Nebel and my favorite Raoul Whitfield. His real name, too.
My favorite story was by Dashiell Hammett but they were all good. Some were more polished than others but they were all good.
Reading from another link about writing, Chandler says this: The things that last — or should — I admit they sometimes miss — come from deeper levels of a writer’s being, and the particular form used to frame them has very little to do with their value. The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated. He certainly nailed the quality of the written word. And...
The essence of a book:
When a book, any sort of book, reaches a certain intensity of artistic performance, it becomes literature. That intensity may be a matter of style, situation, character, emotional tone, or idea, or half a dozen other things. It may also be a perfection of control over the movement of a story similar to the control a great pitcher has over the ball.
At the time (1930's-40's) there were editors and writers who disdained hard-boiled and noir saying it should not be considered real literature. Then I read that that was the reason the Edgar Awards were created.
Everyone knows I love hard-boiled and noir regardless of what others may say. I say to them phooey.
March 31, 2016
The non fiction parts were pretty good, especially the actual history of the pulp Black Mask. The fiction, well, I'd already read the pieces by Hammett and Chandler, and the others involve series characters from the days of the magazine, and I didn't really care. But, like I said, the non fiction parts were good. I really appreciated reading about Horace McCoy.
February 19, 2011
Stories included: “Three Gun Terry” (1923) by Carroll John Daly; “Bodies Piled Up” (1923) by Dashiell Hammett; “Hell’s Kettle” (1930) by Erle Stanley Gardner; “Sal the Dude” (1929) by Raoul Whitfield; “Rough Justice” (1930) by Frederick Nebel; “Frost Flies Alone” [original title: “Frost Rides Alone”] (1930) by Horace McCoy; “Gundown” [original title: “Murder Done in Blue”] (1933) by Paul Cain; and “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot” (1933) by Raymond Chandler.
William F. Nolan gathers eight representative stories from Black Mask’s heavy-hitters and seasons the mix with a history of the magazine, biographical overviews of the writers, and bibliographies of their work for Black Mask. Unfortunately, by almost any critical yardstick, Black Mask fiction is pretty bad. Joseph T. Shaw, who edited the magazine during its glory years, was interested in good writing, but he was more interested in series characters who would build and keep a base of loyal readers. (Thus, the many, many appearances of Carroll John Daly’s Race Williams, whom even Shaw knew to be terrible.) On the whole, the best story here (no surprise) is Dashiell Hammett’s “Bodies Piled Up,” which manages to be brilliant even if it doesn’t add up to much as a story. And this is the perspective from which Black Mask fiction is best enjoyed: as collections of moments rather than as unified narratives. Approached in this way, even Carroll John Daly’s “Three Gun Terry”—the world’s first hard-boiled detective story—can be fun.
William F. Nolan gathers eight representative stories from Black Mask’s heavy-hitters and seasons the mix with a history of the magazine, biographical overviews of the writers, and bibliographies of their work for Black Mask. Unfortunately, by almost any critical yardstick, Black Mask fiction is pretty bad. Joseph T. Shaw, who edited the magazine during its glory years, was interested in good writing, but he was more interested in series characters who would build and keep a base of loyal readers. (Thus, the many, many appearances of Carroll John Daly’s Race Williams, whom even Shaw knew to be terrible.) On the whole, the best story here (no surprise) is Dashiell Hammett’s “Bodies Piled Up,” which manages to be brilliant even if it doesn’t add up to much as a story. And this is the perspective from which Black Mask fiction is best enjoyed: as collections of moments rather than as unified narratives. Approached in this way, even Carroll John Daly’s “Three Gun Terry”—the world’s first hard-boiled detective story—can be fun.
September 2, 2018
This book is a general collection of hard-boiled stories from Black Mask, from the 30’s, to the end of the magazine,. Starting in chronological order with Carrol John Daly and ending with Raymond Chandler. Each author gets a biography and a representative short story, with an included history of Black Mask magazine...
I originally bought this book for one reason: to read Carrol John Daly’s story Three Gun Terry, now well known as the first Hard-Boiled PI story. But I ended up sticking with the book and reading it to the end out of the pure quality of the work elsewhere.
The first, and clearest benefit of reading this book is the pure passion and the intense research that the author William F. Nolan has put into the biographies and the general history of Black Mask.
The stories were very well selected, and Nolan made sure not only to get a great one that represented the best of an author, but also to get one that was also completely unprinted elsewhere. I’m not sure if that’s true across the board (considering the book was published in the 80’s and I’d think Hammett’s Continental Op story, and Chandlers Mallory story have both appeared elsewhere), I could imagine for some other more obscure authors that could still be true.
My personal favorite stories came from Carrol John Daly, Raoul Whitfield, and Raymond Chandler. I very much enjoyed this book, not only as a great collection of representative short stories, or as a great mini-biography of many interesting authors, but also as an introduction to Black Mask and many of the pulps from the 30’s and 40’s.
I originally bought this book for one reason: to read Carrol John Daly’s story Three Gun Terry, now well known as the first Hard-Boiled PI story. But I ended up sticking with the book and reading it to the end out of the pure quality of the work elsewhere.
The first, and clearest benefit of reading this book is the pure passion and the intense research that the author William F. Nolan has put into the biographies and the general history of Black Mask.
The stories were very well selected, and Nolan made sure not only to get a great one that represented the best of an author, but also to get one that was also completely unprinted elsewhere. I’m not sure if that’s true across the board (considering the book was published in the 80’s and I’d think Hammett’s Continental Op story, and Chandlers Mallory story have both appeared elsewhere), I could imagine for some other more obscure authors that could still be true.
My personal favorite stories came from Carrol John Daly, Raoul Whitfield, and Raymond Chandler. I very much enjoyed this book, not only as a great collection of representative short stories, or as a great mini-biography of many interesting authors, but also as an introduction to Black Mask and many of the pulps from the 30’s and 40’s.
August 14, 2020
An excellent resource for readers advisory librarians or anyone else interested in hard-boiled detective stories. Footnotes, a bibliography and an index would have been useful. Although it is dated, having been published in 1985, before the Internet era, it nonetheless contains references to some useful print resources.
October 6, 2017
Good introduction to the Black Mask era of hardboiled writers.
Want to read
February 17, 2020Synopsis: shorts stories from Hammett, Chandler, Gardner, Daley, Whitfield, McCoy, Cain and others.
February 21, 2013
Great collection of pulp/noir writers pulled together by a very good word wrangler himself (with some interesting things to say in introductions et al).
August 6, 2016
Classics, part of the must-read mystery canon.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews