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Summary: A Hugh Cave Appreciation: Words From This Book's Editor
Review: As the book's editor, and the man who interviewed Hugh B. Cave for the book, I am taking the unusual step of commenting on LONG LIVE THE DEAD with important information not presented elsewhere on the Amazon.com pages. I want fans of Hugh B. Cave to know that this book contains a substantial introduction to the total career of Mr. Cave written in honor of his 90th birthday. This collection of all of Mr. Cave's Black Mask tales also includes a very comprehensive interview with Hugh Cave that covers in more detail than any other work, Mr. Cave's views on the process of writing good stories in any genre. I am proud to have worked closely with Mr. Cave to bring readers as much new information as possible about him, about his career, and about his approach to writing. Although this is a wonderful collection of Black Mask detective tales, fans of all genres will find new information about this master of 20th Century Popular Literature in this book. And fans of Black Mask will discover new information about the history of that great magazine. Those interested in Black Mask and the history of pulp fiction are invited to explore and to contribute to our web site: blackmaskmagazine.com.
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Summary: Real "Pulp" Fiction from one of the Greats
Review: Who goes down those Mean Streets? Hugh B. Cave, that's who! Cave, the author of thirty-seven books and over eleven hundred stories, sold eight hundred of those tales to pulp publications of every genre imaginable from "weird menace" and horror to romance and western. It is little wonder that Cave also found an outlet for his writing in the most famous pulp magazine of them all, the hardboiled Black Mask. That legendary publication, the early home of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner, to name just a few of the giants of the genre who got their start in its pages, published ten tales by Cave between 1934 and 1941. LONG LIVE THE DEAD collects for the first time all of Cave's Black Mask tales.
Given the inherent constraints of so-called "formula fiction," Cave's inventiveness and ingenuity as evidenced in these stories is simply astonishing. The author credits his versatility as a writer to his varied interests and wide reading as a youth. Cave draws on that eclectic background in these tales as he employs both a diversity of settings and characters as well as a wide range of narrative techniques. "Lost and Found," for example, is set in the Florida Keys and that milieu alone provides a radical departure from more standard hardboiled fare. Perhaps the most interesting story in the collection is "The Missing Mr. Lee." Here, the various suspects and witnesses in a murder investigation take turns narrating events from their own perspective. The result of this experiment is both highly creative and entertaining. In fact, this is downright innovative stuff for a lowly pulp narrative!
The folks at Crippen and Landru have gone all out with LONG LIVE THE DEAD. Cave provides a general introduction as well as a brief preface to each story in the collection. Pulp historians and aficionados will be thrilled by the complete and annotated bibliography of Cave's published work that is also included in this handsome volume. The extensive interview with the author conducted by Keith Alan Deutsch (the current proprietor and conservator of Black Mask) is the proverbial icing on the cake. All in all, LONG LIVE THE DEAD should be a huge hit both with devoted pulp fiction enthusiasts as well as with mystery readers interested in exploring the roots of the genre. Hugh B. Cave died on June 27, 2004 at the age of 93. (An expanded version of this review was first published in JUDAS: HARDBOILED Ezine, Vol. 1, No.1).
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