Charles E. Fritch

I finished reading that July 1957 issue of AMAZING STORIES today and thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the stories was by Charles E. Fritch, who a little over twenty years later became the editor of MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE. I was already selling short stories to MSMM and had written three Mike Shayne novellas for the previous editor, Sam Merwin Jr., but Chuck Fritch showed a lot of faith in me by asking me to write all the Shayne stories. I wound up writing more than thirty Shaynes for Chuck, and he bought a lot of my non-series stories, too. Unfortunately, the people who bought the magazine from Cylvia Kleinman, Leo Margulies' widow, had a habit of not paying their writers unless they were badgered and threatened into it, and when the magazine finally went belly-up, they still owed me $242. (Funny how I remember that exact total all these years later.) Chuck was a good editor and a good friend, though, and I've often wondered what happened to him. At one point I heard that he was editing motorcycle magazines. I don't know if he's still in the business or even if he's still alive. I hope so.

I'm now reading "The Fugitive's Mission", a Max Brand novella in the collection of the same name.

15 pages done today, probably won't finish the book this weekend like I wanted to, but I'll come pretty close.