Since the book I've been working on has a Mountie in it, I decided to pull down a book from my shelves, an anthology I've had for several years entitled SCARLET RIDERS: PULP FICTION TALES OF THE MOUNTIES. It's edited by Don Hutchison and published by Mosaic Press. It may still be available for all I know. A lot of good pulp authors wrote Mountie stories at one time or another in their careers -- Ryerson Johnson, Lester Dent, Hugh Cave, Murray Leinster, even Frederick Nebel, who is much better known as a mystery author. I've read several of the stories and am enjoying the heck out of them. Currently I'm reading "Spoilers of the Lost Land" by Roger Daniels, from a 1938 issue of NORTH-WEST ROMANCES. I'd never heard of Daniels before and suspected that the name might be a pseudonym, but a check of the FictionMags Index (an invaluable on-line reference) indicates that he was a journalist and that was his real name. This yarn is a pretty over-the-top blending of the Mountie and Lost Race genres and is very entertaining so far.
Monday I frittered away going to libraries and buying groceries, so finishing the current book had to wait until today. I wrapped it up late this afternoon, still have to do a little polishing but the hard part is done. I should get started on the next one by Thursday.
I've had this anthology sitting around for a couple of years. You encourage me to read it soon. On our recent two-months long trip we stopped at Fort McLeod, the place in Alberta where the Mounties began as the Northwest Mounted Police. Formed to combat the whiskey-selling to the Indians by Americans at Fort Whoop-Up. You'll read about in Owlhoot.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to it, Frank.
ReplyDelete