Over the past few days I've been trading emails and talking on the phone with Joel Haas, the son of one of my all-time favorite writers, Ben Haas, who wrote dozens of Westerns under the names John Benteen (the Neal Fargo and Sundance series) and Thorne Douglas (the Rancho Bravo series), as well as historical and mainstream novels under his own name. Joel is a fascinating guy with artistic talents of his own. He's a well-known sculptor.
But in the course of our conversations he mentioned that he's a writer as well, and revealed something that as far as I know has never been suspected among fans of Western series fiction: Joel actually wrote the Fargo novels THE BORDER JUMPERS and DEATH VALLEY GOLD and was poised to take over the series from his dad while Ben Haas concentrated on mainstream novels. Unfortunately, legal wrangling with Harry Shorten, the publisher of Belmont-Tower, resulted in the premature end of the Fargo series and the turning over of the Sundance series to other authors. And it wasn't long after that that Ben Haas passed away while on a trip to New York to attend a dinner given by the Literary Guild for authors it had published. Ninety novels in seventeen years is a fine legacy, but it's a shame that there couldn't have been more.
I have a copy of THE BORDER JUMPERS and plan to read it and post about it soon. I think I have a copy of Joel's other Fargo novel DEATH VALLEY GOLD, but it's somewhere in the stacks and I haven't found it yet. He's also written a World War II novel that I look forward to reading. Meanwhile, Joel has an interesting blog that you can check out here. Ben Haas has long been one of my literary idols, one of the best action writers of all time, and it's been great to connect with his son and find out more about both of them.
22 comments:
That's interesting about Joel. I've read those two books and didn't notice a difference. The three written by someone under the name Hardin were obviously different even though there was confusion on cover names and those on title pages.
James, thank you for the kind posting about my late father. Randy, I am flattered you could not tell the difference in the two books I wrote from my father's. As for the other pen names used in the Sundance and Fargo series, I recall Belmont/Tower-Leisure Books had several "house names." Jack Slade is one pen name used by a number of their writers, and John Hardin may well have been another. As I recall, Peter McCurtin, an editor or employee at Belmont, wrote some of the Fargo and Sundance books. Fargo and Sundance were very profitable books for Belmont/Tower and they were understandably dismayed when Dad didn't want to write any more of them so he could concentrate on some major works for Simon & Schuster. In fact, as many copies of the books were sold in Norway (population 3.5 million) as in the entire US. It must have been those long winters and only 1 TV channel there at the time.
If there is some interest, I will be happy to pass along to James a scan of a guideline on how to write a pulp Western that Dad wrote for me. At the time, I was about 24 and had worked as a reporter for the local newspaper, the Raleigh News&Observer, so he knew I could write to a deadline.
Thanks for the great post, James. I've read several of Haas' series books and loved them. Now I'll just have to track down more.
Joel, I for one would love to read the how-to guideline your father wrote for you. I'm sure it would be interesting and instructive. Thanks.
A great post, James, and thanks to Joel for sharing his thoughts and memories. I'm taking this as a sign I should pull the next Ben Haas title from my shelf and read it --THE FORAGERS, what looks to be a good Civil War yarn.
Joel,
I'd love to see that guideline, too, and would be happy to post it.
Richard Prosch, I'd recommend starting with one of Ben Haas' later novels for S&S. THE FORAGERS was his first. The story is Michael Korda at S&S didn't want to publish it because they already had a war novel scheduled for that season, but Peter Schwed, the editor in chief and Dad's editor insisted. So, both CATCH-22 and THE FORAGERS were published that season. Better books he wrote for S&S are LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY & THE CHANDLER HERITAGE. THE LAST VALLEY was good, was suppressed, I believe, by local power companies and is much harder to find.
I'd like to add--the authors never had any control over the titles or the covers for the books at Belmont--and that is true across the board for publishers and authors at that time. Authors of Westerns hated that because the NYC illustrators hired often inserted hilarious anachronisms into the covers and hurt sales undermining the writer's credibility with knowledgeable readers.
Joel,
It's still like that regarding the covers and titles of Westerns. Maybe half of my books wind up being published with the titles I gave them, and I've had several covers that really made me grit my teeth because of the mistakes on them. Quite often an editor will have come up with a title for a book of mine before I've even written it, which I actually like because then I can make the book fit it.
Thank you, Joel! I'll add those titles to my list. Are the Simon & Schuster titles stand alone, or part of a series? From what you and James wrote, it seems your father enjoyed writing the historicals?
I'm enthralled by this post and the subsequent exchange. Thanks, all.
I second Cap'n Bob. Fascinating.
I am also a big fan of Ben Haas. I have most of his westerns, but I think I have only read his Benteen novels. It is interesting to find out that Joel wrote two of the Fargo novels. I have them, but have not got to them yet. Any chance of getting some of his novels released as ebooks, especially his historical novels which I have not been able to find?
Danny
This whole commentary chain is fascinating. Very timely for me, inasmuch as I have recently been going back and reading some of the Fargo books. I loved 'em the first time around and am finding they are every bit as entertaining the second (or third, in some cases)time through. I never got too hooked on Sundance, but I sure did look forward to the Fargo titles ... now I've got to go seek out some books under the Haas or Meade bylines.
Danny,
Joel is working on getting some of the books released as e-books. I'm looking forward to them.
I read the Meade thrillers that Haas wrote, and am a huge fan of the Fargo books. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it is my favorite series.
My thanks to James and Joel for this entire exchange.
RJR
James, thank you so much for this wonderful little nugget about Ben Haas. He was a tremendous influence on me. I remember reading his SUNDANCE book GUNBELT and thinking, "Oh boy, this is how it should REALLY be done!" Unfortunately I was too late to express my appreciation to Ben himself, but I did enjoy a brief correspondence with his widow, Doug, who told me that Ben and her son Joel (Joseph Elliott) has collaborated together on a couple of books.
It's interesting also that Joel should mention Jack Slade. For many years I was convinced that Ben had written the LASSITER book A HELL OF A WAY TO DIE. It was only fairly recently that I discovered that it was really the work of Peter B Germano, aka Barry Cord.
I also remember writing to Leisure Books in the late 1970s, and asking if they would consider allowing me to continue the FARGO series in much the same way that 'Jack Slade' and Peter McCurtin had continued the SUNDANCE series, and H V Elkin had written some additional JOHN CUTLER novels. Never received a reply from them.
Anyway, to read this little piece about Joel was great. Thank you again -- it brought back a lot of great memories for me!
According to Joel, A HELL OF A WAY TO DIE actually was written by Ben Haas. I know it's on the list of Jack Slade books on the website maintained by Germano's daughter (or granddaughter, I don't recall for sure which). I just may have to reread it so I can offer my own take on the matter.
I wonder if Joel can offer us some sort of Ben Haas bibliography. In addition to Ben's mainstream novels, I've tried to track down everything I know that's out there, including the Ben Elliott westerns BROTHER BADMAN and CONTRACT IN CARTRIDGES and the Richard Meade titles CARTRIDGE CREEK and GAYLORD'S BADGE, but it's always bugged me that there might be other books out there that I still need to add to my collection. Be great to see that outline of how to write a pulp western.
This is a great string. I love the Fargo series and also like Ben Haas' mainstream novels. One non-fiction book by Ben Haas that I have is KKK (Regency Books 1963), which is dedicated "to my three sons Joel, Michael and John with love". I am curious how that book came about.
I've only become acquainted with the sterling work of Ben Haas in the last few years, and I have been swiftly working my way through some Sundance, Fargo, and standalone Meade titles. I didn't think, at age 42, that I'd be finding many new favorite authors, but I think I have.
I would love to see both a bibliography and anything Haas himself wrote on the craft of writing. I have been studying him for pacing (not to mention sheer enjoyment) and would be thrilled to see if he discussed it directly.
I see from the comments that there are even more Haas pseudonyms I wasn't aware of. More treasure to search for.
Thanks, James and Joel, for this post. I'm sorry to learn that Joel never got the chance to carry on with the series.
If there are plans afoot to re-release these books as e-books, which ones would be chosen? It would be great to have them all available!
Warm Regards,
Howard Andrew Jones
Great post and info in the comment string, James. Thanks for sharing!
I'm more of a Fargo and Rancho Bravi fan than a Sundance fan, but Haas clearly was a master at his craft.
Iam a big fan of Haas and Fargo. A bibliography would be so great.
As for Death Valley Gold, this is one of my favorites. I always thought this as a virtual blueprint for all things Indiana Jones, way before the movie.
What other writers were doing Fargo? I did a Fargo bibliography for an article, which took a lot of guesswork, and there were only those done by someone called John Wesley Hardin which seems to have disappeared from the market.
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