It's not just the number of words Robert Leslie Bellem wrote that's impressive, although that has to be considerable, it's the sheer number of stories. For example, for every 90,000 word novel I write, Bellem had to come up with ten or twelve workable short story plots to equal the same wordage. That's insane. I can't even imagine how many hundreds and hundreds of plots he created. (And sure, he probably repeated himself some, but still . . .)
What prompts this is the fact that Bellem wrote every story in this issue of HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE, four Dan Turner yarns under his own name and a non-series story as Jerome Severs Perry. And this is hardly the only issue of a pulp written entirely by Bellem. The guy was a wonder. At least he didn't do the cover for this issue, but whoever did turned out a good one.
2 comments:
What is more amazing, Bellem wrote regularly for the girly pulps. His name appears in every 3rd or 4th issue of all the Culture titles and some others as well. In one issue, he also appears as "Roberta Belle Leslie"! By the way, the third and final Best of Spicy Mystery is finally out.
I'll be getting that Spicy Mystery book, for sure. The first two were great!
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