I'm used to the stories in Popular Publications' Western pulps having great titles, but "When It's Roundup Time in Hell" is particularly awesome, although the author, Rolle R. Rand, is unfamiliar to me. The FictionMags index lists thirteen stories by him, all in various Popular Publications Western pulps, in a period of a little more than a year in 1939 and early 1940. He has one more story in an Armed Services edition anthology in 1944, then a gap of more than forty years before his by-line appears on a single story in MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE in 1985, followed by one story in ESPIONAGE in 1986, then one final story in something called WHISPERING WILLOW MYSTERIES (evidently a small press publication) in 1997. That's an odd career, and I can't find anything about him on-line. Elsewhere in this issue of BIG-BOOK WESTERN are some much more familiar names, such as Harry F. Olmsted, Ed Earl Repp, and John G. Pearsol. There's even an appearance on the cover by the Angry Gun-Totin' Redhead, although the guy with her is a lawman, not the Stalwart Cowboy, and there's no sign of the Old Geezer with the Bandaged Head.
1 comment:
James, You loved the title, I liked the author's name. With the 3 R's in the name, i thought this was going to be a pseudonym. Turns out it's not; the author is likely Rolle Rene Rand (1915-2011). Rand was a staff writer for the Denver Post, so it seems likely that he could write fiction.
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