Anybody who has seen one of Lynn Munroe's on-line book catalogs knows that's not your typical book catalog. His latest features the work of the legendary Peter McCurtin, and as usual it's a treasure trove of information (including previously unknown pseudonyms) and great cover scans. If you have any interest at all in paperback Westerns and men's adventure novels from the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, you really do have to check this out.
On a personal note, I recall buying a copy of the Lassiter novel THE MAN FROM DEL RIO at Lester's Pharmacy, in the edition shown above, and realizing as I was reading it that this wasn't really the same sort of thing as Zane Grey, Max Brand, and Clarence E. Mulford (my main Western reading up to that point). Nice to know it was actually written by Peter McCurtin, possibly in collaboration with George Harmon Smith. If I ever come across a copy of that edition again, I'll probably buy it just for old times' sake.
Paperback expert Lynn Munroe has updated his website with an article and checklist about the work of Paul Rader, who was a fantastic cover artist, primarily for paperbacks but some magazine work, too (often repurposed from a paperback cover). The Avallone novel featured here is a sample of Rader's cover work. Paperback fans definitely need to check out Lynn's site. It's incredibly informative and entertaining.
For all you Ben Haas fans out there -- and I know there are a lot of you -- you need to head on over to Lynn Munroe's website right away. He's posted several new pages about Haas, starting with a fine biographical essay and including checklists of all of Haas's books under various pseudonyms, several of which are new to me. Not content to stop there, though, Lynn has also unraveled the history and authorship of the Lassiter series, to which Haas contributed one book. "Who wrote the Lassiters?" is a question that's been dogging me for years, and Lynn has done a spectacular job of uncovering a great deal of information. This is great stuff, and the Haas fans among you should check it out immediately.
