The Crimson Clown Again

by Johnston McCulley

In 1927 Johnston McCulley published a collection of his stories about Delton Prouse, a gentleman burglar who uses a red clown outfit and a hypodermic needle to steal from the rich and give half to the poor. The other half he keeps to pay for his clown outfits. Then in 1928 he came out with a whole new collection of episodes for Delton, even more intriguing than the first. If you are a fan of heroes like Zorro, whom McCulley invented, you will love Delton Prouse.

Genres: Pulp

230 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2010

About the author

Johnston McCulley (February 2, 1883 – November 23, 1958) was the author of hundreds of stories, fifty novels, numerous screenplays for film and television, and the creator of the character Zorro.

Many of his novels and stories were written under the pseudonyms Harrington Strong, Raley Brien, George Drayne, Monica Morton, Rowena Raley, Frederic Phelps, Walter Pierson, and John Mack Stone, among others.

McCulley started as a police reporter for The Police Gazette and served as an Army public affairs officer during World War I. An amateur history buff, he went on to a career in pulp magazines and screenplays, often using a Southern California backdrop for his stories.

Aside from Zorro, McCulley created many other pulp characters, including Black Star, The Spider, The Mongoose, and Thubway Tham. Many of McCulley's characters — The Green Ghost, The Thunderbolt, and The Crimson Clown — were inspirations for the masked heroes that have appeared in popular culture from McCulley's time to the present day.

Born in Ottawa, Illinois, and raised in Chillicothe, Illinois, he died in 1958 in Los Angeles, California, aged 75. -wikipedia