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Max Brand,: The big westerner,
First edition, second printing. Biography of Frederick Faust who published under 20 different names. With listing of his work at the end of the book. xii, 330 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. 8vo..
342 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1970
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 1, 2026
"Perhaps the question of exactly how much Faust wrote will never be answered. Early records have been lost.
Complicating the problem are known collaborations and ghost writing with John Schoolcratt, Kenneth Perkins, Robert Simpson, and perhaps others.
It is certain that he was published under twenty names, but there may have been more. He himself said early in 1934 that he had written between twenty-four and twenty-five million words in the previous seventeen years, or the equivalent, at 70,000 words a book, of about 350 novels; but he wrote several million words after his 1934 statement.
We have the assertion by Edward H. Dodd, Jr., in the March 26, 1938, Publisher's Weekly, that Faust had by that date published approximately twenty-five million words. Other authorities, including Carl Brandt, have put Faust's total printed output at between twenty-five and thirty million words.
A recent reevaluation by William J. Clark, who says he has counted ninety-eight per cent of the words Faust published since college days, finds approximately twenty-two million words.
This breaks down into 628 separate items, including 196 novels 50,000 or more words in length, 226 novelettes of from 20,000 to 50,000 words, 162 stories of less than 20,000 words, and
44 poems.
It seems safe to say Faust wrote between twenty-five and thirty million words and published about twenty-five million.
It seems probable that he published more varieties of prose fiction than anyone else on record. It seems certain that the bulk of this production took place in a remarkably short period of about seventeen years.
To evaluate Faust's work presents unusual difficulties. No critic has ever done so. No critic has known its full extent. It has been evaluated as Faust has been, by bits and pieces, under various aliases."
And he did all of this after having a heart attack at 26, and many there after. He knew his life was on the line everyday, even with medicines developing. Its remarkable what someone can accomplish in one albiet brief lifetime.
Faust died in 1944 on the Allied front of WW2 as a war correspondent.
Complicating the problem are known collaborations and ghost writing with John Schoolcratt, Kenneth Perkins, Robert Simpson, and perhaps others.
It is certain that he was published under twenty names, but there may have been more. He himself said early in 1934 that he had written between twenty-four and twenty-five million words in the previous seventeen years, or the equivalent, at 70,000 words a book, of about 350 novels; but he wrote several million words after his 1934 statement.
We have the assertion by Edward H. Dodd, Jr., in the March 26, 1938, Publisher's Weekly, that Faust had by that date published approximately twenty-five million words. Other authorities, including Carl Brandt, have put Faust's total printed output at between twenty-five and thirty million words.
A recent reevaluation by William J. Clark, who says he has counted ninety-eight per cent of the words Faust published since college days, finds approximately twenty-two million words.
This breaks down into 628 separate items, including 196 novels 50,000 or more words in length, 226 novelettes of from 20,000 to 50,000 words, 162 stories of less than 20,000 words, and
44 poems.
It seems safe to say Faust wrote between twenty-five and thirty million words and published about twenty-five million.
It seems probable that he published more varieties of prose fiction than anyone else on record. It seems certain that the bulk of this production took place in a remarkably short period of about seventeen years.
To evaluate Faust's work presents unusual difficulties. No critic has ever done so. No critic has known its full extent. It has been evaluated as Faust has been, by bits and pieces, under various aliases."
And he did all of this after having a heart attack at 26, and many there after. He knew his life was on the line everyday, even with medicines developing. Its remarkable what someone can accomplish in one albiet brief lifetime.
Faust died in 1944 on the Allied front of WW2 as a war correspondent.
December 2, 2022
A highly readable biography of one of the early 20th century's most prolific writer of popular fiction. Easton estimates that Frederick Faust - writing under the name Max Brand and 18 other pseudonyms (!) - published 25-30 MILLION words during his relatively brief career. Amazing.
And, the author - who is married to Faust's eldest daughter - cleverly and deftly keeps himself out of the story, referring only a single time to "Jane's husband."
And, the author - who is married to Faust's eldest daughter - cleverly and deftly keeps himself out of the story, referring only a single time to "Jane's husband."
February 5, 2011
An outstanding book. Tires you out just reading about the sheer volume of work created by one man in a relatively short period.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews