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Long Live the Dead: Tales from Black Mask
A LEGENDARY AUTHOR — — A LEGENDARY MAGAZINE Hugh B. Cave was one of the most popular and prolific writers during the Golden Age of the Pulp Magazines between the late 1920's and the early 1940's. His name on the cover of Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, Weird Tales, Short Stories, Clues, Argosy, Horror Story, Astounding, and countless other all-fiction magazines guaranteed a story with vivid characters and crackling pace. The greatest of all detective pulps, Black Mask Magazine, created the hardboiled private-eye story with tales by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, Carroll John Daly, and others. Hugh Cave joined that select group in 1934 when the editor Captain Joseph T. Shaw published his "Too Many Women," a tough story of a corpse on the waterfront and a sleazy photographer. Cave followed with stories about a dog who helps a cop, a magician who is accused of murder, a P. I. hired to find a girl on the Florida Keys, and an assortment of other flavorful characters. Cave rang many changes on the Black Mask style, from the male-female banter of "Smoke in Your Eyes," to "The Missing Mr. Lee" which is related consecutively by 5 or 6 different characters, to the violent gangland setting of "Stranger in Town." Published in honor of Hugh B. Cave's 90th birthday, Long Live the Dead takes the reader back to the great age of the private-eye story. The book includes new prefaces to each story by the author, an introduction by Keith Allan Deutsch, proprietor of Black Mask Magazine, and a checklist of Cave's mystery writing.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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57 people want to read
About the author
Hugh B. Cave
248 books34 followersHugh Barnett Cave was a prolific writer of pulp fiction who also excelled in other genres.
Sources differ as to when Cave sold his first story: some say it was while he still attended Brookline High School, others cite "Island Ordeal", written at age 19 in 1929 while still working for the vanity press.
In his early career he contributed to such pulp magazines as Astounding, Black Mask, and Weird Tales. By his own estimate, in the 1930s alone, he published roughly 800 short stories in nearly 100 periodicals under a number of pseudonyms. Of particular interest during this time was his series featuring an independent gentleman of courageous action and questionable morals called simply The Eel. These adventures appeared in the late 1930s and early 40s under the pen name Justin Case. Cave was also one of the most successful contributors to the weird menace or "shudder pulps" of the 1930s.
In 1943, drawing on his experience as a war reporter, he authored one of his most highly regarded novels, Long Were the Nights, telling of the first PT boats at Guadalcanal. He also wrote a number of other books on the war in the Pacific during this period.
During his post-war sojourn in Haiti, he became so familiar with the religion of Voodoo that he published Haiti: High Road to Adventure, a nonfiction work critically acclaimed as the "best report on voodoo in English." His Caribbean experiences led to his best-selling Voodoo-themed novel, The Cross On The Drum (1959), an interracial story in which a white Christian missionary falls in love with a black Voodoo priest's sister.
During this midpoint in his career Cave advanced his writing to the "slick" magazines, including Collier's, Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and the Saturday Evening Post. It was in this latter publication, in 1959, that "The Mission," his most popular short story, appeared—subsequently issued in hardcover by Doubleday, reprinted in textbooks, and translated into a number of languages.
But his career took a dip in the early 1970s. According to The Guardian, with the golden era of pulp fiction now in the past, Cave's "only regular market was writing romance for women's magazines." He was rediscovered, however, by Karl Edward Wagner, who published Murgunstrumm and Others, a horror story collection that won Cave the 1978 World Fantasy Award. Other collections followed and Cave also published new horror fiction.
His later career included the publication in the late 1970s and early 1980s of four successful fantasy novels: Legion of the Dead (1979), The Nebulon Horror (1980), The Evil (1981), and Shades of Evil (1982). Two other notable late works are Lucifer's Eye (1991) and The Mountains of Madness (2004). Moreover, Cave took naturally to the Internet, championing the e-book to such an extent that electronic versions of his stories can readily be purchased online.
Over his entire career he wrote more than 1,000 short stories in nearly all genres (though he is best remembered for his horror and crime pieces), approximately forty novels, and a notable body of nonfiction. He received the Phoenix Award as well as lifetime achievement awards from the International Horror Guild, the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Convention. (From Wikipedia.)
Used the pseudonyms John Starr and Justin Case
Sources differ as to when Cave sold his first story: some say it was while he still attended Brookline High School, others cite "Island Ordeal", written at age 19 in 1929 while still working for the vanity press.
In his early career he contributed to such pulp magazines as Astounding, Black Mask, and Weird Tales. By his own estimate, in the 1930s alone, he published roughly 800 short stories in nearly 100 periodicals under a number of pseudonyms. Of particular interest during this time was his series featuring an independent gentleman of courageous action and questionable morals called simply The Eel. These adventures appeared in the late 1930s and early 40s under the pen name Justin Case. Cave was also one of the most successful contributors to the weird menace or "shudder pulps" of the 1930s.
In 1943, drawing on his experience as a war reporter, he authored one of his most highly regarded novels, Long Were the Nights, telling of the first PT boats at Guadalcanal. He also wrote a number of other books on the war in the Pacific during this period.
During his post-war sojourn in Haiti, he became so familiar with the religion of Voodoo that he published Haiti: High Road to Adventure, a nonfiction work critically acclaimed as the "best report on voodoo in English." His Caribbean experiences led to his best-selling Voodoo-themed novel, The Cross On The Drum (1959), an interracial story in which a white Christian missionary falls in love with a black Voodoo priest's sister.
During this midpoint in his career Cave advanced his writing to the "slick" magazines, including Collier's, Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and the Saturday Evening Post. It was in this latter publication, in 1959, that "The Mission," his most popular short story, appeared—subsequently issued in hardcover by Doubleday, reprinted in textbooks, and translated into a number of languages.
But his career took a dip in the early 1970s. According to The Guardian, with the golden era of pulp fiction now in the past, Cave's "only regular market was writing romance for women's magazines." He was rediscovered, however, by Karl Edward Wagner, who published Murgunstrumm and Others, a horror story collection that won Cave the 1978 World Fantasy Award. Other collections followed and Cave also published new horror fiction.
His later career included the publication in the late 1970s and early 1980s of four successful fantasy novels: Legion of the Dead (1979), The Nebulon Horror (1980), The Evil (1981), and Shades of Evil (1982). Two other notable late works are Lucifer's Eye (1991) and The Mountains of Madness (2004). Moreover, Cave took naturally to the Internet, championing the e-book to such an extent that electronic versions of his stories can readily be purchased online.
Over his entire career he wrote more than 1,000 short stories in nearly all genres (though he is best remembered for his horror and crime pieces), approximately forty novels, and a notable body of nonfiction. He received the Phoenix Award as well as lifetime achievement awards from the International Horror Guild, the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Convention. (From Wikipedia.)
Used the pseudonyms John Starr and Justin Case
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 12, 2019
“I am convinced that if stories such as these have any lasting value, it is in revealing the kind of work young pulp-writers were doing in those days when rates were low and one had to make a typewriter smoke in order to keep eating”--Hugh B. Cave
I didn't listen to this entire collection yet, but probably will if I can find it. I rate the book here because I read my first short story from it by Hugh B. Cave, "Lost and Found," that I listened to separately, which was part of the Black Mask mystery magazine, this one from 1940.
I had imagined as I listened to the story to begin my review by saying that here is a reason Hugh B. Cave is not a household name such as Dashiell Hammett: He's just not as good a writer. And while this is patently true, this story of a girl who is lost (and running off with her boyfriend) or dead is a really good example of the kind of noir fiction of the mid-twentieth century, solidly written, a good yarn.
The attention to language and dialogue and character doesn't match up to Hammett, but then again, whose does? So why read it? 1) if you like listening to radio theater productions, or ones that help us reimagine them, such as the Hollywood Theater of the Ear; 2) if you understand the development of genre to be--as I think it is--a collective production, where everyone is closely reading each other's works and creating new works out of this intertextual web. So you have to see Hammett and Chandler and Cain all not only influencing but being influenced by writers like Cave, and
3) if you like pulp, in general. Turns out, as I find, that Cave received a World Fantasy Award in 1999, so he was well known across several genres, publishing more than 800 stories mainly in horror and science fiction. He died in 2004 at the age of 94, but he was still publishing at the age of 90!
I didn't listen to this entire collection yet, but probably will if I can find it. I rate the book here because I read my first short story from it by Hugh B. Cave, "Lost and Found," that I listened to separately, which was part of the Black Mask mystery magazine, this one from 1940.
I had imagined as I listened to the story to begin my review by saying that here is a reason Hugh B. Cave is not a household name such as Dashiell Hammett: He's just not as good a writer. And while this is patently true, this story of a girl who is lost (and running off with her boyfriend) or dead is a really good example of the kind of noir fiction of the mid-twentieth century, solidly written, a good yarn.
The attention to language and dialogue and character doesn't match up to Hammett, but then again, whose does? So why read it? 1) if you like listening to radio theater productions, or ones that help us reimagine them, such as the Hollywood Theater of the Ear; 2) if you understand the development of genre to be--as I think it is--a collective production, where everyone is closely reading each other's works and creating new works out of this intertextual web. So you have to see Hammett and Chandler and Cain all not only influencing but being influenced by writers like Cave, and
3) if you like pulp, in general. Turns out, as I find, that Cave received a World Fantasy Award in 1999, so he was well known across several genres, publishing more than 800 stories mainly in horror and science fiction. He died in 2004 at the age of 94, but he was still publishing at the age of 90!
March 17, 2016
It is extremely rare that I assign the maximum score to a collection of short stories, but on the other hand, when the material to choose from through 40 years of a prolific and excellent in quality career , the best choice is not difficult.
The stories in this collection have in common the fact that they were published in a popular pulp magazine called Black Mask, one of the fanzine widespread in the United States at the turn of the wars, and which have greatly contributed to the spread of popular literature, giving us largely the imaginary that we know today.
As I said, the level of the stories is excellent, although sometimes dated, especially when it comes to the relations between the sexes, marked by a slight misogyny.
A special mention for the last story, Stranger in town, a true masterpiece.
Thanks to Open Road Integrated Media and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
E' estremamente raro che io assegni il punteggio massimo a una raccolta di racconti, ma d'altra parte quando il materiale tra cui scegliere attraversa 40 anni di una prolifica e qualitativamente eccellente carriera, scegliere il meglio non è difficile.
I racconti di questa raccolta hanno in comune il fatto di essere stati pubblicati su una famosa rivista pulp intitolata Black Mask, una delle fanzine molto diffuse negli Stati Uniti a cavallo tra le due guerre, e che tanto hanno contribuito alla diffusione della letteratura popolare, consegnandoci gran parte dell'immaginario che noi oggi conosciamo.
Come dicevo, il livello dei racconti è eccellente, anche se a volte datato, soprattutto quando si parla dei rapporti tra sessi, improntati a una lieve misoginia.
Una menzione particolare per l'ultimo racconto, Stranger in town, un autentico capolavoro.
Grazie a Open Road Integrated Media e Netgalley per avermi concesso una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.
The stories in this collection have in common the fact that they were published in a popular pulp magazine called Black Mask, one of the fanzine widespread in the United States at the turn of the wars, and which have greatly contributed to the spread of popular literature, giving us largely the imaginary that we know today.
As I said, the level of the stories is excellent, although sometimes dated, especially when it comes to the relations between the sexes, marked by a slight misogyny.
A special mention for the last story, Stranger in town, a true masterpiece.
Thanks to Open Road Integrated Media and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
E' estremamente raro che io assegni il punteggio massimo a una raccolta di racconti, ma d'altra parte quando il materiale tra cui scegliere attraversa 40 anni di una prolifica e qualitativamente eccellente carriera, scegliere il meglio non è difficile.
I racconti di questa raccolta hanno in comune il fatto di essere stati pubblicati su una famosa rivista pulp intitolata Black Mask, una delle fanzine molto diffuse negli Stati Uniti a cavallo tra le due guerre, e che tanto hanno contribuito alla diffusione della letteratura popolare, consegnandoci gran parte dell'immaginario che noi oggi conosciamo.
Come dicevo, il livello dei racconti è eccellente, anche se a volte datato, soprattutto quando si parla dei rapporti tra sessi, improntati a una lieve misoginia.
Una menzione particolare per l'ultimo racconto, Stranger in town, un autentico capolavoro.
Grazie a Open Road Integrated Media e Netgalley per avermi concesso una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.
March 24, 2014
“Long Live the Dead” is a collection of ten stories by the Pulp Writer Hugh B Cave that appeared in the “Black Mask” pulp between 1930 and 1940. The Pulps were the home for most short mystery fiction writers before the advent of the paperback book after World War 2. For most people they should conjure up Raymond Chandler and Charlie Chan, who were some of the mainstays of this medium. The stories are all introduced by Cave himself.
All the stories revolve around a murder (usually a dame), a detective (where good cop, bad cop or private dick), assorted villains, and more atmosphere than a Sidney Greenstreet movie. Some of the language surprised me because I didn’t realize that the slang was that old and some I had to find in the dictionary. No one is ever who they seem and any character can turn out to be a con man, gun maul, undercover agent, journalist or stiff.
I’m going to discuss two stories that are good examples of the rest and won’t spoil the endings. “The Missing Mr. Lee” is told in a Rashomon style of story and has to proceed the post-WW2 movie. It’s told from the point of view of six people, each one being interviewed by the Detective in charge, until he gets all the information he needs to arrest the perp. It unfolds like a flower, and has a great ending.
The title of “Stranger in Town” makes little sense until the last paragraph of the story. Up until then the protagonist seems to being going along with his life while other people are trying to kill him. But with a tip of the hat to the “Pink Panther”, those who with him ill keep getting mistaken for him, and getting his due.
Worth reading if you like old time style mysteries.
Zeb Kantrowitz
All the stories revolve around a murder (usually a dame), a detective (where good cop, bad cop or private dick), assorted villains, and more atmosphere than a Sidney Greenstreet movie. Some of the language surprised me because I didn’t realize that the slang was that old and some I had to find in the dictionary. No one is ever who they seem and any character can turn out to be a con man, gun maul, undercover agent, journalist or stiff.
I’m going to discuss two stories that are good examples of the rest and won’t spoil the endings. “The Missing Mr. Lee” is told in a Rashomon style of story and has to proceed the post-WW2 movie. It’s told from the point of view of six people, each one being interviewed by the Detective in charge, until he gets all the information he needs to arrest the perp. It unfolds like a flower, and has a great ending.
The title of “Stranger in Town” makes little sense until the last paragraph of the story. Up until then the protagonist seems to being going along with his life while other people are trying to kill him. But with a tip of the hat to the “Pink Panther”, those who with him ill keep getting mistaken for him, and getting his due.
Worth reading if you like old time style mysteries.
Zeb Kantrowitz
January 31, 2019
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.5 of 5
I grew up enjoying the old science fiction, fantasy, and thriller pulp magazines, but in my teens I didn't pay a lot of attention to the authors unless they really caught my attention. I was familiar with the name - Hugh B. Cave - but I couldn't tell you much about his writing. Long Live the Dead is a collection of Cave's writing from the pages of the fantastic pulp Black Mask.
These stories reflect seventy years of Hugh B. Cave's writing career. Think about that for a moment. Seven decades! That's a long time to be writing a high level.
The stories here are all outstanding. They all have a noir-ish sense about them, bringing to mind authors better known in the genre - Chandler, Hammett, Cain, or Spillane. But Cave shows here that he rightfully belongs in the same pages or on the same shelves as these other mystery writers.
I'm not sure that I had a favorite among these gems. "Too Many Women" had me by the title alone, which seemed very '40's (meaning it was ahead of its time since the story was published in 1934). The story worked nicely and I knew I was going to enjoy this book since this was the opening piece.
"Lost - And Found", "The Missing Mr. Lee", "Stranger in Town" - each of these were stories that stuck out as being particularly engaging. I really enjoyed the format for "The Missing Mr. Lee." The reader takes the point of view of a detective interviewing six different people about the missing Mr. Lee. The story unfolds as we get the different points of view and learn a little more with each witness.
In addition to the stories, I enjoyed Cave's comments before each piece. These anecdotal bits are quite interesting and give us a nice insight into the author who clearly enjoyed his work.
If you enjoy reading mysteries, and especially if you enjoy the classic, noir style of mystery, then you really should read this collection - you will feel as though you've 'discovered' a new author (even though he had seventy years worth of material).
This collection contains the following:
Introduction: Hugh B. Cave on His Ninetieth Birthday - Keith Alan Deutsch
The Black Mask Interview
"Too Many Women"
"Dead Dog"
"Shadow"
"Curtain Call"
"Long Live the Dead"
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
"Lost -- And Found"
"The Missing Mr. Lee"
"Front-Page Frame-Up"
"Stranger in Town"
Looking for a good book? Hugh B. Cave's collection of mystery stories, Long Live the Dead, are fantastic stories pulled from the pages of a classic pulp magazine "BLack Mask" and are sure to please fans of the genre.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
I grew up enjoying the old science fiction, fantasy, and thriller pulp magazines, but in my teens I didn't pay a lot of attention to the authors unless they really caught my attention. I was familiar with the name - Hugh B. Cave - but I couldn't tell you much about his writing. Long Live the Dead is a collection of Cave's writing from the pages of the fantastic pulp Black Mask.
These stories reflect seventy years of Hugh B. Cave's writing career. Think about that for a moment. Seven decades! That's a long time to be writing a high level.
The stories here are all outstanding. They all have a noir-ish sense about them, bringing to mind authors better known in the genre - Chandler, Hammett, Cain, or Spillane. But Cave shows here that he rightfully belongs in the same pages or on the same shelves as these other mystery writers.
I'm not sure that I had a favorite among these gems. "Too Many Women" had me by the title alone, which seemed very '40's (meaning it was ahead of its time since the story was published in 1934). The story worked nicely and I knew I was going to enjoy this book since this was the opening piece.
"Lost - And Found", "The Missing Mr. Lee", "Stranger in Town" - each of these were stories that stuck out as being particularly engaging. I really enjoyed the format for "The Missing Mr. Lee." The reader takes the point of view of a detective interviewing six different people about the missing Mr. Lee. The story unfolds as we get the different points of view and learn a little more with each witness.
In addition to the stories, I enjoyed Cave's comments before each piece. These anecdotal bits are quite interesting and give us a nice insight into the author who clearly enjoyed his work.
If you enjoy reading mysteries, and especially if you enjoy the classic, noir style of mystery, then you really should read this collection - you will feel as though you've 'discovered' a new author (even though he had seventy years worth of material).
This collection contains the following:
Introduction: Hugh B. Cave on His Ninetieth Birthday - Keith Alan Deutsch
The Black Mask Interview
"Too Many Women"
"Dead Dog"
"Shadow"
"Curtain Call"
"Long Live the Dead"
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
"Lost -- And Found"
"The Missing Mr. Lee"
"Front-Page Frame-Up"
"Stranger in Town"
Looking for a good book? Hugh B. Cave's collection of mystery stories, Long Live the Dead, are fantastic stories pulled from the pages of a classic pulp magazine "BLack Mask" and are sure to please fans of the genre.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
March 30, 2014
I am a fan of Chandler, Hammett, and others, but not such an aficionado of of the genre to claim knowledge of other authors of Black Mask Magazine stories. Thus, I was delighted to receive the e-book "Long Live the Dead" Smashing Detective Stories by Hugh B. Cave.
Perhaps I had read a Cave story here or there in the past, but I never was exposed to a collection that allowed me to focus on samples of his work; and great samples these are. Written in the "golden age" of these types of stories, they have the authentic feel that sadly authors of today can only imitate. Cave was, dare I say, like his contemporaries, an artist. He could write a short story that not only was "full" of plot, but had a path to follow, including turns, along with memorable characters. Through a mild description of dress or voice, even the most minor characters were brought to life.
If you are into "Black Mask" Hammett, and Chandler type stories then you cannot go wrong with this. As a bonus, the author was interviewed at 90 years of age for the original publishing of this collection, and that is worth the price alone - getting that sense of the writer and what it was like writing these kind of stories back in the day. This is a must for any true pulp mystery fan.
Perhaps I had read a Cave story here or there in the past, but I never was exposed to a collection that allowed me to focus on samples of his work; and great samples these are. Written in the "golden age" of these types of stories, they have the authentic feel that sadly authors of today can only imitate. Cave was, dare I say, like his contemporaries, an artist. He could write a short story that not only was "full" of plot, but had a path to follow, including turns, along with memorable characters. Through a mild description of dress or voice, even the most minor characters were brought to life.
If you are into "Black Mask" Hammett, and Chandler type stories then you cannot go wrong with this. As a bonus, the author was interviewed at 90 years of age for the original publishing of this collection, and that is worth the price alone - getting that sense of the writer and what it was like writing these kind of stories back in the day. This is a must for any true pulp mystery fan.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews