john lawrence – SMB Noir

April 1939 issue ~ cover art by John Fleming Gould

April 1939 issue

cover art by John Fleming Gould

better image than previously posted

T.T. Flynn, “The Devil’s Derby” (Mr. Maddox)

Raymond Chandler, “Pearls are a Nuisance”

Fred MacIsaac, “Murder at the Beauty Show” (Rambler Murphy)

John Lawrence, “Old Wives’ Tale” (Marquis of Broadway)

Dale Clark, “Mercy Killing”

with a simple listing of his name on the cover, along with those of his colleagues, the editors could not have been aware that they were publishing one of Raymond Chandler’s masterpieces. The Big Sleep had been published just two months before, on February 6.

March 1939 issue ~ cover art by John Fleming Gould

March 1939 issue

cover art by John Fleming Gould

Carroll John Daly, “Hell with the Lid Lifted” (Race Williams)

John Lawrence, “The Stars Said Murder” (Marquis of Broadway)

William Edward Hayes, “The Farraday Phantom”

O.B. Myers, “The Body in Booth One”

Wyatt Blassingame, “The Corpse Played Possum”

Frederick Arnold Kummer, Jr., “Death Racket” (reprinted in 100 Dastardly Little Detective Stories, 1993)

September 1939 UK edition ~ cover art J. George Janes

September 1939 UK edition

cover art J. George Janes

better image than previously posted

~ Frank Collinson, “Death on the Prairie” [Part 2 of 2] ~ article does not appear in the US issue

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Dark Alleys”, 66th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, this one a spy story with Ngat T’oy and Soo Hoo Duck (‘Soo has a name for Jenkins – Sai Yan Pang Yeu: Man of the West Who is My Friend’)

~ Bill Gerry, “Autopsies Tell” [spelling in Hagemann], 1^st of 2 stories in BM

~ Baynard H(ardwick) Kendrick, “Headless Angel”, 11th of 14 stories with Mikes Standish (Stan) Rice, ‘The Hungry’[?], all set in Florida, this one in a swamp

~ John Lawrence, “Death to Spare”, 5^th of 14 stories in BM

~ Peter Paige, “I Guard Nudes”, ‘factual article; PP is guard at New York’s World’s Fair’, 1^st of 12 stories in BM

~ Cornell Woolrich, “Crime by the Forelock”, 13th of 24 (22 original) stories to appear in BM