July 06, 2006

A Review of The Iron Trail

By Richard Hall. Eddie Clews, youthful confidence man, is being pursued by the law. In a hobo jungle he happens upon two criminals. Fearful of his life, he uses his skill as a grifter. He seizes upon the mistrust between the crooks and maneuvers them into fighting each other; neither survives. - Read this article


April 14, 2006

Harry Destry and the Heroic Landscape

by Duane Spurlock. Destry's conversion is not an overtly Christian conversion, but it borrows from Christianity by focusing on an epiphany initiated by the sacrifice of an innocent. - Read this article


February 17, 2006

Faust's Men and the Mountains

Mountains have been a literary device since Moses came down Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments. In the 20th Century, for a few examples, Thomas Mann's novel, The Magic Mountain, and Ernest Hemingway's novel, A Farewell to Arms, depict characters hiding from war in the mountains. Moving to the western genre, in 1949, Houghton Mifflin published Shane by Jack Schaefer: Shane seeks strength from the distant mountains during his inner conflict as he wrestles with his gunfighter past and his farmhand present. So it's no surprise that Frederick Faust used mountains in many of his stories. - Read this article


February 03, 2006

Frederick Faust’s Use of Landscape: “The One-Way Trail”

In many cases, Frederick Faust uses the landscape as a character—it provides an obstacle for a protagonist to overcome, much as a dragon or a chapel perilous might serve as a test for a hero on a quest. In other cases, the landscape serves an expressionistic role that highlights or reveals something about a character’s qualities or psychological makeup, much in the way the expressionistic film directors of the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s used scenery and sets to create an atmosphere of menace and visually portray a character’s psychological state. - Read this article


March 17, 2005

Max Brand: Exemplary American Author?

Frederick Faust publicly disdained the popular fiction he wrote. Yet he pounded out millions of words of it on reams of paper on a manual typewriter for years, and lived “high on the hog” (as one of his cowboy characters might say) thanks to that same writing. - Read this article


August 03, 2004

The Masterman by Max Brand: A Review

Dorchester Publishing's packaging of this novel provides a couple of false leads to its readers. First, although the cover of this paperback edition depicts a man wearing typical mountain man attire, The Masterman is not a mountain man story. Nor is it a western. Instead, this novel is one of Faust's northerns. - Read this article


July 13, 2004

The Men Who Make The Argosy: Max Brand

What was Frederick Faust up to on June 14, 1941? Find out here! Plus a link to Warren Harris' excellent pulp fanzine, Back Numbers Can Be Easily Procured. - Read this article


January 02, 2004

Frederick Faust's Abrupt Endings

Frederick Faust's stories frequently seem to defy the traditional plot arc, in which a denouement -- or falling action that wraps up loose ends -- follows the climax. More than one reader has commented with a grumble about the abrupt endings of Faust's stories. With the body of his tale told, the author seems to have no interest in providing a typical sense of closure to his readers. Like a rocket that has expended all its fuel and then falls to earth, a Faust story speeds pell-mell to its climax, and then stops. - Read this article


July 05, 2003

The Official Max Brand Site

The official Max Brand - Frederick Faust site has been updated with a new design and content. - Read this article


July 05, 2003

Alcatraz: Novel and Movie

A look at the translation of Max Brand's novel to film, starring Tom Mix and his wonder horse, Tony! - Read this article


March 25, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1924 a

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1924. - Read this article


March 25, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1924 b

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1924. - Read this article


March 24, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1925

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1925. - Read this article


March 21, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1926

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1926. - Read this article


March 20, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1927 a

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1927. - Read this article


March 20, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1927 b

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1927. - Read this article


March 20, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1928 a

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1928. - Read this article


March 20, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1928 b

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1928. - Read this article


March 19, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1929

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1929. - Read this article


March 19, 2003

Photo-Bibliography: 1930

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1930. - Read this article


March 19, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1931

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1931. - Read this article


March 17, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1932

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1932. - Read this article


March 17, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1933 a

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1933. - Read this article


March 17, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1933 b

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1933. - Read this article


March 17, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1934 a

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1934. - Read this article


March 17, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1934 b

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1934. - Read this article


March 14, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1935 a

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1935. - Read this article


March 14, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1935 b

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1935. - Read this article


March 14, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1936 a

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1936. - Read this article


March 14, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1936 b

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1936. - Read this article


March 14, 2003

Photo-Biblio: 1936 c

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1936. - Read this article


October 21, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1937 (a)

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1937. - Read this article


October 20, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1937 (b)

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1937. - Read this article


October 19, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1937 (c)

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1937. - Read this article


October 18, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1938 (a)

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1938. - Read this article


October 17, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1938 (b)

A further visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1938. - Read this article


October 16, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1939

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1939. - Read this article


October 15, 2002

Photo-Bibliography: 1940

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1940. - Read this article


October 14, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1941

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1941. - Read this article


October 13, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1942

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1942. - Read this article


October 12, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1944

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1944. - Read this article


October 11, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1948

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1948. - Read this article


October 10, 2002

Photo-Biblio: 1949

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1949. - Read this article


October 09, 2002

Photo-Bibliography: 1950

A visual representation for the Faust works that appeared in magazines in 1950. - Read this article


September 20, 2002

Western Trios

Most of Frederick Faust's popularity has grown because of his novels. But it's likely that during his career he wrote more stories of novelette length than he did full-length novels. Many of his novelettes featured series characters, such as Bull... - Read this article


September 18, 2002

Meet Max Brand

Max Brand, the most famous pseudonym of Frederick Faust, made his fictional Wild West an arena for the characters of myth and legend to live and battle again. - Read this article


September 17, 2002

Happy Birthday, Mr. Faust!

Frederick Faust was born in May 29, 1892. So 2002 marks the 110th birthday of the "King of the Pulps!" - Read this article