FFB: Hard-boiled Dames

In 1986, St. Martin's published an anthology edited by Bernard A. Drew with the full title of Hard-Boiled Dames: A Brass-Knuckled Anthology of the Toughest Women From the Classic Pulps. Drew provided the introduction, and Marcia Muller (author of her own tough-broad protagonist, Sharon McCone) added a preface. The 15 stories included were reproduced from the original magazines in double columns on each page, complete with the original campy illustrations and advertisements, as well as biographical notes on the writers.

The offerings include Eugene Thomas's Vivian Legrand in "The Lady From Hell," a woman who works out of Shanghai and pits herself against both the chief of the British Secret Service in the Far East and the underworld leader of Manila; Richard Sale's Dinah Mason in "Double Trouble," featuring the spunky girlfriend of Daffy Dill, "the Whirlwind Reporter for the New York Chronicle"; C.B. Yorke's ruthless Queen Sue Carlton, featured in "Snowbound"; the hard punching Violet McDade, created by Cleve F. Adams; and international adventurer Rosita Storey, from the pen of Hulbert Footner.

The roll call of investigators, crooks, gun molls, and reporters who appeared as ongoing series characters in the classic pulp magazines of the 1930's included in the anthology are below:

Carrie Cashin in "Riddle in Silk" / by Theodore Tinsley 
Sarah Watson in "Cash or Credit" / by D.B. McCandless 
Trixie Meehan in "The Deadly Orchid" / by T.T. Flynn
Grace Culver in "Hit the Baby" / by Roswell Brown 
Violet McDate in "Flowers for Violet" / by Cleve F. Adams 
Patricia Seaward in "Murder by Mail" / by Frederick Nebel
The Domino Lady in "The Domino Lady Doubles Back" / by Lars Anderson 
Sue McEwen in "Fingers of fear" / by Frederick C. Davis
Katie Blayne in "The Duchess Pulls a Fast One" / by Whitman Chambers 
Dinah Mason in "Double Trouble" / by Richard Sale 
Ivy Trask in "Death to the Hunter" / by Judson P. Philips 
Dizzy Malone in "The Jane from Hell's Kitchen" / by Perry Paul 
Queen Sue Carlton in "Snowbound" / by C.B. Yorke
Vivian Legrand in "The Day from Hell : the Episode of the Secret Service Blackmail" / by Eugene Thomas 
Rosita Story in"Wolves of Monte Carlo" / by Hulbert Footner

Comments

[Todd Mason]

It's a fun book as I recall (my copy is still buried in a storage box)...it's been left to subsequent anthologists to gather the material by as well as about hardboiled women (and their not always so hardboiled fellow chroniclers).

[BV Lawson]

Very fun - would love to see a more modern version, too!