“Dead” but Still Talkative

Novelist, editor, and blogger Ed Gorman reports that this summer will bring the launch of Stark House Press’ first “three-fer” anthology of novels by some classic hard-boiled American pulp writers. That volume will feature: The Vengeance Man, by Dan J. Marlowe; Park Avenue Tramp, by Fletcher Flora; and Charles Runyon’s wonderfully titled The Prettiest Girl I Ever Killed. Gorman admits that “At the time I wrote the introduction [to Prettiest Girl], I was told that Runyon was dead.” However, he learned soon enough just how wrong that information had been--and then went on to interview the septuagenarian Runyon about his growing-up years in Missouri and Texas, his “remarkable opening chapters,” the inception of Prettiest Girl, and why Runyon stopped writing novels in the 1980s.

The first two parts of Gorman’s interview with Runyon can be found here and here. A promised third part should be posted presently.

UPDATE: The third and final installment of Ed Gorman’s exchange with Charles Runyon can now be found here.