Reading California Fiction

OAKLEY HALL

Oakley Hall (1920-2008) died on May 14. He wrote some two dozen novels over a period of nearly fifty years. He is best known today for his ground-breaking western, Warlock (1958). Hall’s earlier books were set in California, where he lived his entire life. With the exception of the semi-autobiographical Corpus of Joe Bailey, the stories took place at the time they were written. (Last year Hall revisited his Joe Bailey days in Love and War in California.)

Here, for the record, is a list of Hall’s pre-1960 California novels:

Murder City [as O. M. Hall] Farrar, Straus (1949), 223 pp.
So Many Doors. Random House (1950), 302 pp.
Corpus of Joe Bailey. Viking Press (1953), 479 pp.
Too Dead to Run [as Jason Manor]. Viking Press (1953), 186 pp
The Red Jaguar [as Jason Manor]. Viking Press (1954), 184 pp.
    paperback ed.: The Girl in the Red Jaguar. Popular Library (1955).
Mardios Beach. Viking Press (1955), 282 pp.
Pawns of Fear [as Jason Manor]. Viking Press (1955), 184 pp.
    paperback ed.: No Halo for Me. Popular Library (1956).
The Tramplers [as Jason Manor]. Viking Press (1956), 181 pp.

FLORENCE STONEBRAKER

    And now we come to Florence Stonebraker, who once was (I think) one of California’s busiest genre writers. For thirty years – between Pay for Your Pleasure (Phoenix, 1937) and Predatory Woman (Beacon, 1967) – she cranked out more than 80 novels of unsanctioned sex. Married or single, her characters were tempted by and often surrendered to their lustful desires. Stonebraker had a conventional side, too, and wrote a couple dozen stories of chaste young women finding love. But her forte was the risqué.

    I haven’t done enough research to find out much about Stonebraker’s life. She was born in 1896. She married someone whose surname was Stuart. It’s anybody’s guess what she did before publishing her first book at the age of 41. Her early novels are set on the East Coast, so she may have lived there. She doesn’t start using California settings until the early 1940s, suggesting that she moved west during the war. Her most prolific year was 1952, in which she published eleven novels. She stopped writing in the 1960s. She was residing in Glendale prior to her death in 1977.

    It’s unclear how many of her books are set in California. I’m sure about Private Practice (because I read it) and willing to bet on Frisco Dame and Love Life of a Hollywood Mistress (because of the titles). But I’m guessing the number is much higher. If she lived in the state and wrote a novel every three or four months, then she probably had little time to find exotic locales.

    Compiling a list of her novels is not an easy task. The Library of Congress only has hardcovers, all of which she wrote for Phoenix. Jon Warren’s Official Price Guide lists most of the paperbacks. No other library has more than a few of her books, but many are available at Book Finder or similar sites. Adding to the problem is Stonebraker’s fondness for pseudonyms. In addition to writing under her own name, she used Florence Stuart and Fern Shepard for her romances and Florenz Branch and Thomas Stone for her sex stories. What follows are two lists of her non-romance novels.

 

    This list shows the title, author name, original publisher, and original publication date of each novel. It also shows information on reprints.

   

• 50-50 Girl – Thomas Stone (Merit B-15, 1952)

• Almost a Lady – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1947)

• Analyst, The – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1946)

    Reprinted as Lessons in Love (Candid 23, 1949)

• Away from Sin – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1941)

• Baby Doctor – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1943)

• Bed She Made, The – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1946)

• Bedroom Agent – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1940)

• Boom Town Gals – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1942)

• Borrowed Love – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1949)

    Reprinted as Borrowed Husband (Derby 12, 1950)

• Camp Doctor – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1943)

• Camp Follower – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1942)

• Can Love Be Wrong – Florence Stonebraker (Lancer 72-666, 1963)

• Careless Caresses – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1946)

    Reprinted with the same title (Knickerbocker 29, 1946)

• Careless Hussy – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1939)

    Reprinted with the same title (Hanro 1, 1945)

• City Doctor – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1943)

    Reprinted with the same title (White Circle 484, 1951)

• Confessions of a Ladies’ Chauffeur – Florence Stonebraker (Croyden 70, 1954)

• Doctor Tony – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1944)

• Doctor Trouble – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1940)

• Dr. Breyton’s Wife – Florenz Branch (Intimate 39, 1953)

• Dr. Randolph’s Women – Thomas Stone (Intimate 21, 1952)

• Easy to Know – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1945)

• Embraceable – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1949)

• Ex-mistress – Thomas Stone (Intimate 23, 1952)

    Reprinted with the same title (Beacon B285, 1960)

• Flesh Is Weak, The – Florence Stonebraker (Quarter 85, 1951)

• Fleshpots, The – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1944)

    Reprinted with the same title (Century 93, 1947)

    Reprinted as Flesh Pots (Prize Books, 1947)

• Flirting Eyes – Florence Stonebraker (Quarter 90, 1951)

• Four Men and a Dame – Florence Stonebraker (Quarter 83, 1951)

• Frisco Dame – Florence Stonebraker (Quarter 80, 1950)

• Girl Crazy Professor – Florence Stonebraker (Croydon 46, 1953)

• Her Desert Lover – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1943)

• Intimate Affairs of a French Nurse – Florence Stonebraker (Croydon 30, 1953)

    Probably reprinted as Wild French Nurse (Magnet, 1959)

• Intimate Physician – Florenz Branch (Beacon B322, 1960)

• Kept Sisters – Florence Stonebraker (Beacon B388, 1961)

• Local Talent – Florence Stonebraker (Intimate 13, 1952)

• Love Artist, The – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1939)

    Reprinted as Love Siren (Griffin 8, 1950)

• Love Life of a Hollywood Mistress – Florence Stonebraker (Quarter 73, 1950)

• Love Shift, The – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1943)

• Love While You May – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1941)

• Love-Hungry Doctor – Florence Stonebraker (Croydon 24, 1952)

• Lust for Love – Florence Stonebraker (Intimate 16, 1952)

    Reprinted with the same title (Beacon B321, 1960)

• Madelon – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1944)

• Male for Sale – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1950)

    Reprinted with the same title (Uni, 1951)

• Man Fever – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1944)

• Marriage Clinic, The – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1947)

• Marriage Exchange, The – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1946)

• Naughty Blonde – Florence Stonebraker (Cameo 304, 1951)

• No Man of Her Own – Florence Stonebraker (Cameo 300, 1951)

• One More Lover – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1947)

    Reprinted with the same title (Prize 61, 1947)

• Oriental Nights – Florence Stonebraker (Venus 140, 1952)

• Passion on the Potomac – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1943)

• Passion's Fool – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1943.)

• Passion’s Harvest – Florence Stonebraker (Cameo 315, 1952)

• Past Folly – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1948)

    Reprinted with the same title (Century 123, 1950)

• Pause for Passion, A – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1942)

• Pay for Your Pleasure – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1937)

• Playboy's Girl, The – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1942)

• Pleasure after Hours – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1947)

    Reprinted with the same title (News Stand First Ser 27, 1949)

• Private Practice – Thomas Stone (Intimate 35, 1953)

• Predatory Woman – Florence Stonebraker (Beacon 1028, 1967)

• Problem Girl – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1940)

• Program for Passion – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1948)

    Reprinted as Passion’s Program (Century 114, 1948)

• Raging Passions – Thomas Stone (Stork 7, 1950)

    Reprinted as Pawn of Love (Belmont B50-800, 1967)

    Reprinted twice as Shameful Love (Croydon 102, 1952 and 1954)

• Red for Passion – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1948)

    Reprinted with the same title (Century 117, 1949)

• Red-Headed Nurse – Thomas Stone (Intimate 47, 1953)

• Reno Tramp – Florence Stonebraker (Ecstasy 6, 1950)

    Reprinted with the same title (News Stand First Ser 139, 1950)

    Reprinted again with the same title (Rainbow 102, 1951)

• Shameless Play-girl – Florence Stonebraker (Croydon 55, 1954)

• Shanty-Town Tease – Florence Stonebraker (Croydon 89, 1954)

    Reprinted with the same title (Lancer 72-637, 1962)

• She Had What They Wanted – Florenz Branch (Phoenix, 1946)

• She Tried to Be Good – Florence Stonebraker (Venus 133, 1951)

• Sob Sister – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1940)

• Sinful Desires – Florence Stonebraker (Bedside 801, ca. 1959)

• Strange Passions – Florence Stonebraker (Croydon 37, 1953)

    Reprinted as Who Knows Love? (Lancer 72-654, 1962)

• Strange Sinner – Florence Stonebraker (Stanley Library 73, 1959)

• Summer Widow – Florence Stonebraker (Beacon B394, 1961)

• Talent for Love, A – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1944)

    Reprinted with the same title (Knickerbocker 30, 1946)

    Reprinted as Red Lights in this Village (News Stand First Ser 21, 1949)

    Reprinted as Shameless Honeymoon (Pyramid 18, 1950)

• Taylor-Made Wives – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1950)

• This Year's Sin – Florence Stonebraker (Phoenix, 1945)

• Three Men and a Mistress – Florence Stonebraker (Exotic NO-8, 1950)

    Reprinted with the same title (Quarter 92, 1951)

• Three Times Sin – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1949)

• Tramp Girl – Thomas Stone (Intimate 27, 1952)

    Reprinted with the same title (Stallion 205, 1954)

    Reprinted again with the same title (Beacon B349, 1960)

• Two-time Girl – Thomas Stone (Phoenix, 1945)

    Reprinted with the same title (Knickerbocker 8, 1946)

• Whipping Room, The – Florenz Branch (Intimate 24, 1952)

• Wild Co-Ed – Florence Stonebraker (Croydon 95, 1955)

• Young Doctor Elliot – Florence Stonebraker (Modern Promotions, 1946)

    Reprinted with the same title (Belmont 90-270, 1962)

   

This list shows the title, author name, publisher, and publication date of each novel that is probably a reprint but can’t be attributed to an original source.

   

• Country Doctor – Thomas Stone (World, 1948)

• Doctor by Day – Thomas Stone (Harlequin 142, 1951)

• Help Wanted – Male – Thomas Stone (Novel Library 41, 1950)

• Love Doctor – Florence Stonebraker (Stanley Library 70, 1959)

• Love Doctor – Florence Stonebraker (Belmont 234, 1961)

• Passion’s Darling – Thomas Stone (Lev Gleason 104, 1946)

• Pick-Up Girl, The – Florenz Branch (Knickerbocker NO-11, nd)

• Scandalous Affair – Florenz Branch (Uni 17, 1951)

• Scarlet Lil – Florence Stonebraker (Original 706, 1952)

• Stolen Love – Thomas Stone (Griffin NO-4, n.d.)

• Unfaithful – Florenz Branch (Knickerbocker NO-16, nd)

• Unwilling Virgin – Florenz Branch (Knickerbocker NO-6, nd)

AUTHOR INFORMATION

   Trying to provide complete information about authors of California fiction is far beyond my current ambitions. But sometimes I come up with interesting tidbits gathered along the way:

    Mainstream Novels of Philip K. Dick
    Philip K. Dick's Resume
    John Evans vs. Howard Browne
    William Arthur Neubauer
    Florence Stonebraker   

WILLIAM ARTHUR NEUBAUER

    National Novel Writing Month has come to an end, and 12,948 writers managed to crank out the required 50,000-word novel. The authors certainly deserved their winner’s certificates. But suppose the task were a little different. Suppose they had five weeks per novel but had to keep going for a full year. And suppose they had to maintain this level of output for 24 years. And suppose further that they had to sell every manuscript – all 240 of them – to a commercial publisher. Would this be possible?
    Which brings us to California’s William Arthur Neubauer (1916-1982), who accomplished this feat from 1944 to 1967. If The People’s Almanac is right, he probably ranks among the ten most prolific American authors of all time. He used nine pseudonyms and wrote mostly romances, which he published with Gramercy and Arcadia. But he also produced dozens of adult novels of love and sex. They usually appeared in digest-sized paperbacks with provocative covers. Since he spent nearly all of his adult life in California, there’s an excellent chance that most of his stories are set in the state. Here’s a tentative list of his adult novels (title, pseudonym, initial year of publication, initial publisher):

Anybody's Girl - - Ralph Carter (1949 Phoenix)
Ask for Sally - - Ralph Carter (1944 Phoenix)
Bad Company - - Gordon Semple (1945 Phoenix)
Bad Sue - - Norman Bligh (1950 Quarter)
Bed-Time Angel - - Norman Bligh (1951 Ecstasy)
Blond Venus - - Ralph Carter (1945 Phoenix)
Blonde Temptress - - Gordon Semple (1953 Croyden)
Born to Be Bad - - Norman Bligh (1951 Quarter)
Burlesque Girl - - William Arthur (1948 Phoenix)
Conquest Of Margie - - Norman Bligh (1951 Cameo)
Convention Girl - - William Arthur (1945 Phoenix)
Crusher’s Girl - - Gordon Semple (1953 Intimate)
Cue for Passion - - Gordon Semple (1945 Phoenix)
Fast, Loose and Lovely - - Norman Bligh (1950 Quarter)
Harlot In Her Heart - - Norman Bligh (1950 Ecstasy)
Harlot in Town A - - Norman Bligh (1950 News Stand)
Intimate Confessions of an Artist's Model - - Norman Bligh (1950 Ecstasy)
Lady Is Taboo The - - Norman Bligh (1951 Quarter)
Landlady - - William Arthur (1945 Phoenix)
Lesson in Passion - - William Arthur (1947 Phoenix)
Little Sin A  - - Ralph Carter (1946 Phoenix)
Love Business - - William Arthur (1946 Phoenix )
Love Crazy Millionaire - - Gordon Semple (1954 Croyden)
Love for Hire - - Ralph Carter (1949 News Stand)
Marriage Later - - William Arthur (1946 Phoenix)
Men She Knew The - - Norman Bligh (1951 Venus)
Naked Night The - - Norman Bligh (1951 Venus)
Naughty Mary - - William Arthur (1950 Phoenix )
Nice and Naughty  - - Gordon Semple (1944 Phoenix)
Night Club Lady - - Ralph Carter (1947 Phoenix)
No Resistance - - Ralph Carter (1949 News Stand)
Once There Was a Virgin - - Norman Bligh (1950 Exotic)
Passion’s Folly - - Ralph Carter (1950 Merit)
Playboy’s Nurse - - Gordon Semple (1954 Croyden)
Pleasure Alley - - Ralph Carter (1952 Intimate )
Pleasure Resort Women - - Gordon Semple (1952 Uni)
Price of Passion - - Gordon Semple (1947 Phoenix)
Profane - - Ralph Carter (1947 Phoenix)
Quick to Passion - - Ralph Carter (1948 Phoenix)
Quiet Passion The - - Ralph Carter (1949 Phoenix)
Redhead - - William Arthur (1948 Phoenix)
Remembered Moment - - Norman Bligh (1952 Venus)
River Boat Girl - - Norman Bligh (1951 Original)
Scandalous - - Ralph Carter (1945 Phoenix)
Sensuous - - Gordon Semple (1950 Phoenix)
Shadows of Lust The  - - Ralph Carter (1946 Phoenix)
Shameless Sue - - Gordon Semple (1952 Croyden)
She Didn't Care - - William Arthur (1944 Phoenix)
Sin Child - - Norman Bligh (1949 Quarter)
Sinner Take All - - William Arthur (1948 Phoenix)
Soft Shoulders  - - Norman Bligh (1952 Cameo)
Stand-in for Passion - - Ralph Carter (1950 Phoenix)
Strictly a Wolf - - Ralph Carter (1944 Phoenix)
Strictly for Pleasure - - Norman Bligh (1952 Original)
Three-Time Sinner - - Norman Bligh (1952 Cameo)
Time for Passion - - Gordon Semple (1950 Phoenix)
Time Lover - - Gordon Semple (1949 Phoenix)
Too Many Sweethearts - - Norman Bligh (1950 Crow)
Two Time Doll  - - Gordon Semple (1949 News Stand)
Visiting Nurse - - Norman Bligh (1952 Original)
Waterfront Blonde - - Gordon Semple (1953 Intimate)
Waterfront Hotel - - Norman Bligh (1950 Quarter)
Way of Passion The - - Gordon Semple (1946 Phoenix)
Woman of Passion - - Norman Bligh (1952 Cameo)
Young Wife - - Norman Bligh (1952 Venus)

MAINSTREAM NOVELS OF PHILIP K. DICK

Philip K. Dick is getting renewed attention as part of the publicity blitz for the film A Scanner Darkly. Dick wrote the novel upon which the sci-fi movie is based. The director, Richard Linklater, is rightly enthusiastic about Dick’s work. “I think he’s a great novelist,” Linklater tells the Sacramento Bee. “He has such great feel for his characters, and he has deep metaphorical thoughts.” I couldn’t help wonder whether Linklater, who has usually been drawn to offbeat stories about contemporary life, had ever read any of Dick’s non-SF, “mainstream” novels. They were where Dick, unfettered by the conventions of science fiction, fully explored his characters and their relationships to society.

These novels, despite being written by one of the most famous authors of the last century, languish today in nearly complete obcurity. Their readers seem to be almost entirely SF enthusiasts making uncustomary forays into realistic fiction. So even when they are sympathetic, as in this piece by Bruce Gillespie, they basically see the books as early aberrations from Dick’s true path to science fiction greatness. The novels, however, can be read and judged on their own terms.

Most of Dick’s mainstream novels were written between 1953 and 1960. All but one of this group are set in California, where Dick lived throughout his adult life. No publisher would touch them when they were written, apparently not so much because the writng is sometimes a bit ragged (which it is) but because the world-view is almost unrelentingly bleak. Of course, for some people the 1950s were bleak, and efforts to find satisfying work and happy personal relationships were disheartening and fruitless.

What makes Dick’s California novels unusual is their focus on the middle-class, especially the lower middle-class. The books often depict the owners of small businesses and the people associated with them. Some of these folks are doing fairly well, with houses in the suburbs, for example, while others are just barely making it. But all suffer internal turmoil of some sort.

Altogether, Dick wrote seven novels set in California during the 1950s:

Voices from the Street, set in "Cedar Groves" (presumably modeled on Redwood City), was completed in 1953 and remained unpublished until 2007. Copies are in print.

Mary and the Giant, set in an unnamed town south of San Francisco, was completed in 1955 and first published in 1987. The book had a paperback edition and has recently been reissued by Gollancz in Great Britain. Many used copies are available.

The Broken Bubble, set in San Francisco, was completed in 1956 and published in 1988. Used copies are available starting at $25.

Puttering About in a Small Land, set in Los Angeles, was completed in 1957 and published in 1985. New copies are available directly from the publisher but not from retail booksellers.

Confessions of a Crap Artist, set in in the exurbs of Marin County, was completed in 1959 and published in 1975. It has been reissued as a Vintage paperback and can be found in bookstores along with Dick’s SF novels. (Don’t bother looking for it where it actually belongs – in the literature section next to Dickens.)

The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike, set Marin County, was completed in 1960 and published in 1984. Used copies start around $40

Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, set in Oakland and completed in 1960. Amazingly, it has never been published in the United States. The British edition is out of print and used copies are pricey. Mais courage, mon ami! A French translation is available.

In addition, Dick wrote three other mainstream novels: Gather Yourselves Together, completed in 1952 and set in China; In Milton Lumky Territory, completed in 1958 and much like the California novels but set primarily in Idaho; and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, completed in 1981, set in Berkeley and San Francisco and telling the story of the life and death of a famous religious personality.

JOHN EVANS vs. HOWARD BROWNE

    What’s in a name? If you’re talking about flowers, maybe not so much. But if you’ve got novelists in mind, names can make quite a difference. Which brings me to John Evans, the author of Shadows Flying (1936), one of Anthony Slide’s “lost gay novels.” Both Baird and Greenwood (in An Annotated Bibliography of California Fiction, 1664-1970) and Kevin Starr (in The Dream Endures) mention the book and state that “John Evans” is a pseudonym. Starr evens suggests why the author did not use his real name. Baird and Greenwood say that the author was the son of writer Mabel Dodge Luhan. I figured that a few minutes of research on the internet would yield the man’s real name. And I was right: Luhan’s son was named John Evans. If he selected “John Evans” as a pseudonym, he made an unusual choice.
    So where does the pseudonym idea come from? The starting point appears to be If You Have Tears (1947), a noir novel of a corrupt banker in San Bernardino. The Los Angeles Public Library provides a brief synopsis and says that the name of the author, John Evans, is a pseudonym. I figured that the real John Evans was the author but decided to check further. In Melvyl, the University of California catalog, If You Have Tears is attributed to Howard Browne, someone suspiciously born in 1902, the same year as Evans. So was Evans using the pseudonym “Howard Browne”? Further browsing in the catalog showed that Browne was born in 1907 or 1908 and wrote a number of books in the 1940s and 50s, some using the pseudonym “John Evans.” Melvyl can’t decide who wrote Andrew’s Harvest (1933), twice assigning it to Evans and twice noting that “John Evans” was a pseudonym for Browne.
    On then to the Library of Congress, the last word in bibliographical accuracy. The catalog, however, adds to the confusion. It links entries for John Evans and Howard Browne. By giving Evans the same birth year, 1907, that it gives Browne, it indicates that Evans and Brown are the same person. So while the UC catalog says that Evans wrote one or perhaps two books, the Library of Congress catalog has decided that Evans didn’t exist. And it’s not the only one. Catalogs at Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia also link the author of Shadows Flying to Browne. (The libraries at the Universities of Chicago, Michigan, and Illinois don’t even have the book.)
    Here’s the straight story, as far as I can figure it out. John Evans was born in 1902. He published two books, Andrew’s Harvest (1933) and Shadows Flying (1936). He never used a pseudonym. Howard Browne was born in 1908. He published twelve books, of which four, Halo in Blood (1946), If You Have Tears (1947), Halo for Satan (1948), and Halo in Brass (1949), used the pseudonym “John Evans.” Around 1955 Shadows Flying was reissued in paperback as Love in the Shadows with John Evans (the real one) as the author.