Fredric Brown (1906-1972) was a master of two genres: Mystery and Science Fiction. The fact that he wrote both often blended story material for he wrote mysteries with a weird edge. His SF was sometimes a Mystery as with his novel, What Mad Universe, where a man is trying to figure out what crazy reality he has wandered into. Long story short, there is no point in separating the two sides of Brown. He is best appreciated in his entirety.
This first section looks at the days of the Pulp writing when he lived in Wisconsin. During the day he worked as a printer but at night he wrote. Eventually he gave up the printing job (the background of the story “Etaoin Shrdlu”) for produce detective stories (and the occasional Western). His first true SF tale is “Not Yet the End” in Captain Future, Winter 1941. Sales to Unknown, Astounding Science-Fiction, Planet Stories and Weird Tales followed. He would produce 124 stories in nine years, an average of over 13 a year. (Look at the super-month he had in September 1942 with eight stories appearing!)
1938
“The Moon for a Nickel” (Detective Story, March 1938)
1939
“The Cheese on Stilts” (Thrilling Detective, January 1939)
“Blood of the Dragon” (Variety Detective, February 1939)
“There Are Bloodstains in the Alley” (Detective Yarns, February 1939)
“Murder at 10:15” (Clues Detective, May 1939)
1940
“The Prehistoric Clue” (Ten Detective Aces, July 1940)
“A Matter of Taste” (The Layman’s Magazine of the Living Church, June 1940)
“Trouble in a Teacup” (aka”Teacup Trouble” and “The Amazing Dip”) (Detective Fiction Weekly, July 13, 1940)
“Murder Draws a Crowd” (Detective Fiction Weekly, July 27, 1940)
“Footprints on the Ceiling” (Ten Detective Aces, September 1940)
“Town Wanted” (Detective Fiction Weekly, September 7, 1940)
“The Little Green Men” (The Masked Detective, Fall 1940)
“Herbie Rides His Hunch” (Detective Fiction Weekly, October 19, 1940)
“The Stranger from Trouble Valley” (Western Short Stories, November 1940)
“The Strange Sisters Strange” (Detective Fiction Weekly, December 28, 1940)
1941
“Not Yet the End” (Captain Future, Winter 1941)
“Fugitive Impostor” (Ten Detective Aces, January 1941)
“The King Comes Home” (Thrilling Detective, January 1941)
“Big-Top Doom” (Ten Detective Aces, March 1941)
“The Discontented Cows” (G-Men Detective, March 1941)
“Life and Fire” (Detective Fiction Weekly, March 22, 1941)
“Big-League Larceny” (Ten Detective Aces, April 41) (as Jack Hobart)
“Selling Death Short” (Ten Detective Aces, April 1941)
“Client Unknown” (The Phantom Detective, April 1941)
“Homicide Sanitarium” (Thrilling Detective, May 1941)
“Your Name in Gold” (The Phantom Detective, June 1941)
“Here Comes the Hearse” (10-Story Detective, July 1941) (as Allen Morse)
“Six-Gun Song” (10-Story Detective, July 1941)
“Star-Spangled Night” (Coronet, July 1941)
“Wheels Across the Night” (G-Men Detective, July 1941)
“Little Boy Lost” (Detective Fiction Weekly, August 2, 1941)
“Armageddon” (Unknown, August 1941)
“Bullet for Bullet” (Western Short Stories, October 1941)
“Listen to the Mocking Bird” (G-Men Detective, November 1941)
“You’ll End Up Burning” (Ten Detective Aces, November 1941)
“Selling Death Short” (Ten Detective Aces, April 1941)
“Thirty Corpses Every Thursday” (Detective Tales, December 1941)
“Trouble Comes Double” (Popular Detective, December 1941)
“Number Bug” (Exciting Detective, Winter 1941)
1942
“Bloody Murder” (Detective Fiction, January 10, 1942)
“Clue in Blue” (Thrilling Mystery, January 1942)
“Death is a White Rabbit” (Strange Detective Mysteries, January 1942)
“Twenty Gets You Plenty” (G-Men Detective, January 1942)
“Heil, Werewolf” (Dime Mystery January 1942) (as Felix Graham)
“Little Apple Hard to Peel” (Detective Tales, February 1942)
“Etaoin Shrdlu” (Unknown Worlds, February 1942)
“Pardon My Ghoulish Laughter” (Strange Detective Mysteries, March 1942)
“Death in the Dark” (aka”The Black Dark”) (Dime Mystery, March 1942)
“The Incredible Bomber” (G-Men Detective, March 1942)
“Twice-Killed Corpse” (Ten Detective Aces, March 1942)
“Mad Dog!” (Detective Book, Spring 1942)
“The Star Mouse” (Planet Stories, Spring 1942)
“P. S.’s Feature Flash” (Planet Stories, Spring 1942)
“Moon Over Murder” (The Masked Detective, Spring 1942)
“A Cat Walks” (Detective Story, April 1942)
“Who Did I Murder?” (Detective Short Stories, April 1942)
“Murder in Furs” (Thrilling Detective, May 1942)
“Suite for Flute and Tommy Gun” (Detective Story, June 1942)
“Three Corpse Parlay” (Popular Detective, June 1942)
“A Date to Die” (Strange Detective Mysteries, July 1942)
“Red is the Hue of Hell” (Strange Detective Mysteries, July 1942)
“Two Biers for Two” (Clues Detective Stories, July 1942)
“You’ll Die Before Dawn” (Mystery Magazine, July 1942)
“Get Out of Town” (Thrilling Detective, September 1942)
“A Little White Lye” (Ten Detective Aces, September 1942)
“Nothing Sinister” (Mystery Magazine, September 1942)
“The Numberless Shadows” (Detective Story, September 1942)
“Satan’s Search Warrant” (10-Story Detective, September 1942)
“Where There’s Smoke” (Black Book Detective, September 1942)
“The Men Who Went Nowhere” (Dime Mystery, September 1942)
“Starvation” (aka “Runaround”) (Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1942)
“Boner” (Popular Detective, October 1942)
“Legacy of Murder” (Exciting Mystery, October 1942)
“The Santa Claus Murders” (Detective Story, October 1942)
“The New One” (Unknown Worlds, October 1942)
“Double Murder” (Thrilling Detective, November 1942)
“A Fine Night for Murder” (Detective Tales, November 1942)
“I’ll See You At Midnight” (Clues Detective Stories, November 1942)
“The Monkey Angle” (Thrilling Detective, November 1942)
“Satan One-and-a-Half” (Dime Mystery, November 1942)
1943
“A Lock of Satan’s Hair” (Dime Mystery, January 1943)
“The Spherical Ghoul” (Thrilling Mystery, January 1943)
“The Wicked Flea” (Ten Detective Aces, January 1943)
“Death is a Noise” (Popular Detective, February 1943)
“Hound of Hell” (aka”Beware of the Dog”) (Ten Detective Aces, February 1943)
“The Sleuth from Mars” (Detective Tales, February 1943)
“The Angelic Angleworm” (Unknown Worlds, February 1943)
“The Hat Trick” (as Felix Graham) (Unknown Worlds, February 1943)
“Handbook for Homicide” (Detective Tales, March 1943)
“A Change for the Hearse” (New Detective, March 1943)
“Encore for a Killer” (Mystery Magazine, March 1943)
“Trial By Darkness” (Clues Detective Stories, March 1943)
“Cadavers Don’t Make a Fifth Column” (Detective Short Stories, April 1943)
“Death of a Vampire” (Strange Detective Stories, May 1943)
“Death’s Dark Angel” (Thrilling Detective, May 1943)
“The Freak Show Murders” ” (Mystery Magazine, May 1943)
“Market for Murder” (The Shadow, May 1943)
“The Corpse and the Candle” (Dime Mystery, July 1943)
“Madman’s Holiday” (Detective Story, July 1943)
“Blue Murder” (The Shadow, September 1943)
“Tell ’em, Pagliaccio” (Detective Story, September 1943)
“The Geezenstacks” (Weird Tales, September 1943)
“Whispering Death” (Dime Mystery, September 1943)
“Daymare” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Fall 1943)
“Death Insurance Payment” (Ten Detective Aces, October 1943)
“Paradox Lost’ (Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1943)
“The Motive Goes Round and Round” (Thrilling Detective, October 1943)
1944
“The Djinn Murder” (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January 1944)
“Murder in Miniature” (Detective Story, January 1944)
“The Ghost of Riley” (Detective Tales, February 1944)
“The Devil’s Woodwinds” (Dime Mystery, March 1944)
“And the Gods Laughed” (Planet Stories, Spring 1944)
“Nothing Sirius” (Captain Future, Spring 1944)
“The Yehudi Principle” (Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1944)
“Arena” (Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1944)
“The Jabberwocky Murders” (Thrilling Mystery, Summer 1944)
“The Ghost Breakers” (Thrilling Detective, July 1944)
“The Gibbering Night” (Detective Tales, July 1944)
“Murder While You Wait” (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, July 1944)
“The Bucket of Gems Case” (aka “Mr Smith Kicks the Bucket”) (Detective Story, August 1944)
“To Slay a Man About a Dog” (aka “Shaggy Dog Murders”) (Detective Tales, September 1944)
“A Matter of Death” (Thrilling Detective, November 1944)
1945
“Pi in the Sky” (Thrilling Wonder Stories,Winter 1945)
“The Waveries” (Astounding Science-Fiction, January 1945)
“The Night the World Ended” (Dime Mystery, January 1945)
“No Sanctuary” (aka “the Dangerous People”) (Dime Mystery, March 1945)
“Compliments of a Fiend” (Thrilling Detective, May 1945)
“Ten Tickets to Hades” (aka “Murder in Ten Easy Lessons”) (Ten Detective Aces, May 1945)
“Murder-on-the-Hudson” (With Bob Woehlke) (Thrilling Detective, June 1945)
1946
Crack-Up (1948) – film based on Madman’s Holiday directed by Irving Reis. Ray Collins has the part of Dr. Lowell. He would later play Lt. Tragg on Perry Mason.
“Dead Man’s Indemnity” (Mystery Book, April 1946)
“Placet is a Crazy Place” (Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1946)
“The Song of the Dead” (New Detective, July 1946)
“Obit for Obie” (Mystery Book, October 1946)
“Whistler’s Murder” (Detective Story, December 1946)
1947 is the year things are going to change for Fredric Brown, with his first book publication. He gets a two novels-a-year contract that frees him from the Pulp grind. More in part 2…
