Wednesday, March 10, 2010

William Campbell Gault Interview






This interview is from Paperback Quarterly, Volume 2, Number 2 (Summer 1979).

12 comments:

Evan Lewis said...

Thanks for running this, Bill. I've always been curious about those books by "Roney Scott" and "Will Duke". Do you know if his sci-fi juvenile sperm bank book was ever published? And which mystery, do you suppose, was the only one that made him any money?

mybillcrider said...

I don't think the juvie was published, but I don't know for sure. I suspect the first novel mystery, the one he got the Edgar for, might be the one that made him money, but I don't know that, either.

George said...

William Campbell Gault was one of my favorite writers when I was a teenager. Our local public library bought all of his Young Adult books and I read them as soon as they hit the shelves. The guy was a born story-teller.

Todd Mason said...

Thanks again, Bill, and boy isn't he too modest (and boy isn't the combination of my IE browser and Blogspot fun to try to navigate with those embedded images)...George, if you liked his YA sports novels, you should seek out his adult pulp sports fiction, what I've read oddly enough reprinted in YA sports-fiction anthologies (mostly auto racing), and I keep managing to forget whether anyone has collected some of these (Crippen and Landru?--no, but they have him in print with MARKSMAN AND OTHER STORIES
http://www.crippenlandru.com/books.php?bookID=48 ).

Frank Loose said...

The Roney Scott SHAKEDOWN book is one of my faves. What a hard edged Joe Puma. Great stuff. I wished WCG had written more like that. Not to take away from his later Joe Puma series, but that first one is top drawer.

Todd Mason said...

Kevin Burton Smith seems to think that DON'T CALL TONIGHT, which I've had the pleasure of reading in its MERCURY MYSTERY issue, was indeed released by Gold Medal as DEATH OF A CALL GIRL, so that might well be the missing one from Gault's collection at time of i/v (by the editor?).

Todd Mason said...

The Emshwiller cover is subtle (and another version yet of Carol E)--but, then, subtlety wasn't the strong suit of MERCURY MYSTERY covers:

http://www.philsp.com/data/images/m/mercury_mystery_book_195710.jpg

The index is by me, though it's one of those not credited to me:

http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/t967.htm#A21366

TM: Mercury Mystery cover said...

OK, something is definitely awry here. Trying again (and feel free to kill that last comment, please, Bill):

TM: Mercury Mystery index said...

And here's the index in text:

Mercury Mystery Book-Magazine [v 3 #3, No.224, October 1957] ed. Joseph W. Ferman (Mercury Publications, Inc., 35¢, 128pp+, digest, cover by Ed Emshwiller)
5 · Don’t Call Tonight · William Campbell Gault · na
104 · The Sniper · Edward D. Radin · ar
114 · It’s Against the Law · Dick Hyman · cl
115 · New Answer to an Old Problem · Thomas P. Ramirez · ar
116 · Underworld Lingo · ed. Goldin, O’Leary & Lipsius · ms; dictionary-excerpt filler.
117 · Two on Trial · Edgar Lustgarden · ar
121 · This Is Otto’s Place · Samuel W. Taylor · ss

and link at the header...

Frank Loose said...

Todd, don't you mean End of a Call Girl?

Todd Mason said...

I did...but I was having some Interesting responses from the equipment at the time!

Richard Moore said...

Thanks for this Bill. I am positive the SF YA novel was never published. I began corresponding with Gault a few months after this interview and he would almost certainly have mentioned an SF sale as we discussed his SF stories. I am almost certain the mystery "that made him money" and Boucher hated, wasn't the first--Don't Cry for Me. I don't think he ever made much money from that one as it went out of print so quickly. I would love to know which one Boucher called Gault's worst. Wasn't there a collection of AB's NYTimes reviews?