Theodore Roscoe (1906-1992), an extremely prolific writer of mostly criminous fiction and nonfiction for pulps, slicks, and hardcover books, is not an unworthy biographical or critical subject, but this amateurish effort, first published by Starmont/Borgo Press in 1992, wildly exaggerates his literary stature. Quotes from Roscoe in the text as well as his foreword suggest he would agree. Too much space is devoted to his juvenilia, not as remarkable as the author seems to think. The best features are about 20 pages from Roscoe’s correspondence and journal entries and another 20 of useful bibliography. The original text is apparently unchanged, but its transference to a new format creates some problems. It’s sometimes hard to tell the main text from the quoted material, and the high number of apparent scanner misreads (“Eric Stanley Gardner,” “I know how to end the yam”) suggest the lack of a human proofreader.

Reviewed from the ebook edition.