Judson Philips, the prolific pulp writer, later known as Hugh Pentecost, a name adopted for the big-money slick magazines and hardcover book market, is one of several Mystery Writers of America Grand Masters (others include George Harmon Coxe, Baynard Kendrick, and Aaron Marc Stein) who, though very popular in their own time, have fallen into relative obscurity. The journalist author of this welcome biography is determined to get the facts right, and the subject’s life is so varied and interesting that the reader who overlooks the messy organization, awkward repetition, and sometimes tortured prose will be delighted with the informational content, including irrelevant but fascinating tangents (such as an anecdote about Edwin Balmer and Sinclair Lewis that has nothing to do with Philips/Pentecost). In addition to pulp stories in various genres, many American Magazine mystery novellas with unusual backgrounds, scripts for radio and early TV, and books about series sleuths like hotelier Pierre Chambrun and artist-crusader John Jericho, the five-times-married Philips had rewarding but less lucrative careers as the founder and guiding force of Connecticut’s Sharon Playhouse, owner of a weekly newspaper, and volunteer long-term columnist for another. Frequent quotes from his letters and other writings are an added benefit.
The 51-page bibliography is divided into four sections, each of them arranged alphabetically by title: pulp magazines; anthologies and other periodicals; novels; and radio scripts and plays. Items found in agent files but otherwise unconfirmed are noted.
(Personal note: I was pleasantly surprised to find quoted a letter I had forgotten receiving from former American Magazine editor William Hart regarding the 1986 anthology American Murders, which I edited with my wife Rita A. Breen, followed by a reply I didn’t remember writing. The bibliography notes that Pentecost’s “Death in Studio 2” had been included in the anthology. Actually he was represented twice, the other title being “The Corpse was Beautiful.”)
