Thomas P. Kelley - Phantom Books?

Anyone following this blog will be familiar with the name Thomas P. Kelley. Kelley (1905-1982) was a Canadian writer of stories for pulps and magazines from the late 1930s into at least the early 1950s. In 1967 he wrote an article about his writing career (Thomas P. Kelley, "Naked, She Stood Before the Window...", Star Weekly Magazine, July 8, 1967, pp. 29-31). A typical quote from the article - "[I start a novel] with only the vaguest conception of what I'm going to write about, and absolutely no idea what will happen, how the plot will unfold or how the yarn will end."

In one paragraph in the article Kelley mentions 12 books he has had published. I know that seven exist but I have never seen or heard of five others. Here is a list of all 12 books as described by Kelley with my comments:

Under his own name:

Life and Death of Jesse James [Export Publishing Enterprises - News Stand Library 92 and 15A as Jesse James]
Riders of the Plains [?]
Bad Men of Canada [Arrow Publishing 115]
The Tapestry Triangle [Associated Weekly Newspapers - T. A. & E. Pemberton]
The Gorilla's Daughter [Export - NSL 122]
No Tears for Goldie [Arrow 117 as Jack C. Fleming]
The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships [Adam Publishing - Handy Library 1]

Under pseudonyms (unnamed except for last book):

Deadshot Riders [?]
Gun Justice [?]
Fast on the Draw [?]
Six-Shooters at Sundown [?]

Wicked Women of Canada by Export under pseudonym Carl Bonher [published by Federal Publishing as Big Book 1 under Carl Bonner]

Kelley's memory isn't perfect but I expect the five books marked [?] do exist. Does anyone have any details?

I've shown the covers of five of the seven known books in earlier posts. Here is the last one I can show (I have never seen The Tapestry Triangle).

Arrow 117 - February 1950

Arrow 117 back cover

Thomas P. Kelley - Prince of the Canadian Pulp Recyclers Part I

In a 1982 article ("Has Anybody Seen Thomas P. Kelley?", The Globe and Mail, January 9, 1982, p. E13) John Robert Colombo wrote that Kelley referred to himself as the "King of the Canadian Pulp Writers". I suggest he is also "Prince of the Canadian Pulp Recyclers".

Four collections of his true-crime stories were published by four publishers - Harlequin Books, Arrow Publishing, Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada's White Circle and Federal Publishing (under a pseudonym). There are 67 stories in the books but 10 were published twice and two, three times, leaving 53 different stories. The Arrow and Harlequin collections each had one-half of the stories duplicated. None of the stories were duplicated exactly. All but two had different titles and those in the White Circle were 2/3 to 3/4 shorter. Title changes reflect the intended audience with Federal's being the most lurid.

Only the White Circle gave the original printing of the stories - in New Liberty Magazine. The other stories were likely first published in the true-crime magazines. The Federal is magazine size, the rest mass market.

Oddly, Export Publishing Enterprises, while publishing three books by Kelley, didn't have a collection from him. Export did publish a collection of detective fiction by various contributors, any of which might have been a Kelley pseudonym.

1)      Arrow 115 The Hairy Man / Harlequin 435 The Hairy Man
2)      Arrow 115 The Terrible Donnelly Feud / White Circle 378 The Donnelly Feud
3)      Arrow 115 Rev. Wilson - Safe Cracker / White Circle 378 Reverend Wilson - King of the Cracksmen
4)      Arrow 115 Red Ryan - Bank Robber / White Circle 378 Rise and Fall of "Red" Ryan
5)      Arrow 115 Four Bad Men / White Circle 378 The Murderin' McLeans
6)      Federal Big Book 1 Toronto's Lewd Lady / Harlequin 435 Unholy Passion / White Circle 378 Where is John Hogan?
7)      Harlequin 435 The Midnight Riders / White Circle 378 The Midnight Riders
8)      Federal Big Book 1 Quebec's She-Devil / White Circle 378 Quebec Witch
9)      Harlequin 435 The Toronto Terror / White Circle 378 The Blazing Deathbed 
10)    Federal Big Book 1 Silky Siren of Disaster / Harlequin 435 Betraying Jezebel / White Circle 378 The Crime of Doctor King
11)    Federal Big Book 1 Backwoods Sister of Sin / White Circle 378 The Gowan Triangle
12)    Federal Big Book 1 Witch With an Axe on Fire / White Circle 378 The Headless Victim

Arrow 115 February 1950 - 10 stories

Federal Big Book 1 1950 - 16 stories

Harlequin 435 August 1958 - 11 stories (art by Norm Eastman)

White Circle 378 1949 - 30 stories

News Stand Library 123 August 1950

Federal Publishing Part II

In addition to the four paperbacks discussed in part I Federal Publishing published two 64 page magazine size books. Illustrated Big Book 1, Wicked Women of Canada by Carl Bonner, has a 1950 copyright date. Carl Bonner is a pseudonym for Thomas P. Kelley, the "king" of Canadian pulp. The inside back cover advertises the second Illustrated Big Book - The Price a Man Will Pay by Beth Brown.

Leona and her Confession Stories

Leona S. Richard was the stated author/editor of two of the oddest, most obscure paperbacks ever published in Canada. Both are referred to as "Confession Stories".

No. 101 is No Bed of Her Own, published by Fireside Book Company of New York. Also called Exotic Books Library Issue No. 51 on the title page and Fireside Reprint Edition on the copyright page. The copyright page has a tangle of three copyrights - date 1947 only, second by The Macfadden Estate, 1947 and finally by Exotic Books Publishing Co., 1948. The last page is a Canadian advertisement and the inside back cover lists over 20 books published by Triangle Pocket Library which has two addresses - 535 Fifth Avenue, NY and 135 Yonge Street, Toronto. If these books exist they are obscure. I can find no reference to any of them.

Confession Stories No. 102 is Legion of Lost Souls and other stories of strange loves, edited by Leona who is referred to as "The author of the best seller 'No Bed of Her Own'". This is a collection of six stories by anonymous authors. The publisher is now Pocket Library of Best Sellers, 131-137 Yonge Street, Toronto. In addition to 101's three copyright notices there is now a fourth, by Leona S. Richard, 1947. There is no mention of an Exotic Books Issue but there is the Fireside Reprint Edition notice. There is what appears to be a retailer date stamp on the title page - "Jan 28 1952". The inside back cover has a survey form to be sent to "The Bookazine [sic] Pocket Library Editions" at 135 Yonge St.

Fireside, Macfadden Estate, Exotic Books are all mysteries. Macfadden could be Bernarr Macfadden.

Federal Publishing Part I

Early Canadian paperback publishers, like their American and British counterparts, were reprint publishers. Very few original books were published. But there is one publisher from the era that did publish only original books - Federal Publishing Co. of Toronto. In 1951 and 1952 Federal sold four books in Canadian drugstores and on newsstands.

Federal 1

Federal 2

Federal 3

Federal 4

As far as I can tell none of the three authors had any other books published and the only information on any of them is a note on the back of Jetsam Journey that Kane is a young Canadian author. All four books have the unsigned but distinctive art of D. Rickard.

The publisher is a mystery. The back of Marjorie notes that "because of the tremendous interest this story created while appearing in TNT in serial form, we are reproducing it in this popular format." TNT likely refers the periodical T.N.T. published at the same time in Canada. A couple of examples are below. The first one is published by Metropolitan Publishing Co. and the second by Fireside Publications Limited, both of Toronto. Fireside published other books which I'll discuss in another post.

Who was D. Rickard?

D. Rickard was an illustrator of Canadian paperbacks in the 1940s and early 50s. He/she signed his work "DR" "R" and "Rickard". This is all I know of D. Rickard. The first name and other personal details are unknown. All that remains is the art.

Rickard did not sign all of his work but his style is distinctive and easy to identify. A couple of examples are Easter Island published as Arrow 101 by Arrow Publishing Company in November 1949 and Detour published as News Stand Library (NSL) 80 by Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd. in November 1949. Other publishers he worked for were Harlequin, Derby Publishing Company , Federal Publishing and the White Circle imprint published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. Checklists of Rickard's work will follow.

In the meantime - can anyone help answer the question?