We are nearing the end of the 2012 Edition of the Crime Fiction Alphabet. Kerrie had the original inspiration over at her blog
Mysteries In Paradise. Head on over to her blog to check out who is currently posting and what has been submitted in the past. This week I have decided to spotlight my favorite author.
Crime Fiction Alphabet: Letter Y
Y is for Alan Geoffrey Yates
Alan Geoffrey Yates (August 1, 1923 – May 5, 1985) was an
Australian-British author of crime fiction. He was born in London and served
with the Royal Navy from September 1942 until around September 1946. Mr. Yates
served at D-day until October 1944, then he was transferred to the Pacific
Theater, being stationed out of Australia, rising to the rank of temporary sub lieutenant.
After the War he worked as a sound recordist at Gaumont-British Films for two
years and then moved to Australia in 1948, becoming a citizen that same year. Yates
then tried his hand as a salesman in Sydney and then as a public relations
staff member at Quatas Empire Airways. He wrote under the names Caroline Farr, Dennis
Sinclair, Alan Yates, Alan G Yates, A G Yates, Carter Brown, Peter Carter-Brown,
Peter Carter Brown, Roger Garradine, Tod Conway, Sinclair MacKellar, and Paul Valdez.
A Brief History Of
Australian Publishing
After the end of the war, paper rationing was lifted and
five Sydney printers in turn added fiction to their publishing lists: Action,
Calvert, Cleveland, Currawong and Horwitz. These publishing houses started out as family
printeries catering to a small readership of trade journals, sporting
publications and comics. The demand for original fiction meant that the printer
soon became a busy publisher. Many publishers blossomed, died and merged
overnight. This accounts for the confusing
profusion of names (Associated General Publications becomes Transport
Publishing becomes Horwitz Publications),
Soon presses ran hot, churning out hundreds of thousands of soft-covered
pocket sized books with enticing titles such as Death in a Nudist Camp, Nude in
a Boot and Cosmic Calamity. Though westerns dominated at first, science fiction
soon followed. Two publishers in particular, Currawong and Horwitz, printed the
majority of original Australian science fiction. But the premier press for
early science fiction was Horwitz. Horwitz contributed two monthly publications
to early Australian science fiction: Scientific Thrillers from 1948 to 1952 as
a book series and Thrill Incorporated from 1950 to 1952 as a pulp magazine. Authors
were little more than journeymen, they wrote under house names and thus earned
no cultural capital as writers. Their material was commissioned to be written
to a genre and to a set length, with the material was usually edited without
their consent, and was paid piecemeal. The authors were paid little over 1
pounds sterling per thousand words and received no royalties. If the stories
were sold to overseas publications, companies retained copyright. Freelancers like Gordon Clive Bleeck, Russell
Hausfeld, Stanford Hennell and Alan G. Yates cropped up and wrote as Hans
Karlson, Boris Ludwig, Ace Carter, and Belli Luigi. Unfortunately due to lost
and/or inaccurate records, it is uncertain who wrote what. Alan G Yates was one
of the few freelancers to turn professional.
Now Back To The Story
While working as a PR Officer at Qantas, Mr. Yates was
freelancing for a handful of the smaller presses. His first published work was
for Invincible Press as a western. His first published work at Scientific
Thriller was titled, Hypnotic Death appeared in January 1949, and then he was then
silence for almost two years, Fatal Focus November 1950. In the meantime he filled the pages of Thrills
Incorporated with space soaps. His recollections are worth recounting in full
in his autobiography published in 1983.
I
wrote under 'Paul Valdez" for that one and still have a sneaking
affection for Valdez, wherever he is. There
was also 'Thrills
Incorporated', which was: 'Fantastic
adventures, but these stories of
tomorrow are only one jump ahead of science
... you too can take a
trip to the world of space ships and
interplanetary travel ..." Short
stories only were required for this magazine
and strictly in terms of
space opera. Very often, when the editor was
running to a tight
schedule he would have the artwork already
done and hand you a
picture, saying 'Three thousand worlds and a
title, old boy, and I do
need them by Friday."
One picture he gave me didn't allow a lot
of scope as far as the
title was concerned, I thought, so I called
it 'Jet-Bees of Planet J'.
He took another look at the picture when I
brought in the
manuscript, then looked at the title again
'See what you mean, old boy'. He nodded
approval. "Sort of
self-propelled by their own farts.' (Yates 31-32)
Yates, Alan G. Ready when you are, C.B: the Autobiography of
Alan Yates alias Carter Brown Melbourne: Macmillan, 1983.
In 1953 He signed a 30-year contract with Horwitz to produce
two novelettes and one full-length novel a month. Specifically he was
contracted to write “Scientific Thrillers” and “Lovely Mysteries.” After
the Scientific Thriller series ended, Yates concentrated on the Carter Brown
stories. He started writing full-time in 1953 and wrote at least 317
novels between 1953 and 1985, mostly crime and detective stories, selling tens
of millions of copies. His books were set in the United States and were published
throughout the Anglo world. They were also very popular in Europe where they
were translated into French, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, Finnish,
German, Portuguese, Romanian, and Dutch. In Asia, some of the novels were
translated into Thai. His early books were intended only for Australian
audience, but when the Carter Brown series was picked up by the New American
Library, he found readers also in the United States. There his book covers were
often illustrated by Barye Phillips and Robert McGinnis.
Mr. Yates combines a little humor, a little titillation, and
a thoroughly questionable grasp of American slang to create something that was
compulsively readable. In 1960 Lyall Moore of Horwitz calculated that Yates had
published about eight million words: “but to get there he has probably written
twice the number.” Given Yates’ ability to write 40,000 words overnight,
Horwitz was confident when they signed a contract with Signet (New American
Library imprint) for Yates to produce one new novel per month. He had
been writing that for the past several years. His early books have a disclaimer
at the end: “Written on an IBM Selectric.” Electric typewriters were like
high end laptops in those days. Alan G Yates died on May 5, 1985 and is
survived by his wife Denise, three sons, and a daughter, Priscilla.
Some Nice Covers
Thanks For Visiting
