Day Keene
Personal Information
Description
Born Gunard Hjerstedt in Chicago in 1903, Keene became an actor in repertory theater in the early 1920s. When his actor friends decided to try film, he instead turned to writing, and during the 1930s was a principal writer for the “Little Orphan Annie” radio show, as well as contributing to the pulps. After he moved to the west coast of Florida, he began writing paperback originals in the late 1940s, mostly fast-paced crime stories. An editor suggested that he change his name to something more American-sounding, which he did by adapting his mother’s maiden name, Daisy Keeney, to Day Keene. He was part of a lively community of writers (including Mickey Spillane, Harry Whittington, Gil Brewer, Talmage Powell, and John D. MacDonald), the competitive nature of which inspired some of the best hardboiled crime paperback original novels of the early 1950s, published by Gold Medal, Ace, Avon, Graphic, among others. Macfadden reprinted much of his work in the late 1960s. Unlike many mystery writers, he had only one recurring character -- the Hawaiian private detective, Johnny Aloha. By the 1960s, he had abandoned mysteries for mainstream novels. He died in North Hollywood in 1969.
Books
Framed in Guilt / My Flesh is Sweet
A mystery set in post-WWII Los Angeles and an early 50’s thriller set in Mexico and a Midwest carny town—new introduction by Ed Gorman!
Exciting Short Stories
Contains: The unstoppable man / by Michael Gilbert -- [Most Dangerous Game]( / by Richard Connell -- The homesick Buick / by John D. MacDonald -- Leiningen versus the ants / by Carl Stephenson -- The monkey's paws / by W.W. Jacobs -- Remember the night / by Day Keene -- The baby in the icebox / by James M. Cain.
Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!
Dead men working in the cane fields / W. B. Seabrook After nightfall / David A. Riley Mission to Margal / Hugh B. Cave The Cairnwell horror / Chet Williamson Crawling madness / Arthur Leo Zagat Treading the maze / Lisa Tuttle Red angels / Karen Haber Later / Michael Marshall Smith White Zombie / Vivian Meik Was it a dream? / Guy de Maupassant Bodies and heads / Steve Rasnic Tem Death and suffrage / Dale Bailey The Graveyard rats / Henry Kuttner The Facts in the case of M. Valdemar / Edgar Allen Poe Feeding the dead inside / Yvonne Navarro Ballet Negre / Charles Birkin Dead right / Geoffrey A. Landis The Taking of Mr. Bill / Graham Masterton The Grave gives up / Jack D'Arcy Herbert West-Reanimator / H.P. Lovecraft Pickman's model / H.P. Lovecraft Maternal instinct / Robert Bloch Bringing the family / Kevin J. Anderson Mess hall / Richard Laymon Schalken the painter / Sheridan Le Fanu While zombies walked / Thorp McClusky April flowers, November harvest / Mary A. Turzillo The Old man and the dead / Mort Castle Jumbee / Henry S. Whitehead Marbh bheo / Peter Tremayne The Hollow man / Thomas Burke They bite / Anthony Boucher Come one, come all / Gahan Wilson It helps if you sing / Ramsey Campbell The Ghouls / R. Chetwynd-Hayes The Corpse-Master / Seabury Quinn The Upper berth / F. Marion Crawford Vengeance of the living dead / Ralston Shields The Song the zombie sang / Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg Men without blood / John H. Knox The Broken fang / Uel Key It / Theodore Sturgeon League of the Grateful Dead / Day Keene Love child / Garry Kilworth Corpses on parade / Edith and Ejler Jacobson Where there's a will / Richard and Christian Matheson The Dead / Michael Swanwick The Song of the slaves / Manly Wade Wellman The Outsider / H.P. Lovecraft Eat me / Robert McCammon Deadman's road / Joe R. Lansdale Pigeons from hell / Robert E. Howard Live people don't understand / Scott Edelman The House in the Magnolias / August Derleth and Mark Schorer [Home delivery]( / Stephen King Dance of the damned / Arthur J. Burks Z is for zombie / Theodore Roscoe