Black Cat Weekly #18

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTIONConman extraordinaire Amos Clackworthy was the primary mystery character of Christopher Belvard Booth (1889-1950) in the 1920s. Together with his henchman, the Early Bird, he raised grifting to new levels—and his targets were always those greedy, disreputable businessmen who more than deserved it. Wildside Press’s collection, The Adventures of Mr. Clackworthy, is probably the best single volume of the Clackworthy stories available today and serves as a good introduction to the character.

Booth is not well remembered today. Information on his life is hard to find, and some of the information available online is wrong—such as that Booth was a pseudonym of Isabel Ostrander (another pulp writer, with whom Booth sometimes collaborated). But he had a prolific career that began in 1920 and pretty much ended by the late 1930s. Over that almost 20-year period, he published more than a hundred stories—and not just mysteries, but also westerns and even some mainstream stories. But as of 1940, he seems to abruptly left writing, since only a couple more stories appeared after that date. And with most pulp magazines buying all rights to stories, including the right to reprint them under other titles in other magazines, it’s entirely possible these may be reprints rather than new works.

Enjoy this classic Mr. Clackworthy story.

—John Betancourt

Cabin John, Maryland