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 19
