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American crime fiction writer Norbert Harrison Davis—Bert to his friends—was born in Morrison, Illinois in 1909. In the late 1920s, his family relocated to Southern California. There, he enrolled in Stanford University to study law—surely the perfect choice for a man destined to be one of the best mystery writers for the pulps. Although he graduated, he decided not to take the bar exam. He was already publishing mystery fiction at this time for many of the leading pulp magazines in the genre, including Black Mask, Dime Detective, Double Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, Argosy, as well as “slick” magazines like The Saturday Evening Post. As a writer, he was making more money than he would have been as an entry-level lawyer.
Black MaskDime DetectiveDouble DetectiveDetective Fiction
