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Joseph Shaw (editor)

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Joseph Shaw
Born
Joseph Thompson Shaw

(1874-05-08)May 8, 1874
DiedAugust 2, 1952(1952-08-02) (aged 78)
NationalityAmerican
EducationBowdoin College
Occupations
  • Editor
  • author
  • literary agent
Known forEditor of Black Mask magazine, 1926–36

Joseph T. "Cap" Shaw (May 8, 1874 – August 2, 1952) was the editor of Black Mask magazine from 1926 to 1936.

Life and career

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Before becoming the editor of Black Mask, Shaw had worked as a newspaper reporter and as a soldier in World War I, attaining the rank of captain (Shaw's friends gave him the nickname "Cap").[1] Shaw was also a professional fencer, and even won an Olympic medal for fencing.[1][2] Under his editorship, Black Mask published many works of crime fiction now recognised as classics of the genre, by authors such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner.[2][3][4] Chandler greatly admired Shaw's ability to encourage Black Mask writers, claiming in a letter, "We wrote better for him than we could have written for anybody else."[1]

Despite the critical and commercial success of Black Mask, Shaw was eventually fired from the magazine, succeeded by Fanny Ellsworth. Shaw then worked as a literary agent, though without notable success.[5]

Shaw was a writer himself, producing short stories, novels, and articles.

Works

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Novels

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  • Derelict (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930)
  • Blood on the Curb (Steeger Books, 2020)
  • It Happened at the Lake (Steeger Books, 2022)

Short stories

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  • "Alkali Ethics," The Scrap Book, May 1911 [first known publication]
  • "Close Shootin’," Pioneer Tales, July 1928

Articles

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  • "Do You Want to Become a Writer? or Do You Want to Make Money?," Writer's Digest, May 1934.
  • "Dialogue," Writer's Digest, June 1939.

Editor

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  • The Hard Boiled Omnibus: Early Stories from Black Mask (includes introduction) (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946)

Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Danger is My Business: an illustrated history of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines by Lee Server. Chronicle Books, 1993, ISBN 0-8118-0355-4 (pp. 68-70).
  2. ^ a b Hired Pens : Professional Writers in America's Golden Age of print by Ronald Weber. Ohio University Press, 1997 ISBN 0-8214-1204-3 (p. 98)
  3. ^ Black Mask magazine Archived 2008-12-28 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Pulps" by Robert Sampson, in Encyclopedia Mysteriosa, edited by William L. DeAndrea. Macmillan, 1994, ISBN 0-02-861678-2 (p.287-9)
  5. ^ Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler, Frank MacShane, ed., Columbia University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-231-05080-1 (pp. 5-8).