Halfaday Creek Works of Western writer James B Hendryx.
James B Hendryx – Halfaday Creek Book List
“This here’s Cushing’s Fort, on Halfaday Crick, ain’t it?”
“Yeah, this is the place. The character behind the bar there is Lyme Cushing, in person. My name’s Smith — Black John by identification.”
“My name’s John Smith, too.”
“Not on Halfaday it ain’t. Just reach in the Name Can there on the end of the bar an’ draw out a name.”
“Name Can! What’s a Name Can?”
“It’s a device Cush and I worked out when the crick got so cluttered up with John Smiths that we ran out of distinguishin’ characteristics like Long John, Short John, One Eyed John. Pot Gutted John, Red John, One Armed John, et cetra. We garbled the name’s out of a history book an’ tossed ’em into that molasses can yonder. Now when a man comes along claimin’ his name is John Smith, we call his attention to…”
From the story “Target Practice on Halfaday,” collected in HELL’S-A-POPPIN’ ON HALFADAY CREEK by James B Hendryx.
James Beardsley Hendryx was one of the Top 10 Writers of Mountie fiction. Most of his short stories, novelettes and full-length novels told the adventures of the men and women who stormed into the Canadian Klondike in the 1890’s to make their fortune. Or escape troubles back home.
Halfaday Creek was just “a half days travel by canoe” from the Yukon and Alaska Territories border (i. e. the US-Canadian Line). Less if you knew a certain foot trail through the woods. And the Creek attracted a strange and untrustworthy population who wanted to hide out in those deep Northern woods.
STRANGE DOINGS ON HALFADAY CREEK, Reprinted by Robert Hale Limited, London, 1952
There, the big outlaw Black John Smith “dispensed justice with the wisdom of Solomon and a heart as big as the biggest nugget found in the Gold Rush days. And sometimes with a length of good hemp rope.”
With the help of his saloon-running buddy Lyme Cushing and Corporal Downey of the North-West Mounted Police, Black John solved the crimes that for some reason seemed to happen often in a community of outlaws.
Jim Hendryx, who had been in the Klondike Gold Rush as a younger man, published his popular Halfaday Creek tales in the top pulp fiction magazines of the day, especially Short Stories magazine. A few others appeared in periodicals from Argosy to New Western Magazine.
He collected and published thirteen volumes of Halfaday Creek stories in his lifetime, with three more volumes appearing since, gathering all of his published narratives of the strangest sanctuary in Canada.
“Was there ever such a character as Black John and is there such a place as Halfaday Creek?”
The editors of the special Armed Services Editions paperback printing of GOLD AND GUNS ON HALFADAY CREEK, stated this on the back cover:
This book, and the other “HALFADAY” novels by James Hendryx brought forth an unusual number of fan letters. There is one question which appears over and over again on these letters: “Was there ever such a character as Black John and is there such a place as Halfaday Creek?”
Mr Hendryx answers that there was such a place and that he visualized Black John as not an actual real life person but one whose “crimes, pranks, and peccadillos are actual occurrences that took here and there along the Yukon and its tributaries, twisted about a bit, but not so much that old-timers can’t spot them, as numerous letters in my files attest.”
“It was an unsavory neighborhood and owing to the fact that it was on the boundary, it struck me that the set-up was perfect for a series of yarns in which the police could match wits with a bunch of outlawed men, who for obvious reasons chose to live near the border.”
As well as a popular Western writer, James B Hendryx became and remains one of the best Mountie Writers ever. I’ve called him “the Good Ol’ Boy of Canadian Literature.” Even though he’s an American.
You asked for a list of Jim’s Halfaday Creek Books in order. Here it is…
1. OUTLAWS OF HALFADAY CREEK (1935)
“Self-appointed dictator of these hard-bitten sourdoughs was Black John Smith. And Lyme Cushing (aka Old Cush), banker, bartender and father confessor, who was Black John’s aide-de-camp. Together, they kept their own brand of Law and Order — and very speedy justice.”
Unlike the later books, OUTLAWS blends a number of novelettes into one coherent novel.
With chapters like “Grubstake,” “The Swede Disappears,” “On Halfaday Creek,” “Corporal Downey Investigates,” “A Fat Man Visits Halfaday,” “Whisky Bill Makes a Deal,” “Hoodoo Gold” and “Black John Invents the Name-Can.”
And more than a few unbelievers came to a rough ending in Black John’s “most moral and peaceable community” on the Northwoods creeks.
OUTLAWS OF HALFADAY CREEK was printed by Doubleday, Doran & Co, Garden City NY, and by Jarrold & Sons Ltd, London, England, in 1935. And reprinted by Triangle Books, New York, in 1944. All in hardcover editions.
“The Alasky Country Club, we call it,” said Black John.
“Alaska!” cried Corporal Downey.
“Yeah,” grinned Black John. “Yer in Alasky now. We crossed the line about three miles back. It’s a good thing fer the boys — this here country club. There’s good huntin’ an’ fishin’ — an’ it gives ’em a chanct to git their minds offen business fer a few days. It was here we held the miners’ meetin’ last evenin’.”
As the three hit the trail back to Cushing’s Fort, Corporal Downey paused before the body still gently swaying in the wind. Very gravely he took a pencil and a small notebook from his pocket. “Olaf Stromberg,” he wrote, “crossed the line into Alaska.” He returned the book to his pocket. “Justice has been done on Halfaday,” the Mountie said. “I’m not supposed to make a report on what happens in American territory.”
But Black John and Downey get the last laugh together. OUTLAWS ends:
Corporal Downey grinned. “It sure will be a feather in my cap — fetchin’ back all this loot.”
“Yeah,” agreed Black John, “but it looks to me that feathers come damn high, at fifty thousan’ a feather. Intrinsic honesty, as a perfesser would say — must be hell when you’ve got it. That’s a lot of money, an’ I’m bettin’ you’ll turn in every damn cent of it, when you get back to Dawson.”
“Of course I will. And I ain’t forgettin’ that you could have had this twenty-five thousand, and I’d never know the difference. You’re entitled to a mighty fine feather yourself, John.”
“Yer damn right!” laughed the big man, clapping Corporal Downey on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go up to Cush’s an’ git a drink. If I stick around with all that money in sight, I might begin to moult.”
2. BLACK JOHN OF HALFADAY CREEK (1938)
“My name is Beezely, gentlemen — J Q A Beezely, attorney at law.”
Black John Smith regarded the man with interest. “A lawyer, eh? Well, we’ve had damn near every other kind of miscreant there is show up on Halfaday. So I s’pose it was only a question of time till a lawyer would come.”
Welcome to Halfaday, where new arrivals pick a new name out of an old tin can.
Black John will greet you with a warm grin and searching blue-gray eyes. And give you a glass of Cush’s best whiskey, on the house. But if you think you can make a fool of this big American you just made a bad mistake.
The outlaw leader spends most of his time “keeping the crick clear of swindlers, gold thieves, cardsharps and unwanted wives.”
Black John Smith, Old Cush, and the rest of the outlaws of Halfaday Creek return in seven more Northwestern adventures, all adapted from their original magazine texts.
BLACK JOHN was originally published by Doubleday, Garden City, New York, in 1938. And reprinted by Jarrolds, London, England, in 1939. Both in hardcover.
Shown left is the Zebra Books “Three Star Western” paperback edition, New York, 1978.
“When some suspicious strangers with something more than mining on their minds come to Cushing Fort, Black John gives them a two-gun welcome that turns the Yukon from gold to blood red!”
Like OUTLAWS, Jim restructured this book into novel form, broken up into chapters, such as “A Lawyer Arrives on Halfaday,” “Black John Listens to a Tale,” “Let Nature Take Her Course,” “Three Birds with One Stone,” “Musheroons,” “Whiskers.” “Black John Escapes,” “The Ghost of Halfaday Creek,” “A Woman Closes a Deal,” “Corporal Downey Arrives Too Late,” “Black John Files a Stove Leg” and “A Marshall Leaves Halfaday.”
In 2020, Altus Press reprinted this title, using the original Short Story magazine yarns as they were printed. Altus also included the original ink illustrations of pulp artist Pete Kuhlhoff. And added as a bonus Jim’s short article, “Slang Is Not As Dated As One Would Think.”
3. THE CZAR OF HALFADAY CREEK (1940)
“Black John Smith, the uncrowned ruler of the outlaws of Halfaday Creek, and the executive, legislative and judicial branches as exists in the deep Northwoods of the Yukon, deals out a few drastic sentences to desperate characters who break the unwritten Law of the North.”
THE CZAR OF HALFADAY CREEK was published originally by Doubleday Books in hardcover in 1940 and reprinted in 1942 by Triangle Books, both of New York.
The book cover shown here is of the mass market paperback edition released by Consul Books (World Distributors), London, England.
As you can see by the style of clothing worn by the shootists and the Southwestern saloon setting, Consul gave their cover art a more traditional Western look than Northwestern. No bold black beard, flannel lumberjack shirt and wool toque for big John here. (See Bottom of Page)
Consul Books released a number of Hendryx’s titles in the 1960s.
CZAR started off a popular time for author Jim Hendryx, with this novelization of yarns from Short Stories magazine published in 1934, 1935 and 1940.
Chapter titles included: “The Man Who Looked Over His Shoulder,” “Cornwallis Tells His Story,” “Goldie,” “A Shot From Ambush,” “Black John Outlines His Plot,” “Some Cheechakos Hire A Guide,” “A Stranger Arrives At The Fort,” “The Secret-Service Man” and “Christopher Blue Spots His Man.”
Marriage was a running theme through this book.
Black John Smith “saves an innocent man from a wrathful wife by the simple device of hanging him.” And then saves his good buddy Lyme Cushing from the claws of wedded bliss, “a state that Lyme does not highly regard.”
And there are would-be but dangerous Halfaday-ers to uncover and relieve of ill-gotten money. All under the watchful eye of one red-coated, excessively honest Mountie.
4. LAW AND ORDER ON HALFADAY CREEK (1941)
Originally published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1941 (Left).
The same year in Canada (Macmillan) and England (Jarrolds). And reprinted later that year by Carlton House (under its Bar-H Books imprint), New York.
Fiddlers are revered in the Canadian Northcountry.
A good fiddler will attract folks from all over the lonesome Northwoods. And soon the toe-tappin’, dancin’ and good times would be under way.
When a red-headed fiddler is silenced forever at Halfaday, Black John needs Cameron Downey’s help in quickly solving the murder.
And then there’s the case of who killed Short John Smith — and for a bounty on Short John’s head, of all despicable motives.
Also, who exactly is this visiting Englishman?
5. GOLD AND GUNS ON HALFADAY CREEK (1943)
6. STRANGE DOINGS ON HALFADAY CREEK (1943)
7. IT HAPPENED ON HALFADAY CREEK (1944)
The publication of these three collections of good-humored Black John/Downey yarns in a 15 month period showed that, while Mountie fiction as a genre might be losing some of its fan base to the new hardboiled detectives and solitary soldiers-of-fortune of the Wartime men’s magazines, James B Hendryx was actually increasing in popularity — and hence saleability.
(Left, STRANGE DOINGS, Published by Sun Dial Press, New York, 1943.)
“Black John and his cronies maintain law and order in an outlaw’s haven.”
STRANGE DOINGS, for instance, gave us a novelization of six narratives; all had originally appeared in Short Stories magazine fr0m 1938 to 1942.
“All the Evidence,” “Bear Paws,” “Black John Assists at a Wedding,” “Black John Files a Claim,” “Father John” and “Mail Order to Halfaday.”
Note: The Altus edition of this title quotes from a letter by Jim revealing the inspiration for his “Bear Paws” yarn about the sourdough who lost his toes.
The Happily Ever After theme drifting through this book shows that Jim may have got a bit of grief over his treatment of Holy Matrimony in the yarns collected in CZAR.
Then again, maybe Jim hadn’t completely reformed…
“You can’t trust a woman,” opined Old Cush, proprietor of Cushing’s Fort, the combination trading post and saloon that served the little colony of outlawed men that had sprung up on Halfaday Creek. He filled his glass and shoved the bottle toward Black John Smith who faced him across the bar. “Not even if you marry ’em, you can’t.”
Black John grinned. “well — you’d ought to know. I never tried marryin’ any of ’em, personal.” [1]
8. SKULDUGGERY ON HALFADAY CREEK (1946)
Published by Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1946. And Hammond, London, 1953.
In this collection of novelettes, again first published in Short Story Magazine, Black John evens up the score with a number of old enemies.
“Black John Goes Outside” tells the tale of his trip “Outside” to his boyhood home and perpetrates a clever swindle on a greedy local banker who once had caused trouble over his father’s mortgage. In other yarns, he encounters his friend Cush’s third wife on the way to the “crick” to make trouble for her husband, and engineers the hanging of some high-grade ore thieves.
This is accomplished with Black John’s usual imperturbability and good humor. And the fact that he comes out a few thousand dollars ahead on each of the deals in no way lessens his moral stature.
Besides “Black John Goes Outside,” other reprinted stories are “Cush’s Third Wife,” “One Good Turn Deserves Another,” “Hanged by a Thread,” “All in the Day’s Work” and “Reward-$1000.”
The Altus Press reissue of this title adds “Ten Thousand New Lakes,” which first appeared in the May, 1955 Field & Stream.
9. THE SAGA OF HALFADAY CREEK (1949)
Published by Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1949. And Hammond, London, 1954.
As Black John, The Law on the Creek, is fond of saying, “the interval between the crime and the hanging is hardly worth mentioning.” This time, and with the efficacious assistance of Corporal Downey, Black John deals competently with assorted trickery…
Reprinted Stories: “Finger Prints,” “Black John Advises,” “Black John Finds a Missing Heir,” “The Law Visits Halfaday Creek,” “Dead Man’s Nugget,” “Thunder on Halfaday” and “Black John Solves a Crime.” All of these stories originally appeared in Short Stories except for “The Law Visits Halfaday Creek,” which was printed in Argosy magazine, May 21, 1938. The Altus Press edition added the 1928 article “Lost! The True Story of the Fife Lake Tragedy.”
In “Finger Prints,” Black John welcomes Franklin K Jones, M.D. to the crick. Who sets Red John’s broken arm and takes out Short John’s appendix so slick, he proves he really is a doctor. When the Doc is pointed out as the miscreant who robbed a payroll, Corporal Downey checks his finger prints. They don’t match the prints taken at the crime scene. The popular Doc is off the hook. But big John’s got his own thoughts…
In “Black John Finds a Missing Heir,” John must make sure that Lady Ainslee-Higginbotham’s fortune goes to the rightful heir, and not to a hospital for homeless mongooses in Rangoon.
And figure out perhaps the most difficult question in Life: how do you swindle a swindler?
10. JUSTICE ON HALFADAY CREEK (1949)
Published first in New York by Doubleday Books in 1949, it was rejected by Jim’s usual British publishers, Jarrolds and Hammond & Co. But put out in 1954 by Museum Press of London.
“HALFADAY Creek rings to the sound of Black John keeping the peace.”
Northwoods mysteries to solve: One murder by dynamite and another by mistake. Missing gold dust to be found. A dissolute white slaver to be brought to justice. And hunting down the dastardly whiskey trader who cheated neighboring Natives of their furs.
“I’ve heard that Black John is an outlaw himself,” Nellie Douty said. “But I don’t believe it. He seems like such a nice man — so jolly and smiling behind that black beard of his.”
“I’ll bet some of them cusses he’s hung didn’t see nothin jolly about him,” Old Man Douty opined. “Ain’t that so, Downey?”
Corporal Downey nodded. “He’s a peculiar mixture, John is. The talk is that he’s an outlaw but we’ve never got anything on him this side of the Line. An’ the way he handles those shady characters on Halfaday has saved the police many a headache. If there’s any crime on Halfaday, it’s handled before we even hear of it.”
“You going back to Dawson from here?” Douty asked.
“Yeah,” replied Downey, “I’ll be pullin’ out in the morning.”
It was only later that the Doutys realized that the Mountie had never really answered their Black John question.
11. BADMEN ON HALFADAY CREEK (1950)
Printed in the US by Doubleday in 1950, and picked up in Great Britain by Hammond & Co in 1956. Both in hardcover. In 1963, Consul Books of London reprinted BADMEN as a mass market paperback which they retitled, for some confounded reason, TERROR ON HALFADAY CREEK.
Black John Smith breaks the law and puts it together again!
“Black John Smith was dimly conscious of a vast discomfort. His head ached, there was a terrific throbbing at his temples, and a continuous thumping against his back. He opened his eyes…”
Black John Smith awakened to find himself upside down in a mine shaft. And the latest series of Halfaday Creek adventures is in full swing…
Of course, Black John is needed. If not to keep the Law in his infamous colony on the Yukon-Alaska border, then to keep Order.
Breaking the law in the interests of justice is his favorite pastime.
Reprinted Stories: “Black John Pays a Debt,” “Justice and the Law,” “Profit on Halfaday,” “The Partnership Business,” “Slight Misunderstanding on Halfaday” and “Conspiracy on Halfaday.”
This time his unorthodox methods help him solve the Case of the Chocolate-Covered Cartridges, the Case of the Poisoned Moose Meat, the Case of the Dynamited Bridegroom, the Case of the Other Black John and the Case of the Man Who Would Be King of the Klondike.
As always, his enthusiastic pursuit of morality and justice adds more wooden markers to the Halfaday Creek cemetery. Where the hand-carved “Ms” (Murdered) and “Hs” (Hung) outnumber the few scattered “Ds” (Died Natural).
Although… “We don’t want to run hog-wild with our hangin’s.” – Black John Smith
12. MURDER ON HALFADAY CREEK (1951)
Printed in the US by Doubleday in 1951.
Entering Cushing’s saloon accompanied by two men, Black John strode to the bar and, with the butt of his revolver, knocked loudly to attract attention. “All stud games is temporarily adjourned. I’m callin’ a miner’s meetin’ to try one Joe Smiley for night prowlin’ in One Eyed Joe’s cabin, at present occupied, to wit, one William Henry Van Buren. Five minutes will be allowed for the cashin’ in of chips.”
MURDER ON HALFADAY CREEK reprints six stories from late 40’s editions of Short Story magazine.
Black John Smith foils a plot dreamed up by “as despicable a gang of crooks as ever stacked a deck,” exchanging twenty-five thousand dollars in fake bills for good ones. He runs a pair of swindlers out of town, after persuading them to leave their cash behind, in his name. And he doubles the twenty thousand he paid for some sacks of fool’s gold, and hangs a murderer in the bargain.
Reprinted Stories: “Black John Turns a Trick,” “Black John Wins a Bet,” “Skin Game,” “Miner’s Meetin’,” “Permanent Resident on Halfaday” and “Willie Shows Up on Halfaday.”
13. INTRIGUE ON HALFADAY CREEK (1953)
Released by Doubleday & Company, New York, on January 1, 1953.
INTRIGUE was a compilation of four novelettes reprinted from Popular Publications’ Short Stories magazine. “Dry Rot,” “Suspended Sentence,” “The Man With the Glass Eye” and “New Talent on Halfaday.”
Black John can recognize two sleazy swindlers when he meets ’em. And soon figures out that the pair is “bent on cheating a young sourdough out of his claim and shows them that if they are looking for loopholes in the law — Black John knows ’em all!”
The Canadian Northcountry could be a place of danger indeed. Treacherous weather and hungry wolves made it risky for tenderfoot Cheechakos. John helps not one, but two young couples face the most dangerous threats of all: human predators.
John guides Constable Brock in figuring out that One-Arm John isn’t the murderer he’s looking for.
And Corporal Downey helps big John take on two hired killers sent by Black John’s bitter enemy, Dawson saloon keeper Cuter Malone.
This was the last Halfaday book published in Jim Hendryx’s lifetime.
14. ADVENTURES ON HALFADAY CREEK (2013)
For the first time in 60 years, a new Halfaday Creek collection!
“Part of the matching Halfaday Creek Library from Altus Press.”
This trade paperback edition contains five “previously-uncollected Black John & Halfaday Creek novelettes.”
Newly collected yarns of the big American with the fierce black beard, his saloon-running partner in crime and a true-blue red-coated policeman.
Table of Contents: “Black John Sells a Claim,” “Corporal Downey: ‘Suicide.’ Black John: ‘Maybe.’,” “For Some Little Sacks of Gold,” “Foreclosure on Halfaday,” and “All or Nothing.” These yarns appeared in Short Stories, except “All or Nothing,” which was printed in Boston Sunday Globe Fiction Magazine.
15. HELL’S-A-POPPIN’ ON HALFADAY CREEK (2014)
“Altus Press is proud to present another new HALFADAY CREEK collection, containing eight previously-uncollected Black John & Halfaday Creek novelettes.”
All but one of the stories reprinted in HELL’S-A-POPPIN’ appeared originally in Short Story magazine. Table of Contents: “Black John Declines a Reward,” “Constable Buck Counts Heads,” “Left Handed Justice,” “Poison On Halfaday,” “The Gambler,” “Halfaday Evidence, Package Style,” “Target Practice on Halfaday” and “Trial and Error.”
“Target Practice on Halfaday” appeared originally in the Boston Sunday Globe Fiction Magazine, July 31, 1955.
“John, I’ll not be forgettin’ that if you hadn’t been there in the brush with your rifle, I might be layin’ up there in front of Whiskey Bill’s door along with that other fellow.”
“Hell — don’t mention it, Downey. Like I said, it would make it mean fer us boys if a policeman was to get knocked off on Halfaday. And as fer the reward — cripes, Downey — I wouldn’t think of takin a reward fer performin’ a simple duty. It wouldn’t be ethical. Come on — let’s go down to Cush’s and I’ll buy you that drink.”
16. DAMNATION ON HALFADAY CREEK (2021)
It was Black John’s favorite setup: a Cheechako in trouble, too much gold dust around for everyone’s peace of mind — and a chance to apply his own special brand of outlaw justice!
Black John Smith, Old Cush, and the rest of the outlaws of Halfaday Creek return in ten more adventures, taken from their original magazine texts.
Included in this collection are “Yukon Twins,” “Black John and the Sky Pilot,” “Black John — Bushwhacker,” “Black John’s Bear Trap Trouble,” “Cheechako Trouble,” “The Damnation of Black John,” “Death Stakes this Claim!” “Justice — Yukon Style!” “Superstition” and “White Hell.”
These stories mostly appeared in Dime Western Magazine and New Western Magazine. And have never before been reprinted. [2]
With the publication of this 16th book, ALL of Jim Hendryx’s great Halfaday stories have been collected and put out for the world to enjoy.
Like other Altus editions of Halfaday titles such as BLACK JOHN, SAGA and SKULDUGGERY, DAMNATION includes the original magazine line and ink illustrations by popular pulp artist Pete Kuhlhoff.
“If it wasn’t for some — er — eccentricities in your makeup, John, you’d make a wonderful policeman.”
“Oh, hell, Downey, I’d never make a policeman. A policeman’s got to be smart. It takes everything I’ve got to keep Halfaday moral. While you’ve got to handle the whole Yukon.”
NOTE: A number of Hendryx’s novels had scenes set in Halfaday Creek.
In CORPORAL DOWNEY TAKES THE TRAIL, Downey chases a suspect to the Outlaws’ Creek. In GRUBSTAKE GOLD, Barry Cameron, “a greenhorn reporter,” is framed for murder after striking gold in the Yukon. The Mounties are looking for him. His friends help him get out of Dawson. Barry reaches Halfaday Creek and meets Black John.
Live Free, Mon Ami! – Brian Alan Burhoe
For more of James B Hendryx’s popular Northwest fiction, see Excerpt from DOWNEY OF THE MOUNTED, a novel by James B Hendryx
And “WRITERS OF THE SCARLET SERGE” — Top 10 Writers of Mountie Fiction, Including James B Hendryx! See The GREATEST AUTHORS of the NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE
Conclusion: Mounties, Outlaws, Corrupt Politicians & Scheming Lawyers.
A number of American writers who had actually been in the Klondike Gold Rush were enraged by the “iron heeled” control of the North-West Mounted Police. Jack London was one of ’em. They resented the concept of red-coated policemen (in the early days) as arresting officers, prosecuting attorneys and judges all in one.
But Jim Hendryx, who had been a Klondike prospector and continued to visit the Northcountry for years after, had a different take on it. Perhaps because, being a bit of an outlaw himself, he had a different take on human behavior:
“In fact, Beezely, your whole scheme is cockeyed. A mob like that wouldn’t get nowheres in the Yukon. It’s all right down in the States, where you can shift around amongst crooked policemen, an’ politicians, an’ prosecutors, an’ judges. But here it’s different. There ain’t no politicians. And the Mounted is policemen, an’ prosecutors, an’ judges. An’ they ain’t crooked.”
“Every man’s got his price,” Beezely retorted.
“Yeah?” grinned Black John. “When you find Corporal Downey’s price, would you mind lettin’ me know what it is?”
– from BLACK JOHN OF HALFADAY CREEK
Frontier Footnotes
[1] Although this outlook on Holy Matrimony might not have represented Jim Hendryx’s personal beliefs. In his article “Who Can Write Fiction?” Jim stressed that among the important elements needed to write a saleable work of fiction were a typewriter, a lead pencil, some paper, a knowledge of the people he intends to write about, a certain amount of diligence and a “tolerant and long suffering wife who is also a good critic — and has imagination.”
Here’s another statement for the Defense, from Jim’s buddy Lee Smits: “Jim was a champion liquor drinker but stopped flatly without a bit of fuss 30 years ago. There was a time when wives shuddered if their husbands went afield with him, not knowing when or ever they would return. But about 10 years ago Mrs. Hendryx slipped down a rock near their Basswood Lake camp and broke a leg. Since then Jim was her nurse, cook, housekeeper and constant companion. Husbands in the Grand Traverse area were shamed by their wives, pointing to Jim Hendryx as an example of the perfect mate.”
[2] By the late 1940s, the pulp magazines were declining in sales, replaced by paperback books on the stands. In 1950, Short Stories magazine, Jim’s favourite publication, began putting out reprints of old stories. He had to find new markets, like New Western Magazine.
“White Hell” was his last Halfaday Crick yarn in the Western market, appearing in Big-Book Western Magazine, September 1953 edition. His last published Halfaday story “All Or Nothing” was in the August 28, 1955 issue of Boston Sunday Globe Fiction Magazine. Jim’s last-written (and unpublished) short story “Superstition” appeared finally in 2021 in DAMNATION ON HALFADAY CREEK.
“Never let your work interfere with your fishing.” James B Hendryx
SOURCE: My Own Pinewood Bookshelves, AbeBooks Sellers and Altus Press/Steeger Books. Updated September 24, 2024.
