Henry McPherrar
Henry Edward McPherrar (May 25, 1910 – August 6, 1975), best known as Hank McPherrar, was a North American writer. He also signed his works as Ed McPherrar and as H. E. McPherrar.
Life and career[edit]
Born in New Jersey, towards the end of the 1920s McPherrar started a short and erratic career as a pugilist and performed a few jobs for the second line of the mafia. In 1935 he worked as a chronicler of happenings and boxing for sensationalist newspapers such as the New Street Journal and the San Diego Sun while at the same time sending short stories to pulp magazines like Dime Detective, Black Mask (magazine), .44 Western, Wild West Week and Astounding Stories.
At the end of the 30s he stops writing—or at least publishing—and he moves to Mexico, presumably to escape being drafted for WWII, where he stays until 1946. Little is known of those years but he would return regularly to Mexico until his death.
Upon his return to the United States he goes to live in San Francisco and writes cheap novels of the science fiction, western and, most of all, hardboiled thriller. Especially the detective series featuring Ross Underwood. For the next 3 decades he would write 3 to 4 novels a year.
The Hollywood Age[edit]
He also worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood but his constant alcohol problems impeded him from developing much of a career there. However he was the dialogue writer for some movies of Sam Fuller, Sam Peckinpah and Peter Bogdanovich.
The Golden Book[edit]
His novel And Probably No One Left sold thousand of copies and was a finalist for the 1947 Booker Award, even though he still would never become a hardback novelist.
Death[edit]
He died in a confusing stabbing incident in a bar called El Jarrito in Mexico City, which has a drink, the Hanky-Yankee, made with a base of mezcal, beer and lemon, to remember him.
Major works[edit]
- And Probably No One Left
- Let Us Seek Light
- Tormentor
- Completely Nervous
- 4 P.M. Train
- Faces In The Park
- Fighting time
- If You Can Overcome The Fear
- The Sorcerer And The Time
- The Palace Of The Mountain In Winter
- The Bloody Hand
- Welcome To My Dark Side, Baby
- In The Great River City
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