Jonathan Craig (1919–1984)

When you look up Jonathan Craig to see who he was, you see that Jonathan Craig is a pseudonym for Frank E. Smith and he is credited with having written over 100 books and perhaps 300 short stories and was one of the mainstays of the Manhunt magazine in the early to mid-1950's. His better known pulp-era books include So Young, So Wicked, The Case Of the Beautiful Body, The Dead Darling, Junkie, and Case of the Petticoat Murder. He was well-known for having written a police procedural series show more about the Sixth Precinct.

Junkie is a misleading title for this book and more than likely one that Craig's publisher stuck on the book to garner attention at the newsstand. The title and the original cover of the book lead one to believe that the story follows the downfall of a woman wracked by drugs and falling into oblivion. Instead, Junkie follows a more basic hardboiled pulp-era plot of a man and a woman framed for a murder that they didn't commit and racing against time to figure out who really committed the murder before the police and the bad guys catch up with them. It is a plot line that has been used in countless fifties-era pulp novels, but it is a plot that stands up well to the test of time and Craig has a different take on it than most writers of the era did.

Craig's hero in this book is not a detective or insurance agent. Rather, Craig's protagonist is Steve Harper, a jazz musician who works the various jazz clubs scattered around the Washington D.C. area. Nowadays, jazz musicians don't sound very scandalous, but in the fifties before rock'n roll really took off, jazz was very scandalous. Those clubs were where the action was, where the women were, and were the dope was. Harper has women chasing him left and right and had himself fallen into the temptation of dope. The undercurrent of this novel is the world of the jazz clubs, the world of call girls in Washington, D.C., and the world of temptation that assaults Harper. There is a driving jazz beat in the background of every page. The reader knows that it is nighttime in the city and that blondes in tight dresses are dancing to the jazz beat.

But it is a pulp novel and it is about murder and about being framed. As Craig explains in the opening line to the book, "It was bad and he knew it was going to get a lot worse before it got better." If that doesn't give you the flavor of the book, then who knows what will.

The back story is that Harper had once had a relationship with Lois, but Lois moved on to her now-husband, who not being a jazz musician, had money and a future. Nevertheless, Harper was the man who Lois still had a torch for. After Lois, Harper met Kathy Mason. At the time, Kathy was a call girl and a junkie, but he had never met anyone like her. She was one in a million to him from the minute she walked into the hotel suite. He wanted to drive the highways with her with his arm around her. He got her back on her feet, away from the life, away from the dope. But, as the story opens, they had a falling out and were separated. Harper had fallen into temptation with another woman and Kathy couldn't stand it. He still carries a torch for her and it is all he can think about.

Harper comes home and hears jazz music playing in his apartment. Thinking he left the stereo on, he opens the door and sees that she was very blonde and very beautiful and that her clothes were all in a heap on the floor. But this is Lois, not Kathy, and he throws Lois out of the apartment. Shortly thereafter, Harper gets a call from his friend who is now a police officer, Mark, telling Harper to come to his friend Haynes' apartment because something has happened. Something, something like Haynes has been choked to death and the police received a telephone call from a woman who said she was Kathy Mason, that she had killed Haynes, and that she was going to kill herself. The officer asks Harper gently where Kathy is and what he knows and warns Harper that he better produce Kathy if he knows what is good for him.

Of course, any reader of pulp literature knows that Harper is not going to simply turn Kathy over to the police and let her be framed for this killing. Harper knows that Kathy, no matter what her past, is no murderer. Harper sets out to find Kathy and protect her and, on the way, stumbles into bar fights with Lois' husband who is upset about Lois being in Harper's apartment, knowing Lois really wants Harper. Harper stumbles over more bodies as a conspiracy is uncovered and he races against time to solve the mystery before the police dragnet closes in on him and Kathy.

It is an incredibly well-written book, deserving of far more attention and acclaim than it has received. The story moves at a breakneck pace as Harper races through the jazz clubs, reefer dens, garages, and apartments of the Washington, D.C. area trying to find Kathy and unearth how she is being set up and by whom. show less

This book follows a basic hardboiled pulp-era plot of a man and a woman framed for a murder that they didn't commit and racing against time to figure out who really committed the murder before the police and the bad guys catch up with them. It is a plot line that has been used in countless fifties- era pulp novels, but it is a plot that stands up well to the test of time and Craig has a different take on it than most writers of the era did.

Craig's hero in this book is not a detective or show more insurance agent. Rather, Craig's protagonist is Steve Harper, a jazz musician who works the various jazz clubs scattered around the Washington D.C. area. Nowadays, jazz musicians don't sound very scandalous, but in the fifties before rock'n roll really took off, jazz was very scandalous. Those clubs were where the action was, where the women were, and were the dope was. Harper has women chasing him left and right and had himself fallen into the temptation of dope. The undercurrent of this novel is the world of the jazz clubs, the world of call girls in Washington, D.C., and the world of temptation that assaults Harper. There is a driving jazz beat in the background of every page. The reader knows that it is nighttime in the city and that blondes in tight dresses are dancing to the jazz beat.

But it is a pulp novel and it is about murder and about being framed. As Craig explains in the opening line to the book, "It was bad and he knew it was going to get a lot worse before it got better." If that doesn't give you the flavor of the book, then who knows what will.

The back story is that Harper had once had a relationship with Lois, but Lois moved on to her now-husband, who not being a jazz musician, had money and a future. Nevertheless, Harper was the man who Lois still had a torch for. After Lois, Harper met Kathy Mason. At the time, Kathy was a call girl and a junkie, but he had never met anyone like her. She was one in a million to him from the minute she walked into the hotel suite. He wanted to drive the highways with her with his arm around her. He got her back on her feet, away from the life, away from the dope. But, as the story opens, they had a falling out and were separated. Harper had fallen into temptation with another woman and Kathy couldn't stand it. He still carries a torch for her and it is all he can think about.

Harper comes home and hears jazz music playing in his apartment. Thinking he left the stereo on, he opens the door and sees that she was very blonde and very beautiful and that her clothes were all in a heap on the floor. But this is Lois, not Kathy, and he throws Lois out of the apartment. Shortly thereafter, Harper gets a call from his friend who is now a police officer, Mark, telling Harper to come to his friend Haynes' apartment because something has happened. Something, something like Haynes has been choked to death and the police received a telephone call from a woman who said she was Kathy Mason, that she had killed Haynes, and that she was going to kill herself. The officer asks Harper gently where Kathy is and what he knows and warns Harper that he better produce Kathy if he knows what is good for him.

Of course, any reader of pulp literature knows that Harper is not going to simply turn Kathy over to the police and let her be framed for this killing. Harper knows that Kathy, no matter what her past, is no murderer. Harper sets out to find Kathy and protect her and, on the way, stumbles into bar fights with Lois' husband who is upset about Lois being in Harper's apartment, knowing Lois really wants Harper. Harper stumbles over more bodies as a conspiracy is uncovered and he races against time to solve the mystery before the police dragnet closes in on him and Kathy.

It is an incredibly well-written book, deserving of far more attention and acclaim than it has received. The story moves at a breakneck pace as Harper races through the jazz clubs, reefer dens, garages, and apartments of the Washington, D.C. area trying to find Kathy and unearth how she is being set up and by whom. show less

First published in Manhunt Magazine in 1953, Dirge For a Nude is a fun and atmospheric little pulp noir story from Jonathan Craig, who became a writer through a very circuitous route.

According to online articles and sources, he was born in Santa Barbara in 1919. During the Great Depression, his family emigrated to Kansas City, and at a very young age he began supporting his family when his father became ill, eventually working at the Kansas City Star. He served in the Navy from 1942 — show more 1946, becoming head of a Pentagon research and analysis section for the Department of Defense. He even accompanied Truman to a Postdam conference in 1945. Quite a pedigree for a guy who began writing in the pulps in 1949, a decision which prompted him to leave government work to write full time by 1952.

He began by writing pulp westerns, but as the western cycle began to wane, he branched out to the detective side in 1953. Not limiting himself to genre, he even wrote some Gothic novels using Jennifer Hale as his moniker during his career. Apparently he wrote over 450 short stories for various pulp magazines. Dirge For a Nude is an early example of Jonathan Craig’s (Frank E. Smith) style, before he began writing the Peter Stelby and Stan Ryder novels, where he gained some notoriety.

Set around a piano player in a smoky new dive called the Cavern Club, one has to suspect Craig’s time in Kansas City, known for its jazz and blues music, influenced his pulp stories. It’s late at night when Dirge For a Nude begins, and Marty Bishop is itching to get off so he can show the auburn-haired hat-check girl, Julie Cole, a new bauble he’s bought for her. But then his ex-girlfriend Gloria Gayle walks in, with her blue-black hair and curves that stop traffic. Even though she dumped him for a light-heavyweight prizefighter, she is bored, and wants Marty back. She even has twelve grand to entice him to run off with her to Mexico. But Marty’s no sap, and he blows her off. Next thing you know, she’s lying across the front seat of Marty’s Caddie, as dead as she is nude.

Marty knows he’s been set up to take the fall, and drives around with Gloria’s body trying to find the killer. It seems obvious, but there’s a twist, and a terrific noir ending. At less than twenty pages, this is a fun one to read between bigger stories, and will make any fan of pulp want to read more from Jonathan Craig. show less

Craig tells a compelling tale of a very bad cop, who thinks nothing of threatening to send an innocent man to the electric chair to get his wife to sleep with him, or accepting bribes, or pretty much whatever comes his way. He also never turns down a drink. In the opening chapter, he wakes up hung over, has two beers for breakfast, takes a mid morning break for three more drinks, has a few more drinks over lunch with the DA...and then I lost count. There's a murder mystery along the way, but show more its resolution is straight out of the less-enlightened 1950s. The real story is the bad cop and what happens to him. The book is full of way too many coincidences to be at all believable, but Craig writes pretty well, except for the occasional foray into grand statements that seem out of place, so the end result is quite enjoyable. And this is a free download from one of the world's greatest web sites, www.munseys.com.

(This book was later retitled Renegade Cop.) show less