THE EMPEROR OF EVIL

New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1937. First edition. Spine leaned, wear to corner tips and spine ends, a good to very good copy. (22383). Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii [ix-x] [1] 2-302, original black cloth, front and spine stamped in orange. The second mystery novel featuring detective Vee (Vivian) Brown who takes on the Black Death organization. Daly was an important contributor to Black Mask and published stories into the 1950s. He influence can be seen in many writers who followed him. "Daly's contribution to the hardboiled genre was indeed monumental; far more than simply being the first at bat. And his impact was felt far beyond the private eye field alone. The Shadow, The Spider, The Phantom Detective-all the famous masked avengers of the pulps were merely gussied up versions of Race Williams. Daly took the two-gun American Hero from the wooly plains of the West and transplanted him in New York. He allowed his hero to retain all those traditional fantasy concepts of what the American Hero is and has been since the days of Cooper's Natty Bumppo, and he gave him the desire and ability to back up his code of individualism, his distrust of authority and his interest in Justice over Legality, with a pair of smoking .44s." from "In Defense of Carroll John Daly" - Steve Mertz in The Mystery FANcier, May 1978 (Vol. 2, No. 3). Hubin, pp. 210-211.