John Herrington looks at the BHW publisher Robert Hale
HALE AND HEARTY WESTERNS

John Herrington

Robert Hale, home of the Black Horse western, is 70 years old. The first books from the company, founded by Robert Hale (1889-1956) a former director of Hutchinsons, appeared on 21 September 1936, and over the following years a steady flow of fiction and non-fiction appeared.

1936-1959 Nelle Scanlan, George Goodchild, John P. Marquand Sydney Fowler Wright and Robert Briffault were amongst the early successes. While even the shortages and other damage of the war did not prevent the appearance of new authors such as Ursula Bloom, Dorothy Ansle, Barbara Cartland and Judson Philips who would appear on the Hale lists during the next three to four decades.

As well as Philips, the crime list of Hale was enhanced by the appearance of Erle Stanley Gardner and James M. Cain.

Westerns had made their first appearance in May 1937 with The haunted canyon by Ranger Lee and Rustlers of the smoky trail by Dan James. But they did not form a noticeable part of the publishing programme, only a handful titles appearing each year by the likes of Charles Horace Snow, James Denson Sayers and Bennett Foster. In fact, they seem to have fallen victim to the war and no more appeared after 1942. Robert Hale began life in the Bloomsbury area of London, but by the end of World War II they had moved to Old Brompton Road where they remained until 1974 (their current home is Clerkenwell Green) – a move possibly caused by bomb damage in the Bloomsbury area. Sadly, the war saw Robert Hale’s two original partners lose their lives, while the running of the company was ably performed by a handful of staff, exempt from military service because of age or on medical grounds.

Perhaps because they were a new company with a comparatively small list, the damage of the bombing during World War II was not so evident with the overall loss of books, both in loss to bombing and the fall in numbers published (1944 saw 1,255 novels published in the UK compared to 4,222 in 1939). But this comparatively small back list did have some effect.

Paper rationing was brought in during the early years of the war, and the allowance to publishers was based on their output of the previous two years, so Hale’s allowance was not a large one. However, they overcame this problem by having several titles wholly produced in the United States which were then shipped in. At the same time Robert Hale continued to buy in titles, so that when paper rationing was lifted Hale had the books available to resume a full publishing preogramme.

This foresight saw the small but steady flow of new titles after the war, including the early titles of Hale’s excellent topographical County Books series, while James Hadley Chase and Eleanor Hibbert writing as Jean Plaidy would begin their long careers with Hale. Both would be published by Hale for the next four decades, and Chase would still appear in 1998 when Hale finally re-published his most famous work No orchids for Miss Blandish.

The 1950s

The 1950s would see Hale publish the early novels of Harold Robbins, and begin their publication of the novels of John D. MacDonald. There was a steady flow of new and old names – Hermina Black, Dorothy Black, Elswyth Thane, Jane Lane, Netta Muskett, Bernard Newman to name a few – names which are perhaps largely forgotten today but were then among the popular authors of the time. There was also Betty Trask, just another forgotten romance writer until the 1980s when a literary prize was named after her.

The western returned to the Hale list in 1951, a handful of titles that slowly increased though the decade until by 1963 they were publishing five a month. (Though this growth was reflected in Hale’s total fiction output which had grown from around 110 titles in 1955 to 250 in 1963).

At first, the authors were the same as had appeared in the earlier westerns; but soon new names appeared. Lee Floren, Samuel Peeples, Henry Ingham, L. P. Holmes. Gordon C Baldwin and Elmore Leonard were some of these – some under their own names, some under pseudonyms. Frederick Faust would make a brief appearance as Evan Evans, before returning as Max Brand in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1956 Robert Hale died suddenly and his son, John, took the helm. Although he had had only a few months' experience with the company, the number of titles published increased.

This increase of titles resulted in the creation, in 1960, of an imprint, John Gresham – largely due to libraries seeing too many titles published by Hale - under which Hale would publish some of their westerns and romances. This increase would lead to Hale being Britain’s biggest publisher – in number of titles published in a year – for the odd year.

1960s

The term ‘library publisher’ has been applied to Hale, and I think that it could be connected to this increase in popular genre fiction – westerns, romance and crime/adventure. Genre fiction is always needed in libraries, books bought to fill the shelves and replenished when necessary – bought in numbers rather than by author. And the appearance of a western by Will Benton in 1961 was the start of a collaboration with Hale which saw popular fiction produced at an increased rate.

Will Benton would mean little to anyone as an author, but it was the first of the nearly 90 pseudonyms used by American author Lauran Bosworth Paine on over 850 books for Hale until his death in 2001. Romances, westerns, crime, even SF – Paine, who would hardly be published in his own country, could produce them at a consistent speed.

And he was not the only one. British writers Albert King, G J Barrett, David Bingley and Donald S. Rowland (as well as Sydney Charles Mason in the 1960s) would join Paine in writing genre fiction – in fact, in all, this group of writers would produce nearly 1900 titles (over 10 percent of Hale’s fiction output) using over 220 pseudonyms during the following four decades.

There were others who could and would write and write for Hale – Emily Kathleen Walker who would write nearly 150 romances in two decades under a dozen pen names, and Maureen Peters who has almost reached 150 titles under five names. While pseudonyms masked the identity of several writers, a lack of publicity, and author information in the books themselves, meant that even writers using their own names remained largely anonymous.

As I have said, the western list increased through the 1960s, from 15 titles in 1960 to over 120 by 1966, though by 1970 the number had fallen to around 50. The John Gresham imprint saw many of the westerns published under that name, although the percentage decreased by the end of the decade. Many of the authors’ names were pseudonymous, due mainly to the output of Paine and his fellow writers.

There was a small American input, though most (known) authors were British. And there was probably the only known Australian woman writer of westerns – Jillian Overy who would write a handful of novels as Martin Overy. As far as I can tell she was also the first woman writer of westerns to be published by Hale, though later years would see others.

The 1960s would also see the consolidation of another genre of fiction – the historical novel. The 1950s had seen the success of Jean Plaidy, and a few writers like Ursula Bloom, writing as Lozania Prole, had followed suit. But by the end of the 1960s there was a steady flow of historical novels (many, like Plaidy’s books, based on real people and events) from the likes of Maureen Peters, Pamela Bennetts, Freda Long, Eva McDonald and Richard Landells. And Peter Pook’s first humorous novel appeared in 1962, the beginning of a successful career with Hale ended by J A Miller’s sudden death in 1978. While Rosemary Timperley started on her three decades with Hale, and the first of James Pattinson’s almost 100 adventure novels published by Hale appeared in 1968.

1970s

The 1970s continued much as the 1960s, with the output of Lauran Bosworth Paine etc continuing, although by the 1980s their output would be almost all westerns.

They all contributed, pseudonymously, to Hale’s SF line which had begun in the late 60s and would last to the mid-80s. There were contributions from the likes of Gordon Dickson, Robert Silverberg, Keith Laumer and Ron Goulart, but many titles were written by less known British names. By the early 1970s there was a leveling out in the number of titles published, due to cutbacks in genres like crime, which saw the John Gresham imprint discontinued and its titles absorbed into Robert Hale.

There was the return of Barbara Cartland and Judson Philips (Hugh Pentecost) after a long absence following their initial appearance in the 1940s.

The list was filled with titles by the long serving stalwarts – such as Nan Maynard, Helen Eastwood, Christine Laffeaty, George Sava, Daisy Thomson, John Newton Chance, Michael Cronin, Alice Dwyer Joyce and Peter N. Walker – who had a steady readership in libraries. Many authors were British, but there was a fair American presence as in the crime fiction – early works by Lawrence Block, Loren Estleman and Bill Pronzini would appear, alongside those of Robert Pike, Doris Disney and Aaron Stein. Historical fiction continued its growth, while war fiction appeared with the books of Richard Townshend Bickers (he had first appeared in 1961, but it was not until 1978 that he made a consistent appearance) and David McLeod Smith. All in all, the 1970s would see Hale publish some 900 titles, 700 of them novels, a year.

The westerns continued to be published at a steady pace. Many were still written by Paine etc under pseudonyms, but there were additions to the list.

1968 had seen the first J T Edson western to be published by Hale, while 1972 saw the first appearance of Louis L’Amour (and both would last be published in 1994). These two names stood out in the western list, with the occasional appearance of authors like Allan Vaughan Elston, Orlando Rigoni, Tom Curry, Clifton Adams and reprints of Frederick Faust’s Max Brand books; while other British authors included B. J. Holmes, Jerome Gardner and Victor Hanson.

1980s

The early 80s saw a lesser output from Paine and company as they concentrated on westerns, although by 1985 David Bingley had died and Donald Rowland had left the company. Many of the Hale stalwarts were still present for the early years, with Peter Walker setting out on his ‘Constable’ career as Nicholas Rhea. Horror writer Shaun Hutson would write a series of war novels, whilst novelist Sally Beauman would appear under Vanessa James alter ego, and Helen Forrester and Robert Goddard would have early success with Hale before moving on.

The mid-80s saw the appearance of series name for the various genres – Connoisseur Crime, Pageant Historical Romances, Rainbow Romances and , of course, Black Horse Westerns. But for the first two it was short lived as, by the end of 1988, Hale’s crime fiction would cease except for the odd title and historical romances would soon follow. The romances would continue for a while, and westerns kept galloping on.

By the end of the 80s, falling library demand and other market forces, saw Hale’s fiction list alter, beginning to concentrate on individual authors rather than genres. Several of the stalwarts had died or retired, and this natural wastage gave the company the ability to make changes. Though death did not seem to stop some writers, as novels by John Newton Chance, who had died in 1983, still appeared up to 1989 – another 17 titles!

The westerns continued to appear at a steady pace, 1984 seeing seven published each month. As well as those from Paine and company, there was a seasoning of American writers – Lee Floren, Nelson Nye, Giles Lutz, Matt Braun, W F Bragg, Don Coldsmith, plus others not so well known – a mixture of new and old titles. John Harvey, better known today for his crime fiction, appeared writing as William S. Brady with Angus Wells; while Cyril Donson who had written SF for Hale in the late 60s reappeared with a series of pseudonymous westerns.

Black Horse era

The 1990s were a time of change. The library market was shrinking, many more books were being published overall, the paperback industry was increasing (libraries could buy more paperbacks than hardbacks for the same money).

The crime list had already been dropped and the end of 1994 saw the end of Rainbow Romances. Compared to the 1970s, Hale, by 1996, was publishing around 230 titles a year – 50 general novels and over a hundred westerns. (By 2006, the figures were 10 westerns, six crime and six others a month, plus non-fiction). The fact that western print runs, once 3000, are now just a fraction of that number is an indication of shrinking library market etc.

By the early 1990s Hale had lost many of its mainstay authors – James Hadley Chase, Jean Plaidy and John D. MacDonald had died, and other promising names had left for pastures new. But there were still some of its stalwarts left – Maureen Peters, James Pattinson, Peter Walker (as Nicholas Rhea), Pamela Hill, and Barbara Cartland. They would be joined by the likes of Showell Styles, Gillian Kaye, C. W. Reed and Julia Smith. There was a mixture of fiction, around the ever-present historical romances (now usually set in the 19th century). And a Graham Porter would have a novel published in 1998, forty years after his previous Hale title.

Rhea Cartland

Black Horse westerns were still a major feature. By this time Hale was probably the only consistent publisher of westerns in Britain, with the exception of a couple of publishers reissuing titles.

The early years of the Black Horse imprint were a mixture of the old and the new. Lauran Paine would produce more westerns until his death in 2001, and G J Barrett and Albert King would carry on until their deaths in the 1990s. J. T. Edson was still present, as was B. J. Holmes, Victor Hanson, and Jerome Gardner; but there were new names appearing like David Whitehead under his first pseudonym Ben Bridges, Elliot Conway, L. D. Tetlow, and Laurie Robinson under his various names – authors who would shape Black Horse in the forthcoming years.

There were also an American presence, though more often in the form of reissues, with Max Brand, Nye Nelson and Bill Gulick; and there were the unfamiliar authors, British and American, who would appear with the odd book then disappear.

There was also the presence of more women writers – Amy Sadler, M M Rowan, Irene Ord (under the first of her pseudonyms, Tex Larrigan, though Hale had published her romances since the late 70s), and Theresa Murphy (as Terry Murphy). As far as I can tell, there have been ten ladies to date who have written for Black Horse (I think I have found five who wrote pre-Black Horse).

Irene Ord

The 1990s, as I have said, saw a gradual shrinking of the library market but even so Black Horse rode along at a steady pace. New names appeared on the list – Michael D. George and Keith Hetherington under various alter egos, Lance Howard, Bret Rey, John Dyson, Corba Sunman, Dan Claymaker, and so on. Pseudonyms were ever present and the general anonymity, as ever, still masks some of the names despite a continued presence over the years (to date I have identified perhaps two thirds of the 500 plus names which have appeared on the 2000 plus Black Horse westerns). I have been told that the authorship over the past decade is mainly British, with a few American and Australasian authors.

Most Black Horse books are original works since the American imports of the early years. But there have been some reissues. Although Hale will not reprint their own early westerns, since 2000 there have been a number of reissues of 50s and 60s westerns by old hands like John Glasby, Sydney Bounds and John Russell Fearn. These can confuse the bibliographer as the books not only appeared under pseudonyms with Hale, but did so on original publication.

Non-Fiction

But fiction is only part of the story of Robert Hale. They also have had success over the years with their non-fiction. Much of this is in specialist areas, aimed at people’s interests rather than just general reading, although the number of titles published has fallen from the around 200 published in some years in the 1970s.

Fishing, witchcraft and the supernatural, creative writing, clocks, sport, dogs, bridge and topography are some of the fields in which they have published. At one time Hale had published 6 topographical series, the County Books and Portrait of… series being prominent examples – the latter series having titles which are still considered valuable today. In the 1970s they published an Encyclopedia of (sports) series, A to Z listings of names, places and terms connected not only with the major sports of cricket and soccer, but also then lesser followed sports like bowls. They have also published books on guitar making, doll repair, anagrams for crossword puzzlers, model toy soldiers and wine quotations (and I wish I could afford their recent book on penny slot machines).

Of course Hale also publish books on more general subjects – war, travel, history and biography. The biographies are not about the rich and famous, but often the common man or woman – librarians, publicans, writers and medical people have had their stories published. And Hale have published the only book on internment on the Isle of Man in the Second World War – a book which readers still request today; while Lauran Bosworth Paine added to all his fiction titles with a number of war and spy non-fiction works.

A final word

Thus Robert Hale have weathered the stormy waters of publishing that have seen many others lost. They are the last of what have been called the ‘library publishers’, and are still proudly independent having seen many others swallowed namelessly into conglomerates. They are perhaps a good example of what E. F. Schumacher meant by ‘Small is beautiful’.

They still face problems such as the current cutbacks in Britain’s Council budgets which will effect what libraries can spend over the next few years even more than before; while the trend of putting computers before books can only shrink the library market further.

However, as in the past, Robert Hale have shown that they have the ability to confront and cope with such problems. There may be a concern over the falling interest in westerns in libraries, but Hale weathered such problems with romances and crime in previous decades.

Perhaps the western needs a new image to attract new readers, or will it be replaced by some new genre like the techno thriller – will stories of conflict in the West be replaced by stories of conflict in another arena? Whatever the future of the western, Robert Hale does have a future. As long as there are readers wanting books, Robert Hale, I am sure, will continue to supply them. Here’s to their 80th birthday.

- John Herrington is working on a bibliography of Hale fiction and is interested in finding information on many of their authors. For instance, who were Shott Patterson and Vernon Neilson who wrote westerns for them in the 1960s? If anyone knows anything about them - or any other authors, even those writing thrillers, romances etc - he would love to hear from them at library.john@virgin.net