George Harmon Coxe(1901-1984)

George Harmon Coxe's writing career officially began in 1922 when he labored, largely unrecognized, in the nickel and dime pulps for pennies a word. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Coxe wrote across various genres: love stories, sports, adventure tales - anything that he could sell, but his special fondness for crime fiction would eventually lead him to the Black Mask, where its legendary editor, Joe Shaw, purchased his first Jack 'Flashgun' Casey crime story in 1934. The character became so popular it became a radio show that lasted into the 1940s. Shaw initially discouraged Coxe for writing a recurring character, but soon admitted that 'Flash' Casey was so well constructed that the series soon became a reader favorite. Coxe's character would pay dividends into the 1950s; for the 1951-52 season CBS produced '_Crime Photographer_', which afforded Darren McGavin one of his earliest starring roles as the crack crime photographer. The idea of a crime photographer proved so seductive that Coxe created another crime solving shutterbug, Kent Murdock (who would enjoy 21 published books). Obviously Coxe knew how to mine an idea. Hollywood beckoned in the mid-1930s and Coxe worked for MGM from 1936-38. But unlike many of his fellow pulp writers, Coxe preferred writing books... and he was a particularly prolific author, writing a total of 63 novels, his last published in 1975. The Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master in 1964. Married since 1929, Coxe had 2 children and died on January 31, 1984.