Miami Noir: The Classics

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to a number of individuals who were of great assistance to me in assembling the stories found in this volume. For their help in identifying materials from the golden age of the pulps and for their interest in this enterprise, my most sincere thanks go to Otto Penzler, editor in chief and publisher of Mysterious Press, and to Will Murray, long-time pulp historian and expert on matters related to Doc Savage and Lester Dent. I am also greatly indebted to Betsy Willeford, Charles’s widow, for her aid and unflagging encouragement. Thanks as well to my FIU colleague Lynne Barrett, herself an Edgar Award winner, for her many adroit suggestions: “Oh but there must be something out there by Damon Runyon!” And last but certainly not least, thanks to all my fellow ink-stained wretches who have so generously shared their most excellent work for this collection. Drawing us all together once again has reminded me what a great blessing it has been to spend a career working and playing among so many great talents — I believe that as a group we are second to none, here in our lovely literary Casablanca.