Joseph Shaw (editor)

Joseph T. "Cap" Shaw (1874–1952) was the editor of Black Mask magazine from 1926 to 1936.

For other people named Joseph Shaw, see Joseph Shaw (disambiguation).
Joseph Shaw
Born
Joseph Thompson Shaw

(1874-05-08)May 8, 1874
Gorham, Maine
DiedAugust 2, 1952(1952-08-02) (aged 78)
New York City
NationalityAmerican
EducationBowdoin College
Occupations
  • Editor
  • author
  • literary agent
Known forEditor of Black Mask magazine, 1926–36

Life and career
February 1931 issue of Black Mask magazine, with Shaw's story "Derelict" on the cover

Before becoming Black Mask editor, Shaw had worked as a newspaper reporter and as a soldier in World War I, attaining the rank of captain (Shaw's friends gave him the nickname "Cap").[1] Shaw was also a professional fencer, and even won an Olympic medal for fencing.[1] [2] Under his editorship, Black Mask published many works of crime fiction now recognised as classics of the genre, by authors such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner.[2][3][4]

Chandler greatly admired Shaw's ability to encourage Black Mask writers, claiming in a letter, "We wrote better for him than we could have written for anybody else."[1]

Despite Black Mask's critical and commercial popularity, Shaw was eventually fired from the magazine, succeeded by Fanny Ellsworth. Shaw then worked as a literary agent, though without notable success.[5]

Shaw was a writer himself, producing short stories, novels, and articles.

Works

Novels
  • Derelict (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930)
  • Blood on the Curb (Steeger Books, 2020)
  • It Happened at the Lake (Steeger Books, 2022)

Short stories
  • "Alkali Ethics," The Scrap Book, May 1911 [first known publication]
  • "Close Shootin’," Pioneer Tales, July 1928

Articles
  • "Do You Want to Become a Writer? or Do You Want to Make Money?," Writer's Digest, May 1934.
  • "Dialogue," Writer's Digest, June 1939.

Editor
  • The Hard Boiled Omnibus: Early Stories from Black Mask (includes introduction) (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946)

Further reading

References
  1. Danger is My Business: an illustrated history of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines by Lee Server. Chronicle Books, 1993, ISBN 0-8118-0355-4 (pp. 68-70).
  2. Hired Pens : Professional Writers in America's Golden Age of print by Ronald Weber. Ohio University Press, 1997 ISBN 0-8214-1204-3 (p. 98)
  3. Black Mask magazine Archived 2008-12-28 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Pulps" by Robert Sampson, in Encyclopedia Mysteriosa, edited by William L. DeAndrea. Macmillan, 1994, ISBN 0-02-861678-2 (p.287-9)
  5. Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler, Frank MacShane, ed., Columbia University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-231-05080-1 (pp. 5-8).


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