# Fredric Brown **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 24, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912 "2012-05-24T02:46:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912/1 "2012-05-24T02:46:04Z")
I received another of his mysteries that I could afford on Ebay; \*The Deep End \* Damn, he’s good! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912/2 "2012-05-24T11:58:59Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I received another of his mysteries that I could afford on Ebay; \*The Deep End > \* > > Damn, he’s good! > > 🙂 Agreed. I’ve read _The Deep End_. I had been familiar with Brown’s science fiction and fantasy work for a long time (starting when I read _Arena_ in an anthology). He was one of the great “short story with a twist” writers who flourished in the 1950s pulps (although he’d been publishing since well before then), but i hadn’t realized that he also wrote mysteries until I came across a recommendation for his _The Night of the Jabberwock_ in Martin Gardner’s _The Annotated Alice_. I got a copy of Zomba’s omnibus edition of Brown, which included three other great Brown mysteries – his first, _The Fabulous Clipjoint_ (which got hi m an Edgar), _The Screaming mimi_, and _Knock 3-2-1_. Over the next few years I picked up other Brown mysteries. In the 1980s and eaely 1990s there waqs usually at least one out every year in reprint, and Dennis Mcmillan books published a collection of Brown’s prevciously uncollected short mysteries, first as collector’s hardcovers then as paperbacks. I got all the paperback editions, and wish they’d published the rest of the series. I also picked up many in used book stores from the 50s and 60s. Sadly, nobody seems to be printing him anymore. Used bookstores are pretty much gone. I haven’t seen a Brown book in either a new or used bookshop in years (and I look). Your best bet is online booksellers. I highly recommend the anthology [iCarnival of Crime\*, which collects his best short mysteries and has an extensive bibliography in the back. There have been several movies and TV shows ostensibly based on Brown works, but the ones I’ve seen haven’t beren very good, or faithful (Star Trek’s episode _Arena_ is typical. If you think you know the Brown story from the TV show – well, you don’t. Read the story by Brown). Maybe someday someone will do a faithful Brown adaptation, unlike dreck like the film version of _Martian, go Home!_. Brown was one of three people thanked in the dedication of Robert Heinlein’s _Stranger in a Strange Land_. I think the Carnival scenes in that book wouldn’t have been written had not Heinlein been inspired by Brown’s stories set in carnivals (Part of _The Fabulous Clipjoint_ and its sequels cwere set in a carnival, as were the short stories _The Freak Show Murders_ and _The Pickled Punks_, whicgh later became the novel \* Madball\*), Brown had worked in a carnival himself, and the experience shows. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912/3 "2012-05-24T12:38:30Z")
There’s a few things available as print on demand, but most of them are individual short stories. But there is _The Freakshow Murders And A Cat from Siam_ (Brown’s 6-part 1942 story, a spiralling descent into bloody murder, psychosis, mind control and hallucination (it says!) coming out from Creation Oneiros in October. $14.95 for 160 pages. Or in July, for $95, Centipede Press have a posh 360 page volume called _His Name Was Death_, which includes the title novel and two short stories. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912/4 "2012-05-24T14:06:19Z")
To this day, “Answer” is the only thing I’ve ever read by Frederic Brown. Still one of the greatest (and shortest) short stories of all time, in any genre. So… what else SHOULD I read of his? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912/5 "2012-05-24T14:13:52Z")
Yep. Good writer. _Answer_ was also what (supposedly) gave Doug Addams the idea for Deep Thought and 42. Somewhat related quote which shows how good Fred’s ideas hold up even when changed wildly for TV shows and movies: “I know! You construct a weapon. Look around, can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe?” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912/6 "2012-05-24T14:15:31Z")
The Fabulous Clip Joint is the first in a series of mysteries using the same protagonists. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912/7 "2012-05-24T14:54:21Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > To this day, “Answer” is the only thing I’ve ever read by Frederic Brown. > > Still one of the greatest (and shortest) short stories of all time, in any genre. > > So… what else SHOULD I read of his? I’ve read a collection of his short stories called _From These Ashes_. They’re all good, but I particularly recommend the ones called “Nightmare in Blue”, “Nightmare in Red”, and various other colors. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912/8 "2012-05-24T15:19:30Z")
I loved the “Nightmare” stores, especially the wicked “Nightmare in Yellow.” They were once collected in an anthology “Nightmares and Geezenstacks.” When you write short short stories, you are competing with Fredric Brown even now. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912/9 "2012-05-24T15:35:09Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > The Fabulous Clip Joint is the first in a series of mysteries using the same protagonists. As observed in post #2. They were Ed and Am Hunter. The series, like most series, petered out as it went along, but the first several ones were pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fredric-brown/622912/10 "2012-05-24T16:34:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > As observed in post #2. They were Ed and Am Hunter. The series, like most series, petered out as it went along, but the first several ones were pretty good. How the hell can a title like “Mrs. Murphy’s Panties” be petered out? Oh, wait…