Howard Browne
Howard Carleton Browne was an American writer born on April 15, 1908, in Omaha, Nebraska. He initially worked various jobs after dropping out of high school, later becoming a credit manager for furniture stores. Browne's writing career began in earnest while he was unhappy in his work, leading him to create pulp fiction in his spare time. He is best known for his detective stories featuring the character Paul Pine, which were heavily influenced by Raymond Chandler. The Pine series delves into the dark underbelly of Chicago and its corruption, beginning with "Halo in Blood" published in 1946.
Browne also served as an editor for several pulp magazines during the 1940s and 1950s, including Mammoth Detective and Amazing Stories. In addition to his literary work, he contributed to film and television, writing for series such as "Cheyenne" and "Mission Impossible." His contributions to the genre earned him the Life Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America in 1985. Browne passed away on October 28, 1999, in Carlsbad, California, leaving behind a legacy in detective fiction and pulp literature.
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Subject Terms
Howard Browne
Writer
- Born: April 15, 1908
- Birthplace: Omaha, Nebraska
- Died: October 28, 1999
- Place of death: San Diego, California
Biography
Howard Carleton Browne, who wrote under pen names that included John Evans and William Brengle, was born April 15, 1908, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the son of bakery owner George Browne and schoolteacher Rose Carlton Browne. His father died before his birth. After dropping out of high school, he moved to Chicago, where he held a number of jobs. In 1929 he became credit manager for a group of furniture stores. Browne married Esther Levy in 1931. They had two children and were later divorced. In 1959, he married Doris Ellen Kaye, with whom he adopted a daughter. Unhappy in his work, Browne began writing pulp fiction in his spare time. He sold his first four stories to the Chicago Daily News. A fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan stories, Browne wrote his first novel in imitation of those adventure tales: Warrior of the Dawn: The Adventures of Tharn (1943). By the 1940’s, he was also writing detective fiction for pulp magazines published by Ziff-Davis. These included Mammoth Detective, Amazing Stories, and Fantastic Adventures. Pleased with his work, the company offered him the editorship of Mammoth Detective, and he edited that and other company pulps from 1941 to 1956, with some time off for other experiments. In 1950, Browne became chief editor of the Ziff-Davis fiction group. Under the name John Evans, he began to publish the work for which he is best known, the Paul Pine detective stories. The stories began with with Halo in Blood (1946). Strongly influenced by Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, Pine is a Chicago detective who, attempting to avoid a speeding ticket, finds himself in a funeral procession of a man who becomes important to the book’s plot. Like the books that followed, the Pine stories reveal a corrupt Chicago. The Pine tales continue with Halo for Satan (1948), in which Pine is entrusted with the purchase of a manuscript supposedly written by Christ; Halo in Brass (1949), concerning a runaway daughter; and The Taste of Ashes (1957; published under Browne’s own name), which deals with political corruption. Pine also appears in The Paper Gun (1985), a collection published in a limited edition. As in the Pine stories, Chicago and its gangsters are the focus of Pork City (1988), based on the Prohibition-era murder of mob connected Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle. Browne’s film and television work dates from the 1950’s. Among his credits is gangster films are Roger Corman’s Capone (1975) with Ben Gazzara, Sylvester Stallone, and John Cassavetes, He wrote for a number of television series, including Cheyenne, Seventy-Seven Sunset Strip, Mission Impossible, and Mannix and was story editor for the Kraft Mystery Theatre. In 1985, Browne won the Life Achievement Award of the Private Eye Writers of America. Brown moved to Carlsbad, California, and he died October 28, 1999.