Prather Passes

It was sad to read of the passing of 85-year-old Richard S. Prather, best known as the creator of Hollywood gumshoe Shell Scott. According to the Rap Sheet:

Although Prather hadn’t seen a new book of his published since Shellshock (1987), Hard Case Crime last year reissued his 1952 standalone, The Peddler (which originally appeared under his pseudonym “Douglas Ring”), and interviewer Linda Pendleton, the widow of pulp novelist Don Pendleton, noted in her recent interview with Prather that the author was sitting on an as-yet-unpublished, 1,000-page Shell Scott manuscript, The Death Gods.

Though Rap Sheet editor J. Kingston Pierce doesn’t “feel qualified to eulogize over this author,” he’s included many links to more information about the well-loved Prather, as well as links to sites on the Web that are mourning him today.