Richard Edward Wormser (February 2, 1908, in New York City, New York – July, in Tumacaciori, Arizona) was an American writer of pulp fiction, detective fiction, screenplays, and Westerns, some of it written using the pseudonym of Ed Friend. He is estimated to have written 300 short stories, 200 novelettes, 12 books, many screenplays, and stories turned into screenplays, and a cookbook: Southwest Cookery or At Home on the Range.
Literary accomplishments After graduating from Princeton University he became a prolific writer of pulp fiction under his own name, the pen name of Conrad Gerson, and wrote seventeen Nick Carter novels for Street & Smith.Wild Cat Books The Pulp Hero Deluxe Edition, p. 139, 2008, Lulu.
Wormser's first crime fiction novel was The Man with the Wax Face in 1934. His first Western novel was The Lonesome Quarter in 1951.Sadler, Geoff, Salder, James, Sonnichsen, Charles Leland, Bold, Christine, Twentieth Century Western Writers, 1991, St. James Press Edition 2.
Hollywood purchased several of his stories beginning with his It's All in the Racket filmed as Sworn Enemy in 1936. Columbia Pictures signed him for a short term writing contract in 1937.http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_041037/32 He was fired, then rehired by Columbia and worked for several other studios. Columbia once could not make up its mind between buying two of his stories, The Frame Up or Right Guy. The studio at last decided on Right Guy but filmed it under the title of The Frame-Up.
In 1969, his book Ride a Northbound Horse was made into a television film of the same name for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. It starred Carroll O’Connor, Jack Elam, Ted Gehring, Mills Watson, and Dub Taylor.
During World War II he served as a forest ranger.
Wormser won Western Spur Awards for juvenile fiction for Ride a Northbound Horse in 1964, and for The Black Mustanger in 1971. He also won an Edgar award for Best Paperback Original Novel for The Invader in 1973.
Novels The Man With the Wax Face, 1934 The Communist’s Corpse, 1935 All's Fair, 1937 The Hanging Heiress, 1949 The Lonesome Quarter, 1952 (western) The Longhorn Trail, 1955 (western) The Body Looks Familiar, 1958 Slattery's Range, 1959 (western) The Late Mrs Five, 1960 Drive East On 66, 1961 Battalion of Saints, 1961 (western) Perfect Pigeon, 1962 Three-Cornered War, 1962 (western) A Nice Girl Like You, 1963 Pan Satyrus, 1963 Ride a Northbound Horse, 1964 (western) The Green Hornet: The Infernal Light, 1966 (as Ed Friend) The Most Deadly Game #1: The Corpse in the Castle, 1970 (as Ed Friend) The Ranch by the Sea, 1970 Black Mustanger, 1971 (western) The Takeover, 1971 The Invader, 1972
Movie and TV tie-ins Wormser authored a number of screenplay novelizations: Thief of Baghdad, 1961 The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah, 1962 McLintock, 1963 Bedtime Story, 1964 Operation Crossbow, 1965 Major Dundee, 1965 Alvarez Kelly, 1966 Torn Curtain, 1966 The Scalphunters, 1968 and four novels based on TV series, three as "Ed Friend": The Green Hornet: The Infernal Light, 1967, adaptation (Dell) The High Chaparral: Coyote Gold, 1969, original (Tempo) The Most Deadly Game: The Corpse in the Castle, 1970, original (Lancer) and one as Richard Wormser: The Wild Wild West, 1966, adaptation (Signet)
Notes
References Wormser, Richard, & Ira Skutch, How to Become a Complete Non-Entity: A Memoir, iUniverse, 2006
External links
Magazine stories http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/s2396.htm#A92195