Richard Scott Prather (September 9, 1921 – February 14, 2007The Independent (Feb. 27, 2007): "Richard S. Prather: Creator of the private eye Shell Scott", by Jack Adrian ) was an American mystery novelist, best known for creating the "Shell Scott" series. He also wrote under the pseudonyms David Knight and Douglas Ring.
Biography Prather was born in Santa Ana, California and spent a year at Riverside Junior College (now Riverside Community College). He served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II, from 1942 through the end of the war, in 1945. That year he married Tina Hager and began working as a civilian chief clerk of surplus property at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California. He left that job to become a full-time writer in 1949. The first Shell Scott mystery, Case of the Vanishing Beauty, was published in 1950. It would be the start of a long series that numbered more than three dozen titles featuring the Shell Scott character.
A Shell Scott Mystery Magazine was published in 1966, but lasted only nine issues. http://www.philsp.com/mags/crime_s.html#shell_scott A short Shell Scott novel featured as written by Prather was included in each issue.
At Prather's death in 2007, he had completed but not published his last Shell Scott Mystery. His final novel, The Death Gods, was published October 2011, in print and ebook formats by Pendleton Artists, with permission of the Richard S. Prather Estate and Linda Pendleton.
Publisher Prather had a disagreement with his publisher, Pocket Books, and sued them in 1975. He gave up writing for several years and grew avocados. In 1986, he returned with The Amber Effect. In 1987, Prather's penultimate book, Shellshock, was published in hardcover by Tor Books. He donated his papers to the Richard S. Prather Manuscript Collection at the University of Wyoming, in Laramie, Wyoming.
Personal life Prather's wife, Tina Hager, died in April 2004 after 58 years of marriage.
Awards and honors Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award (1986) Twice served on the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America
Bibliography
Shell Scott novels Case of the Vanishing Beauty — 1950 Bodies in Bedlam — 1951 Everybody Had a Gun — 1951 Find This Woman — 1951 Dagger of Flesh — 1952 Darling, It's Death — 1952 Way of a Wanton — 1952 Always Leave 'em Dying — 1953 Ride a High Horse a.k.a. Too Many Crooks — 1953 Pattern for Panic — 1954 Strip for Murder — 1955 The Wailing Frail — 1956 Have Gat - Will Travel (short stories) — 1957 Three's a Shroud (novelettes) — 1957 The Scrambled Yeggs (published in 1952 as Pattern for Murder under pseudonym "David Knight") — 1958 Slab Happy — 1958 Take a Murder, Darling — 1958 Over Her Dear Body — 1959 Double in Trouble (with Stephen Marlowe, co-starring Marlowe's series character Chester Drum) — 1959 Dance with the Dead — 1960 Dig That Crazy Grave — 1961 Shell Scott's Seven Slaughters (short stories) — 1961 Kill the Clown — 1962 Dead Heat — 1963 The Cockeyed Corpse — 1964 Joker in the Deck — 1964 The Trojan Hearse — 1964 Dead Man's Walk — 1965 Kill Him Twice — 1965 The Meandering Corpse — 1965 The Kubla Khan Caper — 1966 Gat Heat — 1967 The Cheim Manuscript — 1969 Kill Me Tomorrow — 1969 The Shell Scott Sampler (short stories) — 1969 Dead-Bang — 1971 The Sweet Ride — 1972 The Sure Thing — 1975 The Amber Effect — 1986 Shellshock — 1987 The Death Gods — 2011
Other novels Lie Down, Killer — 1952
Novellas
The Sleeper Caper — 2009 (Shell Scott story originally published in the March 1953 issue of Manhunt, republished in 2009 as a Kindle edition in the Masters of Noir series)
As David Knight Pattern for Murder — 1952 (originally a stand-alone novel, rewritten as a Shell Scott novel and republished in 1958 as The Scrambled Yeggs under Prather's name) Dragnet: Case No. 561 — 1956
As Douglas Ring The Peddler — 1952 (Republished in 2006 by Hard Case Crime under Prather's name)
As editor The Comfortable Coffin, stories by Ellery Queen, Evan Hunter, Stanley Ellin, Erle Stanley Gardner, and others
Notes
References Reilly, John M., editor. Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1980): entry Marquis Who’s Who in America (2002 edition): entry The Richard S. Prather / Shell Scott Website Archived - Last: 26 June 2012 - Visit: 26 June 2021
External links Richard S. Prather at the Internet Book List