Cobalt Club member Emruf7 made a big contribution in the research of Suspense and Escape recently when he pointed out a book by veteran writer Jules Archer. The book is I Sell What I Write and was published in 1950. His Escape and Suspense contributions include stories such as Two Came Back and Murder is a Matter of Opinion. The book can be viewed at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/isellwhatiwrite00arch/page/6/mode/2up . His sections on those stories and others give the background about how they were created and how he sold them as short stories. The creative origins of Two Came Back is especially interesting.
His comment about his short story Murder is a Matter of Opinion, adapted for Radio City Playhouse and Molle Mystery Theater long before it was on Suspense: "Which brings me to an important footnote on making money out of pulp mystery writing. The pulps will hand back radio rights to you upon request. In the case of Murder Is a Matter of Opinion, the radio rights paid off almost eight times as much as I received for the original story in Mystery Book." The story was also used in 1951 in the TV anthology series Cameo Theater. No kinescopes have survived.
Direct links to the short stories mentioned
- Two Came Back https://archive.org/details/isellwhatiwrite00arch/page/72/mode/2up
- Murder is a Matter of Opinion https://archive.org/details/isellwhatiwrite00arch/page/52/mode/2up
- Sold to Satan https://archive.org/details/isellwhatiwrite00arch/page/68/mode/2up
