Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction

A 2024 Edgar and Macavity Award Nominee

The first-ever biography of the most popular and most influential pulp writer of all time, written by the collaborator who knew him best

Beginning in 1947 with I, the Jury, and continuing with his next six novels, Mickey Spillane quickly amassed a readership in the tens of millions, becoming the bestselling novelist in the history of American publishing. Surrounded by controversy for the overt violence and suggestive sexual content of his iconic Mike Hammer private eye novels, Spillane was loathed by critics but beloved by his readers. And the success of his tough, hard-boiled writing left a lasting mark on the mystery genre, inspiring scores of followers and indelibly shaping crime fiction in the decades that followed.

There is, however, more to the life of Frank Morrison Spillane than his books. Born in Brooklyn, raised in New Jersey, the young son of a bartender worked as a circus performer and fighter pilot before his writing career took off, and, through writing, he went on to a career as an actor, a crimestopper, and a Miller Light spokesperson in commercials so popular they ran for a quarter of a century.

These stories and more are included in Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction, the definitive biography of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, written by the author’s friend and collaborator, Max Allan Collins, and pulp fiction scholar James L. Traylor.

Illuminating … This definitive work is indispensable for any fan of the revolutionary Spillane and his two-fisted novels.”
―Publishers Weekly ⭐ STARRED REVIEW

A full-dress biography of the most polarizing practitioner of 20th-century crime fiction…. Fans who’ve been waiting for a life of Spillane will gobble this up.”
―Kirkus

Spillane almost single-handedly created the market for ‘pocket books’ in the late 1940s, and he was one of the first authors media-savvy enough to promote himself as a character.”
―Eddie Muller, host of Noir Alley

A knockout biography … A thoroughly engrossing life story and an indispensable account of the rise of paperback publishing.”
―Booklist ⭐ STARRED REVIEW

An engaging, capacious and largely celebratory account, presenting the writer, his works and their multimedia adaptations as worthy of serious consideration.”
―Wall Street Journal

A superbly written and exhaustive portrayal of the life of a writer who changed the mystery genre in the last half of the 20th century…. There is so much here to sink your teeth into and enjoy. Great biographies must capture the individual portrayed—his spirit, his accomplishments, and the times in which he lived and worked. SPILLANE does all of this so expertly that it reads almost as well as a Spillane novel.”
―BookReporter

[Collins and Traylor] are strong and persuasive advocates of Spillane’s novels. Few readers will be able to resist sampling Spillane’s work after reading this engaging and definitive biography of the surprisingly affable tough-guy writer.”
―Shelf Awareness

Max Allan Collins, an MWA Grand Master, is the author of the Shamus-winning Nathan Heller historical thrillers (The Big Bundle) and the graphic novel Road to Perdition, basis of the Academy Award-winning film.  His innovative ’70s series, Quarry, revived by Hard Case Crime (Quarry’s Blood), became a Cinemax TV series.  He has completed thirteen posthumous Mickey Spillane novels (Kill Me If You Can) and is the co-author (with his wife Barbara Collins) of the Trash ‘n’ Treasures mystery series (Antiques Liquidation).

James L. Traylor was nominated for the MWA Edgar Award in 1985 for One Lonely Knight: Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer (written with Max Allan Collins). With Collins, he co-authored Mickey Spillane on Screen (2012). His Dime Detective Companion (2011) is recognized as a significant contribution to pulp fiction research. He received his doctorate in English from Georgia State University (Atlanta), specializing in early realistic prose fiction.