gustavratzenhofer wrote:I hate to accuse you of plagiarism, kicky, but I've read that somewhere before. I believe it was in the September 1934 issue of "True Confessions". The story, if I remember correctly, was entitled, "Housewives in Heat" and the author Samuel Briggins was always one of my favorites.
Gus, it's interesting that you would mention Samuel Briggins, and "True Confessions". In fact, I had a brief run in with him back then about this very story.
The truth is, everything in this story is my own. It was published in a periodical called "Secrets", in August of 1933, by me, under my nom de plume at the time, Hilderbrandt Wallenshtucht, over a full year
before Samuel's story.
When I noticed that passage in his version, I acquired legal counsel. When he found that I was threatening legal action, he called me, and during the course of the phone call, became very agitiated and threatened to "pull my intestines out my arse" if I didn't retract the lawsuit.
I would not relent though, which prompted him to show up at my doorstep one day in the summer of 1935. When I refused to open the door, he began to shout and hurl the vilest epithets at me and my cat. I called the police, and when they showed up, sadly, he got violent. The officers responded by raining blows upon his head and body with their nightsticks. He was arrested and thrown in jail for a period of about six months.
If you've heard of a publication entitled, "Passionate Playthings" you might remember that his monthly column was inexplicably missing during that time.
I learned later that he had been dealing with an addiction to various narcotic substances at the time, which he eventually kicked, with the help of a clinic in Eastern Maine. At that point, he sent me a finely written note of apology and a promise to send me all the money that was my due, a promise which he kept.
We even became friends once our legal troubles had been settled, and in fact, he invited me along for that trip down the Amazon in '57. At the time, I was finishing work on a never-to-be published novel of my own, entitled "Humping Frederica", and could not join him.
I was sorry to hear of his passing. He was a good man.