Max Brand

Max Brand is the most well-known pen name of Frederick Faust, the American writer of westerns and a number of other genres. As Max Brand, Faust wrote at least eighty-five books popularizing the character of Dr. Kildare and glorifying the untamed West. The latter were romanticized stories of shoot-outs on mountain ridges, of Indian lore, of long wilderness chases, and of conflicts that test courage and codes of honor. Many films and radio and television shows were based on Faust's plots, which were always highly colorful and action-filled.

His productivity was astounding. During the twenty years of his literary career, he wrote more than 30 million words or the equivalent of 530 books under 20 different pen names. He was as versatile as he was prolific and wrote not only westerns, but also mysteries, fantasies, spy stores, and adventures.

The "King of the Pulp Writers," as Faust has been called, also wrote poetry in the manner of the ancient Greeks. He considered this to be his ture vocation and published two volumes of his lyrics. His literary heroes were Homer, Shakespeare, Chaucer and Rabelais.

Born in Seattle and educated in California, Faust spent many years in the mountains of Northern Italy with his family. During the Second World War, he decided to follow American soldiers into battle as a reporter for Harper's. He was killed during the first half-hour of the attack at the age of fifty-one.

Edward H. Dodd, Jr. portrayed him as "A tall fellow, six feet two, with broad shoulders and a massive head,...a resolute, cultured voice,...the predilection of a gourmet for rare wines and fine victuals,...a dreamy talker of boundless imagination who could hold you spellbound by the hour."