Frederick Faust
was one of the most prolific writers of all time, publishing nearly thirty
million words in his lifetime. Faust had more pen names than Destry had bullets.
(In the film, Destry Rides Again, based
on the Faust character, James Stewart famously shoots his Colt seven times.) He
wrote more than 500 novels and short stories—all with two fingers on a manual
typewriter. In his day, Faust was one of the highest paid writers in the world.
Late in his career, Warner Brothers paid him $3,000 a week and he made a
fortune from radio, film, and television adaptions of his Dr. Kildare character.
Despite writing poetry and fiction in every genre, it was Westerns that made Faust famous, albeit
under the pseudonym Max Brand.
Although
Faust had once worked on a ranch, he was not a true Westerner. He was born in Seattle
in 1892 and grew to maturity in California. He attended the University of
California at Berkeley for four years without graduating. He was enamored with
the Greek and Latin classics his entire life and often incorporated ancient
mythology into his stories. His real life’s ambition was to be a poet, and he
wrote genre fiction in the afternoons so he could pursue his passion for poetry
in the mornings.
Faust wrote
his first Western as a magazine story in 1918. Faust’s editor had recently lost
Zane Grey to a competitor because Grey’s Western stories had become so popular.
This editor convinced Faust to try to fill his boots. Faust’s first Western
novel, The Untamed (1919) was highly
derivative of a 1910 Grey Western titled The Heritage of the Desert.
Grey and
Faust were different writers. Grey was enthralled with the landscape and expansiveness of the West, while Faust preferred to explore internal conflicts.
Grey brought setting almost to life as a character, while Faust had a knack for
describing animals in a way that made them vital characters in his stories.
Faust preferred pursuit plots, delayed revelation, and his fiction was
character driven. Faust was a more literary writer, especially when he put his
mind to it. Jon Tuska, a literary critic/agent, wrote: “The Biblical overtones that run throughout
Faust’s Western fiction are as striking and unique as his imagery from
classical literature. Indeed, Zane Grey’s avowed pantheism is wan beside the
vivid evocation of the presence of God in Faust’s fiction, whether as the Great
Spirit of the Plains Indians or the Christian Deity … every story Faust ever
wrote seems to have to a degree both surface action and a subtext, a story
within the story that functions on the deepest level.”
Although
Faust received praise from literary critics, his lack of historical accuracy, scant
descriptions of the landscape, and minimal actual experience on the frontier generated
harsh criticism by those who admire realistic detail in Western fiction. Additionally,
His writing quality was inconsistent. Most of his books and stories were
produced at a breakneck pace, which sometimes amounted to 6,000 words in a single
day. His work has also been butchered by editors who severely abridge his
serialized stories for publication as novels.
Frederick
Faust was a one-man fiction factory. He was also a great storyteller who invented
enduring characters. Faust believed that “there is a giant asleep in every
man. When that giant wakes, miracles can
happen.” This was certainly true for
him.
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