Oliver Quade
Created by Frank Gruber (1904-1969)

"The price of this magnificent volume is not twenty-five dollars as you might expect, not even fifteen or ten, but a paltry two-ninety-five. It sounds preposterous, I know, but it's really true!" The knowledge of the ages for only two ninety-five!"
(Oliver lays it on for a gathered crowd, in "Death at the Main")

A crime-solving hot-shot encyclopedia salesman. I kid you not.

Yet another fine product from the multi-talented pulpster Frank Gruber.

OLIVER QUADE has a photographic memory and a brain capable of soaking up the most varied, arcane and often downright ridiculous trivia, which has earned him the nickname "The Human Encyclopedia." Okay, maybe he gave it to himself -- Oliver's not the modest type, but nonetheless, armed with numerous copies of the single-volume encyclopedia, this cocky, brash Willie Logan with the gift of gab travels from town to town, solving crimes and racking up sales, "salting away twenty thousand dollars every year."

Gruber was one of the most prolific of the great pulpsters, and recounted his experiences in The Pulp Jungle, a critical study. He also found the time to create several different private eye series. Beside Otis Beagle and Joe Peel, he wrote about Fletcher and Cragg, and Simon Lash and Eddie Slocum, and came up with TV hybrid P.I./cowboy Shotgun Slade.

SHORT STORIES

• "Brass Knuckles" (November 1936, Thrilling Detective)
• "Death at the Main" (December 1936, Thrilling Detective)
• "Murder on the Midway" (January 1937, Thrilling Detective)
• "Pictures of Death" (February 1937, Thrilling Detective)
• "Ask Me Another" (June 1937, Black Mask)
• "Trailer Town" (August 1937, Thrilling Detective)
• "Rain, the Killer" (September 1937, Black Mask)
• "Death on Eagle's Crag" (December 1937, Black Mask)
• "Dog Show Murder" (March 1938, Black Mask)
• "Death Sits Down" (May 1938, Black Mask)
• "Forced Landing" (October 1938, Black Mask)
• "State Fair Murder" (February 1939, Black Mask)
• "Funny Man" (May 1939, Black Mask)
• "Oliver Quade at the Races" (November 1939, Black Mask)
• "Words and Music" (March 1940, Black Mask)"Dog Show Murder" "Words and Music"

COLLECTIONS

• Brass Knuckles (1966)

FILM

• DEATH OF A CHAMPION
  (1939, Paramount)
  67 minutes, black and white
  Based on the story "Dog Show Murder" by Frank Gruber
  Screenplay by Stuart Palmer and Cortland Fitzsimmons
  Directed by Robert Florey
  Starring Lynne Overman as OLIVER QUADE
  Also starring Joseph Allen, May Boley, Hal Brazeale, David Clyde, Virginia Dale, Harry Davenport, Robert McKenzie, Donald O'Connor, Robert Paige, Susan Paley, Walter Soderling, Frank M. Thomas, Pierre Watkin

Preliminary report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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