Faust, Frederick Shiller (1892–1944)

US writer and poet, one of the earliest mass-market writers, with over 500 novels. The 100 ‘Max Brand’ Westerns, and his prolific detective stories, thrillers, and screenplays, earned him the sobriquet ‘king of the pulp writers’. His most famous works are Destry Rides Again (1930) and the Dr. Kildare film series.

He was born in Seattle, Washington. The first ‘Max Brand’ Western was published in 1917, and he wrote under a further 18 pseudonyms. He also wrote serious poetry, published in such collections as Dionysus in Hades (1931). He lived in Italy (1926–38) and was killed in action there while working as a war correspondent.