UNDERSTANDING A HAUNTED HOUSE. HOW COSMIC NOIR BEGAN
PROLOGUE TO A NOIR HAUNTED HOUSE My vaunted journalism professor insisted that we read H.L. Mencken for our education in media and culture before inflicting ourselves on society. And for our journalistic ethics. There was still such a thing in those days. In fact Prof. Nathaniel Blumberg had just won some awards for his coverage of the Chicago protests in 1968. I wasn't paying much attention so I didn't know that H.L. Mencken had started a magazine in 1920 called "Black Mask" to feature works that were "the best stories available of adventure, the best mystery and detective stories, the best romances, the best love stories, and the best stories of the occult." The dime paperbacks of those authors populated libraries and kitchen tables for quite some time. CEDAR CHEST IN THE BASEMENT. FIRST SIGHTING OF GRIMNIR Mom's Maytag ringer washer circa 1952 was by the basement floor drain. My errant ways meant she had to take me down the stairs with her o