Richard Wormser

Richard Edward Wormser was an American writer of pulp fiction, detective fiction, screenplays, and Westerns, some of it written using the pseudonym of Ed Friend. He is estimated to have written 300 short stories, 200 novelettes, 12 books, many screenplays, and stories turned into screenplays, and a cookbook: Southwest Cookery or At Home on the Range.

Literary accomplishments

After graduating from Princeton University he became a prolific writer of pulp fiction under his own name, the pen name of Conrad Gerson, and wrote seventeen Nick Carter novels for Street & Smith.
Wormser's first crime fiction novel was The Man with the Wax Face in 1934. His first Western novel was The Lonesome Quarter in 1951.
Hollywood purchased several of his stories beginning with his It's All in the Racket filmed as Sworn Enemy in 1936. Columbia Pictures signed him for a short term writing contract in 1937. He was fired, then rehired by Columbia and worked for several other studios. Columbia once could not make up its mind between buying two of his stories, The Frame Up or Right Guy. The studio at last decided on Right Guy but filmed it under the title of The Frame-Up.
During World War II he served as a forest ranger.
Wormser won Western Spur Awards for juvenile fiction for Ride a Northbound Horse in 1964, and for The Black Mustanger in 1971. He also won an Edgar award for Best Paperback Original Novel for The Invader in 1973.

Novels

The Man With the Wax Face, 1934The Communist’s Corpse, 1935All's Fair, 1937The Hanging Heiress, 1949The Lonesome Quarter, 1952 The Longhorn Trail, 1955 The Body Looks Familiar, 1958Slattery's Range, 1959 The Late Mrs Five, 1960Drive East On 66, 1961Battalion of Saints, 1961 Perfect Pigeon, 1962Three-Cornered War, 1962 A Nice Girl Like You, 1963Pan Satyrus, 1963Ride a Northbound Horse, 1964 The Green Hornet: The Infernal Light, 1966 The Most Deadly Game #1: The Corpse in the Castle, 1970 The Ranch by the Sea, 1970Black Mustanger, 1971 The Takeover, 1971The Invader, 1972

Movie and TV tie-ins

Wormser authored a number of screenplay novelizations:

Thief of Baghdad, 1961
The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah, 1962
McLintock, 1963
Bedtime Story, 1964
Operation Crossbow, 1965
Major Dundee, 1965
Alvarez Kelly, 1966
Torn Curtain, 1966
The Scalphunters, 1968

and four novels based on TV series,

three as "Ed Friend":

The Green Hornet: The Infernal Light, 1967, adaptation
The High Chaparral: Coyote Gold, 1969, original
The Most Deadly Game: The Corpse in the Castle, 1970, original

and one as Richard Wormser:

The Wild Wild West, 1966, adaptation