A Hack's Notebook

Traditionally a ‘hack’ writer is paid to write sensational pulp fiction such as true crime novels or bodice ripping paperbacks. Though Ben Haas often referred to himself as a hack he was in fact an exceptionally talented writer whose body of work – around 120 books over a sixteen-year period – was always distinguished by exhaustive research and well-rounded wholly credible characters. His western series Fargo Sundance John Cutler and Rancho Bravo are now considered as classics of the genre. In addition Ben Haas was also a serious best-selling novelist. A Hack’s Notebook is the incomplete autobiography found among his papers following his death in 1977 at the age of 51. It reveals many of the influences that were to inform his later works and gives valuable insight into the author himself. Rounding out the book is a personal reminiscence from Haas’s friend and collaborator Jim Henderson a scrapbook of family photos and a complete bibliography.