"Pronzini, Bill - Nameless Detective 007 - Hoodwink" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pronzini Bill)

"Oh?Ф

"You mean you don't know about it? As into pulps as you are?Ф

"I've been pretty involved the past couple of weeks," I said. "Fill me in; it sounds interesting.Ф

"Not much to it. Bunch of pulp collectors and fans got together and decided to put on a convention. Going to be an annual event if they don't lose too much money on this first one. You know the kind of thing: panel discussions, speeches, dealers selling old pulps and books, kids running around asking you for autographs. Guy I know dragged me to a science fiction con about ten years ago. Bored the hell out of me, but I guess some people get off on them.Ф

"Why go to this one, then?Ф

"Because I'm getting paid for it," Dancer said. "Not much, what they call an honorarium, but it's enough to bring me up here for three days. Besides, it's kind of a reunion.Ф

"Reunion?Ф

"You ever hear of the Pulpeteers?Ф

"No. What's that?Ф

"A private writers' club back in New "York in the forties. Only those of us who wrote or worked on the pulps could join; more of an excuse to get together once or twice a month and booze it up than anything else. We had maybe a dozen members at one time or another. Some of them are dead now, only eight of us left.Ф

"And all eight are coming to this pulp convention?-Ф

"Right," Dancer said. "Don't ask me how Lloyd Underwood, he's the head of the convention committee, managed to dig up all of us, but he did it.Ф

"Anyone else whose name I'd know?Ф

"Probably. Bert Praxas, Waldo Ramsey, Jim Bohannon, Ivan and Cybil Wade, Frank Colodny.Ф

I recognized all of those names. It was a pretty impressive list; the first five were a kind of Who's Who of pulp writers in the forties, and the sixth, Frank Colodny, had been a well-known editor of the Action House line of pulps.

I said, "All of them don't live in California now, do they?Ф

"No. Convention people flew Bohannon in from Denver, Praxas from New York, and Colodny from Arizona. Most of us arrived last night.Ф

"When does the convention start?Ф

"Officially, it starts tomorrow. But there's a get-acquainted party tonight at the hotel, for the Pulpeteers and some of the convention people. I can get you in if you're interested.Ф

"I'm interested. Which hotel?Ф

"The Continental.Ф

"Is that where you're staying?Ф

"Right. Room six-seventeen.Ф

"How many days does it run?Ф

"Until Sunday." Dancer fumbled inside the rumpled sports jacket he was wearing and came out with an ocher-colored brochure printed, appropriately, on pulp paper. "Here's the program they sent me. It'll tell you when the panels are scheduled, what they'll be about.Ф