A follow-up to last week's review of I Was Going Anyway by Robert Switzer.
Robert Switzer's I Was Going Anyway as published as a Cock Robin Mystery, a series Macmillan published from 1955 to 1970. Poul Anderson, Lawrence Block, John Creasey, Michael Moorcock, Josephine Tey, and Donald Westlake were amongst the other Cock Robin authors.
But I Was Going Anyway is not a mystery, something remarked upon in contemporary reviews.The only real mystery is Robert Switzer. Not since ne'er do well novelist Kenneth Orvis have I encountered so elusive and intriguing a figure.
There are contradictions, beginning with the 1931 Canadian census. Robert Switzer appears on line number 15 of page number 14 in sub-district number 43 of sub-district Saskatoon (City) in district number 205 of district Saskatoon. That's a lot to take in, so I'm providing this link. If you prefer, this screenshot captures the most pertinent information (click to enlarge):
The 1931 census would have been the first since his birth. But when was that birth? The census taker records Robert's age as eight, but his year of birth as 1925.
Elsewhere on the same page, Robert and older siblings Helen and Franklin are recorded as students. The family owned a radio, and lived in a rented stucco house that still stands at 1026 Aird Street, Saskatoon.
Robert Switzer's first known published short story, 'No End to Anything,' appeared in the July 1946 issue of Esquire. You'll find his name on the cover under the FICTION heading.
The same issue provides a brief contributor profile of the author:
'The Big Bout' was the first of two Switzer boxing stories published in Esquire. The second, 'Death of a Prize Fighter' is the one to read. The June 1949 issue in which it appears also features Switzer's third and final contributor profile:
Though Switzer continued to publish in Esquire – eleven stories in the eight years that followed – there were no further profiles. That said, we do have a brief biography published on the back cover of The Tent of the Wicked (New York: Signet, 1956), the author's first novel:
All this leads back to the dust jacket for his last known work, the novel I Was Going Anyway (New York: Macmillan, 1961), which is where my hunt for biographical information began:
It is also where it ends.
Before I close the file – for now, at least – a couple of conclusions and an observation:
Given that Switzer is described as being eight in in 1931, twenty-three in 1946, and twenty-six in 1949, I think it safe to say that the 1931 census taker was incorrect in recording Switzer's year of birth as 1925. As if further evidence was required, we have this from "A Check-list of Contributions of Literary Import to Esquire 1933- 1958" included in The Armchair Esquire (New York: Putnam, 1958):
The matter of Switzer's place of birth is less clear, but my money is on Portland, Oregon, if only because the 1931 Canadian census records an American birth and Esquire reports the same. How explain "born in Canada" and "Canadian-born"? My guess is that those who worked with the author knew him to be Canadian and so made an assumption. If alive today, he would be in his eleventh decade.
Robert Switzer's career as a writer was both short and productive; nineteen Esquire short stories and three novels in fifteen years. Its abrupt end at age thirty-eight leads one to suspect the worst, but I like to think he gave into wanderlust and lived to a grand old age touring Latin America.
Really, I like to think he's traveling still.
Trivia: The Cock Robin name will be familiar to Ian Fleming collectors. The first American edition of Live and Let Die (New York: Macmillan, 1955) was published as a "Cock Robin Thriller." As far as I know, it is the only book that bears this device.
My thanks to Phil Stephensen-Payne, editor of the The FictionMags Index, who joined me in the hunt for Robert Switzer. I've long relied on the Index for information and recommend it highly.
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