T.Theodore Thomas Flynn was born on this day in 1902.
He’s one of the many pulp writers profiled in the Beginner’s Guide to Pulp Fiction, Vol. 2.
Flynn wrote across many pulp genres and later had a successful career as a western novelist.
Born in Indiana in 1902, he left home at the age of 14 and joined the merchant navy. He married and returned to the United States in the early 1920s, working as a railroad brakeman and starting his writing career.
His first professional sale appears to be “Pa Winn Tries Bunk” in the December 29, 1923, Detective Story Magazine. That was the first of several Pa Winn stories he would write, mostly for Flynn’s and its successors.
He was fired from his railroad job in 1925 and turned to writing full-time. Besides Flynn’s much of his early work appeared in Adventure, Clues and Short Stories.
Flynn was also the most prolific writer in Dime Detective, with his 80 appearances more than any other scribe.
With the aviation pulp boom after Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, Flynn took flight lessons, and wrote for those outlets.
In the 1930s, he began writing for many of the western pulps including Dime Western, Star Western and Western Trails.
Following World War II, he wrote heavily for the burgeoning western paperback market. His 1954 Saturday Evening Post serial “The Man From Laramie,” was made into a 1955 film starring James Stewart.
He died in Baton Rouge in 1979.
Brick Pickle Media 