"The Young and the Damned"

Ever since he was a mere stripling of eleven and had first delved into a twelve-year-old copy of The American Mercury at his local public library, Seymour Krabbe wanted nothing more out of life than to be what was known in those more innocent times as a “public intellectual”; and so it was, at the age of eighteen, carrying only his high school gym bag and a second-hand Remington portable typewriter in its case, he arrived on a Greyhound bus at the Port Authority Terminal in New York City. He had only twenty-three dollars in his Cub Scout wallet, saved up from his newspaper route, but Seymour figured this would easily last him until he sold his first article or perhaps a short story, or maybe an in-depth book review, or who knew, perhaps even a sonnet or a villanelle…

The Young and the Damned, by Horace P. Sternwall, a Gold Medal paperback original, 1954. (Republished as The Young and the Unfortunate, by “Harry P. Stockhausen”, Panther Books {UK}, 1955.)


(Kindly scroll down the right-hand side of this page to find a listing of links to the opening passages of many other curiously out-of-print works of the legendary Horace P. Sternwall.)

tales of the hotel st crispian: chapter 63

"hoo boy"

by Horace P. Sternwall

edited by Dan Leo*

illustrated by roy dismas and konrad kraus

artistic supervisor: rhoda penmarq

*Associate Professor of Classical Literature, Assistant Home-Room Coördinator, Olney Community College; editor of A Girl Named Trixie, a Guy Called Spike: 27 Short Stories and 4 Novellas of the Slums by Horace P. Sternwall; Olney Community College Press, “The Sternwall Archive”, made possible in part by a generous grant from The Pep Boys™, Manny, Moe and Jack: “Serving your automotive needs to the best of our abilities in these trying times.” This week only, mention “Horace P. Sternwall” and get a free bottle of Turtle Wax© with every purchase exceeding $100. (Offer void where prohibited.)




for complete episode, click here

"Three Gals From Poughkeepsie"

“Excuse me,” said Otis, “but I’m new in town and I’m looking for an inexpensive but clean and respectable boarding house.”

“This place is cheap enough,” said the young brunette in the red dressing gown who was leaning against the carved wooden post. “Although maybe it ain’t cheap enough.”

“And it’s clean enough, although I wouldn’t eat off the floors,” said the blonde lounging on the steps in the black dress that might have been just a slip, what did Otis know?

“And respectable?” said the redhead in the denim shorts who was leaning against the doorframe at the top of the steps. “That all depends on who’s doing the respecting.”

Three Gals From Poughkeepsie, by Horace P. Sternwall; a Berkley paperback original; 1956. (Republished as Hellcats Three, by “Hilary Porter Smith"; Pyramid Books, 1959. Currently out of print.)


(Scroll down the right-hand side of this page to find a listing of links to the opening passages of many other unjustifiably-obscure works of the legendary Horace P. Sternwall.)

"Mathilda, My Second Cousin, Twice-Removed"

"There comes that awful moment in a young person's life when he or she suddenly realizes that everything is poppycock."

Mathilda, My Second Cousin, Twice-Removed, by "Hannah P. Van Steuben" (occasional nom de plume for Horace P. Sternwall; a Midwood "original" novel; paperback; 1954.

Originally priced at 35¢ (US), a "very fine" copy of the one-and-only printing of this steamy tale of lust and murder recently sold on eBay for $5.25!

(Special thanks to Patricia Ingold for her tireless archival work.)

(Scroll down the right-hand side of this page to find a listing of links to the opening passages of many other curiously-out-of-print works of that forgotten master Horace P. Sternwall.)