Reese fans contend that he was one of the equal or better-known practitioners of his craft: that in his own territory he was as good as they come. Nothing like this happens to the young literati of today. He headed James Roosevelt’s campaign for governor, spent years as a Los Angeles newsman, and was at home in Hollywood. From all this his principals as a writer emerge: “I always tell ambitious writers-to-be that if they haven’t read, they can’t write.” His second dictum: “If they haven’t lived, they can’t write.” He himself drew on an incredible reservoir of experience. He was formidably self-educated and called himself “a nut about the English language.” He delighted in good prose and was a fine stylist himself. The flavor is sharpened by a high degree of literacy. The mixture of skepticism and faith adds a special tone to his work. He thought that many of today’s college graduates “ought to be recalled as unsafe at any speed.” Observation told him that “the noble red man was a myth” and that “tribal life was hell.” At the same time he respected courage and honor and loyalty. The antics of the human race left him “confused and depressed.” After his years in politics and the newspaper business, he suspected that crooks and phonies outnumber the honest men in our world. An agent once described him as “incredibly imaginative.” There is a strong element of disillusion in Reese’s humor. His production record alone stamps him as a notable writer, but he had other claims to high rating.

Another trilogy with This Wild Land chronicles the powerful and passionate Shepherd family on and made concessions to the then current appetite for sex and violence. Ten novels spotlight private investigator Jefferson Hewitt. The Looters explores the world of organized crime and became a film by Universal Pictures. Big Mutt, is a best selling dog story for children, in print more than 30 years-winner of New York Herald Tribune Award, Children’s Book, 1952. His list included many high original Westerns, especially the Jesus on Horseback trilogy, but he developed in other directions.

Doubleday published his first novel in 1943 and by 1980 he had written more than 40 more. He sold over 500 stories to the pulps, graduated to the slicks, and became the top freelance contributor to the Saturday Evening Post. I was never an ‘author,’but I was a production professional.” His output was remarkable. John Reese in 1981- 'I have never cared what any critic said about my work and still do not. Pseudonyms for this author include: Cody Kennedy Jr.

The Looters by John Henry Reese