Self-proclaimed “KING OF THE CANADIAN PULPS” and the “FASTEST AUTHOR IN THE EAST” was born April 6, 1905 in Hastings Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada. He was the son of John Lawrence Monahon (1865 - 1931), a second generation Irish Canadian, and Helen Burgess, a British-born Irish woman.
Kelley’s father ran a medicine show called the “Shamrock Concert Company.” His father, at the age of 18-years, took the names of his uncles, Thomas and Patrick as well as his mother’s maiden name, Kelley, and went into the med-game as Thomas Patrick Kelley. Travelling and entertaining with his father’s medicine show circuit, he became known as Thomas Patrick Kelley Jr., and appeared to have learned something about self-promotion. Decades later he wrote a memoir of those days, paying tribute to his father who travelled the continent as Canada’s King of the Medicine Men in, The Fabulous Kelley, first published in 1974.
Kelley led a colourful life and was something of a character. He tried his hand in a cartage business with his card reading, “Day or Night I Never Sleep.” Thomas P. Kelley and his wife Ethel, were also sometimes employed at the many residents where they lived as chef, butler, and sometimes a chauffeur. During his 20’s he was a middleweight boxer under the names Thomas Monahon, Tommy Kelley, and was also known as “The Pride of Miami Beach.”
The pugnacious prizefighter’s next phase of life came in the 1930’s when he took to the typewriter and began to write Pulp Fiction. The word merchant Thomas Patrick Kelley, and under assumed names by his own account, sold more than 8,000,000 words and authored two-dozen books. Few would dispute Kelley’s title as King of the Canadian Pulp Writers, yet he did little to document the claim and worked too fast to bother keeping records. Kelley kept only a handful of his own publications.
Also known as THE FASTEST AUTHOR IN THE EAST, Kelley would churn out as many as three 4,000-word short stories in one day and was still unable to meet his demand. His first story, written in the 30’s was completed in longhand in only 11-days and he received $500 for the story.
A fellow by the name of Scott Young recounted how he and Kelley were walking along Wellington St. in the late 40’s when an editor of a Pulp Magazine rushed up to Kelley saying he needed a story immediately for a confession magazine. The man offered Kelley $200 if he could complete it before noon. Kelley sat down at a typewriter and said, “What’s the title?” the editor replied, “Type this at the top: ‘I was a Love Slave.’” Before lunch, Kelley had rejoined Young with the money in his pocket.
Thomas Patrick Kelley published fantasy serials with such titles as I Found Cleopatra and The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships for the popular pulp magazines, Weird Tales, Uncanny Tales, and Eerie Tales.
In the 50’s he began writing true crime paperbacks and stories of the detective, Western, weird and love variety. The murder of the Donnelly family, just outside of Lucan Ontario, on the night of February 4, 1880 supplied Kelley with material for two bestsellers. This sparked the interest, imagination and investigations into the Donnelly family massacre for decades and decades to come. The Black Donnellys has been through more than two-dozen printings since 1954. Vengeance of the Black Donnellys, the sequel, has been reprinted 16 times since 1962.
Kelley may have used as many as 30 pseudonyms that appeared in far-flung and ephemeral publications. If that number of pseudonyms is close to being correct, then the number of stories and books authored by Thomas Patrick Kelley will probably never be known.
Thomas Patrick Kelley died February 14, 1982 in Toronto, Canada, thirteen days after the death of his beloved wife, Ethel Grace Kelley.
Wikipedia
Kelley’s father ran a medicine show called the “Shamrock Concert Company.” His father, at the age of 18-years, took the names of his uncles, Thomas and Patrick as well as his mother’s maiden name, Kelley, and went into the med-game as Thomas Patrick Kelley. Travelling and entertaining with his father’s medicine show circuit, he became known as Thomas Patrick Kelley Jr., and appeared to have learned something about self-promotion. Decades later he wrote a memoir of those days, paying tribute to his father who travelled the continent as Canada’s King of the Medicine Men in, The Fabulous Kelley, first published in 1974.
Kelley led a colourful life and was something of a character. He tried his hand in a cartage business with his card reading, “Day or Night I Never Sleep.” Thomas P. Kelley and his wife Ethel, were also sometimes employed at the many residents where they lived as chef, butler, and sometimes a chauffeur. During his 20’s he was a middleweight boxer under the names Thomas Monahon, Tommy Kelley, and was also known as “The Pride of Miami Beach.”
The pugnacious prizefighter’s next phase of life came in the 1930’s when he took to the typewriter and began to write Pulp Fiction. The word merchant Thomas Patrick Kelley, and under assumed names by his own account, sold more than 8,000,000 words and authored two-dozen books. Few would dispute Kelley’s title as King of the Canadian Pulp Writers, yet he did little to document the claim and worked too fast to bother keeping records. Kelley kept only a handful of his own publications.
Also known as THE FASTEST AUTHOR IN THE EAST, Kelley would churn out as many as three 4,000-word short stories in one day and was still unable to meet his demand. His first story, written in the 30’s was completed in longhand in only 11-days and he received $500 for the story.
A fellow by the name of Scott Young recounted how he and Kelley were walking along Wellington St. in the late 40’s when an editor of a Pulp Magazine rushed up to Kelley saying he needed a story immediately for a confession magazine. The man offered Kelley $200 if he could complete it before noon. Kelley sat down at a typewriter and said, “What’s the title?” the editor replied, “Type this at the top: ‘I was a Love Slave.’” Before lunch, Kelley had rejoined Young with the money in his pocket.
Thomas Patrick Kelley published fantasy serials with such titles as I Found Cleopatra and The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships for the popular pulp magazines, Weird Tales, Uncanny Tales, and Eerie Tales.
In the 50’s he began writing true crime paperbacks and stories of the detective, Western, weird and love variety. The murder of the Donnelly family, just outside of Lucan Ontario, on the night of February 4, 1880 supplied Kelley with material for two bestsellers. This sparked the interest, imagination and investigations into the Donnelly family massacre for decades and decades to come. The Black Donnellys has been through more than two-dozen printings since 1954. Vengeance of the Black Donnellys, the sequel, has been reprinted 16 times since 1962.
Kelley may have used as many as 30 pseudonyms that appeared in far-flung and ephemeral publications. If that number of pseudonyms is close to being correct, then the number of stories and books authored by Thomas Patrick Kelley will probably never be known.
Thomas Patrick Kelley died February 14, 1982 in Toronto, Canada, thirteen days after the death of his beloved wife, Ethel Grace Kelley.
Wikipedia
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