Day Keene

Born Gunard Hjerstedt in Chicago in 1903, Keene became an actor in repertory theater in the early 1920s. When his actor friends decided to try film, he instead turned to writing, and during the 1930s was a principal writer for the “Little Orphan Annie” radio show, as well as contributing to the pulps. After he moved to the west coast of Florida, he began writing paperback originals in the late 1940s, mostly fast-paced crime stories. An editor suggested that he change his name to something more American-sounding, which he did by adapting his mother’s maiden name, Daisy Keeney, to Day Keene. He was part of a lively community of writers (including Mickey Spillane, Harry Whittington, Gil Brewer, Talmage Powell, and John D. MacDonald), the competitive nature of which inspired some of the best hardboiled crime paperback original novels of the early 1950s, published by Gold Medal, Ace, Avon, Graphic, among others. Macfadden reprinted much of his work in the late 1960s. Unlike many mystery writers, he had only one recurring character -- the Hawaiian private detective, Johnny Aloha. By the 1960s, he had abandoned mysteries for mainstream novels. He died in North Hollywood in 1969.