Raymond Leslie Goldman

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Raymond Leslie Goldman
Born	1895
Died	1950 (aged 54–55)
Relatives	Louis L. Goldman (nephew) Ben F. Goldman Jr. (nephew) Jeffrey D. Goldman (great-grandnephew)

Raymond Leslie Goldman (1895-1950) was an American author of short stories and detective novels. He almost always signed his works R. L. Goldman.

Goldman had polio as a child, he wrote about in his memoirs The Good Fight (1935)^[1] and Victory Over Pain (1947).^[2] As a result of the disease, he had atrophied muscles in his legs. He became deaf when he was 19 years old. He also had diabetes and followed a limited diet.^[3]

Goldman served in World War I, after which he held several jobs in radio and with pulp magazines.^[4]

In 1917, he published his first short story in Collier's Weekly. He later settled in Nashville, Tennessee.^[5] He regularly contributed short stories, often humorous, to The Saturday Evening Post and other magazines.^[5] In 1922, he wrote Bing Bang Boom!, a novel in the same vein that was adapted into a silent film. Other works of Goldman's adapted into films included Battling Bunyan (1924), from a short story in the Saturday Evening Post, and That Red-Headed Hussy (1929).

Commencing in 1929 with The Hartwell Case,^[5] Goldman gradually transitioned from short stories to detective fiction, notably a six-title series whose protagonists were newspaper editor Asaph Clume and fiery, red-headed reporter Rufus Reed.^[6] Rufus often narrated their investigations, which took place in a fictional small town in the American Midwest.^[7]

Goldman died in 1950.^[6] His books remain sought after by collectors.^[8]

His nephews Louis L. Goldman and Ben F. Goldman Jr. and great-grandnephew Jeffrey D. Goldman were noted entertainment attorneys.

• The Murder of Harvey Blake (1931)
• Murder Without Motive (1938)
• Death Plays Solitaire (1939)
• The Snatch (1940)
• Murder Behind the Mike (1942)
• The Purple Shells (1947)

• The Hartwell Case (1929)
• Judge Robinson Murdered! (1936)
• Out on Bail (1937)

• Bing Bang Boom! (1922)

• The Good Fight (1935)
• Even The Night (1947)

• The Smell of the Sawdust (1917)
• The Fourth Degree (1920)
• The Rainbow Chasers (1921)
• Quince or Prince? (1921)
• The House of the Crying Child (1922)
• The Man Who Forgot to Forget (1923)
• Battling Bunyan Ceases to be Funny (1924)
• Kid Webber Does His Best (1925)
• Malowan (1925)
• Packy Makes the Weight (1926)
• Muggy’s Talisman (1928)
• Hushaby, My Abie (1929)
• The Glory of the Kildones (1929)
• My Old Unlocky Home (1929)
• Yankee Noodles (1929)
• Then I’ll Remember You (1929)
• Grandfather’s Stock (1929)
• Knock ‘em Down, Moe Closky (1929)
• For the Sake of Old Man Stein (1929)
• Silver Weds Among the Goldbergs (1929)
• Dolling, We are Growing Thinner (1930)
• Bread on the Water (1930)

• 1922: Bing Bang Boom, silent film by Fred J. Butler, based on the novel of the same name, with David Butler and Doris Pawn.
• 1924: Battling Bunyan, silent film by Paul Hurst, based on Saturday Evening Post short story Battling Bunyan Ceases to be Funny, with Wesley Barry, Frank Campeau and Molly Malone.^[7]