Ben Haas is an American writer of books in the genres of westerns, adventure, detective and fantasy, a very prolific author whose career fell on the 1960s and 1970s. He was often published as Richard Meade, releasing under this name, in particular, the fantasy “The March of the Outcasts”, John Benteen, under which he published the Western series “Fargo”, as well as Thorne Douglas. Benjamin Leopold Haas was born on July 21, 1926 in North Carolina. His worldview was shaped by the books and films he
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Ben Haas is an American writer of books in the genres of westerns, adventure, detective and fantasy, a very prolific author whose career fell on the 1960s and 1970s. He was often published as Richard Meade, releasing under this name, in particular, the fantasy “The March of the Outcasts”, John Benteen, under which he published the Western series “Fargo”, as well as Thorne Douglas.
Benjamin Leopold Haas was born on July 21, 1926 in North Carolina. His worldview was shaped by the books and films he met in his youth, as well as the stories of the Civil War he heard from his grandmother, who witnessed those events. From the age of 18, Ben dreamed of becoming a writer, but was forced to think about how to financially support his family. He left college, served in the army from 1945 to 1946, and returned home, went to work and married, in marriage he had three sons. He worked for a steel company until 1961, when he wrote his first manuscript. He submitted it to Beacon Books and received a generous offer to publish it. Since then, he has resigned from the company and was engaged exclusively in writing.
For the next 16 years of his life, he wrote continuously. His son later recalled that they fell asleep to the sound of a typewriter. During the years of his work, he created about 130 books, which were published both under his own name and under pseudonyms, most often under the name Richard Mead. At the same time, most of these books were of very high quality, orders were not long in coming, readers were waiting for new stories.
Unfortunately, the fate measured his short life - Ben Haas died of a heart attack in New York at the age of 51, entering the history of literature as one of the most influential and underrated modern writers of the genre of adventure.