"He was the first pulp writer," Belcher said. "Most folks believe Poe invented the short story. Land-sake! Poe never wrote a short story. He wrote mood pieces. O'Brien was the first. He wrote great short stories and great pulp stories."
I said, "If you're looking for the father of the pulp industry, why don't you go back far enough? There was a boy named Greene in the late Sixteenth Century."
"You mean 'Groatsworth of Wit' Greene?"
"The very same. Only forget that piece of junk. It was his last grab at a dollar. Get hold of a catalogue some day and see the quantity of pulp he poured out to make a living. Pamphlets and plays and what not."
Someone said, "Greene a pulp writer?" He sounded shocked.
I said, "Brother, when he turned that stuff out, it was pulp. Passes three hundred years and it turns into literature. You figure it out."
Belcher waved his hand. "I was talking about the invention of the short story," he said. "O'Brien—"
I tried to cut him off. "I thought O'Brien predated Poe."
It was a mistake. Belcher said, "Not at all. O'Brien fought in the Civil War. He was with the Thirty-seventh Georgian Rifles, I believe. A captain. He—"
I nudged Joey so hard he yelped, but he said, "I tell you I never received any such story!"