Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project..

And at the age of 55, after dozens of novels and countless short stories, he died. Not that you’ve heard of him or any of his books—unless you collect potboiler novels of the 1930s.

The list of his works is impressive in bulk if nothing else, with titles that tell the entire plot in two or three words: “Dancing Feet,” “In Love With a T-Man,” “Love or Money,” “Modern Marriage” and my favorite: “Short Skirts: A Story of Modern Youth.”

Robert F. Burkhardt was born in Altoona, Iowa, and after a long apprenticeship as a reporter at a series of newspapers, he began handling publicity in the Hollywood studios: Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros. He and his wife, Eve, combined their names to form the pen name Rob Eden, adopting another pseudonym, Adam Bliss, for a series of mysteries.

Today, not a single one of his volumes is in the collection of the Los Angeles Public Library. A Google search turns up very little on him or his widow. However, a 1935 article in The Times lists many celebrity authors and their pseudonyms:

Guy Bolton—writing as H.B. Trevelyan (“The Dark Angel”)

Harry Chandlee and Douglas Churchill—writing as Lee Hill (“Platinum Blonde”)

Lou Edelman—writing as George Schierhaus (“G-Men”)

Douglas Fairbanks—writing as Elton Thomas (“Thief of Baghdad”)

W.C. Fields—writing as Charles Bogle (according to imdb.com he also used Mahatma Kane Jeeves).

Phil Goldstone—writing as Phil Stone

D.W. Griffith—writing as Lady Smythe-Cavendish, Lord James Byington

M.H. Hoffman—writing as E. Morton Hough (“Champagne for Breakfast”)

Sol Lesser—writing as Don Swift (“Mine With the Iron Door”)

David O. Selznick—writing as Oliver Jeffries (“Reckless”)

John Stahl—writing as Louise Reels

Daryl Zanuck—writing as Melville Crosman

The works of Rob Eden:

Always in Her Heart

Blond Trouble

Dancing Feet

Fickle

The Girl With Red Hair

Golden Goddess

Heartbreak Girl

Her Dream Prince

Her Fondest Hope

In Love With a T-Man

Jennifer Hale

Kathie the First

Loot

Love Blind

Love Came Late

Love Comes Flying

Love or Money

Love Wings

The Lovely Liar

Lucky Lady

Men at Her Feet

Modern Marriage

Moon Over the Water

The Mountain Lodge

A New Friend

Pay Check

Second Choice

Short Skirts: A Story of Modern Youth

Step-Child

This Man Is Yours

Trapped By Love

$20 a Week

The works of Adam Bliss:

The Camden Ruby Murders

Four Times a Widower

Murder Upstairs