Verne Chute (1898-1986)

Aka Dustin C. Scott

Author, Columnist, Book Store Proprietor

Born May 19, 1898, near San Francisco, California

Died October 1, 1986, Sun City, Arizona

Verne Chute was born on May 19, 1898, near San Francisco, California. When he filled out his draft card in 1918, he was working in a cannery in San Bernardino, California. By 1930, he was the proprietor of a bookstore in Los Angeles. Chute lived in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Canoga Park, California, and in Tucson, Arizona, in the course of his long life. He died on October 1, 1986, in Sun City, Arizona.

Verne Chute was a prolific author of crime fiction, science fiction, Westerns, and books for young people. He contributed to Ace-High Western Stories, Big-Book Western Magazine, The Blue Book Magazine, Detective Novels Magazine, .44 Western Magazine, Liberty, New Western, Short Stories, Thrilling Detective, and other magazines from 1936 to 1955. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database lists just two of his stories (and a letter in "The Eyrie"):

• "Flight into Destiny" in Weird Tales (Mar. 1943)
• "The Mad Domneys" in Startling Stories (Fall 1944; reprinted in Science Fiction Yearbook, No. 2, 1968)

After World War II, he had three of his novels in paperback (shown below):

• Flight of an Angel (1946)
• Wayward Angel (1948)
• Sweet and Deadly (1952)

plus two children's books in the the Mojave Joe series (1950 and 1952), the second published under the pseudonym Dustin C. Scott. In one way or another these were related to a column he wrote for Sports Afield. In addition, Chute had two of his stories adapted to television, "The Queen's Bracelet" for Studio 57 (1956) and "Le Funiculaire des anges" (which I believe translates into "Flight of Angels") for the French TV series Série noire (1988).

Verne Chute's Story and Letter in Weird Tales

"Flight Into Destiny" (Mar. 1943)
Letter in "The Eyrie" (Mar. 1943)

Further Reading

There is an entry on Verne Chute in the French-language version of Wikipedia, here. That entry lists Chute's books and some of his stories. You will find another list of his stories at The FictionMags Index.

Updated and corrected April 26, 2016.
Text copyright 2016, 2023 Terence E. Hanley