The Argosy Library, Series I

While most people when dealing with pulps focus on the later periods of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, the hero pulps that occurred then, the crime, detective, mystery, science-fiction and fantasy of those eras, it’s important to also look at the pulp fiction that preceded those eras.

The pulp magazines got their start due to Frank A. Munsey, who started to convert his fiction magazines to pulp paper and reduced their price, making them more profitable. He published the well-known Argosy magazine, which got its start in the late 1800s, and several other popular magazines such as The All-Story and Flynn’s Detective Fiction Weekly.

Now, Altus Press has started a new line called the “Argosy Library,” which is composed of several series of 10 books each highlighting some of the great fiction that appeared in those magazines, now often overlooked.

Series I has just been launched, and consists of:

• “Genius Jones” by Lester Dent
• “When Tigers Are Hunting: The Complete Adventures of Cordie, Soldier of Fortune, Volume 1” by W. Wirt
• “The Swordsman of Mars” by Otis Adelbert Kline
• “The Sherlock of Sageland: The Complete Tales of Sheriff Henry, Volume 1” by W.C. Tuttle
• “Gone North” by Charles Alden Seltzer
• “The Masked Master Mind” by George F. Worts
• “Balata” by Fred MacIsaac
• “Bretwalda” by Philip Ketchum
• “Draft of Eternity” by Victor Rousseau
• “Four Corners, Volume 1” by Theodore Roscoe

We see a wide range of stories in this first series, containing adventure, mystery, western, science fiction, historical fiction, and the like. I plan on getting a few of the volumes, which include:

Lester Dent is the creator and main writer of Doc Savage, and that’s the extent of what most people know of him. Overlooked are the many stories and characters he created before, during, and after Doc Savage. Genius Jones is one of those, previously unreprinted and written during a period when Dent was free from writing Doc. Genius Jones was raised in the Arctic and returns to civilization, kind of in the style of Tarzan (or perhaps Polaris of the Snows). It’s more humorous than those, almost screwball comedy, showing the uncivilized giant making his way in the big city.  A sequel was outlined, but never written, and that outline is included here along with restored text in the main story.

Most people know of Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, John Carter, and an array of other characters on our world and others. Otis Adelbert Kline was mainly an agent for pulp writers, but also wrote some of his own works, most of which were “planetery romances” like Burroughs. And some have tried to portray Kline as an early “rival” of Burroughs, but there is no evidence of this. “The Swordsman of Mars” was the first of two set on Mars. (I hope we will see the second one in this series, and maybe also his Venus trilogy)

George F. Worts is best known as an author of adventurers, such as the Peter the Brazen and Singapore Sammy series. “The Masked Master Mind” is a stand-alone novel of crime in a small city and sounds really interesting.

Victor Rousseau (Emanuel) is an early pulp author often overlooked, but in recent years more of his works have been reprinted. Some may know he created Jim Anthony, Super-Detective and wrote the earlier stories, as well as early SF stories like “The Messiah of the Cylinder.” “The Draft of Eternity” is another early SF story from him, set in the far future.

I look forward to the next set in this new series. While I know I won’t be getting them all, I expect I’ll find some that I will enjoy. I hope others will check out this series and get some as well. Keep an eye out for my reviews of the above.