Well, after too long we have finally gotten Series IV of Altus Press‘ “Argosy Library,” with 10 more books of great, and sometimes overlooked, fiction that appeared in the early pulps. We get some stand-alone works, as well as volumes of various sub-series.
As always, most are taken from the pulps started by Frank A. Munsey, who converted 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 All-Story and Flynn’s Detective Fiction Weekly.
Series IV consists of:
- The Vengeance of the Wah Fu Tong: The Complete Cases of Jigger Masters, Volume 1 by Anthony M. Rud
- The Sheriff of Tonto Town: The Complete Tales of Sheriff Henry, Volume 2 by W.C. Tuttle
- The Flying Legion by George Allan England
- The Radio Menace by Ralph Milne Farley
- The Opposing Venus: The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, the Occult Detector by J.U. Giesy and Junius B. Smith
- The Ruby of Suratan Singh: The Adventures of Scarlet and Bradshaw, Volume 2 by Theodore Roscoe
- The Darkness at Windon Manor by Max Brand
- The Golden Cat: The Adventures of Peter the Brazen, Volume 3 by Loring Brent (George F. Worts)
- The Apes of Devil’s Island by John Cunningham
- The Exploits of Beau Quicksilver by Florence M. Pettee
Anthony M. Rud has the distinction of appearing in the first issue of Weird Tales (with “The Ooze”), later going on to being an editor of Adventure magazine. But he also has a series character in J.C.K. “Jigger” Masters who appeared in bizarre mysteries that at times veered into the supernatural. This, the first of several volumes, collects the first eight stories from The Green Book Magazine, after which the character was brought back years later in Detective Fiction Weekly and others. I know of about 15 more stories with this character that exist, including three novels that were reprinted in hardcover. There was an article about Rud that ran in the fanzine Attic Revival #6 that I provided to Altus Press that hopefully helped with this volume.
Sheriff Henry Harrison Conroy was a long-running and popular series character from Argosy. We got the first volume as part of Series I of the Library, with four stories. So now we get two more in the second volume.
George Allan England was a prolific science fiction author probably mainly remembered for his “Darkness and the Dawn” trilogy. He has several other works, some of which have been reprinted by Black Dog Books. The Flying Legion is from 1919 and was serialized in All-Story Weekly. It’s about a group of post-war aviators working to solve the last of Earth’s mysteries.
I previously posted about Ralph Milne Farley and his “Radio Man” series set on Venus. As well as the several other “Radio” stories he wrote unrelated to that series. Well, The Radio Menace is actually the fourth in the “Radio Man” series. However, it doesn’t involve Miles Cabot. In this one, the Whoomangs, introduced in the third novel, try to invade Earth, but are stopped by others.
And we get the third Semi Dual collection. As I’ve noted previously, Semi Dual is an occult detective, probably the first in the pulps. I am definitely getting this one. This one contains a serial from Argosy that ran in Argosy All-Story in 1923, which skips ahead from where the prior volumes left off, and hence why it’s not marked as “Volume 3.” Not sure if the plan is now to skip around and reprint serials and collections of short stories instead of putting the works out in publication order. So look for a review soon.
A couple of publishers have reprinted the works of Theodore Roscoe. Altus has been doing his Thibaut Corday series, and recently started to reprint a lesser-known but long-running series about curio-hunter Peter Scarlet and naturalist Bradshaw. The second volume, The Ruby of Suratan Singh, has their next six adventures, taken from Action Stories, Far East Adventure Stories, and Argosy magazines.
Better known for his Westerns, Max Brand wrote other works, like The Darkness at Windon Manor, a mystery-adventure story never before reprinted from Argosy. It involves mistaken identities, a femme fatale, a lost treasure, and more.
Another one I plan to get is the third volume of Peter the Brazen stories. Here he is looking for a “Gloria Dale,” kidnapped by Fong-Chi-Ah, from a six-part serial from Argosy, called “The Golden Cat.” Now, I’m a little confused by this, as we haven’t gotten volume two yet, which would contain the fourth, fifth, and sixth stories in the series. Not sure why this was done.
One certainly can’t fault the early pulps for trying to copy themselves. The Apes of Devil’s Island by John Cunningham (who doesn’t appear to have written anything else) is an attempt at creating another Tarzan-like story. Here young Jimmy Wendell is shipwrecked after the murder of the crew of the yacht he is on, and he finds himself on a shark-encircled island.
Female authors in the early pulps were a rarity. But Florence M. Pettee appeared in several in the 1920s, including Black Mask. Her Beau Quicksilver is an enigmatic detective that appeared in a series of seven stories in Argosy, all collected here.
Series IV is another good collection of works. As noted, there are a couple I want to get now, and a few I look to get down the road. Check these out. I look forward to the next set in the Library, as there are now several sub-series within the Library I look forward to see more volumes of.
