‘Forgotten Classics of Pulp Fiction’ series

It’s great that more publishers are bringing out classic pulp fiction works in book form, reprinting stuff that has either fallen out of print or was never reprinted in books since its original publication. Altus Press has been doing great work in this area with its excellent Argosy Library, along with its H. Bedford-Jones Library. Now Murania Press has joined in with its new “Forgotten Classics of Pulp Fiction.”

Murania Press, really Ed Hulse, is the publisher of the excellent Blood ‘n’ Thunder fanzine, now a book series. Murania had a pulp fiction reprint line, “Classic Pulp Reprint,” but looks to have dropped it in favor of this one. In fact, four of the six volumes of the older series are part of this new one. The Purple Eye is available as a standalone reprint with a new and better cover, and the other will be included into a second series of “Forgotten Classics”. And the volumes in this new series will be less expensive and sport a nice, consistent cover style.

Ten volumes have been announced, and we will see a second series soon. The volumes are:

• The Wilderness Trail, by H. Bedford-Jones. (February 1915 issue of Blue Book)
• The Spook Hills Mystery, by B.M. Bower. (Nov. 7, 1914, issue of The Popular Magazine)
• The Return of Yorke Norroy, by George Bronson-Howard. (October 1908 issue of The Popular Magazine)
• Fur Pirates, by A.M. Chisholm. (Oct. 20, 1915, issue of The Popular Magazine)
• Barehanded Castaways, by J. Allan Dunn. (Dec. 20, 1921, issue of Adventure)
• The Elixir of Hate, by George Allan England. (August-November 1911 issues of The Cavalier)
• B. Typhosus Takes a Hand, by Francis Lynde. (Oct. 20, 1921, issue of The Popular Magazine)
• Yasmini the Incomparable, by Talbot Mundy. (January 1914 and July-September 1915 issues of Adventure)
• The Abyss of Wonders, by Perley Poore Sheehan. (January 1915 issue of The Argosy)
• Savages, by Gordon Young. (May 3, 1918, and July 18-Sept. 3, 1919, issues of Adventure)

Now, in looking further at them, there are several I look forward to, a few that I may or may not get, and a couple I’ll probably not bother with. And this may be the same for others, though hopefully which book falls into which camp will vary.

H. Bedford-Jones (1887-1949) was a prolific pulp author in his time, putting out a wide range of stories in several genres. Several pulp reprinters are putting out his works, and I guess there is enough out there they haven’t overlapped. Yet. The Wilderness Trail was previously reprinted by Murania, and is set in the American frontier. A kind of Daniel Boone/Davy Crocket-type of story, where some historical characters appear.

B.M. Bower was actually Bertha Muzzy Sinclair (1871-1940), a rare female pulp author who hid her gender. “Bower” was from her first marriage. A prolific author in the Western genre due to her personal experiences in that area, she was apparently very popular in her time. Many of her stories dealt with the fictional Flying U Ranch of Montana, and some were turned into films. The Spook Hills Mystery is a Western, tho a stand alone one.

Don’t know much about George Bronson-Howard (1884-1922) other than he was another early pulp author, with some of his works being filmed. The Return of Yorke Norrey deals with his spy character Yorke Norrey, who appeared in several of his works. Some of these were collected in book form, and two silent movies were made of him. As far as I can tell, this one has never been reprinted.

A.M. Chisholm (1871-1960) was another prolific western and “northern” pulp author. Fur Pirates was reprinted by Murania in its prior series, and it is set in the fur trapping areas of the Northwest Territories.  The basic plot is loosely based on Treasure Island, with a group set out to find a cache of valuable furs, who must contend with others also after it.

A popular adventure author, mainly of works set in the Pacific and Far East, J. Allan Dunn (1872-1941) has had several of his works reprinted in recent times by Off-Trail Publications and others. Barehanded Castaways is a different take on a group of men trapped on an island. It was actually written at the request of Adventure editor Arthur Sullivant Hoffman. A sequel was written, The Island, and Murania has reprinted that as well as part of its older reprint series, and it will be included in the second Classics series. A work by him I’d like to see reprinted is The Treasure of Atlantis, about survivors of Atlantis in the Brazilian jungle. It was reprinted years ago, but maybe worth doing so again.

A science-fiction author George Allan England (1877-1936) is probably best known for his Darkness and Dawn trilogy (reprinted by Dover). Black Dog Books has also reprinted works by him, as have others. Elixir of Hate was popular enough that it was cover featured when reprinted in both Famous Fantastic Mysteries (1942) and A. Merritt’s Fantasy Magazine (1950). I don’t know much about this one, but it deals with immortality and an elixir of youth. If it was good enough to be reprinted twice, it must be pretty interesting.

I can’t find much information on Francis Lynde (1856-1930), though I know he wrote detective and western fiction and a little science fiction.  B. Typhosus Takes a Hand is a kind of mystery, where a young man wakes up and doesn’t know who he is and must figure out what is going on.  Made complicated with a murder.

I’ve written previously on Talbot Mundy (1879-1940), the popular adventure author with works usually set in the Middle East and India. He had several characters who would appear in many of his works, one of them being the mysterious Princess Yasmini. This volume will reprint two works: a short story that introduces her, “A Soldier and a Gentleman,” and then the novel The Winds of the World. She will later appear in King of the Kyber Rifles.

I’ve reviewed a couple of prior works of Perley Poore Sheehan (1875-1943), including his “Captain Trouble” series. The Abyss of Wonders is of the “lost world-lost race” genre, with a lost race hidden in the Gobi Desert with super science and Theosophy. It was last reprinted in 1953, though reviews lambaste it for being juvenile. I would still like to check it out.  He did some similar works I’d also like to read, but have never been reprinted.

Another author of adventure and western tales, Gordon Young (1886-1948) wrote a series of South Sea tales with a character called Hurricane Williams. Savages is one of the early works with this character, and was also previously reprinted by Murania. Maybe we’ll see more of this character?

As noted, Murania Press will be posting on these works over the next month or so, and I am sure, will have more details to give. While I won’t get all of them myself, there are a good handful I want to get, especially as the pricing will be pretty good. And I hope we will get more in this series. Some of these works lend themselves to sequels and collections of the characters reprinted, and all these authors had more works that may warrant reprinting.

They will also be coming out with a second series of “Forgotten Classics” soon, with 10 more works.