With this posting, I continue my detailed look into Pulpdom, in particular #11-20.
As with the first 10 issues, these are all 28-32 pages, saddle-stitched, reprinting early pulp fiction with various non-fiction articles and artwork, both new and old, also focused on the early pulps. In some issues, the non-fiction works are more prominent, and for me, these are almost more interesting. And you need to also pay attention to the additions and editorials by publisher Camille “Caz” Cazedessus, as they provide additional information. Often times they add to items brought up in prior issues.
#11 (April 1998) features a cover with a Viking ship with modern vessels. Inside we get a reprint by Frank Atkins (1847-1927), a U.K. author I’ve noted before who has written under several names, including Frank Aubrey and here as Fenton Ash. This is his “The Sunken Island; Or, The Pirates of Atlantis,” which appeared in 1904 in Union Jack Library. It will be concluded in the next issue. Other fiction included this time is “The Avenging Tiger” by H. Wellington Vrooman from Argosy in 1897, and “Out of a Stormy Sky” by H. Bedford-Jones from The Argosy (October 1911).
For non-fiction, we get a selection of materials from The Argosy from 1889-1897 compiled by Les Mayer, a review of The Crystal City (1896), a look at Argosy All-Story Weekly in 1927 by Mike Taylor, and a list of H. Bedford-Jones in Argosy, Cavalier, and All-Story from 1911-29.
#12 (June 1998) has a cover with a giant lizard monster to tie to the second part of “The Sunken Island.” Mike Taylor now looks at Argosy in 1929, when it dropped “All-Story” from its name. Gary Lovisi‘s “The Paperback Collector” column is back with #46, looking at Edmond Hamilton‘s “Intersteller Patrol.” And editor Camille “Caz” Cazedessus provides a piece from Argosy on a wolf boy, as part of looking at the origins of Tarzan, under the heading of “Tarzan Never Smiles.”
#13 (August 1998) focuses on J. Allan Dunn (1872-1941) and the pulp magazine Top-Notch Magazine, and has no fiction reprinted. Al Lybeck gives a good overview article on Dunn. And we get several pulp covers of his works, plus a bibliography. Mike Taylor does the article on Top-Notch, which ran from 1910-36 from Street & Smith against Adventure, Blue Book, and similar pulps. And we get “The Paperback Collector” #47, a very brief one on collecting science fiction and fantasy.
Several pulp reprinters have put out works by Dunn, including Steeger Books (formerly Altus Press), Off-Trail Publications, and Murania Press. I hope to get into some of these and review them here.
#14 (October 1998) has material reprinted from Weird Tales #1 (March 1923), including a full story, “Nimba, the Cave Girl,” by R.T.M. Scott. I thought this was interesting, because R.T.M. Scott is usually best known as the creator of “Secret Service” Smith and the first author of The Spider.
David Pringle looks at early British pulps with SF. And we have reviews of a couple of early Tarzan-inspired pulp stories and H. Rider Haggard‘s Wisdom’s Daughter. And we get more of the ongoing Bedford-Jones bibliography. Also artwork from Science & Invention by Frank R. Paul.
#15 (Dec 1998) has a focus on works that influenced John Carter, so we get a cover from Argosy that ties to “The Hostage” by Rafael Sabatini (from Pearson’s Magazine, June 1901) which is reprinted here. We get an article looking at famous books from 1894-97. We get a list of various books using D’Artagnan, and a review of Paul Feval‘s books using him. (I wonder if Black Coat Press might bring these out?) We get a list of more works by J. Allan Dunn plus a review of his Hawks of Hazard. An interesting letter in this issue speaks of Dunn having letters appear along with some of his novels given the historical background. I wonder how often he did these and if those reprinting his stories are considering reprinting these along with them. And we get an article on Harold Lamb speaking of his works in Collier’s, Saturday Evening Post, and Pictorial Review.
#16 (February 1999) reprints the cover from The Thrill Book that featured “Juju” by Murray Leinster, reprinting this in two parts. It first appeared in the Oct. 15, 1919, issue of The Thrill Book. We also get a short article on Leinster with a list his early pulp stories. And The Paperback Collector #49 looks at The Whispering Gorilla by Don Wilcox, which I hope to review.
#17 (March 1999) gives us a wrap around cover, the second half of “Juju,” and Mike Taylor’s look at Mammoth Adventure, the late ’40s adventure pulp from Ziff-Davis. Also included is the last editorial, “Cross-Trails,” from The Thrill Book.
#18 (July 1999) comes under the cover from an issue of The Boy’s Own Paper in 1896. We get mainly non-fiction this issue. We get a brief look back at the last 11 years of Pulpdom and its predecessors. Al Lybeck gives us a look at Donald Barr Chidsey, who wrote for the pulps in the 1930s and was able to move into paperbacks in the 1950s. We get lists of his pulp works and books, as well as covers from both. It looks like a good portion of his works are historical fiction, and it seems Wildside Press has reprinted some of his works. “The Paperback Collector” hits #50, and so we get a retrospective by Lovisi. We get two book reviews, on of H. Rider Haggard’s The Wander’s Necklace and another on Tarzan’s “other ‘lost’ adventures.” With ERB Inc. being more open to other works, maybe these might come back? For reprints, we get “In 1999” by Franklin Ruth from Science and Invention (April 1921), which is one of those science-fiction tales looking toward the future, but presented as an article looking back of the last century or so.
#19 (September 1999) features a cover with artwork from Science & Invention in 1924. We get several reprints of non-fiction works that may have influenced science fiction. These are “Navigating Interstellar Space” by Charles Frederick Carter from Science and Invention (February 1923) and a review of a rare sf silent movie, The Sky Splitter. It also includes “The Story of Mars” by E.C. Andrews from The Royal Magazine (October 1909) and “The Star” by H.G. Wells, originally from The Graphic Christmas (1897) but reprinted here from Science & Invention (March 1923). I thought I had read all of H.G. Wells’ sf short stories, and don’t recall this one. We get a review of Bison Books‘ reprint of Jules Verne‘s The Chase of the Golden Meteor. Peter Ruber gives us an article on overlooked pulp author Merle Constiner, who mainly did Westerns and historical fiction, and includes a bibliography.
#20 (December 1999) gives us an interesting cover taken from an issue of The English Illustrated Magazine from 1891. We get another Frank Atkins story, again writing as Fenton Ash: “Caught by a Comet” from The Red Magazine (May 1, 1910). We get an article looking at the first publication of a Jules Verne story, Adventures of the Rat Family: A Fairy Tale. Mike Taylor takes a look at The Golden Fleece, a short-lived pulp focused on historical fiction. Mike Chomko returns with “The Pulp Wire,” looking at pulp readership levels. And David Pringle provides us with “A British View of c. 1900 Novelists.”
For me, while not everything in every issue is of interest, there is usually something that I know I will come back to later. For instance, I know when I do get into reading J. Allan Dunn, I will want to return to issues #13 and 15.
I will have more postings on Pulpdom. As before, if you want to get these issues, while you can find back issues (which can be a bit too expensive), you can purchase PDFs of issues from the Pulpdom website.
