On Black Friday weekend 2021, Steeger Books put out their next two sets of “Argosy Library” volumes, Series X and XI.
Let’s take a look at Series X. This one actually bring the total volumes in this series to 100!
As always, we get 10 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.
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 The All-Story and Flynn’s Detective Fiction Weekly.
Series X consists of:
- Tarantula Tower: The Adventures of Scarlet and Bradshaw, Vol. 4 by Theodore Roscoe
- Henry Plays a Hunch: The Complete Tales of Sheriff Henry, Vol. 5 by W.C. Tuttle
- King of the Dead: The Saga of Monella, Vol. 3 by Frank Aubrey
- Cave of the Blue Scorpion: The Adventures of Peter the Brazen, Vol. 5 by Loring Brent
- The Monster of the Lagoon: The Complete Adventures of Singapore Sammy, Vol. 3 by George F. Worts
- The Fourteen Points by Arthur B. Reeve
- War Dragons: The Complete Adventures of Cordie, Soldier of Fortune, Vol. 4 by W. Wirt
- Shark Trail: The Complete Adventures of Bellow Bill Williams, Vol. 3 by Ralph R. Perry
- Minions of the Shadow by William Gray Beyer
- Rats of the Harbor: The Complete Cases of Dirk and Baker by Ray Cummings
As to the details:
With Tarantula Tower: The Adventures of Scarlet and Bradshaw, Vol. 4, we get the final five stories about the adventures of curio hunter Peter Scarlet and naturalist Bradshaw in the Far East by Theodore Roscoe.
From W.C. Tuttle, we have the next volume of his humorous Western series in Henry Plays a Hunch: The Complete Tales of Sheriff Henry, Vol. 5.
King of the Dead: The Saga of Monella, Vol. 3 is the final of the “Monella” trilogy by English author Frank Aubrey (really Francis Atkins). Set in South America with a lost city, this story is somewhat of a retelling of the first story in the series, The Devil-Tree of El Dorado, with the main characters renamed. I guess I’ll see once I read it.
From George F. Worts, we get two volumes. First is the next volume of his Peter the Brazen series under his “Loring Brent” pseudonym: Cave of the Blue Scorpion: The Adventures of Peter the Brazen, Vol. 5. This has the next three stories. And we get The Monster of the Lagoon: The Complete Adventures of Singapore Sammy, Vol. 3, which has his Singapore Sammy character.
Some may not be familiar with scientific detective Craig Kennedy, created by Arthur B. Reeve. So The Fourteen Points may be a good starting point, collecting 14 stories that ran in Detective Fiction Weekly from 1924-25.
With War Dragons: The Complete Adventures of Cordie, Soldier of Fortune, Vol. 4, we get the next set of adventure stories with Jimmy Cordie and his friends by “W. Wirt.”
From Ralph R. Perry, we get the last of the Bellow Bill tales in Shark Trail: The Complete Adventures of Bellow Bill Williams, Vol. 3. The adventures of this South Seas pearler is another possible inspiration for Doc Savage.
The fourth and final of the Mark Nevin or Omega series is Minions of the Shadow by William Gray Beyer. In the far future, Mark Nevin, aided by Omega, is trying to rebuild civilization.
Ray Cummings is better known for his sf tales, but in Rats of the Harbor: The Complete Cases of Dirk and Baker, we get a trio of future detective tales with Franklin Dirk and Jack Baker of the Secret Service.
As always, there are volumes here I am definitely going to get, such as the next Peter the Brazen and Jimmie Cordie volumes; others I am thinking of, such as the Craig Kennedy volume. And yes, some I have no interest in. But hopefully there are some here that will interest everyone. Check out these volumes.
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