{"id":13124,"date":"2022-05-02T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=13124"},"modified":"2025-10-10T14:41:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T18:41:42","slug":"argosy-library-series-xi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2022\/05\/02\/argosy-library-series-xi\/","title":{"rendered":"Argosy Library, Series XI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Black Friday weekend 2021, <a href=\"https:\/\/steegerbooks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steeger Books<\/a> put out their next two sets of &#8220;Argosy Library&#8221; volumes, Series X and XI.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/phantom-in-the-rainbow.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[13124]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-large wp-image-13489\" src=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/phantom-in-the-rainbow-682x1024.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;The Phantom in the Rainbow&quot;\" width=\"350\" height=\"526\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/phantom-in-the-rainbow-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/phantom-in-the-rainbow-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/phantom-in-the-rainbow-768x1153.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/phantom-in-the-rainbow.jpg 999w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a>Here is Series XI. With these, we get a new cover design that will be what is used going forward. One thing I miss is the info on the back cover for where these stories came from and a thumbnail of the original cover artwork.<\/p>\n<p>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. This selection seems very heavy on crime and detective stories and series.<\/p>\n<p>Most are taken from the pulps started by <strong>Frank A. Munsey<\/strong>, who converted his fiction magazines to pulp paper and reduced their price, making them more profitable. He published the well-known <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Argosy<\/em> magazine, which got its start in the late 1800s, and several other popular magazines such as <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">The All-Story<\/em> and <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Flynn\u2019s Detective Fiction Weekly<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Series XI consists of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The Phantom in the Rainbow<\/em>, by <strong>Slater LaMaster<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>Threads of Evidence: The Complete Cases of Riordan, Volume 1<\/em>, by <strong>Victor Maxwell<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>Masters of Darkness<\/em>, by <strong>Murray Leinster<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>Lies at Any Price: The Complete Cases of Gillian Hazeltine, Volume 1<\/em>, by <strong>George F. Worts<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>He Rules Who Can<\/em>, by <strong>Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>The House of the Ego: The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, Volume 3<\/em>, by <strong>J.U. Giesy<\/strong> and <strong>Junius B. Smith<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>Death to a Tenor<\/em>, by <strong>Fred MacIsaac<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>Murder\u2019s Masquerade: The Complete Cases of Mike &amp; Trixie, Volume 1<\/em>, by <strong>T.T. Flynn<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>The Land of Limping Law: The Complete Cases of Calhoun, Volume 1<\/em>, by <strong>Edward Parrish Ware<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>Cocked Dice: The Complete Cases of Daffy Dill, Volume 1<\/em>, by <strong>Richard B. Sale<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What do we get this time?<\/p>\n<p>We get a mystery tale in <em>The Phantom in the Rainbow<\/em> by Slater LaMaster (1890-1936) an author and playwright I&#8217;m not familiar with.\u00a0 Yes, that&#8217;s his real name.\u00a0 Sort of.\u00a0 It&#8217;s <strong>Benjamin Slater LaMaster<\/strong>. Here, a young man makes the mistake of impersonating a rich man, and is targeted by a criminal known only as &#8220;The Phantom&#8221; who apparently has psychic powers. Will he succeed to defeating this fiend?\u00a0 He only has another pulp work, a &#8220;planetary romance&#8221;.\u00a0 Both works appeared in <em>Argosy All-Story Weekly<\/em> in 1928\/29.<\/p>\n<p>From the pages of <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Detective Fiction Weekly<\/em>, we get <em>Threads of Evidence: The Complete Cases of Riordan, Volume 1<\/em>, which collects this series of police procedurals by Victor Maxwell. It stars <strong>Sgt. Riordon<\/strong> and <strong>Detective Halloran<\/strong> which was a long-running series.<\/p>\n<p>From science-fiction author Murray Leinster is <em>Masters of Darkness<\/em>. It&#8217;s a series of four stories that have criminals using a sinister science device also known as the &#8220;Preston and Hines&#8221; series and appeared in <em>Argosy<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>George F. Worts is the author of the <strong>Peter the Brazen<\/strong> and <strong>Singapore Sammy<\/strong> series. With <em>Lies at Any Price: The Complete Cases of Gillian Hazeltine, Volume 1<\/em> we get the adventures of lawyer <strong>Gillian Hazeltine<\/strong>, who is claimed to be a forerunner of <strong>Perry Mason<\/strong>. At 30 stories, he ran for longer than the other series. A prior volume is also available, with later stories in the series.<\/p>\n<p>In <em>He Rules Who Can<\/em> by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, we get a historical adventure featurings a Viking who goes to Constantinople in 1038 with 500 Norseman and is given command of the Varangian Guard. This work appeared in <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Argosy<\/em> by an author who was a longtime contributor to <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Adventure<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/death-to-a-tenor.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[13124]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-13487\" src=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/death-to-a-tenor-681x1024.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;Death to a Tenor&quot;\" width=\"350\" height=\"526\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/death-to-a-tenor-681x1024.jpg 681w, https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/death-to-a-tenor-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/death-to-a-tenor-768x1154.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/death-to-a-tenor.jpg 998w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a>After getting three volumes reprinting a trio of long serials toward the end of this series, we finally get the next volume of <strong>Semi Dual<\/strong>, the unusual &#8220;occult detective.&#8221; As noted by the title, <em>The House of the Ego: The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, Volume 3<\/em> picks up from the early Volumes 1 and 2. I have enjoyed this series by J.U. Giesy and Junius B. Smith, and wonder how many volumes we will need to complete this series.<\/p>\n<p>Fred MacIsaac is probably best known for <strong>The Rambler<\/strong>, a wandering reporter who solved crimes in a series in <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Dime Detective<\/em>. About half the series has been reprinted in two volumes. But he wrote a lot in <em>Argosy<\/em> and other pulps, so he has a few other works in the Argosy Library, and in <em>Death to a Tenor <\/em>(cover featured in <em>Detective Fiction Weekly<\/em>), we get a bizarre crime where a tenor is killed, but his girlfriend says she heard him sing a song after he died.<\/p>\n<p>With <em>Murder\u2019s Masquerade: The Complete Cases of Mike &amp; Trixie, Volume 1<\/em>, we get the first of this series staring bickering detectives <strong>Trixie Meehan<\/strong> and <strong>Mike Harris<\/strong> of the Blaine Agency. We seldom get female detectives in the pulps, so this should be of interesting. It&#8217;s by T.T. Flynn, whom I&#8217;m not familiar with, and appeared in <em>Detective Fiction Weekly<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Set in the &#8220;Sunken Lands of Arkansas,&#8221; the detective series of <strong>U.S. Ranger Jack Calhoun<\/strong> start in <em>The Land of Limping Law: The Complete Cases of Calhoun, Volume 1<\/em>. These come from <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Detective Fiction Weekly<\/em> by the prolific Edward Parrish Ware<\/p>\n<p>From pulp author turned scriptwriter and detective Richard B. Sale is <strong>Joe \u201cDaffy\u201d Dill<\/strong>, a wisecracking reporter who investigates the underworld. <em>Cocked Dice: The Complete Cases of Daffy Dill, Volume 1<\/em> gives us the first seven of this long-running series in <em>Detective Fiction Weekly<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, 5 of the volumes in this series came from <em>Detective Fiction Weekly<\/em>!\u00a0 With both of these new Argosy Library sets, there are several volumes I have ordered. There are several that I don&#8217;t have an interest in, but that&#8217;s how it goes. Hopefully there are works here that will interest everyone. I would have liked to have seen the next volume of <strong>Jigger Masters<\/strong> stories, or the final <em>Garret Service Omnibus<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Black Friday weekend 2021, Steeger Books put out their next two sets of &#8220;Argosy Library&#8221; volumes, Series X and XI. Here is Series XI. With these, we get a new cover design that will be what is used going forward. One thing I miss is the info on the back cover for where these [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Pulp Super-Fan looks at Steeger Books' new Argosy Library, Series XI. #pulpmags","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[1,135,14],"tags":[443,686,696,209,694,404,693,695,939],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-13124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pulps","category-reprints","category-review","tag-argosy","tag-argosy-library","tag-detective-fiction-weekly","tag-frank-a-munsey-co","tag-fred-macisaac","tag-george-f-worts","tag-murray-leinster","tag-semi-dual","tag-steeger-books"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/11\/phantom-in-the-rainbow-featured.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-3pG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13124"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13539,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13124\/revisions\/13539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13124"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=13124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}