{"id":8117,"date":"2018-12-10T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=8117"},"modified":"2025-10-10T14:40:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T18:40:46","slug":"the-argosy-library-series-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2018\/12\/10\/the-argosy-library-series-iv\/","title":{"rendered":"The Argosy Library, Series IV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/vengeance-of-the-wah-fu-tong-vol-1.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[8117]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8145\" src=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/vengeance-of-the-wah-fu-tong-vol-1-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"'The Vengeance of the Wah Fu Tong: The Complete Cases of Jigger Masters, Volume 1'\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/vengeance-of-the-wah-fu-tong-vol-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/vengeance-of-the-wah-fu-tong-vol-1.jpg 470w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Well, after too long we have finally gotten Series IV of <a href=\"https:\/\/steegerbooks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Altus Press<\/a>&#8216; &#8220;Argosy Library,&#8221; 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.<\/p>\n<p>As always, 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\">All-Story<\/em> and <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Flynn\u2019s Detective Fiction Weekly<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-bottom: 0 !important\">Series IV consists of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The Vengeance of the Wah Fu Tong: The Complete Cases of Jigger Masters, Volume 1<\/em> by <strong>Anthony M. Rud<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>The Sheriff of Tonto Town: The Complete Tales of Sheriff Henry, Volume 2<\/em> by <strong>W.C. Tuttle<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>The Flying Legion<\/em> by <strong>George Allan England<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>The Radio Menace<\/em> by <strong>Ralph Milne Farley<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>The Opposing Venus: The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, the Occult Detector<\/em> by <strong>J.U. Giesy<\/strong> and <strong>Junius B. Smith<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>The Ruby of Suratan Singh: The Adventures of Scarlet and Bradshaw, Volume 2<\/em> by <strong>Theodore Roscoe<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>The Darkness at Windon Manor<\/em> by <strong>Max Brand<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>The Golden Cat: The Adventures of Peter the Brazen, Volume 3<\/em> by <strong>Loring Brent<\/strong> (<strong>George F. Worts<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li><em>The Apes of Devil\u2019s Island<\/em> by <strong>John Cunningham<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>The Exploits of Beau Quicksilver<\/em> by <strong>Florence M. Pettee<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more-->Anthony M. Rud has the distinction of appearing in the first issue of <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Weird Tales<\/em> (with &#8220;The Ooze&#8221;), later going on to being an editor of <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Adventure<\/em> magazine. But he also has a series character in <strong>J.C.K. &#8220;Jigger&#8221; Masters<\/strong> who appeared in bizarre mysteries that at times veered into the supernatural. This, the first of several volumes, collects the first eight stories from <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">The Green Book Magazine<\/em>, after which the character was brought back years later in <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Detective Fiction Weekly<\/em> 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 <em>Attic Revival<\/em> #6 that I provided to Altus Press that hopefully helped with this volume.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/sheriff-of-tonto-town-vol-2.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[8117]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8146\" src=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/sheriff-of-tonto-town-vol-2-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"'The Sheriff of Tonto Town: The Complete Tales of Sheriff Henry, Volume 2'\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/sheriff-of-tonto-town-vol-2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/sheriff-of-tonto-town-vol-2.jpg 470w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><strong>Sheriff Henry Harrison Conroy<\/strong> was a long-running and popular series character from <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Argosy<\/em>. 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.<\/p>\n<p>George Allan England was a prolific science fiction author probably mainly remembered for his &#8220;Darkness and the Dawn&#8221; trilogy. He has several other works, some of which have been reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/blackdogbooks.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Black Dog Books<\/a>. <em>The Flying Legion<\/em> is from 1919 and was serialized in <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">All-Story Weekly<\/em>. It&#8217;s about a group of post-war aviators working to solve the last of Earth&#8217;s mysteries.<\/p>\n<p>I <a href=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2016\/04\/18\/the-radio-pulp-of-ralph-milne-farley\/\">previously posted<\/a> about Ralph Milne Farley and his &#8220;Radio Man&#8221; series set on Venus. As well as the several other &#8220;Radio&#8221; stories he wrote unrelated to that series. Well, <em>The Radio Menace<\/em>\u00a0is actually the fourth in the &#8220;Radio Man&#8221; series. However, it doesn&#8217;t involve <strong>Miles Cabot<\/strong>. In this one, the Whoomangs, introduced in the third novel, try to invade Earth, but are stopped by others.<\/p>\n<p>And we get the third <strong>Semi Dual<\/strong> collection. As I&#8217;ve <a href=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2015\/06\/08\/semi-dual-occult-detector\/\">noted previously<\/a>, Semi Dual is an occult detective, probably the first in the pulps. I am definitely getting this one. This one contains a serial from <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Argosy<\/em> that ran in <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Argosy All-Story<\/em> in 1923, which skips ahead from where the prior volumes left off, and hence why it&#8217;s not marked as &#8220;Volume 3.&#8221;\u00a0Not 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.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of publishers have reprinted the works of Theodore Roscoe. Altus has been doing his <strong>Thibaut Corday<\/strong> series, and recently started to reprint a lesser-known but long-running series about curio-hunter <strong>Peter Scarlet<\/strong> and naturalist <strong>Bradshaw<\/strong>. The second volume, <em>The Ruby of Suratan Singh<\/em>, has their next six adventures, taken from <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Action Stories<\/em>, <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Far East Adventure Stories<\/em>, and <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Argosy<\/em> magazines.<\/p>\n<p>Better known for his Westerns, Max Brand wrote other works, like <em>The Darkness at Windon Manor<\/em>, a mystery-adventure story never before reprinted from <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Argosy<\/em>. It involves mistaken identities, a femme fatale, a lost treasure, and more.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/radio-menace.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[8117]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8147\" src=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/radio-menace-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"'The Radio Menace'\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/radio-menace-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2018\/11\/radio-menace.jpg 470w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Another one I plan to get is the third volume of <strong>Peter the Brazen<\/strong> stories. Here he is looking for a &#8220;<strong>Gloria Dale<\/strong>,&#8221; kidnapped by <strong>Fong-Chi-Ah<\/strong>, from a six-part serial from <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Argosy<\/em>, called &#8220;The Golden Cat.&#8221; Now, I&#8217;m a little confused by this, as we haven&#8217;t gotten volume two yet, which would contain the fourth, fifth, and sixth stories in the series. Not sure why this was done.<\/p>\n<p>One certainly can&#8217;t fault the early pulps for trying to copy themselves. <em>The Apes of Devil\u2019s Island<\/em> by John Cunningham (who doesn&#8217;t appear to have written anything else) is an attempt at creating another <strong>Tarzan<\/strong>-like story. Here young <strong>Jimmy Wendell<\/strong> is shipwrecked after the murder of the crew of the yacht he is on, and he finds himself on a shark-encircled island.<\/p>\n<p>Female authors in the early pulps were a rarity. But Florence M. Pettee appeared in several in the 1920s, including <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Black Mask<\/em>. Her <strong>Beau Quicksilver<\/strong> is an enigmatic detective that appeared in a series of seven stories in <em class=\"pulp-magazine\">Argosy<\/em>, all collected here.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, after too long we have finally gotten Series IV of Altus Press&#8216; &#8220;Argosy Library,&#8221; 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. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8146,"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 the Argosy Library, Series IV. #pulpmags @altuspress","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],"tags":[171,1158,443,168,188,1162,209,1160,1161,687,406,19,823,94,695,939,639,1152,1159,232],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-8117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pulps","category-reprints","tag-adventure-pulps","tag-anthony-m-rud","tag-argosy","tag-black-dog-books","tag-detective-pulps","tag-florence-m-petty","tag-frank-a-munsey-co","tag-george-allan-england","tag-john-cunningham","tag-loring-brent","tag-max-brand","tag-occult-detectives","tag-ralph-milne-farley","tag-science-fiction","tag-semi-dual","tag-steeger-books","tag-theodore-roscoe","tag-thibaut-corday","tag-w-c-tuttle","tag-western-pulps"],"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\/2018\/11\/sheriff-of-tonto-town-vol-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-26V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8117","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=8117"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21575,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8117\/revisions\/21575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8117"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=8117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}