If you live in the Northeast U.S., mark your calendar for Brown University’s Pulp Uncovered festival, in Providence, R.I., on March 15-18.
There’s been a spattering of talk about the festival in various pulp newsgroups, but just recently the university has posted details on its new Web site. The festival is a project of the Department of American Civilization’s master’s degree program in public humanities.
Pulp Uncovered will be a weekend festival “celebrating the history of pulp fiction magazines and their notorious influence on American popular culture,” according to a university press release. And it will have a decidedly horror bent, thanks to 2007 marking the 70th anniversary of the death of horror pulp writer and Providence native H.P. Lovecraft.
Among the events scheduled is an exhibit, Pulp Uncovered: How Pulp Magazines Changed America at the John Nicholas Brown Center. The exhibit actually runs March 15 through June 1 and features, among other things, pulps containing Lovecraft’s work, original manuscripts and letters that Lovecraft wrote to fans and colleagues.
There is a film series scheduled for March 15-18. A discussion of Lovecraft’s fascination with outer space will be held at the university’s Ladd Observatory, called “Lovecraft at the Ladd” on March 16. Two walking tours are planned: on March 17, “H.P. Lovecraft: Life and Works”; and on March 18, “Lovecraft as Preservationist: Providence Architectural Walking Tour.”
There also will be panel discussions, art talks and various speakers on the pulps, the fictioneers and the artists.
A complete schedule has not been posted, so check the festival’s Web site for details as they become available.
This is great news. I’m excited to see the pulps being given a serious, scholarly look. I feel like pulp magazines are often considered American literature’s redheaded stepchild, and impolitely hurried off to the basement when guests arrive. So any sort of positive attention outside the pulp community is terrific.
– William
These things always happen so far away from me 🙁
Any hope for some kind of Florida pulp festival?
I’m not aware of anything in your neck of the woods. Pulp dealer David Alexander and a few others held an annual pulp and paperback show in Tampa for a few years. While I lived in the area, I made it to the second and subsequent shows, until turnout dropped to nothing, then it ended.
There are certainly a number of pulp fans in the Tampa Bay area. Some of us would get together informally on occasion and I always wanted to start up something like the Gotham Pulp Collector’s Club, up in New York City. But I just never got around to doing it.
At our most recent “Doc Day” (that’s what the Arizona contingent of the Doc Con folks call our periodic planning days), we talked about how we could encourage other pulp fans, particularly Doc Savage fans, to organize their own pulp gatherings. It doesn’t have to be big or fancy, you could even just agree to meet for a burger at a local dinner and talk about the pulps. It’s a lot of fun.
Anything I could do to facilitate it?
I see that Brown has posted more information about the Pulp Uncovered event on its Web site, including a calendar of events. Erin Brown, who wrote Hard-Boiled: Working Class Readers and Pulp Magazines, will be a guest speaker, as will Will Murray.