Over on our pulp history page, we’ve got a quote attributed to Frank Munsey: “The story is worth more than the paper it is printed on.”
Well, to paraphrase that, I might say, “The story is worth more than the cover that’s printed on it.”
My most recent pulp purchase was a 17-magazine stack of “detective/mystery pulps” from the mid- to late-’30s — all coverless. I won them on eBay for $32.50 (including the shipping). That comes to just under $2 per magazine. Now that’s some cheap reads.
Sure, they’re not prize-quality possessions. (To tell the truth, they sure produce quite a bit of pulp dandruff.) And I won’t be reselling them later for a profit. But they’re just the ticket if you’re looking for some action and adventure.
All of the stories are intact, though at least one pulp is missing the contents page.
Among the 17 pulps were a couple of Dime Detectives, a couple of Phantom Detectives, two Doc Savages, a Black Mask, a The Shadow pulp and various other single titles. (Two don’t quite match the “detective/mystery” advertising for the auction: single issues of G-8 and Sky Fighters. But that’s okay.)
Oh, and there’s one coverless pulp that certain fits the “mystery” category. It's a Newsstand Group publication but bears no other indication of the pulp’s name or publication date. It’s got stories by Allen S. Jacobs, Jame W. Bennett, Edward Leaming and Thomas Topham, among others. Now to track down just what it is…
I love a pulp mystery!
– William
