With major league baseball season well under way and the college world series in a couple of weeks, I thought this installment of Great Pulp Art should echo that.
The pulp magazines reflected what the masses were interested in reading. If readers wanted Westerns, romance, war or heroes, that’s what the pulp publishing houses gave them. Exciting Plumbing Adventures, not so much.
Sport fiction was always a part of fiction magazines, and when interest grew strong enough, it earned its very own titles. Sport Story Magazine led the way in 1923. But not until the mid-’30s would sports pulps really take the field.
In 1937, around 16 sports pulps were on the newsstands (up from seven the previous year). A year later, that number hit 26.
Sports pulps would peak at 29 different titles in 1948 and quickly begin to fade along with all pulps.
Popular Publications‘ Sports Novels Magazine hit the stands in ’37. It would continue bi-monthly through April 1951 (except for October 1947 through November 1948 when it went monthly).
Batters and catchers were a mainstay on the covers of sports pulps, but this particular cover is one of the best examples. This is the June 1951 number.
The cover is unsigned, but I wonder if it’s not by Norman Saunders, who did a few Sports Novels covers around that time.
It captures the action and makes you wonder: What just happened? Is it a pop fly? Is the ball soaring toward the fence? Just the sort of thing Great Pulp Art should do.
If you’d like to learn more about the sports pulps, check out John Dinan‘s “Sports in the Pulp Magazines.”
