Following up on last week’ post on author reactions to Street & Smith’s all-reprint first issue of Sea Stories comes this review of the first issue. Let’s start with the mission statement, printed inside the issue: Sea Stories Magazine, the first number of which you hold in your hand, will deal with the adventures of… Continue reading Issue Review: Sea Stories, Feb 1922, the first issue
Author: Sai S
Right To Reprint Or Not? That Is The Question
The question of whether to reprint old stories or not was always a thorny one for pulp publishers. While many know about the so called “reprint menace” of the 1930s and 1940s when publishers like Harry Donenfeld and Martin Goodman pushed out pulps full of reprints without identifying them as such, few know of an… Continue reading Right To Reprint Or Not? That Is The Question
John Alan Maxwell, Illustrator of Romance
A few days ago, I was reading the first issue of Sea Stories and happened to glance through some of the covers of that magazine. The December 1925 issue, unattributed in the FictionMags Index, caught my eye. Ah! A signature on the bottom left of that cover. I squinted at it and tried to see… Continue reading John Alan Maxwell, Illustrator of Romance
The Thrilling World of Robert C. Blackmon: Man of Mystery
The depression, back in 1932, made writing sink-or-swim proposition for Robert C. Blackmon. Cast out on his own after losing a comfortable clerical position with the Atlantic Coast Line rail road, Blackmon swam and today he blesses the day his work terminated with the railroad. Today, eight years later, Blackmon is recognized as one of… Continue reading The Thrilling World of Robert C. Blackmon: Man of Mystery
Mastering Mystery: The Intriguing World of G. T. Fleming-Roberts
THE EDITORS of Better Homes and Gardens magazine unwittingly played right into the hands of G. T. Fleming-Roberts of Brown County, Indiana, when they printed a piece of advice on picking lilies a few months ago. Pull off the stamens, the magazine suggested, and the lilies won’t stain themselves—surely as innocent a tip on gardening… Continue reading Mastering Mystery: The Intriguing World of G. T. Fleming-Roberts
Harriette Ashbrook and the psychology of murder
Harriette Ashbrook, a lesser known detective writer, was born in Manhattan, Kansas in 1898 and came to Nebraska in the early 1900s. She studied at Vassar and Nebraska State University, then worked as a reporter for papers in Canada and the USA. Later she became a founding employee of the publisher Coward McCann, where she… Continue reading Harriette Ashbrook and the psychology of murder
Pulp Magazines: A man’s world
While the representation of women authors in the western and general fiction pulps was low, it wasn’t all a man’s world. In westerns Eli Colter and Cherry Wilson appeared regularly in Western Story; in general adventure fiction Beatrice Grimshaw (54 appearances in Blue Book); and in detective fiction the names of Mary Roberts Rinehart and… Continue reading Pulp Magazines: A man’s world
Do you know why The Popular Magazine had no illustrations?
For a long time, I was puzzled by why the Popular Magazine carried no illustrations. Here’s an explanation from the editor, Charles Agnew MacLean in the July 1904 issue. A Chat With You (editorial from the Popular Magazine, July 1904 issue) DID it ever occur to you what a bully good thing success is? There… Continue reading Do you know why The Popular Magazine had no illustrations?
Action Packed Western Stories: A writer’s creed
MUCH as the swift-moving Western story offends the ultra-cultured tastes of the intelligentsia, it has made for itself a very definite place in American literature. It may not be “art,” as the literati consider art. It may lack the polish of urban tales or the heart-throbs of bucolic stories. But it has something of which… Continue reading Action Packed Western Stories: A writer’s creed
The ponies were howling and singing: Secrets of good copy
I usually post about the often overlooked good points of the pulps, but there’s no excusing some of their worst excesses, pointed out by a copy editor who spent time cleaning up their messes. GRINDING TO A PULP By KENNETH A. FOWLER Mr. Fowler was formerly a copy editor with street & Smith Publications. Consequently,… Continue reading The ponies were howling and singing: Secrets of good copy