Ham & Eggs: The successful pulp recipe of Alfred L. Gehri

We live in amazing times. Things previously impossible because they’d cost too much to try are now feasible. Like me buying pulps off EBay and shipping them across the world or diving into the lives of pulp authors by reading old newspapers and journals online.A few weeks ago, I read my first issue of Popular… Continue reading Ham & Eggs: The successful pulp recipe of Alfred L. Gehri

“Reckless Ralph” Cummings: Newspaper profile of a dime novel collector

Taken from the Kansas City Star, December 4, 1931 A Farm Hand and His Dime Novel Collection The Hobby of Ralph Cummings Has Resulted in one of the largest “Paper Back” Libraries in AmericaMany Follow Same Pursuit. Ralph Cummings, farm hand, believes that he owns the largest collection of dime and half-dime novels in New… Continue reading “Reckless Ralph” Cummings: Newspaper profile of a dime novel collector

Stereotyping in the pulps

There are those who believe that the past was uniformly dark. With the pulps, this attitude leads to an unreasoning belief that all pulp authors and editors were biased, that they never challenged any social or cultural norms and tacitly endorsed the biases and prejudices of their times. That this is wrong should be obvious,… Continue reading Stereotyping in the pulps

Pulp Art: Wings, December 1932 by Rudy Belarski

From time to time, I’m going to share an original pulp cover with you. This one, like a lot of them, is from Robert Lesser’s collection. The cover for Fiction House’ Wings, December 1932 by Rudolph Belarski, possibly illustrating Derek West’s The Wash-Out Kid. The magazine cover is missing from the FictionMags Index but I… Continue reading Pulp Art: Wings, December 1932 by Rudy Belarski

The case of the unknown artists, or Who did the early covers for Blue Book?

A couple of weeks ago, as I was going through the May 1907 issue of Blue Book, I realized that the cover was signed but unidentified. Indeed, the FictionMags Index did not have artists attributed for the first few years of the magazine’s existence. From 1912 onwards, the magazine credited the cover artist in the… Continue reading The case of the unknown artists, or Who did the early covers for Blue Book?

Issue Review: Gangster Stories, December 1929

When Prohibition was enacted in America in 1920, it made production and sale of illicit alcohol very attractive. Organized crime was attracted by the high margins in this trade and the noveau riche gangsters it spawned were celebrities in their day. Gangsters and their lives were topics of public interest. The first pulp publisher to… Continue reading Issue Review: Gangster Stories, December 1929