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

The woman behind Munsey’s science fiction/fantasy pulps

Famous Fantastic Mysteries was launched in 1939. The stories were reprints from the Munsey files – stories from the early years of All-Story, Cavalier and Argosy. For fans who had grown up after these titles had died or changed direction, this was their first encounter with the best of the stories from that era. It… Continue reading The woman behind Munsey’s science fiction/fantasy pulps

Welcome to the new blog

Welcome. This is the continuation of my blog, started in 2012 at Blogger. I started it to share my love of stories and authors from the golden age of fiction magazines. It’s been nearly a decade now, with nearly 400 posts in that time. It’s mostly been posts about authors and magazines, with a few… Continue reading Welcome to the new blog

Inside look: How Street & Smith handled manuscripts in the early 1920s

AFTER the author has hopefully dropped his manuscript in the mail-box, what happens when it reaches the offices of the Street & Smith Corporation, the largest publishers of fiction periodicals in the world? We will assume that your story has been addressed to one of the nine magazines—Popular, Ainslee’s, People’s, Top Notch, Love Stories, Detective… Continue reading Inside look: How Street & Smith handled manuscripts in the early 1920s