Ernest Bramah – Humorist, Detective fiction writer

[In which your slow-witted servant recommends to your exaltedness’ attentions the boundless wisdom, lofty morals and incomparable diversions to be found in the stories of the itinerant story-teller Kai-Lung as related by the venerable hermit Ernest Bramah.] Ernest Bramah set his Kai Lung stories in a China that never was, where people spoke in an… Continue reading Ernest Bramah – Humorist, Detective fiction writer

A short history of the Saturday Evening Post by the Curtis Publishing Company

Frederick S. Bigelow wrote this history of the Saturday Evening Post, covering the years 1897 to 1927. It was expanded in 1937, and covers the rise of the magazine from a circulation of 1600 copies in 1897 to about three million in 1937, under the editorship of George Horace Lorimer. It mentions briefly the major… Continue reading A short history of the Saturday Evening Post by the Curtis Publishing Company

W.C. Tuttle and the Nobel prize for literature – what’s the connection?

Answer to the question I asked earlier: W.C. Tuttle and the Nobel prize for literature – what’s the connection? In the Nobel Prize winning author V.S. Naipaul’s book, A House for Mr. Biswas, the protagonist’s brother in law, and one of the main characters, is a reader of W.C. Tuttle. Throughout the book, he is… Continue reading W.C. Tuttle and the Nobel prize for literature – what’s the connection?

W.C. Tuttle – Western, short story and movie writer, humorist and detective fiction author

[W.C. Tuttle, like B.M. Bower, Walt Coburn and Dan Cushman, was an authentic westerner from Montana who became a writer. He wrote westerns, naturally, but not the usual sheriff-rides-into-town-and-cleans-it-up stuff. Rather, he wrote humorous stories and detective fiction, creating characters who were always looking to find what was over the next hill, and would never… Continue reading W.C. Tuttle – Western, short story and movie writer, humorist and detective fiction author

Drums drone death – novella by J. Allan Dunn

A detective story set in the South Seas. With a brainy he-man detective, pidgin talking natives, effete Britishers, pounding jungle drums, a blow gun attacks, a native witch doctor, Yellow peril Japanese, a secret plot against America and a beautiful girl in a negligee  – Allan Dunn covers all the standard tropes. Did I mention… Continue reading Drums drone death – novella by J. Allan Dunn

J. Allan Dunn – Pulp author, Novelist, Explorer, Sailor

[J. Allan Dunn was a prolific pulp writer, playwright, poet, artist, explorer and movie writer, writing over a thousand stories from 1914 to 1941 of which many were published in book form and serialized in newspapers after their magazine publication. He specialized in South Seas and pirate stories, but wrote detective stories, science fiction and… Continue reading J. Allan Dunn – Pulp author, Novelist, Explorer, Sailor