Point, Counterpoint: Contemporary opinions of the pulps from 1940

An exchange in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, Tribune on the merits of pulps caught my attention recently. The instigator of this exchange was Donald Raub, then a schoolboy attending what used to be Central High School in Scranton, Pa who sent many letters to the editor. The first letter was this screed printed on 15 May,… Continue reading Point, Counterpoint: Contemporary opinions of the pulps from 1940

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

George Allan England article on running his personal fiction factory

[Article originally appeared in The Independent magazine, Mar 27, 1913 issue. By this time, England was a popular author who appeared regularly in slicks and pulps. He is remembered today for his contributions to the beginnings of modern American science-fiction.] The Fiction Factory How a Man Writes and Sells Over Half a Million Words a… Continue reading George Allan England article on running his personal fiction factory

Article on editing by Ray Long – magazine editor

Here’s an article on editing by Ray Long, one of the top American magazine editors of the early 20th Century. The article originally appeared in the January 1927 issue of The Bookman. At the time that this article was written, Long was at the peak of his career, editing Cosmopolitan magazine, a very different magazine… Continue reading Article on editing by Ray Long – magazine editor

Harold Lamb on selling his first story of Khlit the Cossack

This article was originally published in the February 25, 1918 issue of THE EDITOR magazine. Harold A. Lamb talks about the influence of editors on his first story of Khlit the Cossack and how he came to write it. The editor he refers to in the story is likely Arthur S. Hoffman.  Original heading for… Continue reading Harold Lamb on selling his first story of Khlit the Cossack

Origin stories: Hashknife Hartley by W.C. Tuttle

  [This is a slightly modified excerpt from an article in the The Pittsburgh Press of Jul 23, 1950.]   W.C. Tuttle, author of the “Hashknife Hartley” stories, admits that the idea for the “Hashknife Hartley” Western adventures was born of a blister but the character is the composite of two men Tuttle knew some… Continue reading Origin stories: Hashknife Hartley by W.C. Tuttle