Doc Savage (magazine)

''Doc Savage'' was an American pulp magazine that was published from 1933 to 1949 by Street & Smith. It was launched as a follow-up to the success of ''The Shadow'', a magazine Street & Smith had started in 1931, based around a single character; ''Doc Savage'''s lead character was a scientist and adventurer, rather than purely a detective. Lester Dent was hired to write the lead novels, almost all of which were published under the house name "Kenneth Robeson"; a few dozens of the novels were ghost-written by other writers, hired either by Dent or by Street & Smith. The magazine was successful, but was shut down in 1949 as part of Street & Smith's decision to leave the pulp magazine field completely.

Publishing history

Development

In 1930, CBS began broadcasing ''The Detective Story Hour'', a radio program that used scripts from ''Detective Story Magazine'', a pulp magazine published by Street & Smith. In every episode the narrator, named The Shadow, spoke the line: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows." in a sinister voice, and readers began asking at newsstands for "the Shadow magazine".Sterling (2004), p. 2075.Harmon (2011), p. 149. Henry W. Ralston, Street & Smith's business manager, decided that this was an opportunity to revive the idea of a magazine based around a single character.Murray (1983), pp. 486-491. This had been a common publishing approach during the era of the dime novel, with lead characters such as Nick Carter and Frank Merriwell, but had fallen out of fashion, because when readers tired of the lead character, they tired of the magazine. Instead, pulp magazines often featured series of stories about popular protagonists, but never relied solely on them to sell a magazine.

The new magazine, titled ''The Shadow'', was an immediate success, and Ralston began looking for other opportunities to create "hero pulps", as the genre became known.Weinberg (1985), pp. 183-185. An idea for a magazine titled ''The Phantom'' had to be abandoned when Standard Publications, a competing publisher that had also noticed the success of ''The Shadow'', launched ''The Phantom Detective'' in early 1933. Ralston resurrected Carter in '' Nick Carter Magazine'', with the first issue dated March 1933, but also began planning a magazine based on a new character, to be named Doc Savage.Murray (1983), pp. 177-182. The name was inspired by Richard Henry Savage, an adventurer of the late 19th century; Doc Savage's first name, Clark, came from movie star Clark Gable.Murray (2012), p. 203. Ralston began work on the idea for Doc Savage in early 1932, and when Street & Smith hired John Nanovic that year to edit ''The Shadow'' the two of them collaborated on the concept.Murray (2012), pp. 399-403. Nanovic wrote up the notes from his and Ralston's discussions as a 28-page short story titled "Doc Savage, Supreme Adventurer" which provided "the characters, the basic concept, the background" for the whole series.

In February 1932 Frank Blackwell, Street & Smith's editor-in-chief, contacted Lester Dent, a pulp writer in his twenties with a dozen or so published stories, asking him to submit one or more novels for ''The Shadow''. Dent had been hired by Dell Magazines the year before to write stories for ''Sky Riders'' and ''Scotland Yard'', but both magazines had ceased publication within a few months of his arrival in New York. Nanovic's outline was probably not complete at the time Dent was first contacted; the concept for Doc Savage did not firm up quickly, and even the name for the new character was not settled for a long time. Dent's Shadow novel was rejected, partly through an unfortunate coincidence of plot with another Shadow novel submitted a few days earlier, but Dent was hired to write the Doc Savage novels regardless. Street & Smith may have been influenced to hire Dent by a story he wrote called "The Sinister Ray", the first of a series featuring Lynn Lash, a "gadget detective". The story appeared in the March 1932 issue of '' Detective-Dragnet'', and featured the same scientific approach to detection that Ralston was looking for with Doc Savage.Murray (2012), p. 417.

Launch and magazine history

The first issue of the new magazine was dated March 1933, and the lead novel was ''The Man of Bronze''. The author was Lester Dent, but the novel was published as by Kenneth Roberts, a pseudonym intended by Street & Smith to be used for all future Doc Savage novels. A house name, as corporate pseudonyms like this were known, gave readers the illusion of a consistent authorship, even though the novels that used the house name might conceal several different writers over time.Murray (2012), p. 1. The house name was changed to Kenneth Robeson from the second issue to avoid confusion with a real writer named Kenneth Roberts. The magazine was quickly successful, soon reaching 200,000 in circulation, and eventually settling at 300,000, a very high figure for a pulp magazine.Hulse (2013), pp. 287, 299.

Dent wrote every lead novel for over a year. His contract with Street & Smith paid him $700 for each novel, but allowed him to hire ghost-writers if he wished, and in 1934 he began looking for another writer to take on some of the work. The first ghost-writer he hired was Harold A. Davis, an old colleague of Dent's from his days working on the ''Tulsa World''. Davis's ''The King Maker'' appeared in the June 1934 issue; he wrote a total of fourteen of the magazine's lead novels, ending with ''The Exploding Lake'' in the September 1946 issue. Davis was followed by Ryerson Johnson, whose ''Land of Always-Night'' was written in late 1934 and was printed in March 1935. Johnson wrote two more novels, but only one saw print: ''The Fantastic Island'', in December 1935. The other, ''The Motion Menace'', was completely rewritten by Dent, who kept only the title and main plot idea; Dent's version saw print in May 1938. In about 1935 Street & Smith decided to commission a ghost-writer for Doc Savage independently of Dent; the reason why is unclear but they might have been trying to find a back up for Dent, who was bored by his Doc Savage writing obligations and appeared likely to resign.Murray (2012), pp. 9-12. The writer they hired, Laurence Donovan, produced nine novels in just nine months, beginning with ''Cold Death'' in April 1935. The first one published was ''Murder Melody'', which appeared in the November 1935 issue of ''Doc Savage''. The stories written by Donovan have sometimes been credited to another pulp writer, Norman A. Danberg, but this is an error, prompted by a editorial mistake that made it appear that "Laurence Donovan" was a pseudonym of Danberg's.

Donovan's rapid production, added to novels written by Dent himself, meant that for two years Dent needed to spend much less time writing Doc Savage novels. The last of the backlog was published in 1937, and a new ghost-writer was recruited: William G. Bogart, who worked for Nanovic and wrote short stories as well. At some point in the late 1930s Bogart left Street & Smith to write full time, and it was at about this time he began to write Doc Savage novels. He wrote nine between 1938 and 1940, starting with ''World's Fair Goblin'', which appeared in April 1939. Bogart's novels were subcontracted through Dent, but independently of Dent Street & Smith hired Alan Hathway as another ghost-writer in 1939. By 1942 Hathway had produced four Doc Savage novels, all published between January 1941 and January 1942.

Dent's need for ghost-writers over the first few years of ''Doc Savage'' diminished after 1941, as he traveled less because of the war. Wartime paper shortages forced Street & Smith to cease publication of many of their titles, but ''Doc Savage'' was one of the handful of survivors. Nanovic was dismissed by Street & Smith in 1943, and for six months the magazines were edited by Charles Moran.Murray (2012), pp. 40-42. The format shrank from pulp to digest with the January 1944 issue. Moran was succeeded by Babette Rosmond, who gave the day-to-day work of managing ''Doc Savage'' to a sub-editor, a woman who was unfamiliar with magazine. As a result one of Dent's novels appeared under his own name, rather than under the house name Kenneth Robeson: this was ''The Derelict of Skull Shoal'', in the March 1944 issue. In 1946 Dent rehired Bogart to write two more Doc Savage novels; Dent was now writing mysteries for book publication and needed to make time in his writing schedule. Bogart followed this with another three Doc Savage novels contracted directly with Street & Smith, rather than via Dent.

The magazine's frequency dropped from monthly to bimonthly in early 1947. A year later Rosmond left Street & Smith. She was replaced for two issues by William de Grouchy, who was in turn replaced by Daisy Bacon, who took over as editor of ''The Shadow'' at the same time. Bacon persuaded Street & Smith to go back to the pulp-size, and switched the magazine to a quarterly schedule. An issue was skipped because Bacon turned down the novel Dent had submitted, ''In Hell, Madonna'', so the first quarterly issue was dated January 1949. In April Bacon was told by her management to stop acquiring fiction and art, and on April 9 it was announced that almost every one of Street & Smith's fiction titles was being canceled. The last issue of ''Doc Savage'' was dated Fall 1949.

Contents and reception

The lead novel for the first issue, titled ''The Man of Bronze'', introduced Doc Savage and five companions who would feature throughout the series: "Renny" Renwick, an engineer; "Monk" Mayfair, an industrial chemist; "Ham" Brooks, a lawyer; "Long Tom" Roberts, an expert on electricity; and "Johnny" Littlejohn, an archaeologist and geologist. Savage himself was given an incredible array of skills: he was a surgeon and a brilliant inventor, and an expert in many scientific fields. He was also an impressive physical specimen: six feet four inches tall, with a permanent bronze tan, and enormous strength. In ''The Man of Bronze'' Savage investigates the death of his father, and discovers a lost valley in central America, where a tribe of Mayans live. Savage inherits from his father the gold that is mined from the valley, which funds his adventures for the rest of his career.

Each novel was initially outlined in meetings between Ralston, Nanovic and Dent. Ralston would introduce an idea, such as the discovery of a land where dinosaurs still lived, and Dent would take notes. Murray describes Nanovic as a "referee" in these meetings, "pointing out strengths and weaknesses, or that such-and-such an idea adbeen used too much in a competitor's magazine or their own". From the initial notes would come the bones of a plot, with character names and miscellaneous details. The meetings would generate material for as many as three novels at a time. Dent and Nanovic would follow up the meetings with further discussion, and then Dent would write a summary, no more than a couple of pages long, for Nanovic to approve. The next step was the outline, several times longer, including background material and a paragraph of detail for each proposed chapter. Nanovic might make further changes at this point, after which Dent would write the novel. Dent would not always follow the plot outline exactly, and occasionally made substantial changes, if he ran into plotting issues. Not every novel was created in this way—occasionally Dent would write one without getting prior approval, and in some cases he then had to make changes to the completed novel if Nanovic wanted plot elements removed or changed for some reason. After Nanovic left Street & Smith the outlines became less detailed.

Dent drew on his own experience for the background; he had worked on a ranch and as a telegraph operator, prospected for gold, and (by the mid-1930s) acquired a boat in which he sailed the Caribbean and dove for treasure. He also learned how to fly a plane. There was no set genre for the novels: Murray lists examples of adventure, science fiction, cold war, detective, fantasy, western, and juvenile novels from the magazine. Science fiction was the most common genre, with almost every novel featuring some science fictional element or an invented gadget, though in some cases there turns out to be a mundane explanation instead.Murray (2012), p. 88. The science fiction ideas included a metal-destroying ray, a teleportation mechanism, and the ability to revive a dead person from history. Despite this, Street & Smith considered ''Doc Savage'' to be an adventure magazine, not a science fiction magazine, so the short stories that accompanied the lead novel were straightforward adventure fiction. Writers who frequently contributed these stories included Steve Fisher, Laurence Donovan, and William Bogart.

Bibliographic details

''Doc Savage'' was published by Street & Smith, and produced 181 issues between March 1933 and Summer 1949. It was pulp format from the beginning until December 1943; it switched to digest format from January 1944 to the September/October 1948 issue, and than back to pulp for the 1949 issues. ''Doc Savage'' began as a monthly, and stayed on that schedule until February 1947; it was bimonthly from March–April 1947 until September–October 1948. The last three issues, in 1949, were quarterly. The title began as ''Doc Savage Magazine'', and was abbreviated to just ''Doc Savage'' for the September 1937 issue. Between the September/October 1947 and September/October 1948 issues a subtitle was added: ''Doc Savage: Science Detective''. The page count was 128 pages until the July 1938 issue; thereafter it varied between 114 and 164 pages. The price was initially 10 cents; this was increased to 15 cents in May 1943, and to 25 cents for the March–April 1947 issue. There were thirty volumes of six issues, and a final volume of one issue.

A Canadian reprint edition began in August 1933, and ran to at least December 1936, though it is not known whether an issue appeared in each month. Another Canadian reprint series began in July 1941, appearing monthly at least until February 1945. Bibliographic sources also record British and Spanish editions from the 1940s, but give no details.Tuck (1982), p. 554.

Notes

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{{ScienceFictionFantasyWeirdPulpMagazines

Magazines established in 1933
Magazines disestablished in 1949
Pulp magazines
Magazines published in the United States