Harold Brainerd Hersey (April 11, 1893March 1956) was an American pulp editor and publisher, publishing several volumes of poetry. His pulp industry observations were published in hardback as ''Pulpwood Editor'' (1937).

Early life

He was born on April 11, 1893, in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

to Augustine Haynes "Doc" Hersey, a newspaper reporter and publisher. The family moved to Washington, D.C., in the late 1890s. While Mrs. Hersey and two daughters stayed at home, Doc took Harold with him on globe-trotting reportorial assignments. They visited many places in North America. In 1904–05, they traveled to the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The t ...

for the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

. The pair traveled extensively in eastern Asia. Doc died in D.C. in 1907, leaving Harold with his mother and sisters. Harold worked at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

for eight years while getting a degree from

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presi ...

at night. About 1914, he married Merle Williams; they had one child, a daughter Dorothy, Harold Hersey's only offspring. The marriage was brief. (Merle W. Hersey later moved to New York and edited a succession of sex-oriented "girly pulps" from about 1925–36.) Harold Hersey moved to

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, New York, and helped

Margaret Sanger Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth contro ...

launch her journal ''

Birth Control Review ''Birth Control Review'' was a lay magazine established and edited by Margaret Sanger in 1917, three years after her friend, Otto Bobsein, coined the term "birth control" to describe voluntary motherhood or the ability of a woman to space childr ...

''. He met

Fulton Oursler Charles Fulton Oursler (January 22, 1893 – May 24, 1952) was an American journalist, playwright, editor and writer. Writing as Anthony Abbot, he was an author of mysteries and detective fiction. His son was the journalist and author Will Ou ...

. In 1917, Hersey teamed up with

Arthur Moss Arthur Harold Moss (November 1889 in Greenwich Village – February 20, 1969 in Neuilly-sur-Marne) was an American expatriate poet and magazine editor. Life His parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants. After serving in World War I, he atten ...

to publish ''The Quill'', a literary and satire magazine. He corresponded with T. Atkinson Jenkins, and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

. He was secretary to the Author's League, and supported

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...

in his ''Genius'' censorship fight. He visited author

Henry Leverage Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

Sing Sing Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...

Mid life

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, he was a lieutenant in public relations, but never went overseas. Several articles on military matters were published in ''

Scribner's Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Ra ...

''. He was editor of ''Minaret'' magazine in Washington, D. C., with Shaemus O. Sheele, and Herbert Bruncken. He got his first commercial publishing job with publisher

Street & Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among t ...

in 1919 editing the legendary pulp ''

The Thrill Book ''The Thrill Book'' was a U.S. pulp magazine published by Street & Smith in 1919. It was intended to carry "different" stories: this meant stories that were unusual or unclassifiable, which in practice often meant the stories were fantasy or sc ...

''. Hersey was fired (or resigned) after 8 of the 16 issues. It is often cited as the first all-fantasy pulp, but in actuality it blended straight drama, adventure, sea stories, mysteries, etc., while also featuring a bit of fantasy. After leaving

, Hersey immediately joined new pulp publisher, Clayton Publications in 1919, as a title editor, feature writer and later group editor for several of the Clayton magazines. Hersey is credited with creating ''Ranch Romances'', the first western-romance hybrid. ''Ranch Romances'' was one of the last pulps to cease publication, lasting into the early '70s.

Magazine publishers

After Clayton, Hersey had stints working for

Bernarr Macfadden Bernarr Macfadden (born Bernard Adolphus McFadden, August 16, 1868 – October 12, 1955) was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He founded the long-running magazine pu ...

, briefly replacing Fulton Oursler as Supervising Editor of the Macfadden magazines (1927), and the Eastern Distributing Company. In late 1928, Hersey with money fronted by a distributor started his own pulp chain, Magazine Publishers, also known as The Hersey Magazines. The covers sported an ancient Indian good luck symbol...a swastika-logo. Titles included ''The Dragnet Magazine'', ''Sky Birds'', ''Fire Fighters'', and ''The Underworld Magazine''. Some unknown disagreement with his co-founders/backers resulted in Hersey leaving the company in mid-1929. Magazine Publishers, with former Dell editor Aron Wyn at the helm, turned into the chain known as the Ace Group.

Good Story Magazine Company

Hersey founded another pulp chain,

Good Story Magazine Company In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

, with financial backing from Macfadden. Good Story's ''

Gangster Stories ''Gangster Stories'' was a controversial pulp magazine of the early 1930s. It featured hardboiled crime fiction that glorified the gun-toting gangsters of the Prohibition era. It was published by Harold Hersey, as part of his Good Story Magazine Co ...

'' was an immediate hit. Within a few months, a dozen titles had been issued, including some now-rare one-shots like ''Thrills of the Jungle'' and ''Love and War Stories''. With the issue of February 1930, another gang pulp, ''Racketeer Stories'', was introduced. The violence and lawlessness of the two gang pulps provoked outrage. Hersey was threatened with prosecution in the state of New York. The crisis passed, and the gang pulps remained the mainstay of Hersey's chain into 1932. Other Good Story pulps include ''Prison Stories'', ''Murder Stories'', and ''

Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories ''Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine which published two issues in 1931. The fiction was unremarkable, but the cover art and illustrations, by Elliott Dold, were high quality, and have made the ...

''. Hersey bought the company outright in late 1931, after Macfadden withdrew financing. Hersey went forward as an independent. From then on, the pulps were published by Headquarters, Blue Band, and other imprints. However, the company failed in 1932 and Hersey sold his holdings.Locke, John. "Harold Hersey: Tales of an Ink-Stained Wretch," included in ''City of Numbered Men: The Best of Prison Stories'' (2010). Throughout the '30s, Hersey continued to test the market with new magazines. He was editor-in-chief on a string of novelty magazines for H-K Publications (also known as the Hardy-Kelly Group) from 1941 forward.

Works

* * * Gestures in Ivory: 1919 Britton Publishing Co., New York * Poetry: Rare and Collectible: 1923 Privately printed * A collection of 21 ballads illustrated by Jerry Delano * ''Pulpwood Editor'', (1937). * ''Night'', with illustrations by Elliott Dold, Personal Books Inc., New York, 1943. * ''Margaret Sanger: The Biography of the Birth Control Pioneer'', New York 1938 *

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hersey, Harold 1893 births 1964 deaths American magazine publishers (people) People from Montana George Washington University alumni American magazine editors People from Greenwich Village