Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap
wood pulp
Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw mate ...
paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazines printed on higher-quality paper were called "glossies" or "slicks". The typical pulp magazine had 128 pages; it was wide by high, and thick, with ragged, untrimmed edges.
The pulps gave rise to the term pulp fiction in reference to run-of-the-mill, low-quality literature. Pulps were the successors to the
penny dreadful
Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to ...
s,
dime novel
The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, r ...
s, and short-fiction magazines of the 19th century. Although many respected writers wrote for pulps, the magazines were best known for their lurid,
exploitative, and sensational subject matter, even though this was but a small part of what existed in the pulps. Successors of pulps include paperback books, digest magazines, and men's adventure magazines. Modern
superhero comic books are sometimes considered descendants of "hero pulps"; pulp magazines often featured illustrated novel-length stories of heroic characters, such as
Flash Gordon,
The Shadow
The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...
,
Doc Savage
Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a doctor, scientist, adventurer, detective, and polymath who "rights w ...
, and
The Phantom Detective
''The Phantom Detective'' was the second pulp hero magazine published, after ''The Shadow''. The first issue was released in February 1933, a month before ''Doc Savage'', which was released in March 1933. The title continued to be released unt ...
.
History
Origins
The first "pulp" was
Frank Munsey's revamped ''
Argosy'' magazine of 1896, with about 135,000 words (192 pages) per issue, on pulp paper with untrimmed edges, and no illustrations, even on the cover. The steam-powered printing press had been in widespread use for some time, enabling the boom in dime novels; prior to Munsey, however, no one had combined cheap printing, cheap paper and cheap authors in a package that provided affordable entertainment to young working-class people. In six years, ''Argosy'' went from a few thousand copies per month to over half a million.
["A Two-Minute History of the Pulps", in ''The Adventure House Guide to the Pulps'', edited by ]Doug Ellis
Sir Herbert Douglas Ellis, (3 January 1924 – 11 October 2018) was an English entrepreneur. He was the chairman of Aston Villa Football Club from 1968 to 1975, and again from 1982 until 2006. Ellis was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours L ...
, John Locke, and John Gunnison. Silver Spring, MD, Adventure House, 2000. (p. ii–iv).
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 ...
, a
dime novel
The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, r ...
and boys' weekly publisher, was next on the market. Seeing ''Argosy''s success, they launched ''
The Popular Magazine
''The Popular Magazine'' was an early American literary magazine that ran for 612 issues from November 1903 to October 1931. It featured short fiction, novellas, serialized larger works, and even entire short novels. The magazine's subject matter ...
'' in 1903, which they billed as the "biggest magazine in the world" by virtue of its being two pages (the interior sides of the front and back cover) longer than ''Argosy''. Due to differences in
page layout however, the magazine had substantially less text than ''Argosy''. ''The Popular Magazine'' did introduce color covers to pulp publishing, and the magazine began to take off when in 1905 the publishers acquired the rights to serialize ''
Ayesha'', by
H. Rider Haggard, a sequel to his popular novel ''
She
She most commonly refers to:
*She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English.
She or S.H.E. may also refer to:
Literature and films
*'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...
''. Haggard's
Lost World
The lost world is a subgenre of the fantasy or science fiction genres that involves the discovery of an unknown Earth civilization. It began as a subgenre of the late- Victorian adventure romance and remains popular into the 21st century.
The ...
genre influenced several key pulp writers, including
Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Robert E. Howard,
Talbot Mundy
Talbot Mundy (born William Lancaster Gribbon, 23 April 1879 – 5 August 1940) was an English writer of adventure fiction. Based for most of his life in the United States, he also wrote under the pseudonym of Walter Galt. Best known as the ...
and
Abraham Merritt
Abraham Grace Merritt (January 20, 1884 – August 21, 1943) – known by his byline, A. Merritt – was an American Sunday magazine editor and a writer of fantastic fiction.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 1999, ...
. In 1907, the cover price rose to 15 cents and 30 pages were added to each issue; along with establishing a stable of authors for each magazine, this change proved successful and circulation began to approach that of ''Argosy''. Street and Smith's next innovation was the introduction of specialized genre pulps, with each magazine focusing on a particular genre, such as detective stories, romance, etc.
Peak of popularity
At their peak of popularity in the 1920s–1940s,
the most successful pulps sold up to one million copies per issue. In 1934,
Frank Gruber
Frank Gruber (born February 2, 1904, Elmer, Minnesota, died December 9, 1969, Santa Monica, California) was an American writer. He was a writer of stories for pulp fiction magazines. He also wrote dozens of novels, mostly Westerns and detect ...
said there were some 150 pulp titles. The most successful pulp magazines were ''
Argosy'', ''
Adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
'', ''
Blue Book
A blue book or bluebook is an almanac, buyer's guide or other compilation of statistics and information. The term dates back to the 15th century, when large blue velvet-covered books were used for record-keeping by the Parliament of England. The ...
'' and ''
Short Stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
'', collectively described by some pulp historians as "The Big Four". Among the best-known other titles of this period were ''
Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances ...
'', ''
Black Mask'', ''Dime Detective'', ''
Flying Aces
A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...
'', ''
Horror Stories'', ''
Love Story Magazine
''Love Story Magazine'' was an American romantic fiction pulp magazine, published from 1921 to 1947.Doug Ellis, John Locke, and John Gunnison, ''The Adventure House Guide to the Pulps''.Silver Spring, MD : Adventure House, 2000. (pp. 153-4) It w ...
'', ''
Marvel Tales'',
''
Oriental Stories'', ''
Planet Stories
''Planet Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on some other planets, and was initially focused on a young readershi ...
'', ''Spicy Detective'', ''
Startling Stories'', ''
Thrilling Wonder Stories
''Wonder Stories'' was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stor ...
'', ''
Unknown
Unknown or The Unknown may refer to:
Film
* ''The Unknown'' (1915 comedy film), a silent boxing film
* ''The Unknown'' (1915 drama film)
* ''The Unknown'' (1927 film), a silent horror film starring Lon Chaney
* ''The Unknown'' (1936 film), a ...
'', ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...
'' and ''
Western Story Magazine
''Western Story Magazine'' was a pulp magazine published by Street & Smith, which ran from 1919 to 1949.Doug Ellis, John Locke, and John Gunnison, (editors),''The Adventure House Guide to the Pulps'', Adventure House, 2000. (pp. 311–12). It was ...
''.
During the economic hardships of the
Great Depression, pulps provided affordable content to the masses, and were one of the primary forms of entertainment, along with
film and
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
.
Although pulp magazines were primarily an American phenomenon, there were also a number of British pulp magazines published between the
Edwardian era
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victor ...
and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Notable UK pulps included ''
Pall Mall Magazine
''The Pall Mall Magazine'' was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Begun by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and g ...
'', ''The Novel Magazine'', ''
Cassell's Magazine
''Cassell's Magazine'' is a British magazine that was published monthly from 1897 to 1912. It was the successor to ''Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper'', (1853–1867) becoming ''Cassell's Family Magazine'' in 1874, ''Cassell's Magazine'' in 1897 ...
'', ''The
Story-Teller'', ''The Sovereign Magazine'', ''Hutchinson's Adventure-Story'' and ''Hutchinson's Mystery-Story''.
[Ashley, Michael (2006). ''The Age of the Storytellers: British Popular Fiction Magazines, 1880–1950''. British Library. ] The German fantasy magazine ''
Der Orchideengarten'' had a similar format to American pulp magazines, in that it was printed on rough pulp paper and heavily illustrated.
World War II and market decline
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
paper shortages had a serious impact on pulp production, starting a steady rise in costs and the decline of the pulps. Beginning with ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' in 1941, pulp magazines began to switch to
digest size
Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately , but can also be and , similar to the size of a DVD case. These sizes have evolved from the printing ...
; smaller, thicker magazines. In 1949, Street & Smith closed most of their pulp magazines in order to move upmarket and produce slicks.
Competition from
comic-books and
paperback novels further eroded the pulps’ marketshare, but it was the widespread expansion of
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
that sounded the death knell of the pulps.
In a more affluent post-war America, the price gap compared to slick magazines was far less significant. In the 1950s,
men's adventure
Men's adventure is a genre of magazine that was published in the United States from the 1940s until the early 1970s. Catering to a male audience, these magazines featured pin-up girls and lurid tales of adventure that typically featured wartime fe ...
magazines began to replace the pulp.
The 1957 liquidation of the
American News Company, then the primary distributor of pulp magazines, has sometimes been taken as marking the end of the "pulp era"; by that date, many of the famous pulps of the previous generation, including ''Black Mask,'' ''
The Shadow
The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...
,'' ''
Doc Savage
Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a doctor, scientist, adventurer, detective, and polymath who "rights w ...
,'' and ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...
,'' were defunct.
Almost all of the few remaining pulp magazines are science fiction or
mystery
Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
*Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange''
Films
* ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film
* ''Mystery'' ( ...
magazines now in formats similar to "
digest size
Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately , but can also be and , similar to the size of a DVD case. These sizes have evolved from the printing ...
", such as ''
Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' and ''
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' is a bi-monthly American digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction, and mystery fiction. Launched in fall 1941 by Mercury Press, ''EQMM'' is named after the fict ...
''. The format is still in use for some lengthy serials, like the German science fiction weekly ''
Perry Rhodan
''Perry Rhodan'' is a West German/ German space opera franchise, named after its hero. It commenced in 1961 and has been ongoing for decades, written by an ever-changing team of authors. Having sold approximately two billion copies (in novel ...
'' (over 3,000 issues as of 2019).
Over the course of their evolution, there were a huge number of pulp magazine titles;
Harry Steeger
Henry Steeger III (May 26, 1903, New York City – December 25, 1990) was an American magazine editor and publisher. He co-founded Popular Publications in 1930, one of the major publishers of pulp magazines, with former classmate Harold S. Goldsmi ...
of
Popular Publications claimed that his company alone had published over 300, and at their peak they were publishing 42 titles per month.
Many titles of course survived only briefly. While the most popular titles were monthly, many were bimonthly and some were quarterly.
The collapse of the pulp industry changed the landscape of publishing because pulps were the single largest sales outlet for short stories. Combined with the decrease in slick magazine fiction markets, writers attempting to support themselves by creating fiction switched to novels and book-length anthologies of shorter pieces. Some ex-pulp writers like
Hugh B. Cave and
Robert Leslie Bellem moved on to writing for television by the 1950s.
Genres
Pulp magazines often contained a wide variety of
genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.
A num ...
, including, but not limited to,
*
adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
*aviation
*
detective/
mystery
Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
*Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange''
Films
* ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film
* ''Mystery'' ( ...
*
espionage
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
*
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
*
gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
*
horror/
occult (including "
weird menace
Weird menace is a subgenre of horror fiction and detective fiction that was popular in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and early 1940s. The weird menace pulps, also known as shudder pulps, generally featured stories in which the hero was pitted a ...
")
*humor
*railroad
*romance
*
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
*
Série Noire
''Série noire'' is a French publishing imprint, founded in 1945 by Marcel Duhamel. It has released a collection of crime fiction of the hardboiled detective thrillers variety published by Gallimard.
Anglo-American literature forms the bulk o ...
(French crime mystery)
*"spicy/saucy" (
soft porn
Softcore pornography or softcore porn, is commercial still photography or film that has a pornographic or erotic component but is less sexually graphic and intrusive than hardcore pornography, defined by a lack of visual sexual penetration. Softc ...
)
*sports
*war
*
Westerns
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
(also see
dime Western); the
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
artist
Arthur Roy Mitchell
Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more ...
is particularly known for his sketches of the covers of such western magazines.
The
American Old West was a mainstay genre of early turn of the 20th century novels as well as later pulp magazines, and lasted longest of all the traditional pulps. In many ways, the later
men's adventure
Men's adventure is a genre of magazine that was published in the United States from the 1940s until the early 1970s. Catering to a male audience, these magazines featured pin-up girls and lurid tales of adventure that typically featured wartime fe ...
("the sweats") was the replacement of pulps.
Many classic science fiction and crime novels were originally
serialized in pulp magazines such as ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...
'', ''
Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances ...
'', and ''
Black Mask''.
Notable original characters
While the majority of pulp magazines were anthology titles featuring many different authors, characters and settings, some of the most enduring magazines were those that featured a single recurring character. These were often referred to as "hero pulps" because the recurring character was almost always a larger-than-life hero in the mold of
Doc Savage
Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a doctor, scientist, adventurer, detective, and polymath who "rights w ...
or
The Shadow
The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...
.
Popular pulp characters that headlined in their own magazines:
Popular pulp characters who appeared in anthology titles such as ''
All-Story
''Argosy'', later titled ''The Argosy'', ''Argosy All-Story Weekly'' and ''The New Golden Argosy'', was an American pulp magazine from 1882 through 1978, published by Frank Munsey until its sale to Popular Publications in 1942. It is the fi ...
'' or ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...
'':
Illustrators
Pulp covers were printed in color on higher-quality (slick) paper. They were famous for their half-dressed
damsels in distress
The damsel in distress is a recurring narrative device in which one or more men must rescue a woman who has either been kidnapped or placed in general peril. Kinship, love, or lust (or a combination of those) gives the male protagonist the motiv ...
, usually awaiting a rescuing
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''her ...
. Cover art played a major part in the marketing of pulp magazines. The early pulp magazines could boast covers by some distinguished American artists; ''The Popular Magazine'' had covers by
N.C. Wyeth, and
Edgar Franklin Wittmack contributed cover art to ''Argosy'' and ''Short Stories''. Later, many artists specialized in creating covers mainly for the pulps; a number of the most successful cover artists became as popular as the authors featured on the interior pages. Among the most famous pulp artists were
Walter Baumhofer,
Earle K. Bergey,
Margaret Brundage,
Edd Cartier
Edward Daniel Cartier (August 1, 1914 – December 25, 2008), known professionally as Edd Cartier, was an American pulp magazine illustrator who specialized in science fiction and fantasy art.
Born in North Bergen, New Jersey, Cartier studied at ...
,
Virgil Finlay
Virgil Finlay (July 23, 1914 – January 18, 1971) was an American pulp fantasy, science fiction and horror illustrator. He has been called "part of the pulp magazine history ... one of the foremost contributors of original and imagi ...
,
Frank R. Paul,
Norman Saunders
Norman Blaine Saunders (January 1, 1907 – March 7, 1989) was a prolific 20th-century American commercial artist. He is best known for paintings in pulp magazines, paperbacks, men's adventure magazines, comic books and trading cards. On occasio ...
,
Emmett Watson,
Nick Eggenhofer, (who specialized in
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
illustrations),
Hugh J. Ward,
George Rozen
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Preside ...
, and
Rudolph Belarski
Rudolph Belarski (May 27, 1900 – December 24, 1983) was an American graphic artist known for his cover art depicting aerial combat for magazines such as ''Wings'', '' Dare Devil Aces'', and ''War Birds''. He also drew science fiction covers for ...
. Covers were important enough to sales that sometimes they would be designed first; authors would then be shown the cover art and asked to write a story to match.
Later pulps began to feature interior illustrations, depicting elements of the stories. The drawings were printed in black ink on the same cream-colored paper used for the text, and had to use specific techniques to avoid blotting on the coarse texture of the cheap pulp. Thus, fine lines and heavy detail were usually not an option. Shading was by
crosshatch
Hatching (french: hachure) is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing (or painting or scribing) closely spaced parallel lines. (It is also used in monochromatic representations of heraldry to indicate what the t ...
ing or
pointillism, and even that had to be limited and coarse. Usually the art was black lines on the paper's background, but Finlay and a few others did some work that was primarily white lines against large dark areas.
Authors and editors
Another way pulps kept costs down was by paying authors less than other markets; thus many eminent authors started out in the pulps before they were successful enough to sell to better-paying markets, and similarly, well-known authors whose careers were slumping or who wanted a few quick dollars could bolster their income with sales to pulps. Additionally, some of the earlier pulps solicited stories from amateurs who were quite happy to see their words in print and could thus be paid token amounts.
There were also career pulp writers, capable of turning out huge amounts of prose on a steady basis, often with the aid of
dictation
Dictation can refer to:
*Dictation (exercise), when one person speaks while another person transcribes
*'' Dictation: A Quartet'', a collection of short stories by Cynthia Ozick, published in 2008
* Digital dictation, the use of digital electronic ...
to
stenographers, machines or
typist Typist is a person who types, a clerical worker who writes documents, using a typewriter.
Skills and occupations
Typist may also refer to:
*Data entry clerk, someone who types data into a database via a computer or terminal.
* Audio typist, someone ...
s. Before he became a novelist,
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...
was turning out at least 8,000 words per day seven days a week for the pulps, keeping two stenographers fully employed. Pulps would often have their authors use multiple pen names so that they could use multiple stories by the same person in one issue, or use a given author's stories in three or more successive issues, while still appearing to have varied content. One advantage pulps provided to authors was that they paid ''upon acceptance'' for material instead of on publication; since a story might be accepted months or even years before publication, to a working writer this was a crucial difference in
cash flow.
Some pulp editors became known for cultivating good fiction and interesting features in their magazines. Preeminent pulp magazine editors included
Arthur Sullivant Hoffman
Arthur Sullivant Hoffman (September 28, 1876 – March 15, 1966) was an American magazine editor. Hoffman is
best known for editing the acclaimed pulp magazine ''Adventure''
from 1912 to 1927, Bleiler, Richard. "A History of Adventure Magazine", in ...
(''
Adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
''),
Robert H. Davis (''
All-Story Weekly
''Argosy'', later titled ''The Argosy'', ''Argosy All-Story Weekly'' and ''The New Golden Argosy'', was an American pulp magazine from 1882 through 1978, published by Frank Munsey until its sale to Popular Publications in 1942. It is the first ...
''),
Harry E. Maule
Harry may refer to:
TV shows
* ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin
* ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons
* ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...
(''
Short Stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
''),
Donald Kennicott (''
Blue Book
A blue book or bluebook is an almanac, buyer's guide or other compilation of statistics and information. The term dates back to the 15th century, when large blue velvet-covered books were used for record-keeping by the Parliament of England. The ...
''),
Joseph T. Shaw (''
Black Mask''),
Farnsworth Wright
Farnsworth Wright (July 29, 1888 – June 12, 1940) was the editor of the pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' during the magazine's heyday, editing 179 issues from November 1924 to March 1940. Jack Williamson called Wright "the first great fantasy ...
(''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...
'', ''
Oriental Stories''),
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell Jr. (June 8, 1910 – July 11, 1971) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (later called '' Analog Science Fiction and Fact'') from late 1937 until his death ...
(''
Astounding Science Fiction'', ''
Unknown
Unknown or The Unknown may refer to:
Film
* ''The Unknown'' (1915 comedy film), a silent boxing film
* ''The Unknown'' (1915 drama film)
* ''The Unknown'' (1927 film), a silent horror film starring Lon Chaney
* ''The Unknown'' (1936 film), a ...
'') and
Daisy Bacon
Daisy Bacon (May 23, 1898 – March 1, 1986) was an American pulp fiction magazine editor and writer, best known as the editor of '' Love Story Magazine'' from 1928 to 1947.
Early life
Daisy Bacon was born in Union City, Pennsylvania. One of her g ...
(''Love Story Magazine'', ''Detective Story Magazine'').
Authors featured
Well-known authors who wrote for pulps include:
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
, first American winner of the
Nobel Prize in Literature, worked as an editor for ''
Adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
'', writing filler paragraphs (brief facts or amusing anecdotes designed to fill small gaps in page layout), advertising copy and a few stories.
Publishers
![Dime Mystery Book Magazine January 1933](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Dime_Mystery_Book_Magazine_January_1933.jpg)
*
A. A. Wyn's Magazine Publishers
Magazine Publishers was a pulp magazine publishing house established by Harold Hersey and later owned by A. A. Wyn in 1929. Under Wyn, it was known as "Ace Magazines", hence titles such as ''Ace Mystery'' and ''Ace Sports''. They also used the n ...
*
Better/Standard/Thrilling (The Thrilling Group) published ''Captain Future'' and ''Startling Stories''
*
William Clayton published ''Ginger Stories'', ''Pep Stories'' and ''Snappy Stories''
*
Columbia Publications
Columbia Publications was an American publisher of pulp magazines featuring the genres of science fiction, westerns, detective stories, romance, and sports fiction. The company published such writers as Isaac Asimov, Louis L'Amour, Arthur C. Cla ...
published ''
Future Science Fiction
''Future Science Fiction'' and ''Science Fiction Stories'' were two American science fiction magazines that were published under various names between 1939 and 1943 and again from 1950 to 1960. Both publications were edited by Charles Hornig fo ...
'', ''
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
'', and ''
Science Fiction Quarterly
''Science Fiction Quarterly'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine that was published from 1940 to 1943 and again from 1951 to 1958. Charles Hornig served as editor for the first two issues; Robert A. W. Lowndes edited the remainder. ...
''
*
Dell Publishing published ''I Confess''
*
Harry Donenfeld
Harry Donenfeld (; October 17, 1893 – February 1, 1965) was an American publisher who is known primarily for being the owner of National Allied Publications, which distributed ''Detective Comics'' and ''Action Comics'', the originator publicatio ...
published ''Hot Stories'', ''Joy Stories'', ''Juicy Tales'' and ''Spicy Stories''
*
Doubleday, Page and Company
Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed th ...
published ''
Short Stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
'', ''West'' and ''The Frontier''
*
Fiction House
Fiction House was an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. It was founded by John B. "Jack" Kelly and John W. Glenister.Saunders, David"JACK BYRNE (1902-1972),"Field Guide to Wild American P ...
published ''
Planet Stories
''Planet Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on some other planets, and was initially focused on a young readershi ...
''
*
Frank A. Munsey Co. published ''
Argosy''
*
Harold Hersey
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 o ...
*
Harry Donenfeld
Harry Donenfeld (; October 17, 1893 – February 1, 1965) was an American publisher who is known primarily for being the owner of National Allied Publications, which distributed ''Detective Comics'' and ''Action Comics'', the originator publicatio ...
's Culture Publications published ''Spicy Detective'', ''Spicy Mystery'' and ''Spicy Adventure''
*
Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback (; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish–American editor and magazine publisher, whose publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as pub ...
published ''Amazing Stories'' and ''Wonder Stories''
*J.C.Henneberger's Rural Publications published ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...
'' and ''
Oriental Tales''
*
Martin Goodman published ''Ka-Zar'', ''Marvel Tales'' and ''Marvel Science Stories''
*
Hutchinson, main publisher of UK pulps
*
Popular Publications published ''Horror Stories,'' ''Black Mask,'' ''True Love'' and later ''Argosy''
*
The Ridgway Company published ''Adventure'', ''
Everybody's Magazine
''Everybody's Magazine'' was an American magazine published from 1899 to 1929. The magazine was headquartered in New York City.
History and profile
The magazine was founded by Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker in 1899, though he had little role ...
'' and ''
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
''
*
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 ...
published ''Astounding'', ''Unknown'', ''Doc Savage'' and ''The Shadow''
*Courtland Young's C.H. Young Publishing published ''Breezy Stories''
Legacy
The term ''pulp fiction'' is often incorrectly used for massmarket paperbacks since the 1950s. The Browne Popular Culture Library News noted:
Many of the paperback houses that contributed to the decline of the genre–Ace, Dell, Avon, among others–were actually started by pulp magazine publishers. They had the presses, the expertise, and the newsstand distribution networks which made the success of the mass-market paperback possible. These pulp-oriented paperback houses mined the old magazines for reprints. This kept pulp literature, if not pulp magazines, alive. ''The Return of the Continental Op'' reprints material first published in ''Black Mask''; ''Five Sinister Characters'' contains stories first published in ''Dime Detective''; and ''The Pocket Book of Science Fiction'' collects material from ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'', ''Astounding Science Fiction'' and ''Amazing Stories''. But note that mass market paperbacks are not pulps.
In 1991, ''
The Pulpster'' debuted at that year's
Pulpcon, the annual pulp magazine convention that had begun in 1972. The magazine, devoted to the history and legacy of the pulp magazines, has published each year since. It now appears in connection with
PulpFest, the summer pulp convention that grew out of and replaced Pulpcon. ''The Pulpster'' was originally edited by Tony Davis and is currently edited by William Lampkin, who also runs the website ThePulp.Net. Contributors have included Don Hutchison, Robert Sampson,
Will Murray
William Murray (born 1953) is an American novelist, journalist, short story, and comic book writer. Much of his fiction has been published under pseudonyms. With artist Steve Ditko, he co-created the superhero Squirrel Girl.
Biography
Early ...
, Al Tonik, Nick Carr,
Mike Resnick
Michael Diamond Resnick (; March 5, 1942 – January 9, 2020) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He won five Hugo awards and a Nebula award, and was the guest of honor at Chicon 7. He was the executive editor of the defunct ma ...
,
Hugh B. Cave, Joseph Wrzos,
Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Jessica Amanda Salmonson (born January 6, 1950 John Clute and John Grant,Salmonson, Jessica Amanda, in ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'', pp. 832–833, Orbit, London / St Martin’s Press, New York (1997).) is an American author and editor of fan ...
,
Chet Williamson, and many others.
In 1992, Rich W. Harvey came out with a magazine called ''Pulp Adventures'' reprinting old classics. It came out regularly until 2001, and then started up again in 2014.
In 1994,
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
directed the film ''
Pulp Fiction
''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Vin ...
''. The
working title
A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...
of the film was ''Black Mask'', in homage to the
pulp magazine of that name, and it embodied the seedy, violent, often crime-related spirit found in pulp magazines.
In 1997 C. Cazadessus Jr. launched ''Pulpdom'', a continuation of his Hugo Award-winning ''ERB-dom'' which began in 1960. It ran for 75 issues and featured articles about the content and selected fiction from the pulps. It became ''Pulpdom Online'' in 2013 and continues quarterly publication.
After the year 2000, several small independent publishers released magazines which published short fiction, either short stories or novel-length presentations, in the tradition of the pulp magazines of the early 20th century. These included ''Blood 'N Thunder'', ''High Adventure'' and a short-lived magazine which revived the title ''Argosy''. These specialist publications, printed in limited press runs, were pointedly not printed on the brittle, high-acid wood pulp paper of the old publications and were not mass market publications targeted at a wide audience. In 2004, Lost Continent Library published ''Secret of the Amazon Queen'' by E.A. Guest, their first contribution to a "New Pulp Era", featuring the hallmarks of pulp fiction for contemporary mature readers: violence, horror and sex. E.A. Guest was likened to a blend of pulp era icon Talbot Mundy and Stephen King by real-life explorer David Hatcher Childress.
In 2002, the tenth issue of ''
McSweeney's Quarterly'' was guest edited by
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon ( ;
born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...
. Published as ''McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales'', it is a collection of "pulp fiction" stories written by such current well-known authors as
Stephen King,
Nick Hornby,
Aimee Bender
Aimee Bender (born June 28, 1969) is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her surreal stories and characters. She is a 2011 recipient of the Alex Awards.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family, Bender received her undergraduate de ...
and
Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the 2000 best-selling memoir ''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius''. Eggers is also the founder of ''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', a lite ...
. Explaining his vision for the project, Chabon wrote in the introduction, "I think that we have forgotten how much fun reading a short story can be, and I hope that if nothing else, this treasury goes some small distance toward reminding us of that lost but fundamental truth."
The
Scottish publisher
DC Thomson
DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing ''The Dundee Courier'', '' The Evening Telegraph'' and '' The Sunday Post'' newspapers, and the comics ''Oor W ...
publishes "My Weekly Compact Novel" every week. It is literally a pulp novel, though it does not fall into the hard-edged genre most associated with pulp fiction.
From 2006 through 2019, Anthony Tollin's imprint Sanctum Books has reprinted all 182 DOC SAVAGE pulp novels, all 24 of Paul Ernst's AVENGER novels, the 14 WHISPERER novels from the original pulp series and all but three novels of the entire run of THE SHADOW (most of his publications featuring two novels in one book).
In 2021 Dave Martel started to release issues o
Bizarchiveswhich is a publication of modern day pulp fiction and weird tales.
See also
*
B movie
*''
Crimefighters''
*
Dime novel
The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, r ...
*
George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection
The George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection is a collection of over 25,000 pulp magazine and fiction works that is housed in the ''Special Collections'' unit, in the University at Buffalo Libraries at the State University of New York a ...
*
Hard Case Crime
*''
Il Giallo Mondadori
''Il Giallo Mondadori'' is an Italian series of mystery/crime novels published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore since 1929.
Their original title was ''I libri gialli'', where ''giallo'' in Italian means "yellow", a reference to the color of the co ...
''
*
Science fiction magazine
A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard-copy periodical format or on the Internet.
Science fiction magazines traditionally featured speculative fiction in short story, novelette, nove ...
References
Sources
* Chambliss, Julian and William Svitavsky,
From Pulp Hero to Superhero: Culture, Race, and Identity in AmericanPopular Culture, 1900–1940" ''Studies in American Culture'' 30 (1) (October 2008)
* Ellis, Doug. ''Uncovered: The Hidden Art of the Girlie Pulps – Gold Medal Winner for Best Popular Culture Book BEA 2004'' (Adventure House, −2003)
* Gunnison, Locke and Ellis. ''Adventure House Guide to the Pulps'' (Adventure House, 2000)
* Hersey, Harold. ''The New Pulpwood Editor'' (Adventure House, 2003)
* Lesser, Robert. ''Pulp Art: Original Cover Paintings for the Great American Pulp Magazines'' (Book Sales, 2003)
* Locke, John-editor. ''Pulp Fictioneers – Adventures in the Storytelling Business'' (Adventure House, 2004)
* Locke, John-editor. ''Pulpwood Days – Vol. 1 Editors You Want To Know'' (Off-Trail Publications, 2007)
* Parfrey, Adam, et al. ''It's a Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps'' (Feral House, 2003)
* Robinson, Frank and Davidson, Lawrence. ''Pulp Culture'' (Collector's Press, 2007)
Further reading
*Dinan, John A. (1983) ''The Pulp Western : A Popular History of the Western Fiction Magazine in America''. Borgo Press, .
*Goodstone, Tony (1970) ''The Pulps: 50 Years of American Pop Culture'', Bonanza Books (Crown Publishers, Inc.), .
*Goulart, Ron (1972) ''Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of the Pulp Magazine'', Arlington House, .
*Goulart, Ron (1988) ''The Dime Detectives''. Mysterious Press, 1988. .
*Hamilton, Frank and Hullar, Link (1988), ''Amazing Pulp Heroes'', Gryphon Books, .
*Robbins, Leonard A. (1988). ''The Pulp Magazine Index''. (Six Volumes). Starmont House. .
*Sampson, Robert (1983) ''Yesterday's Faces: A Study of Series Characters in the Early Pulp Magazines'' . Volume 1. ''Glory figures'', Vol. 2. ''Strange days'', Vol. 3. ''From the Dark Side'', Vol. 4. ''The Solvers'', Vol 5. ''Dangerous Horizons'', Vol. 6. ''Violent lives''. Bowling Green University Popular Press, .
External links
ThePulp.NetPEAPS – Pulp Era Amateur Press SocietyPulp Illustration ArtPulp InternationalMt. St. Vincent University Lesbian Pulp Fiction Collection"Pulp Winds", December 2009"In Praise of Pulp Fiction" slideshow by ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
''
Pulp Fiction Collectionat the Library of Congress
Clark Pulp Fiction Collectionat
Cleveland Public Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pulp Magazine
Magazine publishing
Magazine genres