Saturday, January 14, 2012

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Aces, August 1943

This issue has an action-packed cover by Allen Anderson, and I'd be willing to bet that the stories inside were pretty action-packed, too. The featured story is by my old favorite J. Edward Leithead, who also has a story in this issue under his Wilson Covert pseudonym. There's also a novelette by the always dependable Dean Owen and short stories by Gunnison Steele and old cowboy Chuck Martin, among others. The Ace Western pulps, WESTERN ACES and WESTERN TRAILS, were considered lower-tier markets, and maybe they were, but I've enjoyed all of them that I've read.
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5 comments:

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

I have been reading online western novels no longer under copyright, like Max Brand and Zane Grey. But there are some western authors I have never heard of, such as, Bret Harte, Clarence E. Mulford, Frank H. Spearman, Charles King, A.M. Chisholm, B.M. Bower, Andy Adams, and Ridgwell Cullum who between them have written an awful lot of books. I'd appreciate your opinion on these writers, Mr Reasoner? How good are they? Thanks very much...

8:25 AM, January 14, 2012
James Reasoner said...

Mulford created Hopalong Cassidy, who is much different in the books. I've read and enjoyed a bunch of Mulford's work and just reread some of the Hoppy stories, comments about those coming up soon on the blog. B.M. Bower was a woman (the great-aunt of current Western writer Jory Sherman, in fact) and I've enjoyed the few books of hers I've read. Bret Harte I've encountered only in classic short stories like "The Ransom of Red Chief", which I had to read in school but liked anyway. The others I've heard of but never read.

9:00 AM, January 14, 2012
Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Thank you, Mr. Reasoner, and pardon my oversight. I quite forgot that you have written about Hopalong Cassidy earlier and I've read them too.

9:21 AM, January 14, 2012
Walker Martin said...

Adding to James' comments, I've read many stories by A.M. Chisholm, mainly in POPULAR MAGAZINE, an excellent pulp that lasted from 1903-1931. Several of his serials were reprinted in hardcover.

Frank Spearman wrote some railroad stories and is mainly famous for the novel, WHISPERING SMITH, which has been made into a movie several times, the best one probably being the film starring Alan Ladd. I also have the TV series "Whispering Smith", starring Audie Murphy.

Andy Adam's I've read also and he wrote one of the best accounts of the life of a cowboy, LOG OF A COWBOY.

I've read Mulford's work in the pulps and his Hopalong Cassidy stories are completely different from the films.

B.M. Bower was an early woman writer who also was quite popular in POPULAR MAGAZINE. Her cowboy series were well written and she had a husband named Sinclair who also wrote westerns.

Like James, I also read Bret Harte in school but I remember "The Outcasts of Poker Flats" best of all.

Charles King I've heard of but never read. Never heard of Ridgwell Cullum.

11:05 PM, January 14, 2012
Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Walker Martin, thanks very much for the feedback. I'm going to check out the ones you mentioned. There's so much to read in the western genre. I rarely see these books in India, at least in Bombay where I leave, but I can at least read them online, and legally too.

12:44 AM, January 15, 2012

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