WESTERN STORY nearly always had a Christmas issue, and the theme often extended to the stories as well as the cover. This issue features "The Outlaw Santa Claus" by Robert J. Horton, "Santa Claus on the Trail" by Frank Richardson Pierce, "Prairie Yule" by Ernest Haycox, and "Christmas Comes to Brady's Flat" by Reginald C. Barker, along with an installment of Frederick Faust's serial "The White Cheyenne", published under the pseudonym Peter H. Morland. Wonder if anybody found this issue under their Christmas tree back in 1925.
2 comments:
This is a great Christmas cover of an issue that I've owned several times over the last 40 years. I see from my notes that I've read 4 of the Christmas stories, the best one being The Robert Horton novelet titled "The Outlaw Santa Claus". I read it in December 1982 and gave it an outstanding rating. My comments back then:
"Spirit of Christmas reforms a young outlaw; he falls in love, defeats the villain, discovers gold, and goes straight. Oh if only life were really like this!"
The cover was done by Edgar Franklin Wittmack, who did many covers for the pulps and slicks. I still own a western cover painting that he did for PEOPLES MAGAZINE back in 1921.
The cover says "Filled with Christmas Cheer" and this Saturday Morning Pulp sure cheered me up.
I'll bet a lot of people DID find a copy of this under or near the Christmas tree, whether as a gift or self bought.
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