Even this late in its run, DIME DETECTIVE looks like a pretty darned good pulp. This issue has a Norman Saunders cover, and the line-up of authors inside is really strong: John D. MacDonald, Richard Deming, Talmage Powell, Philip Ketchum, Larry Holden (Frederick Lorenz), Harry Widmer, Dane Gregory, and Albert Simmons. Some of those aren't as well-known as the top guys, of course, but with a Popular Publications pulp, chances are their stories are pretty entertaining.
Popular was in financial trouble, its pulps were dying. Popular Publications stopped publishing most of its detective pulps in 1951, leaving only three: Dime Detective, Detective Tales and New Detective. Authors had fewer markets and those that still published got the cream. The Dane Gregory story is a reprint from 1941.
ReplyDeleteStill, that's a good lineup. I reviewed this issue some time earlier:
https://pulpflakes.com/blog/2019/03/issue-review-dime-detective-magazine-august-1952/
Sai, that's a good review. Thanks for the link. It sounds like the best stories in this issue were by those lesser-known names. That certainly happens sometimes. It doesn't appear that Albert Simmons published any books, at least not under that name.
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