Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Double Action Western, January 1953

This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my copy in the scan. I don’t know who painted the cover. It’s not a great cover, in my opinion, but it’s not really a bad cover, either. And the map of Texas has El Paso not quite in the right place. They didn’t think they could slip that past a born-bred-and-forever Texan like me, did they? But on to the stories.

Seven Anderton is an unjustly forgotten writer who had a decent career in the Western, detective, and sports pulps from the late Twenties to the late Fifties, producing around a hundred stories during that run, many of them novellas or novelettes. But he never wrote an actual novel as far as I know, which is probably one reason he’s forgotten. His novella “Her Name is Battle” leads off this issue, and the title is literal: the heroine is named Esther Battle. She’s a Western girl born and raised who has been at an Eastern school the past few years, but as the story opens, she’s returning to claim the ranch she’s inherited from her uncle. During the trip, she makes some allies: a giant Swede who wants to become a cowboy, and an actual down-on-his-luck cowboy who winds up being hired as Esther’s foreman. Naturally, there’s an evil banker who wants to take over the ranch, even if it means kidnapping or killing Esther before she arrives.

As far as the set-up goes, there’s nothing in this story we haven’t read many times before, but Anderton populates his yarn with distinctive, well-developed, and even colorful characters. His writing is smooth and funny at times, tough and gritty at others. “Her Name is Battle” is just a well-written, very entertaining story with a few welcome twists. Unfortunately, it kind of limps to an ending that’s not as satisfying as it could have been, which is something I’ve noticed in other stories by Anderton. It’s like he pulls back rather than going for a big finish. However, that didn’t stop me from enjoying this story, and I won’t hesitate to read more by him.

During the Thirties, Cliff Campbell was a personal pseudonym for writer and editor Abner J. Sundell. In the Forties, it became a Columbia Publications house-name used by numerous authors on Western, detective, and sports stories. The actual author of “Killer From Texas”, a novella in this issue by-lined Cliff Campbell, hasn’t been determined as far as I know, but whoever it was did a pretty good job. Drifting cowpoke Homer Kale rides into a Wyoming settlement figuring on having a quiet drink, but before you know it, he’s been accused by a beautiful girl of murdering an old prospector, and he’s locked up in jail before being taken out by a lynch mob. Homer barely escapes that necktie party and goes on the run from the law, knowing that the only way he can save his life is by finding the real killer. It’s a time-worn plot, to be sure, but “Campbell” spins his yarn with skill and enthusiasm, combining some surprisingly lighthearted scenes with a grotesque and suitably evil villain, some other colorful characters, and enough gritty action to keep things interesting. I couldn’t even make a guess who actually wrote this one, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I’d read a couple of stories by W. Edmunds Claussen before and had a mixed reaction to them. One I thought was kind of okay, the other I didn’t like. His novelette in this issue, “Gun-Smuggler Trail”, falls into the kind of okay category. It has a pretty good plot: fiddlefooted adventurer Burt Moffat returns to his family’s ranch in New Mexico to find that his father and his brother (a U.S. marshal) have both been murdered, and outlaws are using the ranch to smuggle guns across the border to Pancho Villa in Mexico. The smuggling gang uses an old ghost town as its headquarters. The story is atmospheric and violent, but Claussen’s convoluted style can be hard to read and follow. So this is sort of a miss, but an interesting one that might have been a really good story in different hands.

“Gunslick Trio From Hell” is by Charles D. Richardson Jr., another author whose work I’ve found to be okay at best. In this story, a reformed outlaw who has become the respected mayor of a frontier settlement has his past crop up to haunt him in the form of three members of his old gang. Things play out about like you’d expect them to, but in rather bland fashion and nobody in the story is really all that likable. And overall, I didn’t like the story much.

Lee Floren’s work is hit-and-miss with me, but mostly I like his stories. “Triggers for a Texan” in this issue is another interesting yarn that’s not particularly well-written, but I liked it considerably better than Claussen’s novelette. It’s about a Texan who has sworn off using a gun because of violence in his past, but when he gets involved in a Wyoming range war, he has to choose whether to pick up a Colt again. We’ve all read this plot many times before, but Floren does a decent job with it, attempting a few stylistic tricks that don’t quite come off but don’t keep it from being an entertaining yarn.

Chuck Martin, who often wrote as Charles M. Martin as well, is another dependably entertaining Western pulpster. His story “Gun or Gallows” in this issue is about a young marshal working for Judge Isaac Parker, the famous Hanging Judge. He has to arrest an old friend of his for murder, but he doesn’t believe the man is guilty, so the two of them set out together to find the real killer. I didn’t like this one as much as the other stories I’ve read by Martin, but it’s not bad. The ending is a considerable stretch, though.

Lon Williams is a pretty well-regarded author because of his series of Weird Western stories about Deputy Sheriff Lee Winters. I’ve read a few of those, though, and I’m not really a fan. His contribution to this issue is a short stand-alone story called “Stolen Waters” about a crooked lawyer and forger getting his comeuppance. It’s a very minor story but reasonably well-written.

Overall, this issue of DOUBLE ACTION WESTERN is probably a below average Western pulp, with the best story being the “Cliff Campbell” house-name yarn, and the Seven Anderton story is good, too. None of the others are terrible, but they’re not very memorable, either. Don’t rush to your shelves to see if you have this issue. If you do read it, go in with low expectations and it’ll probably provide at least some entertainment.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Double Action Western, September 1945

This is a pulp that I own and read recently (sort of—more on that below). That’s my copy in the scan. The cover art is by A. Leslie Ross. I would have known that even if Ross hadn’t been credited on the Table of Contents. That’s a Ross hat! I always like his covers on pulps and paperbacks, and this one is no exception. I think it’s fine.

The lead novella, “Lone-Wolf Foreman”, is bylined Mat Rand, and it really is almost long enough to be considered an actual novel. Mat Rand was a house-name used frequently in Columbia Publications pulps, and the author of this one hasn’t been identified. It has some decent plot elements: a big ranch owned by a beautiful young woman, a villainous foreman who can’t be trusted, a stalwart mining engineer, a fabulously valuable mine that’s actually a swindle (or is it?), and a colorful old codger. Unfortunately, the writing is just terrible. We get page after page of repetitive dialogue that serves no real purpose except to fill up pages, a few clunky action scenes, and narrative that has to be reread to try to figure out what’s going on. I stuck with this one for the first half of the story hoping it would get better, but it never did and I skimmed the rest, reading the last four or five pages to get some sense of closure. But all that got me was one of the limpest, least dramatic endings I’ve ever read. I worry sometimes that I’m too easy on the pulps I read and like them just because they’re old, but then I run across a yarn like this and realize that bad is bad, no matter when it was published, and I can still recognize that. This is maybe the worst Western pulp story I’ve ever read.

“Lone-Wolf Foreman” is long enough that there are only two short stories backing it up, and they had nowhere to go but up. “Satan’s Bullet Trio” by Charles D. Richardson Jr. is about three outlaws who pretend to be lawmen in order to rob a money shipment from a bank. Not surprisingly, the scheme doesn’t work out exactly how they expect it to. This is a pretty well-written story, but a couple of plot twists stretch credibility a little too far.

“Candidate for Boothill” by T.W. Ford wraps up the issue, and it’s by far the best of the three. In this story, an easy-going young cowboy gets on the bad side of an arrogant rancher and winds up being framed for a stagecoach holdup and shooting a marshal. The action takes place in one frantic, breakneck night as the protagonist tries to escape the posse that’s after him and clear his name. Ford was a pretty consistent writer and a good storyteller, and while this yarn is really nothing special, I found it pretty entertaining.

So, is this the worst Western pulp I’ve ever read? Given the length of the Mat Rand story and how bad it is, I’d have to say that’s right. If you happen to have a copy, I’d advise admiring the A. Leslie Ross cover, reading the T.W. Ford story, and then putting it back on the shelf. They can’t all be winners.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Double-Action Western, July 1953

This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my copy in the scan. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a big fan of Lee Floren’s work, despite him being both prolific and popular for a long time. I picked up this pulp to read anyway, even though he’s the author of the featured novel, “Smoky River Gunsmoke”. And for a change, unlike most pulp “novels”, this one probably is close to actual novel length. Ace Double length, anyway.

And for another change, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Yes, the writing is clumsy at times. Floren’s attempts at humor usually fall flat. The plot, a standard cattlemen vs. homesteaders yarn, is nothing we haven’t read and seen a thousand times before. But the characters have unexpected depth to them, even the bad guys. The main villain does some things that make him a poignant, almost tragic figure. He’s still evil, mind you, but there’s more to him than that. Also, the action scenes are great. I think I’m coming to the realization that Floren was just one of those writers who had a distinctive style, for better or worse (and sometimes it’s both), and I appreciate that. After reading this one, I may actually seek out more of his work.

Richard Deming was a top-notch mystery author whose work I’ve long admired, so I was a little surprised that his short story in this issue, “Reluctant Killer”, isn’t very good. This tale of a deadly gunman’s quest for a normal life is well-written, but it’s pretty slow and talky and not much happens.

I’m not that familiar with Charles D. Richardson Jr. I think I’ve seen his name in Western pulps, but that’s all I know about him. “Ride ’Em, Cowgirl” is a horse race story, with the cowgirl of the title trying to replace her injured beau in an important race. There’s nothing really wrong with this one, but it never caught my interest.

I’ve read several stories by Lloyd Kevin and the only novel he published, a hardboiled sleaze novel from Monarch Books. His novelette in this issue, “Schoolmaster From the East”, could well be a reject from RANCH ROMANCES. The title character comes to a Western town and finds himself in the middle of a conflict over water rights, as well as falling for the beautiful daughter of the rancher who controls the source of that water. Although I think it could have used a more dramatic title, I enjoyed this story. The author doesn’t fall into the trap of making his protagonist more competent than he logically should be, and the mystery element is worked out fairly well. This is the second-best story in the issue, after the Floren yarn.

Richard Brister, another author whose name is familiar to me, rounds out things with the short story “No Whiskey on Hobnail”, in which a rancher attempts to rehabilitate a young criminal from the big city. This is also a pretty good, effective story and makes me want to read more by Brister.

So, overall, this isn’t an outstanding issue of DOUBLE-ACTION WESTERN, but it’s a good one. Surprisingly good in the case of the Floren novel. That’s happened to me on occasion before, not being a fan of a writer’s work and then coming to appreciate and enjoy it. We’ll see if that comes about again.