I'm not a big fan of giant floating head covers, but this one by Emmett Watson isn't bad. Rather atmospheric, in fact. As always with ARGOSY, this issue has some good authors inside: Donald Barr Chidsey, Bennett Foster, Richard Howells Watkins, Howard Rigsby (best remembered for paperbacks written under that name and as by Vechel Howard), and Robert E. Pinkerton, as well as the lesser-known Frances Shelley Wees, C.F. Kearns, and John Randolph Phillips. The stories by Chidsey, Foster, and Wees are serial installments, also common in ARGOSY. "Lost House" by Wees was published in hardcover by Macrae in 1938. "Cut Loose Your Wolf" by Foster was published in hardcover as TURN LOOSE YOUR WOLF by Jefferson House in 1938. I think the original title is better. And Chidsey's "Midas of the Mountains" was only a three-parter, probably closer to a novella than an actual novel, and as far as I know, it's never been reprinted.
Emmett Watson provides a dramatic cover for this issue of RAILROAD STORIES. Inside are stories by E.S. Dellinger, the star author of RAILROAD STORIES, as well as John A. Thompson (who wrote as The Engine Picture Kid), Earle Davis, and Searle B. Faires, who got the cover story. Faires is a mystery to me. He published half a dozen stories in 1933-35, all of them in RAILROAD STORIES, and that's the extent of his career. I'm always curious about writers like that who appear to be on the verge of success but then disappear. It's possible that he died, of course, or just stopped writing for some other reason. But the mystery always intrigues me.
This issue of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY sports a simple but effective cover by Emmett Watson. Inside are stories by some good authors including Judson Philips, William E. Barrett, Lawrence Treat, Arthur Leo Zagat, Edward S. Williams, Cyril Plunkett, and Bert Collier, who's the only one in that group I've never heard of. I've read and enjoyed many stories by Philips and Zagat, Treat had a successful career as a mystery author, and Barrett, although he's remembered for his mystery and aviation pulp stories, is best known as the author of LILIES OF THE FIELD.
The cover on this issue of THRILLING ADVENTURES was done by Emmett Watson, an artist I associate more with the Munsey pulps, but it's a fine, dynamic Foreign Legion scene that I like quite a bit. Inside this issue are stories by Johnston McCulley (his first Whirlwind story; I have the Altus Press volume that reprints the entire series and really need to get around to reading it), Oscar Schisgall, Allan K. Echols, Bob du Soe, George Allan Moffatt (really Edwin V. Burkholder), Ralph R. Fleming (who published only a handful of stories), Captain Kerry McRoberts (probably Norman A. Daniels), and house-name Jackson Cole. I'll bet if I had a copy of this issue, which I don't, I'd enjoy the stories every bit as much as the cover.
This issue of STAR WESTERN sports a great cover by Emmett Watson, and look at that line-up of authors: Max Brand, Walt Coburn, E.B. Mann, Ray Nafziger, Cliff Farrell, Robert E. Mahaffey, Jay Lucas, and Malcolm Reiss. I don't own this issue. The scan and the information come from the Fictionmags Index. But I'm sure it's a great issue and I'd read it if I had a copy, you can bet a hat on that.
I've mentioned before that the first actual pulp I ever owned was an issue of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY, so I've always had a soft spot for that magazine despite reading very little from it. This issue from 1940 sports a good cover by Emmett Watson and a very solid line-up of authors including Cleve F. Adams with two stories, a novelette and an installment from a Rex McBride serial called "Homicide: Honolulu Bound". If this serial was published as a novel under some other title, maybe one of you out there can provide that information. Also on hand are Brett Halliday (Davis Dresser) with an installment in the Mike Shayne serial "Death Rides a Winner" (if I've read this, I don't remember it), Hugh B. Cave, John St. John (who was really Richard Sale) and a forgotten pulpster named John Randolph Phillips. Like ARGOSY, DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY is a frustrating pulp for people who just want to read the stories because of all the serials, but there's no doubt that a lot of great yarns were published in its pages.
An issue of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY was the first actual pulp I ever owned, so I've always had a fondness for the magazine. This issue has a nice cover by Emmett Watson, who provided excellent covers for many Munsey pulps, and there's a strong line-up of authors inside: Donald Barr Chidsey (with a Morton and McGarvey story), Hugh B. Cave, D.L. Champion, G.T. Fleming-Roberts, Walter Ripperger (who was a very prolific author of detective and adventure yarns for various Munsey pulps but almost completely forgotten now, probably because apparently he never wrote any novels), and a couple of authors unknown to me, Lois Ames and B.B. Fowler. Like ARGOSY, DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY is a frustrating title for collectors because it ran a lot of serials, but there's plenty of good stuff in those pages anyway.
The Emmett Watson cover on this issue of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY depicts a guy in a straitjacket surrounded by accusing fingers pointing at him. Of course it illustrates a story by Cornell Woolrich! What author would be more fitting for such a cover? Other authors on hand in this issue are Richard Sale, Lawrence Treat, Walt Sheldon, William Gray Beyer, and C.V. Tench. That's a pretty solid line-up.
That's a nice circus cover by Emmett Watson on this issue of ARGOSY. The story it illustrates is a serial called "You're in the Circus Now" by Richard Wormser, a fine author who also wrote at least one serial for ARGOSY about a traveling carnival. The Tarzan story mentioned on the cover is a serial installment of "The Red Star of Tarzan", published in book form as TARZAN AND THE FORBIDDEN CITY. There's also an installment of a Horatio Hornblower novel by C.S. Forester, "Ship of the Line", and that didn't even make the cover. Plus stories by Frank Richardson Pierce and Bennett Foster. I know the serials make ARGOSY daunting for collectors, but man, there was a lot of great fiction published in its pages!
