I've been quite a fan of Hubert Rogers' pulp covers. Here's another very good one on this issue of ADVENTURE. There's a fine lineup of authors inside, too, including Walt Coburn, Gordon Young, William MacLeod Raine, Lawrence G. Blochman, Paul Annixter, and Ared White. If you'd like to check out this issue for yourself, you can find it on the Internet Archive.
Hubert Rogers provides a nice deep sea diving cover for this issue of STREET & SMITH'S DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE. Inside are well-known authors Erle Stanley Gardner (with a Lester Leith novella), Steve Fisher, and William G. Bogart, along with lesser known (at least to me) Edmund M. Littell, Chris Sieyes, and Carl Clausen. Of all the ESG characters I've read, Lester Leith is probably my least-favorite. However, I'm not sure I've ever read any of the stories except the one in Ron Goulart's iconic anthology THE HARDBOILED DICKS, so that's hardly a fair trial. I ought to see if I can hunt up a few more Leith yarns and give them a try. I own a few issues of DETECTIVE STORY (not this one) but I don't believe I've ever read any of them. I probably ought to do that, too.
Popular Publications had big successes with DIME DETECTIVE and DIME WESTERN, but DIME ADVENTURE MAGAZINE doesn't seem to have done nearly as well. Maybe the competition from ADVENTURE, ARGOSY, BLUE BOOK, and SHORT STORIES was just too much. But DIME ADVENTURE had some good covers, like this one (pith helmet alert!) by Hubert Rogers, and good authors, as well, such as Luke Short, Carl Jacobi, Samuel W. Taylor, and L. Ron Hubbard in this issue. Also on hand were lesser-known authors Alexander Key, John Amid, Donald S. Aitken, Gerald V. Stamm, and Arnold Jeffers. Admittedly, out of those last five guys I only vaguely remember seeing the names of Key and Aitken on pulp TOCs, and I don't think I've read anything by them. Looking at the listings of the other issues in the Fictionmags Index, that seems to be a trend: two or three well-known authors and half a dozen from the lower ranks of pulpsters. That may well explain why DIME ADVENTURE MAGAZINE didn't run as long as its fellow magazines from Popular Publications.
Hubert Rogers did some good covers for the issues of ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION that had Lensman stories by E.E. "Doc" Smith in them. This issue features the opening installment of the novel SECOND STAGE LENSMAN. Other authors of note in this issue are Eric Frank Russell (I've enjoyed everything I've read by him, I need to read more), L. Sprague de Camp, Malcolm Jameson, John Hawkins, and forgotten SF authors E.A. Grosser and Oliver Saari (forgotten by me, anyway, or more precisely, I don't recall ever hearing of them before). Even though when it comes to Forties science fiction my tastes run more toward STARTLING STORIES, THRILLING WONDER STORIES, and PLANET STORIES, there was a lot of classic work published in ASTOUNDING.
We'll start the year with a pith helmet alert and a fine cover by Hubert Rogers, an artist I've really come to appreciate in the past few years. This issue of ADVENTURE features stories by W.C. Tuttle, Gordon Young, and Tom Roan, all top-notch pulpsters, as well as H.H. Matteson, Andrew A. Caffrey, and Captain Jean M. Ellrich ("Sharkologist"! The cover says so). I hope all of you have a great, pulpish, adventurous year.
I like the covers Hubert Rogers did for ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION. This one is certainly eye-catching and effective. The lead story is the first part of a three-part serial, "Sixth Column" by Anson MacDonald, better known, of course, as Robert A. Heinlein. I haven't reread anything by Heinlein in years. I ought to. Other authors in this issue are Nelson S. Bond, Eric Frank Russell, Manly Wade Wellman, and L. Ron Hubbard writing as Kurt von Rachen.
