FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES was primarily a reprint pulp, bringing back science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories originally written and published before such genres truly existed as we know them now. I seem to recall reading that some of the reprinted novels were abridged, but I don't know that for a fact. FFM was also noted for its good covers, many of them by Virgil Finlay including this one. As you can see, the lead stories in this issue are "The Colour Out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft and "Palos of the Dog Star Pack" by J.U. Giesy, neither of which I've ever read. There's also a short story by L. Patrick Greene, better known as the author of the African adventure series featuring a character called The Major, and a poem, apparently original in this issue, by Robert W. Lowndes. I really ought to read more of this stuff.
A striking "red sun" cover by H.C. Murphy on this issue of SHORT STORIES, and a great line-up of authors inside: L. Patrick Greene (a Major story), James B. Hendryx (a Halfaday Creek story), William Chamberlain, Frank Richardson Pierce, Bennett Foster, and Edward Parrish Ware. SHORT STORIES published every sort of adventure fiction and most of it was very good indeed.
Another good-looking issue of SHORT STORIES with a fine Mountie cover by Frank Spradling and stories by the all-star line-up of H. Bedford-Jones, Clarence E. Mulford, Harry Sinclair Drago, L. Patrick Greene, Hapsburg Liebe, S. Omar Barker, and Richard Howells Watkins. SHORT STORIES was always a high quality pulp.
I didn't know you could still buy pith helmets, but I checked on Amazon and they have a bunch of 'em. I'll have to give that some thought. In the meantime, here's another great issue of ADVENTURE with stories by H. Bedford-Jones. Arthur O. Friel, Hugh Pendexter, L. Patrick Greene, and an article by W.C. Tuttle. No wonder ADVENTURE is regarded as one of the best pulp magazines ever published.
