Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Action Stories, May 1929

This issue of ACTION STORIES comes from the days when the magazine featured other kinds of adventure fiction along with Westerns. The cover featuring a tough-looking Foreign Legionnaire is by H.C. Murphy Jr. The story it illustrates is by Francis James, a pseudonym for James A. Goldthwaite, a prolific pulpster who wrote a lot of adventure, detective, Western, and Weird Menace stories. Speaking of prolific, Walt Coburn, Theodore Roscoe, T.W. Ford, and Eli Colter are on hand as well, as is Andrew A. Caffrey, the least-known author in this issue. It looks like a good one.  

Memorial Day

Many of the pulps had military-themed covers during World War II, such as this one by Rafael De Soto, and some of the stories in this issue of ARGOSY are war-related, too, judging by their titles: "Armchair Admiral No. 2" by Fletcher Pratt, "WACS, Macs and Warlocks" by Theodore Roscoe, "Always Victorious" by Jacland Marmur, "Red Sun Over Bengal" by Kenneth Perkins, "Flight to Nowhere" by Leslie T. White, "Hell Afloat" by Eustace L. Adams, and "Somali Contraband" by E. Hoffmann Price. I don't own this issue, so I can't check those stories to make sure they're actually war yarns, but they sound like it. I'm old enough to remember when Memorial Day was on May 31, no matter what day of the week it fell on, but I don't want to be too much of a curmudgeon and complain about how they've gone to moving holidays around.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, June 16, 1934

As I've said before, mid-Thirties ARGOSY is one of my favorite pulps. It might be my top favorite if not for the abundance of serials. I love the covers by Paul Stahr, though, and you can't beat the assortment of authors. In this issue, you'll find stories by W.C. Tuttle, Theodore Roscoe, F.V.W. Mason, Frank Richardson Pierce, and Eustace L. Adams, top writers, all of them, as well as the lesser-known Sinclair Gluck and Tip Bliss. Never having read anything by Gluck or Bliss, they may top-notch, too, for all I know. The serial installments are by Pierce, Adams, and Mason, so if I were to read this issue (I don't own a copy), I would probably skip those stories, which knocks out a considerable chunk of wordage, but I'm sure I would enjoy the others.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Foreign Legion Adventures, October 1940

FOREIGN LEGION ADVENTURES was a short-lived reprint pulp from Munsey. This is the second and final issue. I don't know who did the cover art. Obviously, these stories are all Foreign Legion yarns, and some of the big names in the genre are here: Theodore Roscoe, F. Van Wyck Mason, and J.D. Newsom. There's also a story by Houston Day, a fairly prolific pulpster I'm not familiar with. All the stories in this issue originally appeared in various 1930s issues of ARGOSY. I don't know whether ARGOSY or ADVENTURE published more Foreign Legion stories. The number of them in each magazine is probably pretty close. And all the ones I've read have been very good.

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: "I Was the Kid With the Drum" - Theodore Roscoe (ARGOSY, October 30, 1937)

Theodore Roscoe is probably best known (among those of us who remember him at all) for a fine series of French Foreign Legion stories about an old Legionnaire named Thibault Corday. These ran in the pulp ARGOSY during the Thirties.

But Roscoe wrote a lot of other things for ARGOSY besides Foreign Legion yarns, among them this novelette that takes place in a small upstate New York town called Four Corners, during the early days of the Twentieth Century. That’s such a striking cover image (by Emmett Watson, by the way) that it makes me wonder if the editor at ARGOSY had the cover painting to start with and asked Roscoe to write a story around it. Despite the words “Mystery Novelet” on the cover, you look at that Norman Rockwell-esque picture and expect some lazy, gentle piece of Americana from bygone years, don’t you? Sort of like a visit to Mayberry, only from an even earlier era, right?

And that’s what you get . . . if Andy and Opie had to solve a particularly gruesome case of murder involving spiritualism, adultery, a bass drum, and a dead cat.

“I Was the Kid With the Drum!” is one of the weirdest concoctions I’ve read in a while. It’s narrated in Huckleberry Finn-like fashion by Bud Whittier, the twelve-year-old son of Four Corners’ sheriff. One night while he’s getting into mischief where he’s not supposed to be, behind one of the town’s spookiest old houses, he discovers the bass drum that belongs to the drummer from the town’s band playing by itself. The next day, the drummer’s wife turns up missing. More strange stuff happens, mixed in with the preparations for the big marching band contest among the towns in the area that will take place at the Labor Day County Fair. Bud’s job is to help the drummer carry the big drum, but he’s more interested in playing detective.

If you read this story, you’ll think that you have everything figured out pretty early on, but Roscoe is mighty tricky. He throws a lot of plot twists into approximately 15,000 words, and this is one of those stories where you’ll look back and see that all the clues were there, only Roscoe was slick enough to slip some of them right past the reader. He slipped them past me, anyway, and came up with a really entertaining and satisfying tale. The writing is a little old-fashioned in places, but you have to expect that in a story written nearly 75 years ago.

Now, I understand that you can’t just run out and pick up a copy of the October 30, 1937 issue of ARGOSY on my say-so. But you don't have to, because since this post was published originally in a somewhat different form on January 24, 2010, Altus Press has reprinted "I Was the Kid With the Drum" and the other Four Corners stories in two handsome trade paperbacks, as well as an e-book edition of the first volume. I have these and really need to get around to reading them, although I'll have to reread "I Was the Kid With the Drum" first. Altus Press has a number of other collections of Roscoe's pulp fiction, including the Thibault Corday stories, and even though I haven't read all of them, I don't hesitate to recommend them. Roscoe was always worth reading.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, April 20, 1940

A dramatic cover by Rudolph Belarski graces this issue of ARGOSY. I may be wrong about this, but it seems to me that snakes show up fairly often in Belarski's covers. I may have to investigate this. As always, there are some excellent writers in this issue: Theodore Roscoe, Charles Marquis Warren, Jack Byrne, Chandler Whipple, Kenneth Perkins, and one I'm not familiar with, Robert W. Cochran. Although the serials can drive a reader crazy, ARGOSY was certainly one of the great pulps.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, May 11, 1940

This issue is a good example of why ARGOSY was a great magazine, even in the later years of its pulp run. Start with a good cover by Rudolph Belarski that promises action, and follow that inside with stories by E. Hoffmann Price, Theodore Roscoe, Murray Leinster, Robert Arthur, Charles Marquis Warren, Willliam Du Bois, and forgotten pulpster William Templeton. The only drawback, as usual, is that two of the stories are serial installments (Warren and Du Bois) and you're out of luck if you don't have the other parts. Well, in Warren's case you're not completely out of luck because his serial "Bugles Are For Soldiers" was reprinted as a novel, used copies of which are readily available. The title was changed, and I honestly don't remember which of Warren's Western novels it is, either ONLY THE VALIANT or VALLEY OF THE SHADOW. But I know it's one of them because at one point I had both the serial version and the novel version. And this will come as no surprise, I never got around to reading either of them. Warren is supposed to have been a pretty good writer. He wrote, produced, and/or directed a number of Western movies and TV shows, including GUNSMOKE and RAWHIDE.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, July 17, 1937

"144 Pages of Fine Fiction", and that's no lie. If not for the blasted serials, ARGOSY might well be my favorite pulp of all time. Great authors and top-notch stories, week after week. In this issue, we have a Fisher and Savoy novelette by Donald Barr Chidsey (illustrated by a fine Rudolph Belarski cover) and stories and serial installments by Theodore Roscoe, Luke Short, Frank Richardson Pierce, Judson Philips, William Chamberlain, and John Hawkins. I'll bet it's a thoroughly entertaining issue.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, February 13, 1937

Since it's August and hot, how about a nice snowy Mountie cover? Here's one on this issue of ARGOSY, courtesy of artist V.E. Pyles. Inside is the usual all-star lineup of authors often found in ARGOSY: H. Bedford-Jones, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Theodore Roscoe, Donald Barr Chidsey, Bennett Foster, and Frank Richardson Pierce. That featured serial, "The Redcoat Renegade" (good title), is by an author I'm not familiar with, Patrick Lee. The Fictionmags Index credits him with only five stories and doesn't mention the name being a pseudonym. If anyone has any further information about him, I'd be glad to see it.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, July 4, 1931

Yesterday's pulp was dated July 4, 1931, and so is today's. This is an All-Star Number of ARGOSY, according to the cover, and I can't argue with that claim. The cover is by Paul Stahr, who painted many great ones for ARGOSY, and inside are stories by H. Bedford-Jones, Theodore Roscoe, George F. Worts, Robert Carse, Ray Cummings, J.E. Grinstead, William Merriam Rouse, and Lt. John Hopper. You won't find a lineup of pulp authors much better than that one.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine

This is another science fiction and fantasy reprint magazine like FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES and FANTASTIC NOVELS, but A. MERRITT'S FANTASY MAGAZINE lasted only a handful of issues. It published some good authors while it lasted, though. This issue featured two stories originally published in ARGOSY in 1939 and 1940, "The Ninth Life" by Jack Mann and "The Little Doll Died" by Theodore Roscoe. I've never read any of Jack Mann's work (I believe his real name was E. Charles Vivian), but everything I've read by Theodore Roscoe has been excellent. And this cover is by the always top-notch Norman Saunders.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, June 17, 1933

Nothing says "pulp" to me quite as much as ARGOSY. If it weren't for all those dang serials, it would be just about the perfect adventure pulp magazine! Take this issue, for example. You've got a colorful, dramatic cover by Paul Stahr, and inside are stories by Erle Stanley Gardner (a Whispering Sands yarn), Talbot Mundy, Theodore Roscoe, Donald Barr Chidsey (with his series character Nick Fisher), George F. Worts (part of a Peter the Brazen serial as by Loring Brent), Fred MacIsaac, Ralph Milne Farley, Cliff Farrell, and Armand Brigaud. To say that's an impressive line-up is quite an understatement! And ARGOSY did that week after week. Truly an iconic pulp. 

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, August 12, 1939

The mid-to-late Thirties is the high point of ARGOSY for me, with consistently good covers and great writers. But those serials! I guess it didn't matter much when you could go down to the newsstand and buy the new issue every week, but now they're the bane of a collector's existence. Lots of fantastic reading whenever you manage to put together all the installments of a serial, though. This particular issue has three serials running, all by popular authors: Theodore Roscoe (one of the best pulp writers), Jack Mann, and Charles Rice McDowell. The cover-featured novella is by Roy de S. Horn, an oddly bylined but excellent writer/editor. The cover is by Rudolph Belarski. Looks like another typically fine issue of ARGOSY from this era.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, December 4, 1937

What a great era for ARGOSY this was. A Thibaut Corday yarn by Theodore Roscoe, serial installments by Lester Dent, Borden Chase, and Allan Vaughan Elston, plus stories by William Chamberlain and Richard Wormser. The readers back then definitely got their dime's worth of great adventure fiction.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Adventure, August 1, 1935

I like the pulp covers by Hubert Rogers, and this is a good one. Inside you'll find a serial installment of THE FEUD AT SINGLE SHOT, the first novel by that "new Western writer Luke Short", plus stories by Arthur O. Friel, Theodore Roscoe, James B. Hendryx, and Arthur D. Howden Smith. That's a pretty potent lineup!

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, October 3, 1936

So, this issue of ARGOSY only has stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard ("A Gent from the Pecos", one of the Pike Bearfield stories), H. Bedford-Jones, L. Ron Hubbard, Theodore Roscoe, Anthony M. Rud, and Lawrence G. Blochman. That's all. Just another week at the newsstand in 1936.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, November 26, 1938

I use a lot of ARGOSY covers in this series because it was a great pulp, one of my favorites, and generally had fine covers. The numerous serials make it a problem for collectors sometimes, but the issues are generally worth seeking out. This issue has a striking cover and stories by the great Theodore Roscoe, Judson Philips, Eustace L. Adams, Frank Richardson Pierce, and a reprint from A. Merritt. Good stuff.

The Argosy Library from Altus Press

Altus Press Announces The Argosy Library

The First Series of Releases Features Popular Authors Such as Lester Dent, Otis Adelbert Kline, W.C. Tuttle, and George F. Worts

March 18, 2015: Altus Press today announced the premiere of its new line of books: The Argosy Library series.

Founded at the end of the Nineteenth Century by publishing tycoon Frank A. Munsey, Argosy Magazine quickly became one of the most popular—and prestigious—fiction magazines of its day and spawned a publishing revolution.

Known as one of the most literate pulp magazines, Argosy published thousands of short stories and novels, many of which features some of the most influential series characters in popular fiction.

With the inauguration of The Argosy Library, Altus Press plans to bring back into print the best of the Frank A. Munsey Company, sourced from its suite of sibling titles such as Argosy, The All-Story, and Flynn’s Detective Fiction Weekly, among others.

The Argosy Library expects to showcase the varied mix of genres that made Argosy one of the most popular pulps of all time, and Series 1 does just that by showcasing adventure, mystery, western, science fiction, fantasy, and crime stories by some of Munsey’s most popular authors such as Lester Dent, W. Wirt, Otis Adelbert Kline, W.C. Tuttle, George F. Worts, and Theodore Roscoe, among others.

The Argosy Library will be released in series of ten books at a time—in matching trade dress—and will be available in softcover, hardcover, and ebook editions. In addition to being available separately, each series of releases can be purchased as a single, heavily-discounted set.

Series 1 of The Argosy Library is expected to be released in May.

For more information, please visit Altus Press.com.

Titles in Series 1 of The Argosy Library:

Genius Jones

by Lester Dent, introduction by Will Murray

The gold-dusted saga of a red-bearded young giant, raised in the Arctic on seal-meat and encyclopedias, who descends on civilization with a loud and solid crash. In his search for wisdom and adventure, the man Jones doesn’t have Aladdin’s lamp—but he doesn’t really need it…. Never before reprinted, it’s the longest novel Lester Dent ever published, and one of the most famous. This edition restores text cut from its original publication. Part of The Argosy Library of classics.

271 pages / $19.95 softcover / $29.95 hardcover

When Tigers Are Hunting: The Complete Adventures of Cordie, Soldier of Fortune, Volume 1

by W. Wirt

The sagas of Jimmie Cordie and his crew were among Argosy’s most popular series when it was brought to that magazine during its early ’30s renaissance. Quite clearly an inspiration for the creation of Doc Savage, this edition collects his first nine adventures. Part of The Argosy Library of classics.

240 pages / $19.95 softcover / $29.95 hardcover

The Swordsman of Mars

by Otis Adelbert Kline

Harry Thorne, explorer and swordsman, had scarcely more than heard of the Red Planet, Mars—when an amazing thing happened…. Otis Adelbert Kline is well-known as one of the best fantasy/adventure contemporaries of Edgar Rice Burroughs. This edition is sourced from the original magazine text and includes all of the original illustrations. Part of The Argosy Library of classics.

237 pages / $19.95 softcover / $29.95 hardcover

The Sherlock of Sageland: The Complete Tales of Sheriff Henry, Volume 1

by W.C. Tuttle, introduction by Sai Shankar

Once voted Adventure Magazine’s most popular author, W.C. Tuttle introduced the world to one of his longest-running, and most popular series characters, Henry Harrison Conroy, in the pages of Argosy. Collected here are the first four stories. Part of The Argosy Library of classics.

269 pages / $19.95 softcover / $29.95 hardcover

Gone North

by Charles Alden Seltzer

When Jim Fallon started for the Hudson Bay country, he wasn’t sure whether he was on a man-hunt or a wild goose chase—but he found his quest was fraught with real enough peril. Among the best novels ever written by one of Argosy’s most popular authors. Part of The Argosy Library of classics.

220 pages / $19.95 softcover / $29.95 hardcover

The Masked Master Mind

by George F. Worts

One of Argosy’s most popular authors pens this never-before reprinted novel of a trail of crime that ran from sleepy Maple Hollow to Steel City. Part of The Argosy Library of classics.

265 pages / $19.95 softcover / $29.95 hardcover

Balata

by Fred MacIsaac

Trees of living gold in the Amazon jungles, guarded by alligators, poisoned darts and rival hunters—such was the lodestone that drew an American expedition, and the unwilling Pete Holcomb…. Part of The Argosy Library of classics.

216 pages / $19.95 softcover / $29.95 hardcover

Bretwalda

by Philip Ketchum

’Twas the mightiest weapon the eyes of man had ever beheld; its mystic name meant “Ruler of Briton.” And from over the Northern Sea came a Viking’s thrall—the only man in the world who could wield that fearsome steel—to save good King Alfred and the homeland he scarce remembered. Collecting—for the first time—all 12 stories of the Bretwalda saga. Part of The Argosy Library of classics.

479 pages / $29.95 softcover / $39.95 hardcover

Draft of Eternity

by Victor Rousseau

A groundbreaking science fiction, post-apocalyptic & time travel classic from the early days of The All-Story by an underrated writer. Part of The Argosy Library of classics.

183 pages / $17.95 softcover / $29.95 hardcover

Four Corners, Volume 1

by Theodore Roscoe

Mystery runs rampant in the quiet, upstate New York town of Four Corners…. Easily one of Roscoe’s best-written series, Volume 1 collects the first half of this lost masterpiece of the pulps. Part of The Argosy Library of classics.

201 pages / $19.95 softcover / $29.95 hardcover

(Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to these. It's a great time to be a pulp fan!)

"I Was the Kid With the Drum" -- Theodore Roscoe (ARGOSY, Oct. 30, 1937)

Theodore Roscoe is probably best known (among those of us who remember him at all) for a fine series of French Foreign Legion stories about an old Legionnaire named Thibault Corday. These ran in the pulp ARGOSY during the Thirties, and a few of them were collected in a small press volume called TOUGHEST IN THE LEGION back in the Eighties.

But Roscoe wrote a lot of other things for ARGOSY besides Foreign Legion yarns, among them this novelette that takes place in a small upstate New York town called Four Corners, during the early days of the Twentieth Century. That’s such a striking cover image (by Emmett Watson, by the way) that it makes me wonder if the editor at ARGOSY had the cover painting to start with and asked Roscoe to write a story around it. Despite the words “Mystery Novelet” on the cover, you look at that Norman Rockwell-esque picture and expect some lazy, gentle piece of Americana from bygone years, don’t you? Sort of like a visit to Mayberry, only from an even earlier era, right?

And that’s what you get . . . if Andy and Opie had to solve a particularly gruesome case of murder involving spiritualism, adultery, a bass drum, and a dead cat.

“I Was the Kid With the Drum!” is one of the weirdest concoctions I’ve read in a while. It’s narrated in Huckleberry Finn-like fashion by Bud Whittier, the twelve-year-old son of Four Corners’ sheriff. One night while he’s getting into mischief where he’s not supposed to be, behind one of the town’s spookiest old houses, he discovers the bass drum that belongs to the drummer from the town’s band playing by itself. The next day, the drummer’s wife turns up missing. More strange stuff happens, mixed in with the preparations for the big marching band contest among the towns in the area that will take place at the Labor Day County Fair. Bud’s job is to help the drummer carry the big drum, but he’s more interested in playing detective.

If you read this story, you’ll think that you have everything figured out pretty early on, but Roscoe is mighty tricky. He throws a lot of plot twists into approximately 15,000 words, and this is one of those stories where you’ll look back and see that all the clues were there, only Roscoe was slick enough to slip some of them right past the reader. He slipped them past me, anyway, and came up with a really entertaining and satisfying tale. The writing is a little old-fashioned in places, but you have to expect that in a story written nearly 75 years ago.

Now, I understand that you can’t just run out and pick up a copy of the October 30, 1937 issue of ARGOSY on my say-so. But if you already have that issue in your pulp collection and haven’t read it yet, my recommendation is that you do so. Or if you happen to run across a copy in a flea market or an antique mall or at a pulp show and remember that distinctive cover painting, grab that sucker if it’s not priced too high. I’m going to be reading the other stories in it and will probably have a few words about them in due time.