Walter Baumhofer did some great covers for DIME DETECTIVE during this era, and here's another of 'em. The lineup of authors in this issue is top-notch, as well: Carroll John Daly with a Vee Brown story, T.T. Flynn, Frederick C. Davis, William E. Barrett, and Robert Sidney Bowen. Excellent writers, every one of them. DIME DETECTIVE was a consistently superb pulp during the mid-Thirties.
I'm not that familiar with the work of Charles De Feo, but he did a pretty good job on this cover. ADVENTURE always featured good authors and this issue is no exception. Inside are stories by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Donald Barr Chidsey, William E. Barrett, Henry Herbert Knibbs, Commander Edward Ellsberg, Andrew A. Caffrey, and William S. Wells. Chidsey is one of my favorites, Wheeler-Nicholson and Barrett were always top-notch, and Knibbs is well-regarded although I don't recall ever reading any of his stories. The others I'm not familiar with but I'm sure they're well worth reading.
There's a lot going on in this great cover by Malvin Singer, all of it dramatic. And as usual with DIME DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, there are some great authors inside: Norbert Davis, Leslie T. White, John K. Butler, O.B. Myers, William E. Barrett, Maxwell Hawkins, and B.B. Fowler. The last couple of those I'm not familiar with, but I'm sure that if they were in DIME DETECTIVE, they had to be pretty good. I don't own this issue and it doesn't appear to be on-line anywhere, but there are a lot of issues on the Internet Archive and I need to get around to reading some of them.
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.
Yikes! What a disturbing cover by Walter Baumhofer for this issue of DIME DETECTIVE. I'm sure there are quite a few jolts in the stories, too. Authors in this issue include Fred MacIsaac (with a Rambler story), William E. Barrett (with a Needle Mike story), John K. Butler (with a "Tricky" Enright story--I'm not familiar with that character at all), Leslie T. White (with a Duke and Phyllis Martendel story--nope, don't know them, either), and forgotten pulpster Denslow M. Dade.
I like oil derrick covers. It's kind of an odd thing, I know, but it probably comes from spending quite a bit of time in West Texas when I was young. This COMPLETE STORIES cover is by Gerard Delano. COMPLETE STORIES strikes me as one of Street & Smith's lesser pulps, but some good authors appeared in its pages. This issue has stories by William E. Barrett, Hal Dunning (a White Wolf story), C.S. Montanye, Lawrence C. Blochman, and Bertrand Sinclair, among others.
An abundance of work and some real-life issues have caused me to neglect the blog in recent days, but I hope to get that squared away soon. In the meantime, here's a great cover by Raphael DeSoto. The diving suit, the treasure chest, and the revolver all promise us adventure, and I'm sure this issue of, what else, ADVENTURE delivers on that promise. Inside are stories by Erle Stanley Gardner, Frank Gruber, William E. Barrett, Anthony Rud, Gordon MacCreagh, and Robert E. Pinkerton, top pulpsters, every one. The Gruber story is an installment of the serial "Peace Marshal", and I remember reading one of the paperback reprints of that novel when I was in junior high. Little did I dream I'd be writing about its pulp incarnation more than fifty years later. There's a certain appealing continuity that good fiction provides in a person's life . . .
With the exception of BLACK MASK in the Twenties, I'm not sure there was ever a better detective pulp than DIME DETECTIVE in the Thirties. And DIME DETECTIVE runs BLACK MASK a pretty close second! With Walter Baumhofer as the regular cover artist, you know the magazine was going to look great. This issue has a pretty typical line-up of authors inside: a Cardigan story by Frederick Nebel, a Needle Mike story by William E. Barrett, a Carter Cole story by Frederick C. Davis, a Kip Lacey story by Robert Sidney Bowen, and a stand-alone yarn by Hugh B. Cave. You might find a better bunch of writers than that in some other detective pulp, but not often.
I was in the mood for an aviation pulp cover this morning, and I picked this one by George Rozen from WAR BIRDS because I don't recall seeing many observation balloons on pulp covers. Also there are some good writers in this issue, including William E. Barrett, Robert J. Hogan, Robert H. Leitfred, and one better remembered for his excellent Westerns, Allan R. Bosworth.
When it comes to covers, such as this one by Walter Baumhofer, and the authors inside, DIME DETECTIVE was a great pulp. Authors in this issue include Frederick Nebel (with a Cardigan story), William E. Barrett (with a Needle Mike story), Frederick C. Davis, and James P. Olsen. That's a fine line-up of top pulpsters.
Clearly, deep sea diving was considered adventurous during the pulp era, because such scenes show up fairly often on pulp covers, such as this one by Rafael DeSoto from the March 1939 issue of ADVENTURE. The scene depicted may not actually be underwater, but you can tell the guy just came from there because of the chest of doubloons he's holding. I don't know if this cover illustrates one of the stories inside or is just a generic adventure image; the latter, I suspect. But I'm sure the stories in this issue are good, considering that they were written by Erle Stanley Gardner, Frank Gruber, Gordon MacCreagh, William E. Barrett, Anthony Rud, and Robert E. Pinkerton. Looks like a solid issue all the way around.
Well, that's got to be kind of a shock, when you're just riding along and this big ol' bird swoops down and attacks you. I don't really care much for this cover, but it's bizarre and eye-catching, I'll give it that. And as usual with ALL WESTERN, the authors inside are good ones, including Murray Leinster, T.W. Ford, W. Wirt, J.E. Grinstead, Anthony Rud, and William E. Barrett.
You just don't run across stories with titles like "Fokker Dust" anymore. Thomson Burtis was a well-known writer of aviation and air-war stories, but I don't believe I've ever read anything by him. Also in this issue of WAR BIRDS are stories by O.B. Myers, another prolific and well-regarded aviation pulpster, Allan R. Bosworth, an excellent Western author who wrote a little bit of everything for the pulps, William E. Barrett, best remembered for the novel THE LILIES OF THE FIELD, and several authors whose names are unfamiliar to me. I've never really read much from the aviation pulps compared to some of the other genres, but I've generally enjoyed what I've read.
