An Informal History Of The Pulp Magazines by Ron Goulart (book review).
Author Ron Goulart was told by pulp fiction writer W.T. Ballard that the problem of writing about the pulp magazines was he couldn’t possibly cover everything. Goulart agreed and hence his book, ‘An Informal History Of The Pulp Magazines’, even back in 1972 when he completed it after 18 months is only covering the highlights. I picked up this book a few years back and just fitted it into my reading schedule. It isn’t like I haven’t read other books about pulp fiction characters or history but they tend to be more recent. You can bet you’ll find this book in their bibliographies or if they haven’t, should have, assuming they knew it existed or came across a copy. Its also rather unique for a paperback book from this time to have a photo insert of covers.
Pulp magazines had an odd history. A disliked publisher called Frank A. Munsey (1854-1925) would create magazines at a drop of a hat and if they didn’t sell literally did. Drop them, that is. However, he did use pulpwood, hence its name, for cheap magazines where the focus was on the writing than paper quality, making books available cheaply to a bigger audience. Initially, they sold for a dime but under other publishers rose to 25 cents. In America, such money went a long way.
I think the biggest surprise was discovering that the first pulp hero with multiple identities was writer Frank L. Packard’s character Jimmie Dale aka the Grey Seal and multiple identities and thought to be a criminal but isn’t in 1914. The Shadow came much later in 1931. That’ll make interesting information in trivia quizzes. Goulart covers the more prominent characters and how their writers adopted pen-names, usually in case they became successful writers later in their careers although I doubt it Lester Dent or Walter Gibson realised they would be identified with Doc Savage and the Shadow and literature immortality. Oh, there was one female lead character in the mid-1930s, the Domino Lady, created by Lars Anderrson (actually Thelma B. Ellis).
I can make a lot of observations from this book as Goulart covers all the genres. Don’t underestimate this book, the likes of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholas and Martin Goodman got into publishing by this route. Without that, we wouldn’t have had DC Comics or Timely/Marvel Comics. Stan Lee must have been a fan as there was a Ka-Zar here first, brought up by lions no less. Goulart also points out Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan was derived from various sources. So many writers from Robert E. Howard to Lovecraft came from the pulps which is an indictment for book sources that are still known today, largely because of the characters they created. Some, like Conan, had to be rediscovered, so don’t think it was easy. Science Fiction gets a chapter towards the end but I assume Goulart suspected we were aware of our own genre’s roots. You could make a good living from writing providing you were prolific and most of the authors were, doing it as a side-line before doing it as their sole occupation.
This book could have done with an index but makes for a fascinating read.
GF Willmetts
April 2025
(pub: Ace Non-Fiction, 1973. 192 page illustrated paperback. Price: varies)
