Pulp Magazine Authors and Literature Fans discussion

Who are your favorite pulp-period (or pulp-style) authors? Mine would be H. P. Lovecraft (see my review of The Best of H. P. Lovecraft for additional comments about him). Two others who are right up there would be C. L. Moore (see my review of Jirel of Joiry) and Robert E. Howard --his tragic suicide at a relatively young age was a real loss to literature!

Werner, two great writers you mentioned here. C. L. Moore was a wonderful writer. I don't know whether I like her Northwest Smith or Jirel stories better. Both are superb.

I'm a huge fan of Howard's, of course.

In the field of fantasy, my favorite old time pulp writer would be Robert E. Howard, for horror it would be H. P. Lovecraft, for mystery it would be Raymond Chandler in a tie with Dashiell Hammett. While all of these are probably common answers I have a few other favorites who aren't quite as well known, among them Donald Wandrei (horror, fantasy and mystery), his brother Howard Wandrei (also fantasy, horror and hard boiled mystery), Clark Ashton Smith (horror, fantasy, poetry) and much of the works of Manly Wade Wellman and Hugh B. Cave.
Buth then I realize I haven't mentioned C. L. Moore (for her great fantasy), her husband Henry Kuttner (I love just about everything H.K. wrote), Leigh Brackett (both fantasy and hard boiled mystery) and also some more obscure writers like Henry S. Whitehead (horror, fantasy) and Nictzin Dyalhis (fantasy).
Then I remember reading the stories of the young Robert Bloch, and I have to include him as well...

If I'd written a longer list, I'd definitely have included Wellman; he's probably my favorite supernatural fiction writer of all time. So far, I haven't really delved into all the riches of the pulp tradition like some of the rest of you have, so a couple of the names Steve shared are new to me --but I'll have to remember them. (Part of the problem is that the magazines where most of this body of literature was published aren't accessible anymore, so to read it we have to depend on the occasional anthology in book form!) I had my first taste of Clark Ashton's Smith's work this summer, in his fine vampire tale "A Rendezvous in Averoigne," and I'd read one of Dyalhis' sword-and- sorcery stories, but Brackett and Donald Wandrei are still on my (unwritten) to-read list.

When it comes to mysteries, I'm not as well read in that genre as I am in the speculative ones, and I have to admit I'm not a big fan of the noir school, which I guess dominated the pulp era. (I've read The Maltese Falcon, but didn't care much for it.) If we consider The Strand to be a pulp magazine (I'm not sure what type of paper stock it was printed on), I guess my favorite pulp mystery writer is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

For pulp fantasy, I like Fritz Leiber and Robert E. Howard. For Sci-Fi I would have to go with C.L. Moore or E.E. Smith. Chandler and Hammett are hard to beat as far as detective fiction goes. I also have a soft spot for The Shadow and to a lesser extent, Doc Savage.

I guess the ones I've read and liked the most would be Edgar Rice Burroughs -- the first writer I really fell in love with, almost 35 years ago -- HP Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Also have read a bit by Clark Ashton Smith, Sax Rohmer, E.E.'Doc' Smith, S.P. Meek, Charles Tanner, Edmond Hamilton....pretty much all sf/fantasy writers. Am interested in getting into the pulp mystery/hardboiled stuff (I love film noir) and will probably hit up some Chandler and Jim Thompson before too long.

The genre thing has me jumping this way and that. For me, Lovecraft. I love that creepy stuff. Objectively for Popular Literature, probably Chandler (I'm thinking of the poll now), though Lovecraft was also a major influence. Thompson, at his best, was awesome.

I'm torn between the different genres too, but I was interested to see if folks had a definite favorite when asked to choose. Regarding the poll on authors I realize that there were probably a lot more names that could/should perhaps have been included.
Regarding Jim Thompson, I think of him as an author of what I call the Pulps paperback era (circa 1950's). Perhaps we should have a seperate poll for the various eras, or should open up the forum to include any author who was influential in any way to what we call Pulp, be it those earlier writers whose work influenced the Pulp writers (thinking of Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Chambers, etc.) all the way to modern writers whose work shows influence of the Pulp writers (could be anyone from Michael Chabon to Stephen King to Michael Moorcock to Robert Crais and a host of others). Any thoughts on this?

I think of pulp as more distinctly pre-WWII (I think that's what Steven is getting at), and while some authors like Chandler or Woolrich straddle that line, for the most part, it's a pretty clear demarcation - and you get the golden age of paperback. The Fawcett Gold Medal crowd like Thompson, like Gil Brewer, Pete Rabe, Goodis, John MacDonald ... which to me have a different feel than the pulp writers of the 20s-early 40s...

That being said - my dad turned me onto Howard when I was 10 ... and he's still a favorite, evn if my main love is Solomon Kane, not Conan. Ha! I think it's mandatory to say you like Lovecraft as well, if you like pulps ... and I do. I mentioned on the poll I'm more the hardboiled school of that period nowadays - Chandlet, Hammett, Paul Cain, Cornell Woolrich.

And as Dan mentioned, there is always that soft spot for pulp series fiction - I loves me a funky Shadow, and especially the Spider. I think I'm more foregiving of good ol' Doc Savage than him as well...

Robert E. Howard is my favorite pulp writer that I still read. While I occasionally re-read a Conan novel, the stories that have aged the best for me are the adventures of Breckenridge Elkins in A Gent From Bear Creek. It's slapstick comedy, a spoof on Pecos Bill, but for some reason it always tickles me. I guess I have a low sense of humor. A similar book is The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan, who is a sailor who boxes for extra money. Neither has any more sense than the law allows & gets into all kinds of misadventures.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom (Mars) series was always my favorite by him, although I didn't care for the 11th book at all. The first 3 & #10, Llana of Gathol were my favorites in that series.

Is Mickey Spillane considered a pulp author? He's post WWII, but sure writes like one. I've never liked his Tiger Mann books & thought Mike Hammer was just OK, but really liked a lot of his stand alone novels like The Erection Set.

I always considered Dashiell Hammett to be a cut above Spillane with Raymond Chandler between the two. I never considered either pulp writers & liked both, but my rating of their writing may be more based on the movies of their books rather than the writing itself. It's been some years since I read either one.

Favorite? Without a doubt, Robert E. Howard.

Outside of REh, there are lots of others I collect and re-read. HP Lovecraft & Clark Ashton Smith in particular. Talbot Mundy & HArold lamb are among teh best adventure writers. Fritz Leiber & Michael Moorcock qualify as pulp-writers, and I love their stuff. Dashiell Hammett & Raymond Chandler are the best among detective writers, for my money. Cornell Woorich is probably the most under-rated of all pulp authors.

Some of the pulp magazines had stories & covers that I remembered for years. The cover art was very appealing to me back then. My dad had them laying around when I was too young to read & I'd see them again occasionally over the years.

I did get to read the following once, but my father died & Mom gave away most of his books. These were among them - along with the complete Lancer edition of Conan, most of ERB's books. (Yes, I've forgiven her - barely. It has been almost 40 years. I only obsess over it occasionally.)

I remember two stories & covers very clearly. I wonder if anyone else recalls the magazine, author or story titles.

One story's name was "Who is Mrs. MYOB". It was about a neighbor, a snoopy old lady, who saw a child chained behind her neighbor's house. The woman investigates & the 'child' turns out to be an alien that eats her. The cover was haunting - an orange background, I think with dark green & black shadows.

The other story was about a futuristic society that kept their soldiers in suspended animation until they were needed. They awake them this time to tell them all the wars are done & the soldiers don't like the idea, want to start their own. One soldier disagrees & helps the society trick his comrades back into their deep freeze. He sadly finishes out his life dusting off his comrades.

Does anyone recall them?

Hi gang,

I love many of the old pulp writers. My two favorites are Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. Both have influenced my own writing to a significant extent. For Robert E. Howard fans, i encourage you to branch out beyond his best known works - i.e., Conan, and try the Solomon Kane stories, and also his adventure and boxing stories. great stuff.

regards,
glenn g. thater
author of harbinger of doom
http://www.angletheta.blogspot.com

My personal favourite character of REH's making is Solomon Kane. Can't tell you exactly why, but there's something to his personality that strikes a deeper chord in me than, say, Conan.

First and foremost, though, it's the stories that attract me, regardless of who's the main character. To me, the story is the driving force, and characters are often secondary.

Sorry, Jim, I do not know any of the stories you mention there:-(

Jim, I remember reading both the stories you mentioned although I'm not coming up with the names of the authors immediately. The first sounds almost like a Bloch story. The second, I believe, must have been in the "There Will Be War" series because I remember reading it but not in any pulp.

I thought I had those pulps around but haven't seen them since we moved, at least. Can't imagine I would have donated them to the library & I certainly wouldn't have trashed them. I just can't find them - very odd for me & books.

After 1.5 years in the new house, I STILL haven't gotten everything unpacked, I realized over the holiday. I brought in a couple of extra boxes I found when I was getting the Xmas stuff. Maybe I'll get lucky & find them in there. I love boxes marked, "Misc" or "Odd Stuff". So descriptive! (It's in my handwriting. )

Robert E Howard and Leigh Brackett spring to mind, but there are many many more...

REH and ERB are the top of my list of pulpsters, though I have learned to appreciate Henry Kuttner and Otis Adelbert Kline as well as Leigh Brackett & Edmond Hamilton (whose Legion of Super Heroes was also some of my earliest comics reading as well).

Steven
www.steveneschend.com

For me the best pulp writer, at least in the detective genre, is Raymond Chandler. I must sau that as much as I enjoyed reading reprints of The Shadow and Doc Savage when I was a kid, today (probably because I have written so many articles to specific word counts) I can always tell when a pulp author is padding his word count, and for this reason I find I lack patience with Maxwell Grant [Walter Gibson:] and others I enjoyed years ago, because I can sense the padding to puff up the word and line counts.

Robert wrote: "I can always tell when a pulp author is padding his word count..."

That's the way I always felt about Charles Dickens. Can't stand reading his books. I should probably revisit a book or two of his. School turned me off on
John Steinbeck too. Read a different book later & liked it plus some others.

I think I may have posted this message in the wrong thread, so here it is again:

As most here will know, the entire realm of Cthulhu mythos, which now approaches becoming an actual religion, began in the pages of one of the most famous of the Pulps, _Weird Tales_. My Danish friend (by way of the internet) has now published a collection of new Lovecraft-inspired short stories, some hewing closely to tradition, others exploring hitherto unexplored dimensions of that recondite theosophy.

Short story collections of any sort being in short supply in the US due to the mercenary calculations of what passes for editors these days, this anthology might be of special interest to this group. The lineup of contributors looks promising. http://www.lulu.com/content/54...

~ John Mayer