Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Recently Read: The Digest Enthusiast, Book Ten
Another excellent volume of this digest about digests. Vol. 10 starts out with an amazing 14 pages of news about current digests. Among the highlights of the book, after an in-depth interview with author James Reasoner, are an overview of the '60s Startling Mystery Stories series, an article on Sol Cohen's tenure at Amazing Stories (I'd love to read even more on this), a look at the Charlie Chan Mystery Magazine (I didn't know it existed!), so-called Bronze books, and the second part overview of Manhunt Detective Story Monthly. All in all, a wealth of information for digest magazine collectors, and highly recommended
Friday, July 12, 2019
Recently Read: Argosy Magazine, March 2nd, 1918
This issue is the fourth 1918 Argosy I've read consecutively (starting with Feb. 9th), and it's an all-around entertaining issue. The serialized novel begun in the issue is "To Make or Break", a sea-faring tale by Captain Aylward Edward "A.E." Dingle. A life- long adventurer and pulp writer, Dingle knew the sea well. His tale involves a crusty old ex-con assigned to test the bravery of the son of his previous love. Will the lad turn out good, like his mum, or evil like his dad? Guess.
Published as a whole is Frank A. Russell's "Game and Rubber", a match of wits between
a Mexican guerilla and celebrity/occassional detective Ronnie Campbell. "Game and Rubber" refers to an earlier Campbell story. I don't know where that one was published, but a future Campbell story appears in the June 22nd, 1918 Argosy.
Actor, performer, conservationist and all-around teacher and entertainer Chief Henry Red Eagle contributes a revenge story set on a Missiquoi reservation. A good tale, but could have been fleshed out more (it "tells" when it needed to "show"). It's the second story in the issue in which a doctor is accused of deliberately botching an operation.
George M. A. Cain's "His Maid of the Northland" continues, a story of love and murder in
an Alaskan mining town. It's suspenseful - I want to know what happens next - and is
noteworthy in that it expresses and shares the viewpoints of all three main characters
in its love triangle.
Part III of Lenivers Carew's "A Kashmir Abduction" is equal parts comedy and suspense.
Rex Parson's rugged terrain love story "All Man" ends in this issue.
The rest of the short stories are fairly predictable crowd pleasers. I'd like to learn more about Madeleine Sharps Buchanan, who apparently wrote a series of '20s detective novels. Her "As the Snow Fell" is funny and droll, ruined by the last two unbelievable paragraphs. The story was geared up for a twist ending which should have happened, but didn't.
Also noteworthy: an editorial request from Franklin Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary
of the Navy, for binoculars, spy-glasses and telescopes from citizens, to be sent to the
Navy for the rental cost of one dollar (or, purchase cost if the items could't be returned
after the end of WWI).
Monday, July 8, 2019
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Friday, July 5, 2019
Thursday, July 4, 2019
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