Recently Read: The Argosy, March 9, 1918

 

The March 9, 1918 Argosy begins a promising wartime tale of political intrigue, XTX, by Perley Poore Sheehan (most known today for co-writing the 1923 Lon Chaney film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame). The issue also ends one of the more entertaining 1918 serials I've been enjoying, A Kashmir Abduction, by Lenivers Carew.

In between the usual serials are two novelettes and seven short stories, the latter, to a one, all excellent reading. Thank you, editors. The first novelette, The House of Vanished Dreams, is a tale of WWI-era courage brought to fruition; A Priest of Darkness, also dealing with war-era espionage, plunges into creepy Voodoo territory, in a Louisiana swamp. 

As always, the letters page, The Log-Book, is delightful and a reminder of how geographically isolated many of the publication's readers were (and how the Argosy, sent through the mail, brought them together); one writer had been reading the magazine since its first issue, in 1882!

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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).

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Recently Read: Argosy, February 23, 1918

This issue begins a new serial (the cover story) which, like some of the short stories and the complete "Along Mystery Trail", by Frank Blighton herein, contains too many coincidences or obvious turns-of-plot to be entirely enjoyable. The continuation of the serials "A Kashmir Abduction" and Achmed Abdullah's "The Trail of the Beast", though, were welcome sights. The political intrigues in "The Trail of the Beast" are, unfortunately, still relevant. The ending of Victor Rousseau's "Fruit of the Lamp" was the best of all, continuing a humorous, whimsical situation comedy-fantasy not unlike P.G. Wodehouse's concoctions. 

I enjoyed a letter from a longtime Argosy reader, Theodore Wells. Here's an excerpt: "...Why, I even forgot to eat supper, and I never left the book till I had read it from beginning to end. I really forgot that picture-shows or the like existed when I got to reading The Argosy. From now on I can look to many comfortable hours with The Argosy, and will continue to read it and also the All-Story Weekly until I leave this world."

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Wanted: Argosy Magazine, February 23rd, 1918

If you have a copy of this issue for sale, please contact me. I'd like to purchase it and read it. Thanks!

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