Bibliography
Pulp Criticism
Sources in this section consist of direct analysis or criticism of authors, editors, magazines, readers, culture and themes.
Bloom, Clive. Cult Fiction: Popular Reading and Pulp Theory. New York: St. Martin's P, 1996. Print.
An excellent analysis of the readers and genres of pulp fiction though there is more analysis of the texts themselves than the readers.
Cheng, John. Astounding Wonder: Imagining Science and Science Fiction in Interwar America. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2012. Print.
Explores the emergence of science fiction as a distinct genre through the sf pulps. Also considers the pulps' engagement of contemporary issues and the emergence of sf fan culture.
Cioffi, Frank. Formula Fiction?: An Anatomy of American Science Fiction, 1930-1940. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood, 1982. Print.
Though dated, this book provides an informative overview of sf during the golden age of the pulps. Focuses on stories that affirm status quo by restoring order as well as those that subvert status quo by introducing a new reality to which the story world must adjust. Chapter 1, "The 1930s Pulp Magazines and Science Fiction," is especially useful.
Davin, Eric Leif. Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction 1926-1965. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Print.
Covers the history of women in sf with the thesis that women were not actively discriminated against but were active participants in the growth of sf and related genres. Chapter 3, "Weird Sisters," discusses the role of women in Weird Tales, noting that 1/4 of its authors and fans were women. Discusses Planet Stories and other fantastic pulps as well.
DeForest, Tim. Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio. Jefferson, NC and London: 2004. Print.
This book covers the history of storytelling in pulps, comics, and radio roughly from the emergence of the pulps in the 1890s to through the 1950s. For a book with such a broad scope it is relatively short (229 pages), so coverage of materials is generally thin. A bibliography is present but sources are not cited within the text.
Earle, David M. All Man!: Hemingway, 1950s Men's Magazines, and the Masculine Persona. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 2009. Print.
This colorful book provides many full-color illustrations of men's magazines from the 1950s in addition to arguing their influence on Hemingway.
---. "Pulp Magazines and the Popular Press." The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines. Ed. Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker. Vol. II: North America 1894-1960. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. 197-215.
Provides an overview of the relationship between pulp magazines and the popular press with a particular focus on the pulp's exclusion from the study of Modernism. Also discusses the material nature of the pulps, pulp feminism, and the nature of working-class readers and their contributions to modernism.
---. Re-Covering Modernism: Pulps, Paperbacks, and the Prejudice of Form. Farmham, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2009. Print.
Argues that "literary magazines," which the cultural elite have used to define Modernism, represent only a tiny fraction of modern literary production. Pulp magazines need to be better documented and acknowledged for their role in contributing to Modernism. This may require a redefinition of Modernism and what qualifies as literary through an analysis of material production, visual texts, and communities of readers.
Flynn, John L. "A Historical Overview of Heroes in Contemporary Works of Fantasy Literature: Part I: The Hero Myth." 28 Dec. 2012. Web. <http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/IRELAND/2001-01/0980631526.>
This article, originally published in Encyclopedia Galactica, contains valuable information on the evolution of sword and sorcery within the pulps. The essay is brief but provides a useful overview.
Hoppenstand, Gary, ed. Critical Insights: Pulp Fiction of the '20s and '30s. Amenia, NY: Grey House Publishing, 2013. Print.
In spite of its broad title, this volume collects chapters exclusively on Weird Tales writers. Includes new essays and a section of "archived material" of older critical essays. Bibliography and index.
Jones, Robert Kenneth. The Shudder Pulps: A History of Weird Menace Stories of the 1930s. West Lynn, OR: FAX Collector's Editions, 1975. Print.
Though flawed for superficial treatment, failure to cite sources, and lack of a bibliography, this book provides a reasonable overview of the shudder pulps and "weird menace" stories.
Joshi, S.T. The Weird Tale. Austin: U of Texas P, 1990. Print.
Defines the weird tale based primarily upon Lovecraft's presented in "Supernatural Horror in Literature." Separate chapters cover Machen, Dunsany, Blackwood, James, Bierce and Lovecraft. Only peripherally discusses pulp tradition. Tries to place the weird within the literary canon and ignores much in Weird Tales and elsewhere.
Leiber, Fritz. "Through Hyperspace with Brown Jenkin." The Second Book of Fritz Leiber. New York: Daw, 1975. Print.
This outstanding essay argues that Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos" stories contributed significantly to the development of hyperspace in science fiction, though independently of the real science.
McCracken, Scott. Pulp: Reading Popular Fiction. Manchester and New York: Manchester UP, 1998. Print.
Though this book begins with a promising premise to analyze popular fiction on the grounds of reader identity, text, and genre, the chapters mostly focus on conventional descriptions of several popular genres with limited attention to the relationship between the reader and the text. Focuses on paperback fiction rather than short fiction.
Mullen, R. D. "From Standard Magazines to Pulps and Big Slicks: A Note on the History of US General and Fiction Magazines," Science Fiction Studies, 22.1 (1995): 144-156. Print.
Madison, Nathan Vernon. Anti-Foreign Imagery in American Pulps and Comic Books, 1920-1960. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland, 2013. Print.
This study discusses American "nativism," particularly during the interwar years, and its influence on pulp magazines and comic books. The author traces the decline of nativism following WW II and the rise of multiculturalism as it is reflected in the pulps and comics. Though the book proposes to address anti-foreign imagery broadly, the primary focus is on the "yellow peril," its shift from Chinese to Japanese emphasis in response to changing political conditions, and its eventual decline in the 1950s.
Parfrey, Adam, ed. It's a Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps. Feral House, 2003. Print.
This book is mostly of interest for its many full-color reproductions of covers of men's magazines, primarily of the "true adventure" variety. It contains short articles by several contributors divided into a variety of categories.
Nadis, Fred. The Man From Mars: Ray Palmer's Amazing Pulp Journey. London: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2013. Print.
Though less interesting for its insight into the pulps than one of its more colorful editors, this biography covers in considerable detail Palmer's editorial career at Amazing and beyond. Discussed in depth his publication of, an relationship with, science fiction charlatan Richard Shaver as well as his contributions to the flying saucer myth and his promotion of the same in the pages of Fate and other magazines dedicated to the supernatural.
Smith, Erin A. Hard Boiled: Working Class Readers and Pulp Magazines. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2000. Print.
This study of the relationship between crime fiction and its readers discusses ways that working-class fictions provided a means for readers to establish a cultural identity with the goal of elevating their social position. In addition to novels, discusses detective pulps, writers and readers.
---. "Pulp Sensations." In The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction. Ed. David Glover and Scott McCracken. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2012. 141-158. Print.
Good, brief introduction to pulp studies, particularly for its discussion of pulp readers. Strong discussion of "hard-boiled" detective fiction; weaker on other pulps.
Westfahl, Gary. Hugo Gernsback and the Century of Science Fiction. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007. Print.
Reviews Gernsback's career and his contribution to the evolution of sf and pulp magazines. Includes textual analysis of the evolution of Ralph 124C 41+.
---. The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 1998. Print.
Argues for the importance of Hugo Gernsback in the creation of science fiction. Discusses how Gernsback paved the way for John Campbell and how their contributions helped create the sf genre.
Waugh, Robert H., ed. Lovecraft and Influence: His Predecessors and Successors. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow P, 2013. Print. Studies in Supernatural Literature.
This is the first offering in the Studies in Supernatural Literature series edited by S.T. Joshi. Rather than focusing on Lovecraft himself, the chapters in this volume focus on influences on Lovecraft in the first section and Lovecraft's influences on others in the second. Includes chapters discussing Biblical influences; Poe; Lord Dunsany; The Munsey magazines and invasion literature. Influences on other writers include Frank Belknap Long, Stephen King, William S. Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick and Fritz Leiber.
Woods, Toni-Johnson. Pulp: A Collector's Book of Australian Pulp Fiction Covers. Canberra, Australia: National Library of Australia, 2004. Print.
Partly historical overview and partly critical analysis, this book discusses Australian pulp paperback fiction covers by genre.
Contemporary Criticism
The sources listed here are contemporary with the pulps and indicative of public reactions to the pulps during the pulp era.
Gray, William S. and Ruth Munroe. The Reading Habits of Adults: A Preliminary Report. New York: MacMillan,1929. Print.
This report reviews the findings of several reports of reading habits of young adults as well as reports of its own findings of two study groups in the Chicago area: The less affluent Hyde Park area and the more affluent North Evanston. Magazines were ranked A through F with A representing higher class magazines and F representing "general fiction magazines." Results show the F-type magazines to be favored by less educated individuals. Though the study is flawed in methods and bias, the extensive survey provides valuable insight into the readers of pulp magazines in the late 1920s.
Huxley, Aldous. "Pulp." The Saturday Review of Literature 17 July 1937: 10-11. Print.
Originally published in Time and Tide, Huxley submitted this piece to Saturday Review as an indirect response to Pratt's "The Pulp Magazines." Huxley reviews several genres but spends most of the essay arguing against pulps that feature torture as a means of entertainment. Huxley believes these stories will desensitize readers to violence. He also blames the danger of the pulps on the availability of cheap wood pulp, which makes this form of literature widely available to the lower class. Toward the end of his essay he claims that the pulps are one sign of a broader decline of civilization.
Pratt, Fletcher. "The Pulp Magazines." The Saturday Review of Literature. 3 July 1937: 3-4, 14. Print.
Pratt, a pulp writer, responds to Harold Hersey's somewhat unflattering characterization of pulp writers and readers in Pulpwood Editor. Pratt defends the predictable nature of pulp stories and their lack of sophistication on the grounds that their writers are young and starting out. Further, he defends their readers as observant and intelligent.
Jones, Archer. "The Pulps--a Mirror to Yearning." North American Review 246.1 (1938): 35-47. Print.
In this overview of the pulp industry, Jones characterizes readers as young, male, working-class, and dissatisfied. He argues that the readers see themselves in the working-class heroes and that this provides them with a means to escape their otherwise dreary lives.
Uzzell, Thomas. "The Love Pulps." Schribner's Magazine 103 (1938): 36-41.
In this article Uzzell covers the love pulp industry in detail, with focus on female readers, writers, and editors.
Textual Criticism, Bibliographies, and Anthologies
The sources in this section consist of letters, annotated anthologies, and other sources relevant to understanding the production of source texts and their histories of production.
Bleiler, E.F. and Richard J. Bleiler. Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 1998. Print.
This important bibliographic source catalogs most of the stories printed in sf pulps between 1930 and 1936. Print.
DeForest, Tim. Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland, 2004. Print.
This book focuses on the evolution of genres from dime novels through radio. Though superficial in some ways, each chapter focuses on a different genre or publication and provides a general overview of publishers, producers, major authors and stories.
Howard, Robert E. The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard. Ed. Rob Roehm. 3 vols. Robert E. Howard Foundation P, 2008. Print.
Three volumes contain the collected correspondence of Robert E. Howard. Letters are annotated, but not as extensively as they should be. Some annotations lack appropriate documentation.
Howard, Robert E. The Conquering Sword of Conan. Ed. Rusty Burke. Vol. 2. 2 vols. New York: Ballantine, 2005. Print.
Includes careful notes on manuscript corrections. Includes textual notes, development drafts, synopses, Howard's map of the Hyborean world, and a critical essay.
Howard, Robert E. Grim Lands: The Best of Robert E. Howard. Ed. Rusty Burke. Vol. 2. New York: Ballantine, 2007. Print.
This volume collects more of the "best of" stories. Includes careful notes on manuscript corrections.
Howard, Robert E. Bran Mak Morn: The Last King. Ed. Rusty Burke. New York: Ballantine, 2005. Print.
Includes careful notes on manuscript corrections and extracts from Howard's letters outlining the evolution of his fictional Picts.
Howard, Robert E. El Borak and Other Desert Adventures. Ed. Rusty Burke. Vol. 2. 2 vols. New York: Ballantine, 2010. Print.
Includes careful notes on manuscript corrections, story fragments, introduction, and a critical essay.
Kaye, Marvin and John Gregory Betancourt, eds. The Best of Weird Tales: 1923. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Bleak House, 1997. Print.
This brief anthology does an excellent job of contextualizing some of the best stories of the first year of Weird Tales with an introduction and headnote discussing the quality and features of each issue. Some stories appear to have typographical errors.
Kaye, Marvin, ed. Weird Tales: The Magazine that Never Dies. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1988. Print.
An excellent and comprehensive anthology featuring some of the best stories from Weird Tales.
Perry, Eve. From Amazing Stories to Weird Tales: Covering Pulp Fiction. Hartford, CT: Lebon P, 2010. Print.
This full-color book, published to accompany an exhibition of pulp cover art at The William Benton Museum of Art, provides a nice overview of pulp artists along with examples of their work.
Robbins, Leonard A. The Pulp Magazine Index. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1989-1990. Print.
This source indexes stories by author, title, magazine, and issue.
Historical Criticism
These sources document the history of the pulps, including histories and memoirs.
Hersey, Harold Brainerd. Pulpwood Editor. New York: Frederick A. Stokes and Company, 1937. Print.
This contemporary memoir of the pulp industry covers readers, editors, writers, advertising, and genres. A valuable contemporary resource.
Leiber, Fritz. "Fafhrd and Me." The Second Book of Fritz Leiber. New York: Daw, 1975. 92-115. Print.
In this essay Leiber describes the evolution of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Includes much material about Leiber's work for the pulps, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s.
Mendlesohn, Farah and Edward James. A Short History of Fantasy. Rev. ed. Faringdon, UK: Libri Publishing, 2012. Print.
Though this excellent history of fantasy literature does not focus on the pulps, early chapters discuss the importance of pulps in the development of modern fantasy. Further, frequent references to the influence of the pulps on the development of fantasy in later chapters make this a valuable resource.
Weinberg, Robert. The Weird Tales Story. West Linn, OR: FAX Collector's Editions, 1977. Print.
This history of Weird Tales, though weakened by a lack of verifiable citations and rigorous scholarship, is valuable for the impressive amount of material collected. Includes material from E. Hoffman Price and (presumably) Otis Albert Kline.
Contextual Resources
These sources do not directly discuss the pulps per se, but provide valuable information regarding the cultural backgrounds against which the pulps were written.
Colavito, Jason, ed. "A Hideous Bit of Morbidity: An Anthology of Horror Criticism from the Enlightenment to World War I. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Print.
This volume consists mostly of brief excerpts from letters, reviews, and books, though it contains a few longer essays on the nature of horror. The sections on the Gothics and the Fin de Siecle are particularly relevant to the later pulp traditon.
Currell, Susan and Christina Cogdell, eds. Popular Eugenics: National Efficiency and American Mass Culture in the 1930s. Athens, OH: U of Ohio P, 2006. Print.
This comprehensive treatment of the expression of eugenics thought in American popular culture addresses education, sterilization programs, comics, public exhibits, film, and art. Though it does not address the pulps directly, it provides relevant background information.
Denning, Michael: Dime Novels and Working-Class Culture in America. Rev. ed. London & New York: Verso, 1998. Print.
While this outstanding study of 19th-century dime novels doesn't discuss the pulps (except with a few passing references) it provides excellent information on the broader cultural context that led to the rise of popular magazines and the pulps at the end of the nineteenth century. The chapter on working-class readers is especially worthwhile.
Gray, William S. and Ruth Munroe. The Reading Interests and Habits of Adults: A Preliminary Report. New York: Macmillan, 1929. Print.
Reports the results of several contemporary studies of the reading interests of adults in the 1920s. Of particular interest to pulp scholars is Chapter IV, "The Reading Interests of Special Groups of Young People and Adults," where tables can be found detailing the reading preferences of businessmen, college students, vocational students, and young workers. Though reports summarized here are culturally biased, information here provides good indicators of the popularity of pulps with working-class readers.
Holbrook, Stewart H, "What Loggers Read." The Bookman 65 (July 1927): 528-531.
The author, a former logger, argues that because of their isolation loggers read more than city-dwellers. He provides extensive examples of literary reading by loggers, but includes references to some popular magazine reading as well, listing Adventure as a favorite. Concludes by implying that loggers read more "highbrow" literature than their urban counterparts.
Rasche, William Frank. The Reading Interests of Young Workers. Chicago: U of Chicago Libraries, 1937.
This dissertation reports the reading interests of young workers enrolled at the Milwaukee Vocational School and contains information on reading interests including newspapers, books and magazines. The study includes comparative data on the reading interests of male and female students at the school, and categorizes them by age and grade completed. Also compares data collected in 1932 to an earlier 1924 study. The study reveals a growth in magazine reading interest among both young women and young men. Magazines are ranked by popularity, with pulp magazines dominating the men's list and having a strong presence in the women's list. The study concludes by saying that "The problem which requires attention is qualitative rather than quantitative" (77).
Ruddick, Nicholas. The Fire in the Stone: Prehistoric Fiction from Charles Darwin to Jean M. Auel. Middletown, CT: Wasleyan UP, 2009. Print.
An excellent history of the evolution of PF that unfortunately ignores the contributions of the pulp tradition.
Bloom, Clive. Cult Fiction: Popular Reading and Pulp Theory. New York: St. Martin's P, 1996. Print.
An excellent analysis of the readers and genres of pulp fiction though there is more analysis of the texts themselves than the readers.
Cheng, John. Astounding Wonder: Imagining Science and Science Fiction in Interwar America. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2012. Print.
Explores the emergence of science fiction as a distinct genre through the sf pulps. Also considers the pulps' engagement of contemporary issues and the emergence of sf fan culture.
Cioffi, Frank. Formula Fiction?: An Anatomy of American Science Fiction, 1930-1940. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood, 1982. Print.
Though dated, this book provides an informative overview of sf during the golden age of the pulps. Focuses on stories that affirm status quo by restoring order as well as those that subvert status quo by introducing a new reality to which the story world must adjust. Chapter 1, "The 1930s Pulp Magazines and Science Fiction," is especially useful.
Davin, Eric Leif. Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction 1926-1965. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Print.
Covers the history of women in sf with the thesis that women were not actively discriminated against but were active participants in the growth of sf and related genres. Chapter 3, "Weird Sisters," discusses the role of women in Weird Tales, noting that 1/4 of its authors and fans were women. Discusses Planet Stories and other fantastic pulps as well.
DeForest, Tim. Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio. Jefferson, NC and London: 2004. Print.
This book covers the history of storytelling in pulps, comics, and radio roughly from the emergence of the pulps in the 1890s to through the 1950s. For a book with such a broad scope it is relatively short (229 pages), so coverage of materials is generally thin. A bibliography is present but sources are not cited within the text.
Earle, David M. All Man!: Hemingway, 1950s Men's Magazines, and the Masculine Persona. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 2009. Print.
This colorful book provides many full-color illustrations of men's magazines from the 1950s in addition to arguing their influence on Hemingway.
---. "Pulp Magazines and the Popular Press." The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines. Ed. Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker. Vol. II: North America 1894-1960. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. 197-215.
Provides an overview of the relationship between pulp magazines and the popular press with a particular focus on the pulp's exclusion from the study of Modernism. Also discusses the material nature of the pulps, pulp feminism, and the nature of working-class readers and their contributions to modernism.
---. Re-Covering Modernism: Pulps, Paperbacks, and the Prejudice of Form. Farmham, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2009. Print.
Argues that "literary magazines," which the cultural elite have used to define Modernism, represent only a tiny fraction of modern literary production. Pulp magazines need to be better documented and acknowledged for their role in contributing to Modernism. This may require a redefinition of Modernism and what qualifies as literary through an analysis of material production, visual texts, and communities of readers.
Flynn, John L. "A Historical Overview of Heroes in Contemporary Works of Fantasy Literature: Part I: The Hero Myth." 28 Dec. 2012. Web. <http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/IRELAND/2001-01/0980631526.>
This article, originally published in Encyclopedia Galactica, contains valuable information on the evolution of sword and sorcery within the pulps. The essay is brief but provides a useful overview.
Hoppenstand, Gary, ed. Critical Insights: Pulp Fiction of the '20s and '30s. Amenia, NY: Grey House Publishing, 2013. Print.
In spite of its broad title, this volume collects chapters exclusively on Weird Tales writers. Includes new essays and a section of "archived material" of older critical essays. Bibliography and index.
Jones, Robert Kenneth. The Shudder Pulps: A History of Weird Menace Stories of the 1930s. West Lynn, OR: FAX Collector's Editions, 1975. Print.
Though flawed for superficial treatment, failure to cite sources, and lack of a bibliography, this book provides a reasonable overview of the shudder pulps and "weird menace" stories.
Joshi, S.T. The Weird Tale. Austin: U of Texas P, 1990. Print.
Defines the weird tale based primarily upon Lovecraft's presented in "Supernatural Horror in Literature." Separate chapters cover Machen, Dunsany, Blackwood, James, Bierce and Lovecraft. Only peripherally discusses pulp tradition. Tries to place the weird within the literary canon and ignores much in Weird Tales and elsewhere.
Leiber, Fritz. "Through Hyperspace with Brown Jenkin." The Second Book of Fritz Leiber. New York: Daw, 1975. Print.
This outstanding essay argues that Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos" stories contributed significantly to the development of hyperspace in science fiction, though independently of the real science.
McCracken, Scott. Pulp: Reading Popular Fiction. Manchester and New York: Manchester UP, 1998. Print.
Though this book begins with a promising premise to analyze popular fiction on the grounds of reader identity, text, and genre, the chapters mostly focus on conventional descriptions of several popular genres with limited attention to the relationship between the reader and the text. Focuses on paperback fiction rather than short fiction.
Mullen, R. D. "From Standard Magazines to Pulps and Big Slicks: A Note on the History of US General and Fiction Magazines," Science Fiction Studies, 22.1 (1995): 144-156. Print.
Madison, Nathan Vernon. Anti-Foreign Imagery in American Pulps and Comic Books, 1920-1960. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland, 2013. Print.
This study discusses American "nativism," particularly during the interwar years, and its influence on pulp magazines and comic books. The author traces the decline of nativism following WW II and the rise of multiculturalism as it is reflected in the pulps and comics. Though the book proposes to address anti-foreign imagery broadly, the primary focus is on the "yellow peril," its shift from Chinese to Japanese emphasis in response to changing political conditions, and its eventual decline in the 1950s.
Parfrey, Adam, ed. It's a Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps. Feral House, 2003. Print.
This book is mostly of interest for its many full-color reproductions of covers of men's magazines, primarily of the "true adventure" variety. It contains short articles by several contributors divided into a variety of categories.
Nadis, Fred. The Man From Mars: Ray Palmer's Amazing Pulp Journey. London: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2013. Print.
Though less interesting for its insight into the pulps than one of its more colorful editors, this biography covers in considerable detail Palmer's editorial career at Amazing and beyond. Discussed in depth his publication of, an relationship with, science fiction charlatan Richard Shaver as well as his contributions to the flying saucer myth and his promotion of the same in the pages of Fate and other magazines dedicated to the supernatural.
Smith, Erin A. Hard Boiled: Working Class Readers and Pulp Magazines. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2000. Print.
This study of the relationship between crime fiction and its readers discusses ways that working-class fictions provided a means for readers to establish a cultural identity with the goal of elevating their social position. In addition to novels, discusses detective pulps, writers and readers.
---. "Pulp Sensations." In The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction. Ed. David Glover and Scott McCracken. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2012. 141-158. Print.
Good, brief introduction to pulp studies, particularly for its discussion of pulp readers. Strong discussion of "hard-boiled" detective fiction; weaker on other pulps.
Westfahl, Gary. Hugo Gernsback and the Century of Science Fiction. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007. Print.
Reviews Gernsback's career and his contribution to the evolution of sf and pulp magazines. Includes textual analysis of the evolution of Ralph 124C 41+.
---. The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 1998. Print.
Argues for the importance of Hugo Gernsback in the creation of science fiction. Discusses how Gernsback paved the way for John Campbell and how their contributions helped create the sf genre.
Waugh, Robert H., ed. Lovecraft and Influence: His Predecessors and Successors. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow P, 2013. Print. Studies in Supernatural Literature.
This is the first offering in the Studies in Supernatural Literature series edited by S.T. Joshi. Rather than focusing on Lovecraft himself, the chapters in this volume focus on influences on Lovecraft in the first section and Lovecraft's influences on others in the second. Includes chapters discussing Biblical influences; Poe; Lord Dunsany; The Munsey magazines and invasion literature. Influences on other writers include Frank Belknap Long, Stephen King, William S. Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick and Fritz Leiber.
Woods, Toni-Johnson. Pulp: A Collector's Book of Australian Pulp Fiction Covers. Canberra, Australia: National Library of Australia, 2004. Print.
Partly historical overview and partly critical analysis, this book discusses Australian pulp paperback fiction covers by genre.
Contemporary Criticism
The sources listed here are contemporary with the pulps and indicative of public reactions to the pulps during the pulp era.
Gray, William S. and Ruth Munroe. The Reading Habits of Adults: A Preliminary Report. New York: MacMillan,1929. Print.
This report reviews the findings of several reports of reading habits of young adults as well as reports of its own findings of two study groups in the Chicago area: The less affluent Hyde Park area and the more affluent North Evanston. Magazines were ranked A through F with A representing higher class magazines and F representing "general fiction magazines." Results show the F-type magazines to be favored by less educated individuals. Though the study is flawed in methods and bias, the extensive survey provides valuable insight into the readers of pulp magazines in the late 1920s.
Huxley, Aldous. "Pulp." The Saturday Review of Literature 17 July 1937: 10-11. Print.
Originally published in Time and Tide, Huxley submitted this piece to Saturday Review as an indirect response to Pratt's "The Pulp Magazines." Huxley reviews several genres but spends most of the essay arguing against pulps that feature torture as a means of entertainment. Huxley believes these stories will desensitize readers to violence. He also blames the danger of the pulps on the availability of cheap wood pulp, which makes this form of literature widely available to the lower class. Toward the end of his essay he claims that the pulps are one sign of a broader decline of civilization.
Pratt, Fletcher. "The Pulp Magazines." The Saturday Review of Literature. 3 July 1937: 3-4, 14. Print.
Pratt, a pulp writer, responds to Harold Hersey's somewhat unflattering characterization of pulp writers and readers in Pulpwood Editor. Pratt defends the predictable nature of pulp stories and their lack of sophistication on the grounds that their writers are young and starting out. Further, he defends their readers as observant and intelligent.
Jones, Archer. "The Pulps--a Mirror to Yearning." North American Review 246.1 (1938): 35-47. Print.
In this overview of the pulp industry, Jones characterizes readers as young, male, working-class, and dissatisfied. He argues that the readers see themselves in the working-class heroes and that this provides them with a means to escape their otherwise dreary lives.
Uzzell, Thomas. "The Love Pulps." Schribner's Magazine 103 (1938): 36-41.
In this article Uzzell covers the love pulp industry in detail, with focus on female readers, writers, and editors.
Textual Criticism, Bibliographies, and Anthologies
The sources in this section consist of letters, annotated anthologies, and other sources relevant to understanding the production of source texts and their histories of production.
Bleiler, E.F. and Richard J. Bleiler. Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 1998. Print.
This important bibliographic source catalogs most of the stories printed in sf pulps between 1930 and 1936. Print.
DeForest, Tim. Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland, 2004. Print.
This book focuses on the evolution of genres from dime novels through radio. Though superficial in some ways, each chapter focuses on a different genre or publication and provides a general overview of publishers, producers, major authors and stories.
Howard, Robert E. The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard. Ed. Rob Roehm. 3 vols. Robert E. Howard Foundation P, 2008. Print.
Three volumes contain the collected correspondence of Robert E. Howard. Letters are annotated, but not as extensively as they should be. Some annotations lack appropriate documentation.
Howard, Robert E. The Conquering Sword of Conan. Ed. Rusty Burke. Vol. 2. 2 vols. New York: Ballantine, 2005. Print.
Includes careful notes on manuscript corrections. Includes textual notes, development drafts, synopses, Howard's map of the Hyborean world, and a critical essay.
Howard, Robert E. Grim Lands: The Best of Robert E. Howard. Ed. Rusty Burke. Vol. 2. New York: Ballantine, 2007. Print.
This volume collects more of the "best of" stories. Includes careful notes on manuscript corrections.
Howard, Robert E. Bran Mak Morn: The Last King. Ed. Rusty Burke. New York: Ballantine, 2005. Print.
Includes careful notes on manuscript corrections and extracts from Howard's letters outlining the evolution of his fictional Picts.
Howard, Robert E. El Borak and Other Desert Adventures. Ed. Rusty Burke. Vol. 2. 2 vols. New York: Ballantine, 2010. Print.
Includes careful notes on manuscript corrections, story fragments, introduction, and a critical essay.
Kaye, Marvin and John Gregory Betancourt, eds. The Best of Weird Tales: 1923. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Bleak House, 1997. Print.
This brief anthology does an excellent job of contextualizing some of the best stories of the first year of Weird Tales with an introduction and headnote discussing the quality and features of each issue. Some stories appear to have typographical errors.
Kaye, Marvin, ed. Weird Tales: The Magazine that Never Dies. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1988. Print.
An excellent and comprehensive anthology featuring some of the best stories from Weird Tales.
Perry, Eve. From Amazing Stories to Weird Tales: Covering Pulp Fiction. Hartford, CT: Lebon P, 2010. Print.
This full-color book, published to accompany an exhibition of pulp cover art at The William Benton Museum of Art, provides a nice overview of pulp artists along with examples of their work.
Robbins, Leonard A. The Pulp Magazine Index. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1989-1990. Print.
This source indexes stories by author, title, magazine, and issue.
Historical Criticism
These sources document the history of the pulps, including histories and memoirs.
Hersey, Harold Brainerd. Pulpwood Editor. New York: Frederick A. Stokes and Company, 1937. Print.
This contemporary memoir of the pulp industry covers readers, editors, writers, advertising, and genres. A valuable contemporary resource.
Leiber, Fritz. "Fafhrd and Me." The Second Book of Fritz Leiber. New York: Daw, 1975. 92-115. Print.
In this essay Leiber describes the evolution of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Includes much material about Leiber's work for the pulps, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s.
Mendlesohn, Farah and Edward James. A Short History of Fantasy. Rev. ed. Faringdon, UK: Libri Publishing, 2012. Print.
Though this excellent history of fantasy literature does not focus on the pulps, early chapters discuss the importance of pulps in the development of modern fantasy. Further, frequent references to the influence of the pulps on the development of fantasy in later chapters make this a valuable resource.
Weinberg, Robert. The Weird Tales Story. West Linn, OR: FAX Collector's Editions, 1977. Print.
This history of Weird Tales, though weakened by a lack of verifiable citations and rigorous scholarship, is valuable for the impressive amount of material collected. Includes material from E. Hoffman Price and (presumably) Otis Albert Kline.
Contextual Resources
These sources do not directly discuss the pulps per se, but provide valuable information regarding the cultural backgrounds against which the pulps were written.
Colavito, Jason, ed. "A Hideous Bit of Morbidity: An Anthology of Horror Criticism from the Enlightenment to World War I. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Print.
This volume consists mostly of brief excerpts from letters, reviews, and books, though it contains a few longer essays on the nature of horror. The sections on the Gothics and the Fin de Siecle are particularly relevant to the later pulp traditon.
Currell, Susan and Christina Cogdell, eds. Popular Eugenics: National Efficiency and American Mass Culture in the 1930s. Athens, OH: U of Ohio P, 2006. Print.
This comprehensive treatment of the expression of eugenics thought in American popular culture addresses education, sterilization programs, comics, public exhibits, film, and art. Though it does not address the pulps directly, it provides relevant background information.
Denning, Michael: Dime Novels and Working-Class Culture in America. Rev. ed. London & New York: Verso, 1998. Print.
While this outstanding study of 19th-century dime novels doesn't discuss the pulps (except with a few passing references) it provides excellent information on the broader cultural context that led to the rise of popular magazines and the pulps at the end of the nineteenth century. The chapter on working-class readers is especially worthwhile.
Gray, William S. and Ruth Munroe. The Reading Interests and Habits of Adults: A Preliminary Report. New York: Macmillan, 1929. Print.
Reports the results of several contemporary studies of the reading interests of adults in the 1920s. Of particular interest to pulp scholars is Chapter IV, "The Reading Interests of Special Groups of Young People and Adults," where tables can be found detailing the reading preferences of businessmen, college students, vocational students, and young workers. Though reports summarized here are culturally biased, information here provides good indicators of the popularity of pulps with working-class readers.
Holbrook, Stewart H, "What Loggers Read." The Bookman 65 (July 1927): 528-531.
The author, a former logger, argues that because of their isolation loggers read more than city-dwellers. He provides extensive examples of literary reading by loggers, but includes references to some popular magazine reading as well, listing Adventure as a favorite. Concludes by implying that loggers read more "highbrow" literature than their urban counterparts.
Rasche, William Frank. The Reading Interests of Young Workers. Chicago: U of Chicago Libraries, 1937.
This dissertation reports the reading interests of young workers enrolled at the Milwaukee Vocational School and contains information on reading interests including newspapers, books and magazines. The study includes comparative data on the reading interests of male and female students at the school, and categorizes them by age and grade completed. Also compares data collected in 1932 to an earlier 1924 study. The study reveals a growth in magazine reading interest among both young women and young men. Magazines are ranked by popularity, with pulp magazines dominating the men's list and having a strong presence in the women's list. The study concludes by saying that "The problem which requires attention is qualitative rather than quantitative" (77).
Ruddick, Nicholas. The Fire in the Stone: Prehistoric Fiction from Charles Darwin to Jean M. Auel. Middletown, CT: Wasleyan UP, 2009. Print.
An excellent history of the evolution of PF that unfortunately ignores the contributions of the pulp tradition.