Reading the Pulps

[Otto Harkaman]

After rereading Robert E. Howard's biography by Sprague de Camp I've gotten interested in the pulps again. Found an interesting book "Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers"



Also found a copy of the 1924 "The Thief of Bagdad" to download, the screen play was by Achmed Abdullah a pulp fiction writer.

[Otto Harkaman]

Wow I lucked out on this "Thief of Bagdad" download. Instead of just a video screen grab looks like they scanned from original film. Amazing the detail in the early films if recorded properly. I have only gotten a third of the way through, its over two hours long.

[Otto Harkaman]

This book looks interesting

The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror (Studies in Supernatural Literature) by Justin Everett and Jeffrey H. Shanks

When the pulp magazine Weird Tales appeared on newsstands in 1923, it proved to be a pivotal moment in the evolution of speculative fiction. Living up to its nickname, “The Unique Magazine,” Weird Tales provided the first real venue for authors writing in the nascent genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Weird fiction pioneers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Catherine L. Moore, and many others honed their craft in the pages of Weird Tales in the 1920s and 1930s, and their work had a tremendous influence on later generations of genre authors.

In The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror, Justin Everett and Jeffrey Shanks have assembled an impressive collection of essays that explore many of the themes critical to understanding the importance of the magazine. This multi-disciplinary collection from a wide array of scholars looks at how Weird Tales served as a locus of genre formation and literary discourse community. There are also chapters devoted to individual authors—including Lovecraft, Howard, and Bloch—and their particular contributions to the magazine.

As the literary world was undergoing a revolution and mass-produced media began to dwarf high-brow literature in social significance, Weird Tales managed to straddle both worlds. This collection of essays explores the important role the magazine played in expanding the literary landscape at a very particular time and place in American culture. The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales will appeal to scholars and aficionados of fantasy, horror, and weird fiction and those interested in the early roots of these popular genres.

[Otto Harkaman]

Another interesting book I found

This is the first of three volumes that chart the history of the science fiction magazine from the earliest days to the present. This first volume looks at the exuberant years of the pulp magazines. It traces the growth and development of the science fiction magazines from when Hugo Gernsback launched the very first, Amazing Stories, in 1926 through to the birth of the atomic age and the death of the pulps in the early 1950s. These were the days of the youth of science fiction, when it was brash, raw and exciting: the days of the first great space operas by Edward Elmer Smith and Edmond Hamilton, through the cosmic thought variants by Murray Leinster, Jack Williamson and others to the early 1940s when John W. Campbell at Astounding did his best to nurture the infant genre into adulthood. Under him such major names as Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt and Theodore Sturgeon emerged who, along with other such new talents as Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke, helped create modern science

[Malcadon]

May 19, 2016 11:29:57 GMT -6 Otto Harkaman said:

After rereading Robert E. Howard's biography by Sprague de Camp...

You (and anyone else reading this) should checkout One Who Walked Alone: Robert E. Howard, The Final Years, by Novalyne Price Ellis. She was a close, personal friend and protege of REH, who wrote her memoir on account of the questionable book, Dark Valley Destiny: the Life of Robert E. Howard, by Sprague de Camp. Her memoir was made into a movie called The Whole Wide Would, staring Vincent D'Onofrio and Renée Zellweger. d**n, that movie is awesome!

[Otto Harkaman]

May 21, 2016 21:17:10 GMT -6 Malcadon said:

May 19, 2016 11:29:57 GMT -6 Otto Harkaman said:

After rereading Robert E. Howard's biography by Sprague de Camp...

You (and anyone else reading this) should checkout One Who Walked Alone: Robert E. Howard, The Final Years, by Novalyne Price Ellis. She was a close, personal friend and protege of REH, who wrote her memoir on account of the questionable book, Dark Valley Destiny: the Life of Robert E. Howard, by Sprague de Camp. Her memoir was made into a movie called The Whole Wide Would, staring Vincent D'Onofrio and Renée Zellweger. d**n, that movie is awesome!

I have the movie but have only watched parts of it, I need to watch the whole thing. I would love to read Novalyne Price Ellis book but don't have a copy yet. I am always watching reruns of Criminal Intent with Vincent D'Onofrio so I know what an intense and hard working actor he is dealing with a character. I had a hard time when I first watched parts of the movie on his portrayal of REH. But knowing how much research D'Onofrio probably put into the character I had to conclude that he was portraying him as best as evidence allowed. It wasn't until I reread "Dark Valley Destiny" that noticed how much Sprague de Camp emphasized REH's anger that I had a better understanding of how D'Onofrio was portraying him. In the book it emphasizes REH's paranoia of enemies, the book sort of hand waves this off as delusional. I think he had been bullied sometime in his life and he never got over it. Plus there is a lot of gossip in a small town that might seem like nothing to an outsider but stings very deep if you are an insider.