A very good overall history of the pulps is Ron Goulart‘s Cheap Thrills: The Amazing! Thrilling! Astonishing! History of Pulp Fiction. Originally published in 1972 in hardback by Arlington House, and reprinted in 1973 by Ace in paperback as An Informal History of the Pulp Magazine, it was reprinted by Hermes Press in 2007.
The latest edition has been redesigned, with lots of color artwork of pulp covers, an introduction that points out several corrections, and an added chapter that reprints many of the letters Ron received from writers, artists, and editors while working on the original, including Walter Gibson, Norman Daniels, Paul Orban, and Daisy Bacon.
Its 13 chapters pretty well cover the pulp field, though slanted a bit toward the pulp hero. The first chapter gives us the beginning of the pulps with Frank Munsey, followed by the publishers that came later such as Street & Smith, Doubleday, Clayton, Dell, Fawcett, Popular, and others. The next chapter then skips back to look at the dime novel predecessors of the pulps, especially Nick Carter. The third chapter looks at the adventure pulps.
The next four chapters focuses on pulp heroes. First up is The Shadow, with some mention of other S&S characters such as Nick Carter and The Avenger. Next is The Spider and other heroes such as The Phantom Detective, The Black Bat, The Green Lama, and other Popular characters such as Captain Satan and Captain Zero. We then look at Doc Savage. The next chapter is on the various secret agent characters such as Operator #5 and Secret Agent X, along with G-8, Dusty Ayres, and the characters from Wu Fang and Dr. Yen Sing. And, yes, I left out a few characters who are mentioned.
Pulp detectives are the focus next, as we look at Black Mask and Dime Detective, but the only detective character really talked about here is Dan Fowler. Then we look at the various western pulps. Tarzan and the barbarians are next, as we look at Tarzan and his imitators, as well as Robert E. Howard and Conan. Science fiction is next.
A chapter on odds and ends rounds things out, looking at everything else, such as Weird Tales, as well as the weird menace pulps and other odd balls.
As noted, the final chapter spends about 50 pages reproducing several letters, and we get an index.
It’s a very nice work. As it’s an overview, most chapters can, and are, covered in complete books of their own. But for a good overview, this one is very nice, especially with all the color covers reproduced. If you don’t have this in your library, I recommend getting a copy. Only the more recent Blood ‘n’ Thunder book is more in depth.
