Adventure, July 1952 - review

Review of one of the last issues of Adventure, this issue was quite undistinguished and I just happened to pick it because it was at the top of the pile. Ratings for each story at the end on a 5 point scale.

Adventure - July, 1952

Cover by Monroe Eisenberg, the cover has nothing to do with any story inside as far as I can make out.

Pulp Artist's site: Gloria Stoll Karn

She has done covers for Black Mask, Dime Mystery, Detective Tales, and New Detective. Also Rangeland Romances, All-Story Love, New Love, Love Book, Love Short Stories, Love Novels, Romance, and Thrilling Love magazines.

In addition, she did interior illustrations for Argosy magazine.

Her website at http://gloriastollkarn.com/ has some of her cover artwork and contact information.

Surely a worthy candidate for guest of honor at a pulp convention.

Stories from pulp authors at the Library of America

Raymond Chandler	I’ll be Waiting	Saturday Evening Post	October 14, 1939
Dashiell Hammett	Arson Plus	Black Mask	October 1, 1923
Dashiell Hammett	Crooked Souls	Black Mask	October 15, 1923
Dashiell Hammett	Slippery Fingers	Black Mask	October 15, 1923
David H. Keller	The Jelly-Fish	Weird Tales	January, 1929
H.P. Lovecraft	The Music of Erich Zann	National Amateur	March 1922
Seabury Quinn	The Curse of Everard Maundy	Weird Tales	July 1927
Francis Stevens	Unseen – Unfeared	People’s Popular Magazine	February 10, 1919

The collections these stories were reprinted in are available as well:

Adventure's failed experiment in 1927

Earlier on this blog, we've talked about the change in Adventure magazine that took place in 1927 when new owners took over the magazine - the magazine changed from this look:



to this:


The contents of the magazine also changed, a books column was added, there was discussion and reviews of the best outdoor equipment etc. The fiction was kept intact, though.

We've discussed earlier whether this was the cause for Arthur Hoffman's departure from the magazine. Walker Martin (see the comments in the link above) feels that Hoffman was supportive of the move, but left because it failed to improve the business. I felt the new ownership was taking it in a direction that Hoffman didn't want, and that was part of the reason that Hoffman left.

Here's something that I found recently that might help - correspondence between Joseph Cox, the editor who succeeded Hoffman and Horace Kephart, an outdoors expert. Cox wanted Kephart to become a part of the Ask Adventure group of experts who answered readers' queries.

While doing so, he mentions that the new ownership wanted to make Adventure into the "trade journal of all the outdoors". That would probably have meant less fiction and more non-fiction. That change in direction, combined with the drop in readership, was (in my opinion), the reason for Hoffman's departure.

As we know, the magazine's circulation didn't improve and Adventure was back in pulp format in 1927. Joseph Cox left as editor in 1928 and the magazine went downhill until Harold Bloomfield took over as editor in 1934.

Another pulp writer's website: Lulita Crawford Pritchett - writer for Ranch Romances magazine

A great website for the writer Lula Pritchett Crawford. It has a biography, photos and scans of her pulp stories (Scroll down to WESTERN ROMANCES).

Don't forget to sign the guest book.