Pages

Saturday 23 February 2019

Richard Dermody - Author, Journalist


Author Richard Dermody (1904-1952)
Richard Dermody had, according to the FictionMags Index, almost forty stories published in the pulps from 1942 to 1949. While he wasn’t prolific, he was popular, and had a series of stories about Doc Pierce, a peripatetic conman. The series started in 1942 in Dime Detective, and from then till 1948 he had at least 3 stories every year in that series. Apart from this, he published 17 stories in other magazines, mostly detective stories. Other than that, his only story in Blue Book was accompanied by a biographical article that is the source of most of my information.

Saturday 16 February 2019

Northwest adventure blog - story reviews, author surveys

Just discovered this new blog (started January 2019, I'm guessing maybe a New Year's resolution :-) on Northwestern stories by G.W. Thomas, the author. Go there and leave a comment saying hello. (clicking on the images will take you to the blog posts). 

Some highlights so far:

Tom O’Neill is a writer we know almost nothing about outside of his publications. He wrote mostly sports, boxing, air and the occasional Western story. He also wrote eight Northerns for North-West Romances. The third of these was “Mountie on the Prod” (North-West Romances, Fall 1946).



Harold De Polo (1885-1958) was a prolific magazine writer (once claimed he wrote several thousand stories) , and perhaps most famous for being a buddy of Eugene O’Neill, the playwright….wrote true Northerns such as “The Better Man” originally in Argosy All-Story, January 15, 1927 and reprinted in Thrilling Adventures, July 1932.



Hugh Pendexter is remembered largely as a writer of historicals and Westerns. But he did write about the North as well.



Thomas P. Kelley Jr. (1905-1982) called himself “king of the Canadian pulp writers” and he may have been right.

Saturday 9 February 2019

It’s Great to Be Back - new Robert A. Heinlein book to be published this year



Phoenix Pick recently announced that, working with the Heinlein Prize Trust, they have been able to reconstruct the complete text of an unpublished novel written by Robert A. Heinlein. 

Heinlein wrote this as an alternate text for THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. This text of approximately 185,000 words largely mirrors the first third of the published text, but then deviates completely with an entirely different story-line and ending.

This newly reconstructed text also pays extensive homage to two authors Heinlein himself admired: Edgar Rice Burroughs and E. E. “Doc” Smith, who became a good friend. Heinlein dedicated his book METHUSELAH’S CHILDREN to Smith, and partially dedicated FRIDAY to Smith’s daughter, Verna.

The alternate text, especially the ending, is much more in line with traditional Heinlein books, and moves away from many of the controversial aspects of the published THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST.
More here: https://www.arcmanormagazines.com/six-six-six

Did you notice what's special about the title of this post?

Saturday 2 February 2019

Index to the Weird Tales Collector fanzine

Stealing this description from the excellent Tellers of Weird Tales blog:

As a writer, editor, publisher, fan, and collector, Mr. Weinberg did more than anyone, I think, to carry Weird Tales from the defunct era of the pulps into the 1970s and beyond. He acquired the Weird Tales property from Leo Margulies in the mid 1970s and immediately set about reviving the title and the franchise with WT 50: A Tribute to Weird Tales (1974), a self-published paperback that included material both old and new. Mr. Weinberg followed up that effort with the hardbound volume The Weird Tales Story in 1977 and a six-part serial, The Weird Tales Collector, published from 1977 to 1980. More here: https://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2016/10/robert-weinberg-1946-2016.html

Just completed my set, and saw that it wasn't indexed on the FictionMags Index. Here you go:

The Weird Tales Collector [#1, 1977] (Robert Weinberg, $2, 32pp+)
2 · Editorial · Robert Weinberg · ed
4 · A Memoir (Edmond Hamilton) · E. Hoffman Price · bi
7 · Edmond Hamilton · Robert Weinberg · ar
9 · Edmond Hamilton in Weird Tales · ix
13 · Everil Worrell · Jeanne Eileen Murphy · bi
16 · The Index (Index to Weird Tales 1923-1927) · Robert Weinberg · ix

The Weird Tales Collector [#2, 1977] (Robert Weinberg, 32pp+)
[interior artwork] · Robert Kellough · il
2 · Editorial · Robert Weinberg · ed
3 · Memories of Margaret Brundage · Robert Weinberg· bi
6 · Self portrait · Farnsworth Wright · pm (reprinted from Fantasy Magazine, April 1935)
7 · Amelia Reynolds Long · Chet Williamson · bi
10 · Edmond Hamilton · Edmond Hamilton · bi  (reprinted from Fantasy Magazine, January 1934)
12 · August Derleth · Raymond Palmer · bi  (reprinted from Fantasy Magazine, March 1936)
14 · The Weird Tales Gallery · pi
17 · The Index (Index to Weird Tales 1928-1932) · Robert Weinberg · ix
14 · WT Market · ??

The Weird Tales Collector [#3, 1978] (Robert Weinberg, $2, 32pp+)
[interior artwork] · Robert Kellough & Dave Gallon · il
2 · Editorial · Robert Weinberg · ed
4 · Literature with a capital Hell · Malcolm M. Ferguson · ar
8 · Unlocking the night · Mike Ashley · ar
15 · The Weird Tales Gallery · pi
17 · A visit with Margaret Brundage · Forrest J. Ackerman · bi  (reprinted from The Alchemist, February 1941)
18 · The Index (Index to Weird Tales 1933-Sep 1938) · Robert Weinberg · ix

The Weird Tales Collector [#4, 1978] (Robert Weinberg, $2, 32pp+)
[interior artwork] · Robert Kellough & Dave Gallon · il
2 · Editorial · Robert Weinberg · ed
4 · Self-portrait · Henry S. Whitehead · bi
7 · H.S.W. Chibbett · Mike Ashley · ob
8 · Weird Whisperings · Robert Weinberg · cl
12 · Letters · [The Readers] · lc
12 · [letter] · Richard Minter · lt
12 · [letter] · Robert Bloch · lt
12 · [letter] · E. Hoffman Price · lt
13 · The Weird Tales Gallery · pi
18 · The Index (Index to Weird Tales Oct 1938-Jul 1950) · Robert Weinberg · ix
Back Cover · Frank Hamilton · bc

The Weird Tales Collector [#5, 1979] (Robert Weinberg, $2, 32pp+)
[interior artwork] · Robert Kellough, Dave Gallon, Steve Fabian · il
2 · Editorial · Robert Weinberg · ed
4 · The very much so clever fellow · Bob Sampson · ar (Jules de Grandin)
19 · Photos: Seabury Quinn and son, Mary Elizabeth Counselman · pt
20 · Readers Choice · Robert A.W. Lowndes · cl
18 · The Index (Index to Weird Tales Sep 1950-Sep 1954, 1973-1974) · Robert Weinberg · ix
31 · Letters · [The Readers] · lc
31 · [letter] · Jack Williamson · lt
31 · [letter] · Robert A.W. Lowndes · cl
31 · [letter] · Mike Ashley · lt
32 · Weird Tales · Walter Shedlofsky · pm
Back Cover · Robert Kellough · bc

The Weird Tales Collector [#6, 1980] (Robert Weinberg, 32pp+)
[interior artwork] · John Mayer, Robert Kellough, Dave Gallon · il
2 · Editorial · Robert Weinberg · ed
3 · The raconteur of Emerald Lake · Thomas Kent Miller & Gary von Tersch · bi (E. Hoffman Price)
11 · An interview with Mary Elizabeth Counselman · Stephen Gresham · iv
14 · The case of the moonlighting physicians · Chet Williamson · ar
16 · Readers Choice · Robert A.W. Lowndes · cl
22 · Anagallery · Walter Shedlofsky · pm
23 · Strange Stories: Issue index · ix
26 · Strange Stories: Author index · ix
31 · Letters · [The Readers] · lc
31 · [letter] · E. Hoffman Price · lt
31 · [letter] · Mike Ashley · lt
32 · [letter] · Robert A.W. Lowndes · lt
32 · [letter] · Lila Thomson · lt