The readers of Dime Detective

There has been some research conducted into the readership of the pulps, notably Erin A. Smith’s Hard-Boiled: Working-Class Readers and Pulp Magazines. In that spirit, with tongue firmly in cheek, I offer you this composite portrait of the readership of Dime Detective, based on the ads I saw in the magazine during my review of three issues from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

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Issue Review – Dime Detective Magazine, August, 1952

The is the last in the series of 3 reviews of Dime Detective from the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Dime Detective, along with the rest of the pulps, was struggling financially in the 50s. You can see this from the absence of big names from the issue and the inclusion of a reprint from 1941. There were 16 pages of ads (including the covers), so you were only getting 90 pages of new fiction for your quarter. Even accounting for the difference in paper sizes, you got more for your money from a contemporary paperback.

Having said that, it’s still a good issue. Interior illustrations are uncredited and unsigned, no idea who did them.

Dime Detective Magazine [v67 #3, August 1952] (Popular Publications, Inc., 25¢, pulp, cover by Norman Saunders)

Issue Review - Dime Detective Magazine, June 1943

This is the second in a series of three reviews of Dime Detective magazine issues from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Cover artist uncredited, cover is unsigned.

Issue Review – Dime Detective Magazine, Jan 15, 1935

This review of a detective pulp has been long pending. I wanted to review three issues of Dime Detective – one each from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s to give a representative look at this great magazine.  To kick things off, let’s look at the January 15, 1935 issue. Dime Detective commenced publication in November 1931, and for the first few years, it looks like a weird menace magazine from the covers.

This issue is from what many collectors consider the peak period for Dime Detective (roughly 1934 to 1943). It’s squarely in the middle of the period when they were putting out two issues a month. This issue has stories by Erle Stanley Gardner and Norbert Davis, and appearances by series characters from Donald Barr Chidsey and Frederick C. Davis.

Dime Detective Magazine, January 15, 1935 cover by Walter M. Baumhofer

Dime Detective Magazine [v16 #1, January 15, 1935] (Popular Publications, Inc., 10¢, 128pp+, pulp, cover by Walter M. Baumhofer)

Interior illustrations by John Fleming Gould.