Photos of Walt Coburn's house in Tucson, Arizona

Walt Coburn was a famous western author in the pulps. He started his career as a writer when his lifetime goal of being a cowboy was ended after an accident. With a little encouragement from author Robert J. Horton, who had heard Coburn's stories earlier and realized his talent for storytelling, Coburn parlayed his start with a vignette in the July 8, 1922 issue of Argosy into  a thirty year, multi-million word career in the pulps.

Author Walt Coburn riding a horse near his house in Tucson, Arizona

Issue Review - Western Story Annual, 1948

[It's taken only 70 years to get this issue reviewed. Gives me hope that I'll catch up on my reading someday, and be able to positively answer that question that all of us book and magazine readers and collectors have to endure, namely "Have you read all those books?"]

Western Story Annual [1948] (Street & Smith Publications, Inc., 25¢, 228pp, large pulp)

Western Story Annual 1948, a Street and Smith annual compilation

Not even a single story from 1948 or 1947 is included in this issue, a little misleading considering the title. It’s still a good selection of stories from Western Story and one story from Western Adventures. The highlights are the stories from Eli Colter, Bennett Foster, L.L. Foreman and Frank Richardson Pierce. There are six issues known of this magazine, and maybe more exist.

Robert J. Horton - Western Author, Journalist

Another prolific author from Western Story, and the mentor of Walt Coburn. This is the first detailed biography of him online.

Author Robert J. Horton c. 1924