I know what you’re saying. “A 1926 Adventure Pulp Fiction
Magazine? That Bell guy's sure got his finger on the pulse of today’s youth," and then rolling your eyes sarcastically. But, you need to remember adventure is
timeless, and Adventure Magazine was the "dean of the pulps" with the
best writers and experts in their field contributing. Adventure Magazine
realized adventure itself was fundamental to human nature, then told us
historically accurate stories that spanned human history. Every time you read
about a battle, with men, with the elements, with heavy armament or the tide of
history itself, you’re reading an Adventure. Even Indiana Jones could learn a
thing or two from these guys. Robert E. Howard of Conan fame did. So, did
Science Fiction Master Edmund Hamilton. Because they don’t write ‘em like this
anymore, these stories have become timeless. And, it’s free for Kindle here on the Pulp Archive—So, let’s go!
Unfortunately, there is no painted cover so we immediately lose five points. Bauhmhoffer, where art thou?
This issue opens with a W.C. Tuttle Hashknife Hartley
mystery, Two Fares East. If you’re
not familiar, Tuttle was not only the inventor of the Cattle Detective Mystery,
but everything he ever wrote dripped with the sort of sarcastic cowboy behavior
that makes me still seek his stories out. They remind me of stories my
grandfather used to tell, and they’re usually good mysteries. This one is no
exception. The first few chapters tell us the story of Joe Rich, a popular
sheriff who makes the mistake of getting drunk and missing his wedding. Now the
whole town’s mad at him. Embarassed, Joe decides to leave town. The bride’s
father dies in what looks like an accident, and five-thousand dollars is
stolen. Joe leaves town anyway. The law decides the accident was murder and
wants to talk to Joe. Then the train is held up, by a man wearing leather cuffs
that match Joe Rich’s. Hashknife and Sleepy just happen to be on the train, and
when the “cowpunchers of disaster” take chase, Hashknife and Sleepy are drawn
into a mystery that would give Agatha Christie a run for her money. Why these
stories haven’t been collected into a treasury yet is beyond me.
The Place of Birds by
Lewis J. Rendel is next. This is the worst story in the issue. While I can
forgive the racism of the time—something Adventure Magazine usually excelled at
avoiding—I can’t get past the stupid ending, and it’s based on a faulty
premise. Kind of like reading those old stories where a ventriloquist can
“throw” his voice, even though we know now that’s impossible.
Nassau Bound by
Helen Van Kolnitz Hyer is a short-short-sea-story that accomplishes the same
chuckle Rendel’s Place of Birds went
for in half the space with twice the historical accuracy.
Sea Cure is a wonderful short-story of the sea by John Webb, in which a hillbilly who became a sailor to avoid the family feud finds out his new deckhand has trailed him here from the hill country and thinks he has a score to settle.
The Fighting Years
by Hugh Pendexter is a serial, the bane of pulp collectors. I rarely read or
review serials unless I’ve got the whole thing piled in front of me, but I will
tell you Pendexter was a renowned researcher, and if you’re interested in any
part of history he’s not a bad guy to look up.
Sydney Herschel Small’s Temple
of the Snake is the all-out action winner in this issue. An American
exporter in Japan stops to rest at a temple when he’s attacked by a mad cleric.
Why, and how he’ll survive are the big questions here, and the hero will have
to find the answer while he’s fighting for his life. Small knew Japan well
enough to explain it from an American perspective, and that gives this story
just enough color around the edges to avoid becoming the stereotypical action
story of its time where “we” were civilized, but “they” were savage.
Riley Grannan’s Last Adventure
by Sam C. Dunham is the real-life funeral eulogy of a gambler that could smile
through both his wins and some pretty major losses. The article was reprinted
at the request of Adventure’s readers who could no longer find copies of the
original Adventure article.
Treasure by one of
Adventure’s best, Gordon Young, is the end of a serial. Send me the first four
parts, and I’ll be glad to review it.
Explorers of Nowhere
is more a pastiche than a story and deals with author, William Ashley
Anderson’s reminiscence of a WTF-moment while travelling to the Orient. That
moment when you see what the locals are doing but have no idea why.
J.D. Newsome turns in a military WWI short with The Unconquerable Jennings. This
tongue-in-cheek adventure involves an ambulance driver who wants to see the
Western Front. He just can’t understand why the French Foreign Legion’s troops
would hold that against him. Newsome remains one of my favorite Foreign Legion
story writers. Check out “Wiped Out,” a collection of his other works in this vein.
In The Last Legion,
by Arthur D. Howden Smith, we get a final novelette meant to be part of a
larger work. Smith’s idea was to tell the story of an ancient sword, The Gray Maiden, as it travels from
owner to owner, and battle to battle. But, unlike your usual serial, every
story stands on its own. The Last Legion
might be a little too detail heavy for a few, but it’s a great concept, and in
this one we meet a Roman Centurion recently returned to Rome to beg for
reinforcements, only to find the Roman Empire has fallen. So, this is an
account of how Rome lost to the Angles, Saxons, Goths, and even a Frank or two,
and the role played by The Gray Maiden.
Nice bit of reading there. Overall, I give this issue an A-.
Of course, I’m a huge W.C. Tuttle fan, and that’s what kept it from being a B.
If you’re short on time, Two Fares East,
Sea Cure, and The Temple of Snakes
are the best. I was kind of fascinated by The
Last Legion, too, but I’m intrigued as much by real-life barbarians as I am
the sword and sorcery types.
Buy books,
B.C.
