tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37670867643825931682024-03-15T21:11:54.115-04:00PulpRackDedicated to the popular fiction of the 20th Century and its influence on popular media and culture in the 20th Century and beyond.Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-31040432281150907802023-07-18T11:26:00.002-04:002023-07-18T11:26:40.112-04:00SPACE DETECTIVE: A novel excerpt<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLux6rDCrCeF6eaoXvYhDbfB81eQ6E-R9UEr0AA8sd3YJSsKfCNKU4CFhmRd2OyYZnZ4IVHE3EVSRFrk_lwmpfqpRx2duc5Qx3I46omlvVcH54eD9xRYgHI9ozrHIy_qDb4R7KSZ2ngKvy2RUiW7Ik_91yhTFiT67oHlt-KsLlzfPyDLHxJz-4fk-3bYw/s2560/SD%20eBook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLux6rDCrCeF6eaoXvYhDbfB81eQ6E-R9UEr0AA8sd3YJSsKfCNKU4CFhmRd2OyYZnZ4IVHE3EVSRFrk_lwmpfqpRx2duc5Qx3I46omlvVcH54eD9xRYgHI9ozrHIy_qDb4R7KSZ2ngKvy2RUiW7Ik_91yhTFiT67oHlt-KsLlzfPyDLHxJz-4fk-3bYw/s320/SD%20eBook.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /> <span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I set up the distribution for</span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="https://books2read.com/u/mezvWz" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; word-break: break-word;">Space Detective</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">to avoid limiting access to just Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble, so readers could procure it from their preferred online dealer, whether for a paperback or an ebook edition. Even libraries and retail brick-and-mortar stores can order and put this book on their shelves.</span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">However, the teaser preview that online retailers provide differs according to the site you visit. Amazon appears to offer the longest preview. Other retailers, none at all.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">So I’m posting an extended excerpt so everyone can have a look, no matter where you choose to shop.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">You'll find it at my writer's site by clicking <a href="https://duanespurlock.com/space-detective-a-novel-excerpt/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-44500065328132866792019-12-31T01:09:00.000-05:002020-01-12T23:05:20.831-05:00“The Bishop of Somaliland” by H. Bedford-Jones<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SUsHvbTigE0/XgrjpAhEVRI/AAAAAAAAA0w/yRkK2q1DZjsFIIwq0TainLQh_0OQ6x2LACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Blue%2BBook%2BMarch%2B1936%2Bcvr.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="582" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SUsHvbTigE0/XgrjpAhEVRI/AAAAAAAAA0w/yRkK2q1DZjsFIIwq0TainLQh_0OQ6x2LACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Blue%2BBook%2BMarch%2B1936%2Bcvr.JPG" width="218" /></a></div>
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<b>Someone named Henry James O’Brien Bedford-Jones</b> surely has a
title, but it’s not one you’ll find in Burke’s Peerage (no matter how deeply
Philip Jose Farmer may scrutinize its pages). Indeed, Peter Ruber named H. Bedford-Jones
the <a href="https://adventurehouse.com/shop/product/king-of-the-pulps-the-life-and-writings-of-h-bedford-jones/" target="_blank">King of the Pulps</a>. That’s a title disputed by some pulp fans, who point to
the popularity of author Edgar Rice Burroughs and the prodigious output by Max
Brand (and a raft of other pseudonyms for Frederick Faust). Perhaps Faust and
Bedford-Jones are the two main contenders based on wordage sold.<o:p></o:p></div>
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All three writers worked in multiple genres. Based on
marketing savvy, Burroughs might be the clear winner, with movies, comic books,
radio shows, comic strips, television shows, and a boatload of licensing for
foodstuffs and clothing and toys and you-name-it associated with his characters
and settings. Perhaps just the number of knock-offs from Tarzan and the number
of planetary romance characters and settings his works influenced would put the
final stamp on ERB capturing the title of King.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Faust also made the jump to other media with his characters,
and three movies based (loosely) on just one novel, <i>Destry Rides Again</i>.
Dr. Kildare appeared in movies and television (and, if I’m recalling correctly,
as a radio show as well) plus comic strips and comic books. I haven’t counted,
but a gut feeling tells me more movies have been based on Faust’s novels and
stories than on those by Zane Grey. Burroughs’ influence on writers who
followed him was immense, but if we use continuing popularity or sales of written
works as our measuring stick, Faust claims the kingdom: Max Brand books
continue to be released in one format or another every year, many of them in large
print editions intended for library collections.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bedford-Jones, however, seems known today only by readers
and collectors of pulp magazines. Altus Press/Steeger Books’ campaign to publish
the bulk of his work in its H. Bedford-Jones Library may change this situation slightly,
but from my perspective, it appears the publisher’s marketing efforts are
focused on the population of already-knowledgeable pulp fans, not on expanding awareness
of HBJ’s oeuvre to uninitiated readers outside the pulp community. Like
Burroughs and Faust, HBJ toiled in a variety of genres: mystery, western, spy, contemporary
thriller, historical adventure, swashbucklers, naval action . . . gosh, you name
it, you can find at least one example with Bedford-Jones’ name (or pseudonym)
on it. He wrote stand-alone stories as well as series characters. Surprisingly,
such a prolific storyteller didn’t make the leap to movies or television. A quick
check of IMDB shows only two entries for HBJ. This writer has hogsheads’ worth
of tales suitable for adapting to film and TV—in a world hungry for streaming
content, HBJ’s library is a treasure chest waiting to be discovered.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fbTsaFRYLCM/XgrkWgDWIhI/AAAAAAAAA04/PJqJwzHivXsmeksR0ZKLhoajNfggH_LcACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/LR%2BGustavson.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="686" data-original-width="420" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fbTsaFRYLCM/XgrkWgDWIhI/AAAAAAAAA04/PJqJwzHivXsmeksR0ZKLhoajNfggH_LcACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/LR%2BGustavson.JPG" width="195" /></a></div>
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<b>Today we’re taking a look at “The Bishop of Somaliland,” </b>a
stand-alone adventure tale (“A Stirring Novelette”) published in the March 1936
issue of <i>Blue Book</i> (vol. 62 no. 5). (HBJ has a second story in this
issue, an entry in his Arms and Men series: “XIV—The Sword of Michelangelo.”)<o:p></o:p></div>
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A contemporary story rather than one of HBJ’s narratives located
in the Wild West or a distant historical era, this is an entertaining tale that
includes some humor and some drama against a quasi-wartime setting: remember, it’s
1936 (probably 1935 at the time it was written), and the German invasion of
Poland, which triggered Britain and France’s declarations of war, didn’t occur
until 1939. Here’s the state of that part of the world (in as simplistic a list
as you’ll probably ever see):<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>The territory:</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<ul>
<li>After the Suez Canal opened in 1869, the Port of Aden became
one of the busiest ports in the world. </li>
<li>Aden is a British Protectorate that lay along the northern
coast of the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea. Aden
Command was a Royal Air Force command formed in 1928 to control all British
Armed Forces in the Protectorate.</li>
<li>North of the Aden Protectorate lay Yemen, which extended
from the Bab el-Mandab Strait northward about one-quarter of the length of the
Red Sea’s eastern coast. Yemen and the British signed the Treaty of Sanaa in
1934 to confirm the border between Yemen and the Protectorate and for Britain
to guarantee Yemen’s independence for forty years.</li>
<li>Mocha (Al-Makha) is a Yemen port on the Red Sea just north
of the strait connecting the sea to the Gulf of Aden.</li>
<li>British Somaliland lay along the southern coast of the Gulf
of Aden. British Somaliland was bordered on the northwest by a smaller
territory, French Somaliland, at the narrowing of the Gulf of Aden known as Bab
el-Mandab—the Gate of Tears—the strait connecting the Gulf to the Red Sea.</li>
<li>Flanking the French and British Somalilands were Italian
territories. Extending northwest of French Somaliland from the Bab el-Mandab
Strait to a third of the length of the Red Sea’s western coast lay Eritrea, an
Italian colony. East of British Somaliland from the Horn of Africa and extending
southwest along the coast of the Indian Ocean lay Italian Somalia.</li>
<li>From Eritrea’s northern point to the Horn of Africa and on
to the southernmost point of Italian Somalia, the coastal colonies of Italia,
France and Britain make Ethiopia (also known as Abyssinia) a land-locked state.</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>1935:</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<ul>
<li>January—Italy united Eritrea and Italian Somalia to form
Italian East Africa, whose capital was located in Mogadishu. The northern
section (Eritrea) and southern section (Italian Somalia) remained separated by
French Somaliland and British Somaliland.</li>
<li>August—The United States passed the Neutrality Act of 1935,
initiating a prohibition on trading in arms and war materials with any parties engaged
in a war. The Government of India Act separated Burma and Aden from British
India. (</li>
<li>September—The Reichstag passed the Nuremberg Laws, legalizing
the persecution of Jews.</li>
<li>October—The second Italo-Abyssinian War began when Italy
invaded Ethiopia. Launched from Italian East Africa, the Italian armies bore
toward the Abyssinian interior in a pincer campaign from the north (Eritrea)
and simultaneously from the south (Italian Somalia).</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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This map may help clarify some of the geography:</div>
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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ethiopia_War_Map_(1935-feb_1936)_it.svg<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ethiopia_War_Map_(1935-feb_1936)_it.svg" target="_blank">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ethiopia_War_Map_(1935-feb_1936)_it.svg</a></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OUfXsOcurd8/XgrklJiWYnI/AAAAAAAAA08/GW_0XyANRfYQYyeSMLTzRESjsJkbWLIIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Aden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="1200" height="254" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OUfXsOcurd8/XgrklJiWYnI/AAAAAAAAA08/GW_0XyANRfYQYyeSMLTzRESjsJkbWLIIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Aden.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aden, 1935.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>That’s the background for Bedford-Jones’ story, </b>which takes
place on only a small chunk of a territorial map that had been highly volatile
since the end of World War I. And maybe that’s too much historical detail to
provide for a story that fills only 21 pages of a pulp magazine, but that’s the
sort of information that globally savvy readers of the time would have had at
least a general awareness of while reading “The Bishop of Somaliland.” And if
they hadn’t been reading the papers and listening to the radio news, HBJ’s tale
still would have entertained them. These political and geographic details lend
verisimilitude to Bedford-Jones’ story, which is quite what any professional
writer would desire.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The story—which, by the way, is prefaced with an editorial
blurb that reveals part of the plot, <i>“Guns for Abyssinia”</i>—opens with two men at the rail of a French coastal
mail ship putting in at Mocha after sailing north from Aden. One is an
American, Breen, who’d been first officer on a ship until he’d gotten ill and been
left at Aden. The other is George Augustus Kenworthy Braggton-Hurts, a spare,
rough-hewn Briton in black clerical garb who introduces himself as the Bishop
of Somaliland. The latter explains to Breen he’s heading to a mission in
British Somaliland near Djibouti (in French Somaliland) because the curate there
had left his post and left behind “all the sacred vessels, which are of much
value, and also the books and reports and records of the diocese—and he died of
malaria at the Djibouti hospital last week.” The Bishop’s on his way to
retrieve the diocesan property, because it’s been left near the area of the
Italian-Ethiopian conflict.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Bishop intends to board an Arab steamer, the <i>Nurredin</i>,
to travel to French Somaliland. However, the <i>Nurredin</i> needs a captain; having
learned that Breen is a master of steam, the Bishop beseeches the American to
take the ship’s open post so he can leave straightaway to fulfill his duties at
the mission.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Breen balks at the request. There are Italian destroyers
patrolling the waters “with savage intent to stop all running of guns across to
Ethiopia and parts adjacent.” He raises objections: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Look here, Bishop,” he said
curtly. “That Red Sea yonder is fuller of warships than of Egyptians right now.
The Italians have twice tried to land troops right here in Yemen, and the
British chased ‘em off. They want to stop gun-runners. So do the French and
British. I’d gamble any money that these ships anchored here are loaded with
munitions for Ethiopia. I bet these boys have made use of you.”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The Bishop waves aside Breen’s points, saying that any gun-running
the Nurredin may be engaged in is “aside from the question of my duty.” He
declares the steamer sails under the British flag, which should protect Breen,
the Bishop, and the crew from assault by any foreign power.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Once ashore, the Bishop introduces Breen to the ship’s
owner, Yusuf the Damascene. At the American’s questioning, Yusuf claims the
steamer’s cargo is condensed milk intended for the French troops at Djibouti. Breen
agrees to consider the position, but leaves to wander the town while the Bishop
negotiates with Yusuf for a larger fee on behalf of Breen to finally entice him
aboard. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In a typical pulp-magazine coincidence, Breen encounters the
<i>Nurredin</i>’s first mate, Gaffney, who tells him the steamer’s British crew
is hiding below decks and only its Arab stokers are moving about in sight to
keep curious eyes from becoming more curious. When Gaffney lets slip that the
captain the <i>Nurredin</i> is awaiting is a man named Stafford, Breen is
shocked. The public opinion of Stafford is that the man is a murderer and a
pirate. Gaffney assures Breen that the stories the American has heard are
overblown and don’t include the facts; that Stafford’s crew is loyal to the man
as he only deserves. For that reason, Gaffney won’t tell Breen what <i>Nurredin</i>’s
cargo is—not unless he signs on as the steamer’s master.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0tHZx1mLATs/Xgrk3tx4mXI/AAAAAAAAA1I/z2gSO9km0rEVt9rmycFw2PJYGG0z_HrMgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Headline%2BEthiopia.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="217" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0tHZx1mLATs/Xgrk3tx4mXI/AAAAAAAAA1I/z2gSO9km0rEVt9rmycFw2PJYGG0z_HrMgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Headline%2BEthiopia.JPG" /></a></div>
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On his way back to Yusuf’s, Breen encounters the Bishop
belaying three attackers with knives; the Bishop uses his fists in a very
unclerical manner, and quickly puts down the three men. The Bishop then spots
Breen, tells him he’s convinced Yusuf to guarantee Breen a larger fee, and the
two men set off for the <i>Nurredin</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At this point, the reader is 110 percent sure that the
Bishop and Captain Stafford are one and the same and the <i>Nurredin</i>’s hold
is stacked with boxes filled with guns. While the American has no illusions
about his cargo, Bedford-Jones doesn’t let on just how much Breen is sure about
Stafford or whether he only still suspects. It hardly matters, because HBJ has
fun showing us crewmembers trying to keep Stafford’s secret in front of Breen.
It’s perfect fodder for strong character actors of the period in a Hollywood
adventure tale: as humorous scenes lighten the drama, so the dramatic scenes are
intensified as the likeable secondary characters we’ve warmed up to are
threatened.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The <i>Nurredin</i>, like every other boat afloat that
night, makes its way without lights. There are a few near-crashes with other
craft, but all goes well as Breen relies on his charts and his memory of the
local waters. All goes well, that is, until the steamer strikes something in
the dark: it turns out to be an Italian submarine, and its officer and his men
quickly board Breen’s ship.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One thing astonished him—the acrid
hostility between his men and the Italian seamen. True, relations between the
two countries were badly strained, with warlike moves in the air, with the
destiny of Europe trembling in the balance against that of Ethiopia; yet the
swift reflection of this racial trouble surprised Breen, who was not accustomed
to the sharp emergence of nationalism. His men were quite helpless, it is true;
but they could snarl, and snarl they did.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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This is writing with a sure hand based on good knowledge of
the military and political maneuvering in the region. Maybe that’s just the
perception from eighty years away, but Bedford-Jones handles the contemporary
tensions from a far corner of the world in a solid manner for the readers of a
popular mass market periodical.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Breen is further confused and infuriated when the Italian lieutenant
says, “I don’t mind telling you that we had advance information that this ship
was loaded with contraband.” Breen recalls a “scrap of talk from Gaffney. The
men had their orders; it didn’t matter if an Italian ship overhauled them. Why?”
In this way, Bedford-Jones lays aside the faux puzzle of Stafford’s disguise as
the Bishop and gets to the crux of his plot: what’s really going on here?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The lieutenant locks Breen in his cabin. The cook brings him
food and tries to pass a message to Breen—something’s up, but he can’t fathom just
what it may be. The American is further confused by the sounds he hears and the
Nurredin’s sudden movement in the water.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A wild tumult of voices—and then a
sudden lifting shock that stopped Breen’s heart for an instant. He had felt
that lift before now, when keel surged on coral; but it was no coral. He was
flung off his feet, hurled headlong into a corner of the cabin. The bows of the
ship lifted and settled again, with a frightful crunching crash.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then shots burst forth from the
bridgedeck.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The Bishop and one of his men had broken loose and rammed
the submarine. I won’t spoil all the details, but Breen learns the truth behind
the stories about murderous Stafford, and that’s just what we expected, right?
The entire plot set up not just to run guns to Ethiopia for money, but also to
sink an Italian submarine. Stafford’s story is a tale of revenge, and turns to a
darker note than its opening and middle scenes suggested may be coming.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Still, Bedford-Jones handles the adventure, the humor, and
the pathos in a fine manner. A career writer didn’t sell so much as he did if
he didn’t have a storyteller’s true hand as a narrator. Not all his work is
consistent—writing so much so quickly for so many markets will make any writer
falter from time to time. But this tale, “The Bishop of Somaliland,” is a fine
piece that, while perhaps not in the highest echelon of <i>Blue Book</i>’s
fiction, is certainly entertaining, diverting, and engaging. That’s just what a
reader expects for 15 cents in 1936. It's what Alistair MacLean and Jack Higgins would be doing in print many years later with great success. Again, I can see in my mind’s eye a black-and-white
motion picture with a dramatic score and a dandy script based on this story. It
would have been just the thing Hollywood would have produced to wind up the
American viewers in the years leading to the war.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
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My brief research doesn't show that Steeger Books has reprinted this particular story. But this publisher has released a number of books containing much of the best of HBJ's <i>Blue Book</i> work. Check the links below to view some of the volumes in the H. Bedford-Jones Library. I've also included a link to a contemporary adventure tale, if something like "The Bishop of Somaliland" whets your appetite: check out Black Dog Books' <i>The Master of the Dragons</i>. There's a lot of good reading to be found within those covers.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1618273620/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thepulprack-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1618273620&linkId=a2c93c53c0e13ec362d047c24d9b1365" target="_blank">The Gate of Farwell: The John Solomon Stories Volume 1</a></div>
<div>
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<div>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1618273434/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thepulprack-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1618273434&linkId=e7561cd8331121c45668e2fff9672539" target="_blank">Warriors in Exile</a></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1618273981/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thepulprack-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1618273981&linkId=cd6854c3f0fa55fa20f840728fb2cebd" target="_blank">The World Was Their Stage</a></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1928619614/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thepulprack-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1928619614&linkId=c9ea494264765c37485c1b03aaf470fe" target="_blank">The Master of Dragons</a></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1618274015/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thepulprack-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1618274015&linkId=3bc0deb6f1d24b325cab042a6aaced03" target="_blank">Ships and Men</a></div>
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Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-34960275566699377482015-05-14T11:11:00.000-04:002015-05-14T11:11:06.973-04:00Now available: FIGHTING ALASKA, the ebook version<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_afLBSPYW1U/VVS6vURmz1I/AAAAAAAAAlA/nVfyhJvjpuk/s1600/hard-times_charles-bronson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_afLBSPYW1U/VVS6vURmz1I/AAAAAAAAAlA/nVfyhJvjpuk/s320/hard-times_charles-bronson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Pulp fans may be interested in my new tale, <em>Fighting Alaska</em>, an entry in the Fight Card series. Although it focuses on a NorthWestern setting, its action begins in the Texas Panhandle. <br />
<br />
Set in 1900, <em>Fighting Alaska </em>tells the tale of a reluctant fighter's trip to the Alaskan gold rush. On the way, he encounters a fictional hero who may be recognized by fans of TV westerns from the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well as historical folks like Wyatt Earp, Rex Beach, and Tex Rickard. <br />
<br />
You can find the ebook version now at Amazon. You can reach it by clicking <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Alaska-Fight-Card-Tunney-ebook/dp/B00XLKIC1A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431614765&sr=8-1&keywords=duane+spurlock/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">here</a>. (For those who prefer paper and ink over Kindle pages, the print version should be available soon.)<br />
<br />
You can also find my article on writing <em>Fighting Alaska</em>, "A Fighter's Trail to the Alaskan Gold Rush," at the Fight Card site. Read the article to find out why Charles Bronson's photo is included with this post. Click <a href="http://fightcardbooks.com/a-fighters-trail-to-the-alaskan-gold-rush" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">here</span></a> to visit the site and see the article.Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-23134592052154155182015-05-09T10:30:00.000-04:002015-05-09T10:30:02.729-04:00The vigor of pulp prose: Alistair MacLean's WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ByqfY4s4Ifs/VU4YqjYVAcI/AAAAAAAAAjM/yma7b_N4Pg4/s1600/when%2Beight%2Bbells%2Btoll%2BDoubleday.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ByqfY4s4Ifs/VU4YqjYVAcI/AAAAAAAAAjM/yma7b_N4Pg4/s320/when%2Beight%2Bbells%2Btoll%2BDoubleday.png" width="256" /></a></div>
I remember the first novel by Alistair MacLean I read: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Puppet-Chain-Alistair-MacLean/dp/0006157513/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1431179555&sr=1-1&keywords=puppet+on+a+chain/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Puppet on a Chain</a>. I'd seen the TV commercials for the film version and was intrigued. However, I knew I'd likely not get to see it--I lived in a small town with one walk-in theatre and a drive-in, and in 1971 I could count on one hand the number of movies I'd been to see over the past ten years. If I saw a movie, I watched it on television. Those were the days before cable, and Hollywood films eventually were broadcast on prime-time networks, so I wasn't totally deprived of cinematic spectacle.<br />
<br />
Reading <em>Puppet on a Chain</em>--the local library had a copy, and its shelves were well-stocked with the works of many crime and thriller writers--led me to other MacLean novels. (My interest was encouraged by the very dramatic cover paintings and consistent typographic treatments on the Fawcett paperback editions being published at the time. That red bulls-eye dot over the <em>I</em> in <em>Alistair</em> was just the perfect touch.) But most of my interest in MacLean ended by the time I left junior high school.<br />
<br />
Seeing some new editions of MacLean on the bookstore shelves in recent years, I picked up <a href="http://www.amazon.com/When-Eight-Bells-Alistair-MacLean/dp/1402790422/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1431179997&sr=1-1&keywords=When+Eight+Bells+Toll/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">When Eight Bells Toll</a>. (It's nice to see some appropriately dramatic cover treatments on these new editions published by Sterling. They don't recall the style used by publishers in the 1960s and '70s for MacLean's books, but they appropriately communicate the dramatic vigor of his storytelling.) I'd not read this one before, and I wondered whether if my memories of MacLean would hold up after all these years. I remembered reading about five years ago an Agatha Christie novel--again, I went through a Christie phase of reading during junior high. I was remarkably bored. It's easy to see why her books receive so many film and TV treatments--activity, dialog, activity. Little to make the characters really interesting other than their tics and mannerisms and the murders happening around them. <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FiPd4suLzOc/VU4YyNskzGI/AAAAAAAAAjU/aCTgaXDur94/s1600/when%2Beight%2Bbells%2Btoll%2BFawcett.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FiPd4suLzOc/VU4YyNskzGI/AAAAAAAAAjU/aCTgaXDur94/s320/when%2Beight%2Bbells%2Btoll%2BFawcett.png" width="188" /></a></div>
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Fortunately for me, this particular MacLean novel appeared (1966) during his glory days as a thriller writer. Some of his later works just didn't carry my interest, even when I was reading them as they were published. The first-person narrator is a man of action, and his cynical outlook combines with his sense of duty and his remarkable facility to survive to fashion an interesting character. He's a creature of his times--the 1966s were the days of James Bond's rising popularity, the aging of Cold War/Fear of the Bomb angst, and the growth of cultural unrest.<br />
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The following passage from late in the book--pages 186 and 187 in the 1966 Doubleday hardcover--give a sense of the vigor and action in MacLean's prose as his protagonist, Philip Calvert, describes an ally (Hutchinson) he's just recruited. It's the sort of writing one might have seen in the best <em>Adventure</em> or <em>Blue Book</em> writers (although one might argue they would have communicated the same in a shorter passage):<br />
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<<<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xn_m1h5k_sA/VU4Y6Jqd0zI/AAAAAAAAAjc/_ECIv0fJ17I/s1600/when%2Beight%2Bbells%2Btoll%2Bpb.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xn_m1h5k_sA/VU4Y6Jqd0zI/AAAAAAAAAjc/_ECIv0fJ17I/s320/when%2Beight%2Bbells%2Btoll%2Bpb.png" width="213" /></a>Those huge hands on the throttle and wheel had the delicacy of a moth. He had the night-sight of a barn owl and an ear which could infallibly distinguish between waves breaking in the open sea, on reefs or on shores: he could invariably tell the size and direction of seas coming at him out of the darkness and mist and touch wheel to throttle as need be: he had an inbuilt computer which provided instant correlation of wind, tide, current and our own speed and always let him know exactly where he was. And I'll swear he could smell land, even on a lee shore and with the rest of us suffering olfactory paralysis from the fumes of the big black cigars which seemed to be an inseparable part of the man. It required only ten minutes beside him to realize that one's ignorance of the sea and ships was almost total. A chastening discovery.<br />
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He took the <em>Charmaine</em> out through the Scylla and Charybdis of that evil alleged harbor entrance under full throttle. Foaming white-fanged reefs reached out at us, bare feet away, on either side. He didn't seem to notice them. He certainly didn't look at them. The two "boys" he'd brought with him, a couple of stunted lads of about six foot two or thereabouts, yawned prodigiously. Hutchinson located the <em>Firecrest</em> a hundred yards before I could even begin to imagine I could see any shape at all and brought the <em>Charmaine</em> alongside as neatly as I could park my car by the kerb in broad daylight--on one of my better days, that was. <br />
>>Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-52528260942826476892015-04-16T09:17:00.003-04:002015-04-16T09:17:22.599-04:00The vigor of pulp prose<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m7tkiJ7JuHI/VS-2Pm2yGpI/AAAAAAAAAic/IjCuX0zxATE/s1600/sonny%2Bliston.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m7tkiJ7JuHI/VS-2Pm2yGpI/AAAAAAAAAic/IjCuX0zxATE/s1600/sonny%2Bliston.png" height="320" width="208" /></a></div>
While rereading Nick Tosches' remarkable biography The Devil and Sonny Liston, I stop and marvel at some of his passages. This isn't pulp writing in its purple form we readers of outlandish fringe fiction are accustomed to. This is the fierce poteen of nonfiction prose distilled from documented facts, historical hindsight and interviews that percolates in the boiling stewpot of writer Tosches' skull. This is the kind of writing that brings a smile to an appreciative reader's face. (Or at least to his mental mouth--if you can have a mind's eye, can't you have a mind's lips?)<br />
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<<<br />
Liston's rise through the amateur ranks had been so fast and so fulminous--such a sudden, attention-commanding burst of neon lightning and Shango thunder--that the price negotiated for his professional debut was two hundred dollars, about four times the going rate for a preliminary novice.<br />
>><br />
<br />
<em>Fulminous</em>: a word you don't see very often unless you're a chemical engineer in a niche career or a backyard pyrotechnist, ala George Plimpton. Or, perhaps, a meteorologist. But it's a word I like, perhaps all the more so because of its rarity. Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-11578505953946554162013-11-23T22:54:00.000-05:002013-11-23T22:54:21.430-05:00If the Pulps StiII Thrived: Charles McCarry as a contemporary Blue Book writer<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PpVHF9Ocn9E/UpF4Bo8hx7I/AAAAAAAAAeo/V3rNZm57Zuo/s1600/oldboys.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PpVHF9Ocn9E/UpF4Bo8hx7I/AAAAAAAAAeo/V3rNZm57Zuo/s1600/oldboys.gif" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 105%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><strong>Imagine,
if you will, </strong></span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">that
two venerable pulp magazines focus</span><span style="color: #4f2538; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ng on adventure fict</span><span style="color: #29275d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">on
-- one aptly named </span><i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Adventure,
</span></i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the
other </span><i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Blue
Book </span></i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">--
</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">stil</span><span style="color: #4f2538; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">l </span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ca</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n </span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">be
found on magaz</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ne </span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">r</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">acks
in convenience stores and chain bookshops. That </span><i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Adventure
</span></i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">did
not reach the end of its day as a men's sweat mag </span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n
1971, as depic</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">t</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ed </span><span style="color: #1d3831; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Its-Mans-World-Adventure-Magazines/dp/0922915814/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385263547&sr=8-1&keywords=It%27s+A+Man%27s+World%3A+Men%27s+Adventure+Magazines/thepulprack-20" target="_blank"> </a></span><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Its-Mans-World-Adventure-Magazines/dp/0922915814/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385263547&sr=8-1&keywords=It%27s+A+Man%27s+World%3A+Men%27s+Adventure+Magazines/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">It'sA Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines</a><span style="color: #9c9b9e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><span style="color: #6c6c72; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Postwar Pulps</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span></i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">bu</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">t </span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">recreated </span><span style="color: #1d3831; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">tsel</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">f </span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">in its own earlier image as a fict</span><span style="color: #29275d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">on
magazine f</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">lled
with adventure stories wr</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">tten
by the finest members of Fawcett/Gold Medal's stable of </span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PBO <span style="mso-font-width: 107%;">authors of cr</span></span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">me fiction and westerns</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. T</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">hat
</span><i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Blue
Book </span></i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">d</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">d
not d</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">e </span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n
1956</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">to
be resur</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">r</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ected
also as a men's sweat mag titled </span><i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Bluebook for Men</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span></i><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">but continued to provide an outlet for st</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">rr</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ng
stories by John D</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.
</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">MacDonald,
Frank Robinson, R</span><span style="color: #38343e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">chard
</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Wormser,
and Frank O'Rourke, plus writers new </span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">t</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">o its pages, such as Ed McBain (whose stories
did appear in Argosy in the 1960s), Ha</span><span style="color: #2d2e58; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">r</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ry Whittington, Richard Wheeler, Mar</span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">o
Puzo, and others.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So,
happily in our fantasy, you are able to go to a store and purchase the latest issue
of </span><i><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Blue Book, </span></i><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">which
includes stories of adventure by folks writ</span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ng in the tradition of the </span><i><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Blue Book </span></i><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">of
yore -</span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">- </span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">literate
tales of adventure, of striv</span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ng, of fighting and violence, of treasure and
romance -- written in a readable, not-too-purple prose whose style emphasizes
story</span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">t</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">elling
and entertainment, not shock and sensation.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One
of those writers m</span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ght
</span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">b</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">e <b>Charles
McCarry.</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><strong></strong></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I</span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">'</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ve
been aware of McCarry only a short while</span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">but each </span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">r</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">eference to him I've seen descr</span><span style="color: #441d21; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">bes
him as a "great but unknown" writer or, as in a Metroactive.com </span><span style="color: #616268; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.14.97/cover/lit5-9733.html" target="_blank">article</a>
</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">by
Morton Marcus, "the undiscovered master of the spy novel."</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I
first heard of McCa</span><span style="color: #3e3b42; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">r</span><span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ry
through </span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">separate mentions on two
email discussion lists</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. </span><span style="color: #4f4f55; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">F</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">rst on Rara-Avis, a gro</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">u</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">p dedicated to discussion
of hard-boiled fiction (and named in honor of Caspar Gutman's nick</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ame, <i><span style="mso-font-width: 106%;">rare bird, </span></i>fo</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">r </span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the Mal</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">t</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ese Falcon), when someone
pointed to McCa</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">r</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ry in a cyber</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">- </span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">conversat</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">on about wr</span><span style="color: #4f4f55; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">te</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">r</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">s who were former CIA
agents. The poster included this URL for an <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/570mubbw.asp" target="_blank">article</a> by P.J</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. O</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">'</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Rourke from the September
13, 2004 issue of <i>The <span style="mso-font-width: 106%;">Weekly Standard, </span></i>"No
Country for Old Men</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">: </span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Charles McCarry's
Gray-haired Spies Take a Curta</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n Call."</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ostensibly a review
of McCa</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">rr</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">y's </span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">l</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">atest novel</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><i><span style="color: #4f4f55; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Old-Boys-Paul-Christopher-ebook/dp/B0088DBKVO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385263840&sr=8-1&keywords=Old+Boys/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">OldBoys</a></span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span></i><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the essay prov</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">des an overview of
McCarry's literary career</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and is a good introd</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">u</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ction to his work.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The next mention of
McCarry on an email list prov</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ded another URL, this one
to an <a href="http://www.themorningnews.org/article/birnbaum-v.-charles-mccarry" target="_blank">interview</a> with the author at an online maga</span><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">zi</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ne, <i>The <span style="mso-font-width: 106%;">Morn</span></i></span><i><span style="color: #3b3840; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ng News.</span></i><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
this, McCarry provides an interesting inside look at the CIA during his days as
a Cold Warrior and at his cover as a writer while he was a spy.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Intrigued
by these bits of info, I found a copy of <i>Old Boys. </i>I recommend it
whole-heartedly to those readers looking for new writers who carry that torch
of entertainment that lit the delights we find in old pulp magazines.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">While
read</span><span style="color: #494c4e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ng
this story, I could imagine it serialized </span><span style="color: #494c4e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n a contemporary version of <i>Adventure </i>or <i>Blue
Book </i>-- covert meetings, encounters with mysterious and dangerous people in
exot</span><span style="color: #494c4e; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">c
locales (Paris, Moscow, Xinjiang, Brazil, Rome, Tel Aviv, Budapest, Kyrgyz, and
more) international threats, personal danger, old Nazis, treasures to locate (a
2000-year-old Roman scroll originally unearthed by the Nazis, 12 nuclear bombs
smuggled from a Soviet arsenal), betrayals, gunfights, hand-to-hand battles,
spies and counterspies. In short, more than enough i</span><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ngredients
for a great adventure novel.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">McCarry's
writing style fol</span><span style="color: #2b2952; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">l</span><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ows
the pu</span><span style="color: #322418; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">l</span><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">p-style
tradition, the non-flo</span><span style="color: #2b2952; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">r</span><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">id
(but not so spare as to be gaunt) but clean and smooth style of writers like
Dashiell Hammett, George F. Worts (I'm thinking of the Peter the Brazen stories
in <i>Argosy), </i>Theodore Roscoe, Talbot Mundy, Georges Su</span><span style="color: #2b2952; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">r</span><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">dez,
and innumerable PBO (paperback original) authors for Gold Medal and other publishers
(such as John D. MacDonald, Charles Williams, Dan Marlowe, Edward S. Aarons,
Donald Hamilton and others). If you like the cool but elegant prose of spy story writer Alan Furst, you'll have an idea about the prose McCarry creates.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And
McCarry gets kudos even from someone like Eric Ambler, no slouch in the
thriller department.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><em>Old
Boys </em></span><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is not
the latest book from McCarry, but it seems to wrap up a loose series of books about
spy Paul Christopher and his nephew, spy Horace Hubbard. (The first of these
books, </span><i><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Miernik-Dossier-Charles-McCarry/dp/1585677361/ref=la_B000AQ3KME_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385264493&sr=1-8/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The
</a></span><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Miernik-Dossier-Charles-McCarry/dp/1585677361/ref=la_B000AQ3KME_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385264493&sr=1-8/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">MiernikDossier</a>, </span></i><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">was
</span><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">also
McCarry's first novel</span><span style="color: #404049; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.</span><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">)
However, one doesn't have to read the entire series and know all the backstory
to read and enjoy </span><i><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Old <span style="mso-font-width: 106%;">Boys. </span></span></i><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As noted, it was the f</span><span style="color: #404049; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">rst
McCarry book I read, and I picked up all t</span><span style="color: #404049; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">h</span><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">e character h</span><span style="color: #404049; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">story I needed dur</span><span style="color: #404049; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ng the course of the narrat</span><span style="color: #532c3c; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ve
to rave about it here</span><span style="color: #404049; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.
</span><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I'll
be go</span><span style="color: #312b68; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ng
on the hunt for McCarry</span><span style="color: #404049; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">'</span><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">s
other novels now.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><strong>LINKS</strong></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We live in a fortunate time, now that all McCarry's books are back in print, primarily thanks to Overlook Press. You'll find Amazon's Charles McCarry page <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Charles-McCarry/e/B000AQ3KME/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As a former spook, it's appropriate for McCarry to have written a novel about the JFK assassination (a timely reference, since this month marks the 50th year from that murder): <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tears-Autumn-Christopher-Novel-Novels-ebook/dp/B0088DBO1K/ref=la_B000AQ3KME_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385264601&sr=1-2/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Tears of Autumn</a>. An article by Mark Judge about the novel and its implications, "<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">Charles McCarry’s unbearable masterpiece,</span>" can be found <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/08/charles-mccarrys-unbearable-masterpiece/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1e202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 106%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1f202a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 107%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d222a; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-width: 108%; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1c2029; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span><br />Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-60842966516566075642013-07-31T22:53:00.001-04:002013-07-31T22:53:28.052-04:00Latest contribution to Amazing Stories Magazine: The Hero Pulp Explosion!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gy3Wg5a2PGk/UfnNgARn6HI/AAAAAAAAAbw/NOLBYBY4CI0/s1600/Doc-Savage-Spook-Legion-204x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gy3Wg5a2PGk/UfnNgARn6HI/AAAAAAAAAbw/NOLBYBY4CI0/s1600/Doc-Savage-Spook-Legion-204x300.jpg" /></a></div>
<span class="userContent">My latest contribution to <em>Amazing Stories Magazine</em>, "1933" is now available online for your perusal. Learn all about the Hero Pulp Explosion! You'll find it <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/07/1933/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">here</span></a>, at the <em>Amazing Stories Magazine</em> site:</span><br /><span class="userContent"></span><br /><span class="userContent"><<</span><br /><span class="userContent">P.J. Farmer, Grand Master Award winner in 2000, launched a popular string of novels and essays postulating that a meteorite that landed in Wold Newton, England, in 1795 radiated a band of nearby travelers, whose mutated genes formed the basis for the birth of all the heroes and villains who populated the pages, film, and radio waves of during the 19th and 20th centuries.</span><br /><span class="userContent"> </span><br />Whether you are a <a href="http://pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp.htm" title="Wold Newton"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Wold Newton</span></a> follower little matters. It is a matter of documented fact that during the year 1933, publishers detonated a population bomb that eventually lit the fuse that exploded the Wold Newton notion in Farmer’s imagination.<br /><br />In 1933, Street & Smith published the first issue of <em>Doc Savage Magazine</em>, cover dated for March. Following Doc’s appearance on the newsstands, pulp magazines featuring <em>The Phantom Detective</em>, <em>The Spider</em>, <em>The Avenger</em>, Thunder Jim Wade, Jim Anthony, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Whisperer-Double-Novel-Pulp-Reprints-Racketeers/dp/1608770435/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374892015&sr=1-4&keywords=the+whisperer+goodrich/thepulprack-20" target="_blank" title="The Whisperer"><span style="color: #2288bb;">The Whisperer</span></a>, and a host of others began to swarm the racks that once had been dominated by general fiction publications like <em>Argosy</em>, <em>Adventure</em>, <em>Blue Book</em>, and a few others<br /><span class="userContent">>></span><br /><span class="userContent"></span><br /><span class="userContent">Read more at the Magazine . . .</span>Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-11568766256287245312013-07-06T14:27:00.001-04:002013-07-06T14:27:57.321-04:00Hades & Hocus Pocus by Lester Dent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lOFyrLwr6-M/UdhhkfyNLPI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/aRAsxgaIf5Y/s1600/hocus+pocus0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lOFyrLwr6-M/UdhhkfyNLPI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/aRAsxgaIf5Y/s320/hocus+pocus0001.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
Lester Dent made a quick splash in the pulp magazine market with his action-packed stories featuring fast pacing (rapid-fire pacing isn't an exaggeration for some of Dent's stories, and it wouldn't have been a cliche at the time he was producing these tales).<br />
<br />
His prose whipped along, carrying only the essential details. One could easily argue that Elmore Leonard might have picked up a few lessons from reading Dent's pulp stories.<br />
<br />
Perhaps that pared-down, zooming prose was influenced by Dent's pre-pulp career as a telegrapher. Or maybe Dent was just a Zoomer at heart, and telegraphy suited his natural traits.<br />
<br />
The fast-and-furious qualities of Dent's stories published by Dell magazines got him noticed. Eventually he was tagged by Street & Smith to bring Doc Savage to the newsstands under the house name Kenneth Robeson.<br />
<br />
While the bulk of Dent's published work was for that magazine, he wrote plenty under his own name. Two examples were these serialized stories from Argosy: Hades and Hocus Pocus.<br />
<br />
Both feature Dent's trademark telegraphic prose, he fondness for gadget-loving heroes with an trait for spontaneous ingenuity, and lots of action.Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-30983358525185330352013-07-04T19:53:00.003-04:002013-07-04T19:53:48.427-04:00Lady in Peril by Lester Dent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NrytAo2-Gf0/UdYKsZcy8iI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/i0bt4SiSLa0/s1275/Lady+in+Peril0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NrytAo2-Gf0/UdYKsZcy8iI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/i0bt4SiSLa0/s320/Lady+in+Peril0001.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
Lester Dent is known best today as the primary author for the Doc Savage series of pulp magazine novels -- which, by the way, celebrate this year the 80th anniversary of the publication of the first, <a href="http://www.pulpfest.com/" target="_blank">The Man of Bronze</a>.<br />
<br />
Dent had some minor success with hard-boiled short stories in Black Mask magazine. He dabbled in novels, as well. This one is a nice place to dip your toes into Dent's post-pulp work. It was one-half of an Ace flip book, so it was still short and fast-paced, a typical Dent storytelling trait.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ks70-vXEPX8/UdYK-zY7wcI/AAAAAAAAAaA/43SwS4rvpC4/s1290/Lady+in+Peril0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ks70-vXEPX8/UdYK-zY7wcI/AAAAAAAAAaA/43SwS4rvpC4/s320/Lady+in+Peril0002.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-34297110971666531972013-03-16T01:00:00.000-04:002013-03-16T01:00:24.417-04:00Budapest Then and Then: Jules Verne and Robert B. Parker
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em>Passport to Peril<o:p></o:p></em></strong></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hard Case Crime; New York (Dorchester Publishing Co.: 2009),
originally published 1951.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em>The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz<o:p></o:p></em></strong></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bison Frontiers of the Imagination; Lincoln, Nebraska (Bison
Books: 2011), translated and edited by Peter Shulman.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Two authors, quite unalike. Two time periods, very different</strong>.
Two portraits of Budapest written 50 years apart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jules Verne is probably familiar to you. If not, gargling
the Internet will result in virtual reams of information.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s begin with the more recent author, Robert B. Parker.
This isn’t Robert Brown Parker, who wrote a series of private eye novels about
a character named Spenser and a few westerns, one of which -- Appaloosa -- was
the basis of a 2008 motion picture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">No, I’m talking about Robert Bogardus Parker, a World War
2-era newspaper correspondent and undercover OSS operative. He is the author of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Peril-Crime-Market-Paperback/dp/0857683519/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363409271&sr=1-1&keywords=passport+to+peril/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Passport to Peril</a>, a post-war thriller republished in 2009 by Hard Case Crime.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tx_tI6hEA6k/UUP7lyc80DI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/zaiE8Of6Xzo/s1600/passportPeril.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tx_tI6hEA6k/UUP7lyc80DI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/zaiE8Of6Xzo/s320/passportPeril.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My favorite Hard Case Crime publications are its “rediscovered
pulp classics.” There is a vigor in the prose of these novels that makes them
fresh and entertaining. Although their settings are 50 or 60 yeas past, they
don’t feel dated, but as though they were only recently minted. Another of
these HCC discoveries I rank highly is David Dodge’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Plunder-Hard-Crime-Market-Paperback/dp/0857683217/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363409532&sr=1-1&keywords=Plunder+of+the+Sun/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Plunder of the Sun</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The hero of <em>Passport to Peril</em> is John Stodder, an American
traveling to Hungary. Like many of the heroes in Hitchcock films, Stodder is an
innocent caught up in evil events by seeming coincidence.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But Stodder isn’t quite so innocent. We learn at the end of
Chapter One that he is traveling under a fake name, using a Swiss passport made
out to Marcel Blaye. In that same chapter, we learn that Blaye is a real
person, and he has been murdered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Parker tilts the reader’s expectations right off the bat, by
introducing doubt about the novel’s narrator, Stodder. Did <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he</i> kill Blaye? Why is he traveling under a dead man’s passport? And
why is Stodder suddenly so desperate to escape the men stalking the woman with
whom he is sharing a train compartment?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">These elements tip the narrative off the platform of the
train car and get the plot rolling. And it rolls fast. The pacing whips along, with
Parker introducing a variety of colorful and deadly characters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Spies, doublecrosses, underground Nazis, and devilish Soviet
agents and Mata Haris.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Parker does a great job rollicking his characters along in
post-war, Soviet-occupied Budapest, which might be said to act as a character
itself, much in the way the city of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels is more
than just a setting for the action. Stodder frequently compares the dreary,
blasted Budapest to the city and its sights he knew before the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hkTyQXgONxk/UUP7xzRsjTI/AAAAAAAAAYY/acCW2qzGSJ8/s1600/storitz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hkTyQXgONxk/UUP7xzRsjTI/AAAAAAAAAYY/acCW2qzGSJ8/s1600/storitz.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another view of Budapest appears in Jules Verne’s<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Wilhelm-Storitz-Translation-Imagination/dp/0803234848/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363409071&sr=1-1&keywords=wilhelm+storitz/thepulprack-20" target="_blank"> Secret ofWilhelm Storitz</a>. This novel was apparently the last the author finished before
his death in 1905; it was remarkably altered by his son, Michel, before it was
published in 1910:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>First, he changed the era in which the story takes place from
the late nineteenth century to the eighteenth. . . Michel had to comb through
the manuscript and replace nineteenth-century references and words and make
them all eighteenth-century ones. Finally, and more substantially, he changed
Verne’s poignant and highly original ending to a completely conventional “happy
ending.”</em> (xiii)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the 1980s, Verne’s original manuscripts were made public,
and the extent of Michel’s fiddling in the posthumously published books was
made very apparent. The 2011 Bison Books edition is the first authentic English
translation that has been made available.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Henry Vidal, the narrator of <em>Storitz</em>, travels to Ragz, a fictional
Hungarian town, to visit his brother and attend his wedding. So, like Parker’s
Stodder, Vidal is a traveler. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">He leaves Paris by train to Vienna, where he boards a
steamship to travel the Danube all the way to Ragz.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Verne offers “a leisurely, descriptive ‘travelogue’ of Henry’s
trip down the Danube. Such travelogues are inserted into many of his books,
even though they might not have anything to do with the actual plot or
narratives. According to Verne scholar Terry Harpold, they are like musical
interludes in a Bollywood film.” (203) This interlude is particularly valuable
to readers who want a good picture of the place at <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>period -- a description that might only be
surpassed if the reader were to get his hands on a contemporary edition of a
Baedeker for the region.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Verne’s Vidal describes his arrival at Budapest:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>A magnificent suspended bridge crosses the Danube from Buda
to Pest. It’s the hyphen between the Turkish city and the Magyar one -- Buda
then Pest. Fleets of different crafts pass beneath its arches. The water
transport consists of covered canal barges, each topped by a jackstaff and
equipped with a large rudder with a bar stretching all the way over the cuddy.
Both banks are transformed into wharfs bordered by architecturally interesting
homes with towering spires and bells above them. </em>(18)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Vidal devotes several passages to his explorations of
Budapest. This is a colorful, vivacious city that demonstrates a dynamic and
vigorous culture. This portrait is far different from the picture drawn by
Parker’s narrator, Stodder.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As Stodder’s adventures are made more dangerous by covert
Nazis and Soviet agents, Vidal’s voyage is haunted by a rude, ominous German.
In time, Vidal learns this stranger is the Wilhelm Storitz of the work’s title
-- a mysterious, brooding and dangerous man whose romantic advances toward
Vidal’s future sister-in-law were rejected. Storitz had afterward voiced
serious threats against the engaged bride and groom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After Vidal’s arrival in Ragz, a number of inexplicable
events beset the wedding couple and their families. For example, an engagement
party in the bride’s home is invaded and ruined by an apparent ghost.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Eventually Storitz is revealed to be at the center of these
attacks. He remains at large and a threat to the community’s happiness, for
like H.G. Wells’ Griffin, Storitz has obtained a concoction that renders him
invisible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The psychological terror Storitz renders the wedding couple
is in many ways greater than the physical damage he threatens. In both Parker’s
novel and Verne’s, evil is introduced by the presence of unwelcome foreigners:
Germans and Russians for Stodder; the German Storitz for Vidal.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ragz, though an artificial creation by Verne, is presented
as a cheery, energetic community, similar to the Budapest visited by Vidal. But
the entrance of Storitz’s threats and terrors causes an atmosphere of dread to
settle over Ragz -- not so different from the scenes in Budapest described in
<em>Passport to Peril</em> by Parker.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-84774546563278355252013-03-05T13:37:00.000-05:002013-03-05T13:37:10.748-05:00"Ghost Lanterns" by Alan B. LeMayOriginally appeared in <em>Adenture</em> magazine December 20, 1922. Available for free download from <a href="http://pulpgen.com/pulp/downloads/index.html" target="_blank">PulpGen</a>.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A_byQab_OfA/UTY7IdWInZI/AAAAAAAAAX8/FfHPtw7RPmc/s1600/searchers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A_byQab_OfA/UTY7IdWInZI/AAAAAAAAAX8/FfHPtw7RPmc/s320/searchers.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
Alan LeMay is probably best known these days as the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Searchers-Alan-Le-May/dp/0786031425/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Searchers</a>, basis for the remarkable John Ford <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Searchers-Blu-ray-John-Wayne/dp/B000JLSM00/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">film</a> starring John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter. Another fine <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unforgiven-Burt-Lancaster/dp/B00008PX7J/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1362506533&sr=1-3&keywords=the+unforgiven/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">film</a> was based on the novel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unforgiven-Alan-May/dp/0425076806/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362506626&sr=1-1&keywords=the+unforgiven+alan+lemay/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Unforgiven</a>, directed by John Huston and starring Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn. LeMay's work also showed up as the basis for a number of TV series <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0494435/" target="_blank">episodes</a> over the years.<br />
<br />
LeMay's strong association with the western genre makes it surprising that he wrote outside the western field. An interesting example is "Ghost Lanterns," which appeared in <em>Adventure</em> magazine in 1922.<br />
<br />
This is a nautical tale. Not surprisingly, it's climax turns on a twist ending in the O. Henry mode. The story focuses on the seven men on a schooner becalmed for three days off the coast of Brazil, out of sight of land. Men from the crew start disappearing at night. There is no sign of what happens to them, and no one is awakened by any sounds of struggle -- the men are just discovered as gone the next morning.<br />
<br />
There is some nice build-up of tension in the course of this short story to reinforce the strangeness of the disappearances. Overall, though, the tale isn't particularly memorable, but it is well-written.<br />
<br />
Of interest, however, are the glimpses of LeMay's eventual mastery of storytelling. He is particularly adept at describing his characters. For example . . .<br />
<br />
<<<br />
Of the seven of us Cap Dorkin was the hardest boiled. He was a short, square-built man of indeterminate age, with the fishy kind of eyes that show the whites below the irises.<br />
>><br />
<br />
This is a brief tale that's diverting and provides some entertainment, and it offers a nice flavor of the mid-range type of tale that would fill in an issue of <em>Adventure</em> between the top-rank serials and longer stories by the high-profile authors, such as Talbot Mundy, Harold Lamb, and similar folk. <br />
<br />
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Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-47884612886368544022013-02-17T22:23:00.001-05:002013-02-17T22:23:21.194-05:00Kim Newman's The Bloody Red Baron, 1995<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PAjuRV8Ex7k/USGeAba1IgI/AAAAAAAAAXU/yWgYFK_zer4/s1600/AnnoDracBloodyCv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PAjuRV8Ex7k/USGeAba1IgI/AAAAAAAAAXU/yWgYFK_zer4/s320/AnnoDracBloodyCv.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>I wasn’t much interested in alternative history as a genre
(subgenre?) until I read Kim Newman’s An<em>no Dracula</em> a few years ago.</strong> The mixing of
historical personages with an array of fictional characters from the vast
stretches of vampire literature, including those from Bram Stoker’s influential
and most famous novel -- was clever, the plotting deft, the writing and
characterizations, the mix of personalities were all spot on.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There might be something to this alternative history thing,
I thought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I still haven’t read widely or deeply in this particular
subgenre, but it seems to have caught my attention recently.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve been entertained by two alternative versions of The
Great War simultaneously: I’ve been reading Newman’s follow up to <em>Anno Dracula</em>,
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Anno-Dracula-Bloody-Red-Baron/dp/0857680846/ref=la_B000AQ73MM_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1361156212&sr=1-4/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Bloody Red Baron</a>, while listening in my car to the audiobook version of
Scott Westerfeld’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Scott-Westerfeld/dp/1416971742/ref=la_B001H6ENE0_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1361156622&sr=1-5/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Leviathan</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Behemoth-Leviathan-Scott-Westerfeld/dp/1416971769/ref=la_B001H6ENE0_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1361156622&sr=1-7/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Behemoth</a>. The latter two novels -- parts one
and two of a proposed trilogy -- are essentially entries in the steampunk arena,
in which I’ve read and enjoyed stories by James Blaylock, Kage Baker, and
others. Westerfeld’s tales about a lost heir to the Prussian Empire are
entertaining and interesting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But I’m here to examine Newman’s novel. I don’t typically
stray into the horror field in this venue, but there is plenty in this book to
entertain pulp fans.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">First off, the setting is World War I, the global conflict
against which innumerable air war magazines and characters based their
pulp-paper existences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Second, alongside the literary vampires -- <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Ruthven-Vampire-Frank-Morlock/dp/1932983104/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361156721&sr=1-2&keywords=Lord+Ruthven/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Lord Ruthven</a>,
Count Dracula -- and the historical folks -- Churchill, Edgar Allan Poe (who
happens to play a particularly interesting role in the narrative), the
eponymous Manfred von Richthofen, British ace Albert Ball, German novelist H.H.
Ewers -- are plenty of recognizable pulp magazine characters, and characters of
interest to pulp fans, such as Conan Doyle’s Mycroft Holmes, Jules Verne’s
Robur, and H.G. Wells’ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Island-Moreau-Signet-Classics/dp/0451529898/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1361156830&sr=1-1/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Dr. Moreau</a>. In Chapter One, we’re introduced to a number
of fliers tied to Allied Intelligence, among them Kent Allard (who, after the
war, would be better known to pulp fans as The Shadow), Bigglesworth, and Jim “Red”
Albright (better known to OTR and comic book fans as Captain Midnight,
traditionally associated with WW2).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Comic book readers get their share of nods, too.
Shape-shifting researcher Langstrom (Man-Bat from Batman comics), Hans von
Hammer (the “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Showcase-Presents-Enemy-Ace-Vol/dp/1401217214/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361156940&sr=1-1&keywords=enemy+ace/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Enemy Ace</a>” from DC’s line of war comics)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BcFH0P503rc/USGeVByvxnI/AAAAAAAAAXc/3joc5TUXc-Q/s1600/annodracula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BcFH0P503rc/USGeVByvxnI/AAAAAAAAAXc/3joc5TUXc-Q/s320/annodracula.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are numerous other pulp characters making cameos and
more detailed appearances within Newman’s pages: Lovecraft’s Herbert West (aka
The Reanimator) and Monk Mayfair (Doc Savage’s simian-looking scrappy aide).
Even non-genre literary figures appear in the novel, such as Christopher
Tietjens, the primary character in a foursome of novels by Joseph Conrad’s
contemporary and sometimes collaborator, Ford Madox Ford. (The collective name
for the four books is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Parades-Vintage-Classics-Ford-Madox/dp/0307744205/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361157033&sr=1-1&keywords=parade%27s+end/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Parade’s End</a>.)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyone familiar with Newman’s work knows he’s fond of
movies, and motion pictures supply plenty of characters, such as Louis
Feuilliade’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Judex-Deluxe-Ren%C3%A9-Crest%C3%A9/dp/B0001Y4MJA/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1361157098&sr=1-1&keywords=Judex/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Judex</a>, Fritz Lang’s Rotwang (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Metropolis-Alfred-Abel/dp/B0040QYROA/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1361157129&sr=1-2&keywords=Metropolis/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Metropolis</a>) and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Mabuse-Gambler-Rudolf-Klein-Rogge/dp/B000FS9FLW/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1361157164&sr=1-1&keywords=Dr.+Mabuse/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Dr. Mabuse</a>, and
Robert Weine’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cabinet-Dr-Caligari-Restored-Authorized/dp/B00006JMQG/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1361157198&sr=1-1&keywords=Dr.+Caligari/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Dr. Caligari</a>. Even Count Orlok, from Murnau’s film <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nosferatu-Ultimate-Two-Disc-Max-Schreck/dp/B000VUQ4HW/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1361157229&sr=1-1&keywords=Nosferatu/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Nosferatu</a>,
makes an appearance. (And so does Bela Lugosi!)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But this isn’t a peripatetic tale of strung-together cameos,
like an episode of <em>Laugh-In</em> featuring TV and movie stars poking their faces out
of a surprise window to spout a punch line. Newman’s novel is bold, fierce, and
frightening. <em>Anno Dracula</em> waded through Victorian gothic trappings dripping
with gore. <em>The Bloody Red Baron</em> is about nationalistic pride, the ego of
nations, the muddy and bloody horror of arrogant generals running a war in
which the soldiers and their strategies haven’t quite caught up to the advances
in the technologies of death. The destruction of civilization appears to be the
focus of the warring minds here, particularly as epitomized in Count Dracula.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Newman’s Dracula is remarkably repugnant here -- this is no
soft-focus romantic lead in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Frank-Langella/dp/B0002KVULG/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1361157430&sr=1-2&keywords=frank+langella/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Frank Langella</a> mode. Even Stoker’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Norton-Critical-Editions-Stoker/dp/0393970124/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361157311&sr=1-3&keywords=Dracula/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Dracula</a> is
less frightening. Newman showed us Dracula from a distance in<em> Anno Dracula</em>. But
here, he finally seems to have grasped the majestic evil of the character. As Richthofen
says, “He is a huge person. He has his own gravity. There is a mental pull, an
invisible fist. . . . To be in his presence is like being buffeted by strong
winds which threaten to tear one’s mind to fragments. This is not even his
intention, it is what he is.” This is the 20th Century man encountering the
alien psychology of the medieval barbarian warrior-prince, whose understanding
of Total War is as incomprehensible to us as our own world’s Technological War
would be impossible to comprehend by the historical Vlad Tepes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Newman ably demonstrates his considerable mastery of
storytelling in this novel. It’s newly available in an edition from <a href="http://titanbooks.com/" target="_blank">Titan Books</a>
designed to tie it with its associated novels -- <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Anno-Dracula-1/dp/0857680838/ref=la_B000AQ73MM_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361156212&sr=1-1/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Anno Dracula</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Anno-Dracula-Cha/dp/0857680854/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Dracula Cha ChaCha</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jago-Kim-Newman/dp/1781164231/ref=la_B000AQ73MM_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361156455&sr=1-8/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Jago</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Anno-Dracula-Alucard-Kim-Newman/dp/0857680862/ref=la_B000AQ73MM_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1361156212&sr=1-5/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Johnny Alucard</a>, and so forth. Recommended.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-78179875849116889912013-02-09T20:47:00.000-05:002013-02-09T20:47:34.507-05:00The Scientific Sherlock Holmes by James O’Brien<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3E8j8yeh9fo/URb5D8It8wI/AAAAAAAAAW0/A2Gfa1jBQzU/s1600/Holmes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3E8j8yeh9fo/URb5D8It8wI/AAAAAAAAAW0/A2Gfa1jBQzU/s320/Holmes.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Arthur Conan Doyle’s<u> </u>most famous creation will
outlive us all.<o:p></o:p></strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Certainly Holmes had a great influence on some of the
well-known pulp heroes -- The Shadow, Doc Savage, G-8 and Captain Philip
Strange are obvious examples -- and continues to exert his personality and
quirks on contemporary characters in a variety of media, such as August
Derleth’s Solar Pons, Preston & Child’s Agent Pendergast, Hugh Laurie’s Dr.
House, my own Shalimar Bang, and of course Robert Downey Jr’s Holmes, Benedict
Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, and Jonny Lee Miller’s Elementary.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m not a Holmes completest, but I have a set of the stories
I dip into from time to time. I prefer the volumes published by Oxford
University Press, for their introductions and annotations by <a href="http://www.conandoylecollection.co.uk/about-richard-lancelyn-green.html" target="_blank">Richard Lancelyn Green</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Dudley_Edwards" target="_blank">Owen Dudley Edwards</a>, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-professor-w-w-robson-1459634.html" target="_blank">W.W. Robson</a>, and <a href="http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/" target="_blank">Christopher Roden</a>. I also have
a copy of Volume 2 of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Baker-Street-Consulting/dp/051703817X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360459764&sr=1-2&keywords=William+S.+Baring-Gould+holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">William S. Baring-Gould’s</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Sherlock-Holmes-Fifty-Six-Complete/dp/0517481022/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360459823&sr=1-1&keywords=William+S.+Baring-Gould+holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Annotated Sherlock Holmes</a>.
(Someday I’ll grab Volume 1.) And I’ve been entertained by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Annotated-Sherlock-Holmes-Complete/dp/0393059162/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360459864&sr=1-1&keywords=Leslie+Klinger%E2%80%99s++holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Leslie Klinger’s</a> new
Annotated Sherlock Holmes volumes. It’s good to have a solid collection of the
Holmes canon on hand when the mood strikes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The number of publications devoted to Holmesian scholarship
may outstrip that of literary scholars engaged in academic pursuits. (That’s a
guess on my part, not a deduction based on any real investigations.) But just
as one might suppose that no new topic on Shakespeare or his plays or poems
could possibly find its way into a dissertation from one of the world’s
graduate schools, new Shakespearean investigations continue to arise, improbably. In the same vein, studies on some facet of the Holmes stories continue to
appear.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">An interesting one that recently arrived from -- suitably
enough for me -- Oxford University Press is <em>The Scientific Sherlock Holmes:
Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics</em> by James O’Brien.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">O’Brien is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Missouri State
University. The present book springs from a presentation O’Brien made at the
1992 national meeting of the American Chemical society, “What Kind of Chemist
was Sherlock Holmes?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">True Holmes completists will likely have in other books or
papers a lot of the information O’Brien offers. For instance, there are brief sections
describing Holmes, Watson, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moriarty-Otto-Penzler-Book-Gardner/dp/0151012520/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360459048&sr=1-1&keywords=moriarty+john+gardner/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Moriarty</a>, and other important characters; a profile
of Doyle, plus chapters that illustrate the influences of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Murders-Morgue-Modern-Library-Classics/dp/0679643427/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360459103&sr=1-1&keywords=murders+in+the+rue+morgue/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Edgar Allan Poe</a> and
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Joe-Bell-Sherlock-Holmes/dp/0879721987/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360459146&sr=1-1&keywords=Dr.+Joseph+Bell/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Dr. Joseph Bell</a> upon Holmes. But for the interested reader, the semi-casual
scholar, or the curious pop-culture fan, it’s nice to have some of this info
gathered within the covers of a single slim volume.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For example, O’Brien offers an area of forensic science
applied by Holmes -- such as fingerprints, footprints, handwriting analysis,
and cryptography -- and accompanying descriptions of how each is used within
specific stories. O’Brien also includes examples of how those techniques have
been applied in solving famous, real-world crimes, such as the Lindbergh
kidnapping, the Zodiac murders, and so forth.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">O’Brien also gives space to Holmes’ dabbling in mathematics,
physics, biology, and other sciences, but the heart of the book is its examination
of the world’s foremost consulting detective as chemist. O’Brien’s particular
expertise comes into play in this section. (Poisons are such fascinating tools.) Besides exhibiting some basic
mixology skills applied at cocktail time, I’m not a chemistry expert by anyone’s
standards. But O’Brien’s explanations are readable and engaging, and even a
layman can gather some interesting information from his discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">O’Brien’s examination of Holmes’ scientific methods may not
suit every reader of the canon, but for those who have a
deeper-than-mere-passing interest in the habits of that eventual <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beekeepers-Apprentice-Segregation-Russell-Novels/dp/0312427360/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360458847&sr=1-1&keywords=beekeeping+sherlock+holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">beekeeper</a> from
Baker Street -- or simply a curiosity about how today’s fascination with
CSI-style forensics may have played out at the end of the 19th Century -- this
book will provide several hours of engaging reading. Recommended.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">You can find O’Brien’s book on Holmes at Amazon by clicking
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Scientific-Sherlock-Holmes-Forensics/dp/0199794960/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360457667&sr=8-1&keywords=scientific+sherlock+holmes#_/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Oxford University Press Sherlock Holmes volumes . . .</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Sherlock-Holmes-Oxford-Classics/dp/0199536953/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360460184&sr=8-1&keywords=oxford+university+press+sherlock+holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Case-Book-Sherlock-Holmes-Oxford-Classics/dp/0199555648/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1360460184&sr=8-2&keywords=oxford+university+press+sherlock+holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes</a></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Sherlock-Holmes-Oxford-Classics/dp/0199555486/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1360460184&sr=8-3&keywords=oxford+university+press+sherlock+holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes</a></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/His-Last-Bow-Reminiscences-Sherlock/dp/0192123157/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360460763&sr=1-1&keywords=his+last+bow+oxford/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">His Last Bow</a></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Hound-Baskervilles-Adventure-Sherlock/dp/0199536961/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1360460184&sr=8-10&keywords=oxford+university+press+sherlock+holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Hound of the Baskervilles</a></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Return-Sherlock-Holmes-Oxford/dp/0192823760/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1360460184&sr=8-16&keywords=oxford+university+press+sherlock+holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Return of Sherlock Holmes</a></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sign-Four-Oxford-Sherlock-Holmes/dp/0192123165/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360460666&sr=8-1&keywords=oxford+university+press+sign+of+the+four/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Sign of the Four</a></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Study-Scarlet-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199554773/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1360460184&sr=8-14&keywords=oxford+university+press+sherlock+holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">A Study in Scarlet</a></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Valley-Fear-Oxford-Sherlock-Holmes/dp/0192823825/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1360460517&sr=8-18&keywords=oxford+university+press+sherlock+holmes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">The Valley of Fear</a></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-42514083739912725812012-12-21T23:43:00.000-05:002012-12-21T23:43:14.649-05:00The original science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, scheduled to return
<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><em>Amazing Stories</em>, the world's first science fiction magazine, opens for
Beta Testing of Phase 1 on Wednesday, January 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">Fifty+ Writers Sign On to provide genre-related content!</span></b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-hyphenate: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">And I'm pleased to say I’ll be one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazingstoriesmag.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><span style="color: navy;">AMAZING STORIES are just one click away!</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UNwlhoU8iJg/UNU6GpsFXPI/AAAAAAAAAT0/rC17xk8-1GE/s1600/amazingmastehead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UNwlhoU8iJg/UNU6GpsFXPI/AAAAAAAAAT0/rC17xk8-1GE/s1600/amazingmastehead.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">On Wednesday, January 2, 2013, I will be joined by more than 50 other
writers from around the blogosphere to help launch the Beta Test of Phase 1 of
the return of <em>Amazing Stories</em>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><em>Amazing Stories</em> was the world's first science fiction magazine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Published by Hugo Gernsback, the Father of
Science Fiction, the magazine created the genre's first home and was
instrumental in helping to establish science fiction fandom – the fandom from
which all other fandoms have evolved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">The magazine itself ceased publication in 2005; in 2008 the new
publisher, Steve Davidson, discovered that the trademarks had lapsed and
applied for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The marks were finally
granted in 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">For me, this is all one of those Six Degrees of Separation experiences.
Once upon a time I worked for a technical publishing start up, The Cobb Group,
which was eventually purchased by William Ziff, Jr., heir to the Ziff-Davis
publishing empire. Ziff-Davis had been the owner of <em>Amazing Stories</em> from 1938
to 1965.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">Fellows I’d once worked with at The Cobb Group later started an
internet-based publishing business, Emazing.com, where I worked as Content
Director. And now, here I am, a blogger about pulps soon to be blogging for
that first science fiction pulp magazine in its new incarnation: <em>Amazing
Stories</em>. It might not be an exact circle, but I see the path as a sort of
wobbly ellipse. Seen from the ecliptic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">Back to <em>Amazing Stories</em>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">Phase 1 introduces the social networking aspects of the site and the
Blog Team: more than 50 authors, artists, collectors, editors, pod casters, designers
and bloggers who will address 14 different subjects on a regular basis – SF,
Fantasy & Horror literature, anime, gaming, film, television, the visual
arts, audio works, the pulps, comics, fandom, science and publishing.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">Those wishing to participate in the Beta Test should request an invite
by emailing the publisher, </span><a href="mailto:steve.davidson33@comcast.net" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><span style="color: navy;">Steve Davidson</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">Steve’s launching the new Amazing Stories from the appropriately named Experimenter
Publishing Company in Hillsboro, New Hampshire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><o:p>Visit the site! Click here:</o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazingstoriesmag.com/">http://www.amazingstoriesmag.com/</a></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-15888731862647252992012-11-14T21:24:00.000-05:002012-11-14T21:24:23.423-05:00Superman: Pulp heroOkay, we've all read the comparisons between Clark Kent and Clark Savage, Jr., the men of steel and bronze, respectively.<br />
<br />
Superman's boots are rooted in wood pulp magazines. No argument. Period.<br />
<br />
Superman is a hero. He's the golden boy of black-haired, blue-eyed, cape-and-spandex-wearing comic book heroes. He's the oversized Boy Scout, as one or another super-villain has proclaimed.<br />
<br />
At its core, the concept of Superman is undaunted optimism.<br />
<br />
And by golly, he can fly. How cool is that? Sure, he can run faster than a locomotive, leap tall buildings, and pick and juggle automobiles. But he can <em>fly</em>. That's pretty darn cool.<br />
<br />
How many of you, once upon a time, knotted a bath towel around your neck and zoomed through the house or around the yard, flying like Superman? (Nobody's watching. You can raise your hand.)<br />
<br />
It's the flying thing. That's what is so magical about Superman. All the other stuff-- heat vision, X-ray vision, superstrength, giant arctic man cave -- is just gravy.<br />
<br />
None of the pulp magazine heroes could fly. They had great cutting-edge technology that carried them airborne, but they couldn't fly like Superman. (Sorry, Ray Davies.)<br />
<br />
The flying raised the bar for pop culture heroes. It encapsulates everything that is magical about Superman, that radiates that Kryptonian enthusiasm: Flying equals Optimism.<br />
<br />
It's magic, really.<br />
<br />
A lot of the magic has been diluted over the years -- Superman has been handled in so many different ways over the years, good and bad: killed, revived, rebooted.<br />
<br />
There are highlights in the character's history that capture the magic. The Swan/Anderson art team is a highlight for me. It captured the magic.<br />
<br />
I remember when the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie was released. I drove to Nashville with my high school girlfriend the first weekend it was out. We ran into some other school friends. The first showing was sold out, so we all bought tickets for the next show.<br />
<br />
We all sat on the same row. My date said after the show, "When the credits at the beginning started to roll and the music was coming up, I looked along the row at all of your faces. You looked like kids at Santa's toyshop."<br />
<br />
Superman. Magic.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4-VquhkfYvs/UKRR-4eNEII/AAAAAAAAASc/5M10-8-DGKg/s1600/as+superman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4-VquhkfYvs/UKRR-4eNEII/AAAAAAAAASc/5M10-8-DGKg/s320/as+superman.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, a couple of Scotsmen, are quite a scripting-and-arting team for various comic book companies. Sometimes I like Morrison's stories, sometimes not. But he's always inventive and surprising. Quitely is always just amazing.<br />
<br />
They combined their powers for good on a DC comic, <em>All-Star Superman</em>. It doesn't fit into any particular continuity. It has all the familiar faces, like a comic-book equivalent of comfort food.<br />
<br />
They capture the Superman magic.<br />
<br />
The throwaway flares of cool ideas populate Volume One, which collects the first six issues, like unexplainable techno-stuff in a Jack Kirby <em>Fantastic Four</em> comic. The dynamic between Clark Kent and Lois Lane, between Superman and Lois, between Superman and Jimmy Olsen, between Clark and Lex Luthor -- wonderful. Magic.<br />
<br />
Morrison and Quitely recapture the sense-of-wonder delight of the immense cast of characters built up during the Weisenger years of stories by Edmond Hamilton, EandO Binder, and others -- when some other super-powered whatsit would appear inexplicably out of the blue or the future or another universe, and be accepted as just another super-powered neighbor in the galaxy.<br />
<br />
Best of all, with the undaunted optimism, what makes the Magic work best for Superman is his humanity. Morrison gets this perfect. <br />
<br />
If you don't have a tear in your eye at the end of Volume One, you clearly have read nothing in your life besides <em>The Spider</em>.<br />
<br />
<em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/All-Star-Superman-Vol-1/dp/140121102X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1352945513&sr=8-5&keywords=all-star+superman/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">All-Star Superman. Volume</a> 1. </em>Magic.Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-36651221659503384442012-09-03T18:11:00.000-04:002012-09-03T18:11:16.366-04:00Outdoor Stories by J. Allan Dunn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R7ht3fQ8wrQ/UEUqygHB0MI/AAAAAAAAAQs/HfK-npJsIYQ/s1600/Outdoor+Stories.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R7ht3fQ8wrQ/UEUqygHB0MI/AAAAAAAAAQs/HfK-npJsIYQ/s1600/Outdoor+Stories.jpg" /></a></div>
Edited and introduction by John Locke.
Published by Off-Trail Publications, Elkhorn, California, 2011.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
J. Allan Dunn is a name familiar to any
pulp collector who has thumbed through dealers' boxes of
magazines—his name appears with some frequency on the covers of
<i>Adventure</i>, <i>Argosy</i>, various Street & Smith
publications, and <i>Wild West Weekly</i>.
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One S&S pulp fewer fans may be
aware of is <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Stories-J-Allan-Dunn/dp/1935031155/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346708184&sr=1-3&keywords=outdoor+stories/pulprack-20" target="_blank">Outdoor Stories</a></i>. Designed as a competitor for
<i>Adventure</i>, it existed only for 13 issues.
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The three stories in this volume
capture Dunn's appearances within this short-lived magazine. Each
story displays Dunn's solid storytelling skills, and if one didn't
know they appeared in <i>Outdoor Stories</i>, each could have
appeared in <i>Adventure</i> without the reader knowing any
different.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The first tale, “The Lagoon at
Mareva,” (January 1928) is perhaps weaker than the other two. It
recounts the story of a young man gone out to the pearl fields to
make his mark. He gets taken in by some no-good fellows who attempt
to take advantage of his inexperience, but he sees justice done in
the end. And he gets a girl, too.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That glib description doesn't capture
how well Dunn build atmosphere and weaves details from local color
into the narrative, one of his particular strengths.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The following two stories—“New
Guinea Gold” (July 1928) and “Rama, the Rogue” (August
1928)—are superior to the first tale, perhaps because of their
greater length, which allows Dunn to build characters and situations
more carefully. The first recounts the adventures of two down-and-out
Americans who get tied into a gold-hunting trek with an unreliable
and underhanded explorer. Unfriendly tribes and far-from-civilized
cultural encounters resolve into a rescue mission and a quest for
bizarre vengeance. The inclusion of some coincidence worthy of Edgar
Rice Burroughs is one deficiency for this story, but overall it's
quite satisfying.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“Rama, the Rogue” gives us an
elephant hunt and characters and situations worthy of Talbot Mundy. A
domesticated elephant—outlawed after killing its keeper—is the
Rama of the title. That the keeper was deserving of his fate has no
bearing on Rama's sentence, and he may be killed by anyone who
encounters him in the wild, to which he has escaped. Dunn wonderfully
describes the love and loyalty between Rama and his first trainer,
who seeks to save Rama's life and redeem him before he can be
destroyed. Dunn tells his story very well, and it wraps up
pleasingly.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
John Locke has performed another fine
publishing feat in compiling this volume. He provides an introduction
to Dunn, a history of <em>Outdoor Stories</em>, and a nice profile of the
magazine's editor. Locke's <a href="http://off-trail%20publications/" target="_blank">Off-Trail Publications</a> again proves there
are plenty of forgotten treasures to be found in the chipping
rough-paper stacks of magazines published in the 1920 and before.</div>
<br />
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Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-12703645727090601662012-09-01T20:50:00.000-04:002012-09-01T20:50:34.115-04:00Argonotes posts a PulpFest 2012 reportHere's a nice <a href="http://argonotes.blogspot.com/2012/08/pulpfest-2012.html?showComment=1346546845987#c8611230772419861628" target="_blank">report</a>, lots of details, about PulpFest 2012 from a first-time attendee. Nicely done.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://argonotes.blogspot.com/2012/08/pulpfest-2012.html?showComment=1346546845987#c8611230772419861628">http://argonotes.blogspot.com/2012/08/pulpfest-2012.html?showComment=1346546845987#c8611230772419861628</a><br />
<br />
Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-20445774469635029242012-08-18T16:45:00.000-04:002012-08-18T16:45:51.526-04:00Post-PulpFest 2012
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zf5LoQJ6c2I/UC_-tVSujkI/AAAAAAAAAPk/5T3i9kkCcKk/s1600/pulpfest-2012.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zf5LoQJ6c2I/UC_-tVSujkI/AAAAAAAAAPk/5T3i9kkCcKk/s1600/pulpfest-2012.png" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sunday afternoon was a beautiful, sunny
day for the four-hour drive home from PulpFest. Quite different from
the thunderstormy, flash-floody Thursday evening when I arrived. But
the Fest itself was excellent – an upgraded venue with plenty of
room and great customer service, several options for eating, and a
secure parking area (I saw cops on bikes patrolling the parking
garage and the skywalks that connect the garage with the hotel and
convention center when I took a box of books from the auction to my
car at midnight).</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As the Fest theme was the centennial
for the first appearances of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of
Barsoom and Tarzan, panel discussions focusing on those characters
and related pulp topics were handled nicely and were quite
informative. Ed Hulse, one of the Fest committee members, hosted a
nice discussion of the Burroughs-produced serial, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Adventures-Tarzan-Chapters-1-12/dp/B000B5XP8I/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1345322577&sr=1-2&keywords=The+New+Adventures+of+Tarzan/pulprack-20" target="_blank">The New Adventuresof Tarzan</a>, and showed a couple of chapters from the film.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's also the 80<sup>th</sup>
anniversary for Robert E. Howard's Conan, so a panel with artists and
designers <a href="http://twogunblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Jim and Ruth Keegan</a> and <a href="http://www.fleskpublications.com/galleries/schultz/" target="_blank">Mark Schultz</a> offered some
interesting insights into artists' representations of REH's barbarian
since his first pulp appearance.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Guest of Honor <a href="http://mikeresnick.com/" target="_blank">Mike Resnick</a> shared wonderful
tales of his writing and publishing life, which began with a fan's
appreciation of ERB, and told a few stories about his adventures in
Hollywood that had the attendees shaking their heads and laughing:
clearly the workings of Hollywood are more bizarre than the culture
of any alien world described by Jack Vance or Clark Ashton Smith.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I had a grand time. The Fest committee
(and their families) deserve a big round of applause from all
attendees.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Leaving the Fest brings a feeling I
used to get when I was a little boy, leaving my grandparents' after a
week's stay to return home: it's like leaving family. Pulp fandom is
a close-knit group. PulpFest is a great place to experience that
feeling, if you're a pulp fan. If you've never attended, I recommend
you start saving your sheckels and plan your calendar for next year's
Fest. You'll find updates at the PulpFest website.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And lots of other attendees have posted
much better descriptions of their Fest experiences than I've managed
here. Check out the links to other PulpFest reports at the<a href="http://www.thepulp.net/yellowedperils/2012/08/15/pulpfest-2012-reports/" target="_blank">ThePulp.Net</a> site's blog, posted by William Lampkin.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-67298657357931103442012-07-25T22:18:00.000-04:002012-07-25T22:18:51.053-04:00The Adventures of Captain Hatteras: Verne Lays the Foundation for Fictional Pulp Adventures to Foreign Lands<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">by
Duane Spurlock</span></span></span><br />
<br />
Awhile back, I <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3767086764382593168#editor/target=post;postID=976811243481032862" target="_blank">posted</a> about Jules Verne as the pre-pulp pioneer for pulp fiction. Let's look at this idea a bit more closely.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FBu76gHTAEY/UBCoLc-KFyI/AAAAAAAAANo/Sq429SYksJQ/s1600/Capt+hatteras.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FBu76gHTAEY/UBCoLc-KFyI/AAAAAAAAANo/Sq429SYksJQ/s200/Capt+hatteras.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The
Adventures of Captain Hatteras</b></span></span></span></em><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
by Jules Verne</span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
translated by William Butcher (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">William
Butcher</span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
who translated this volume and provided its introduction and notes,
is on a quest to restore Verne’s reputation in the United States as
worthy of inclusion in the literary canon — not as a writer for
children, but as a serious author for adults, deserving university
recognition and academic study.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Most
translations into English have not served Verne well, particularly
those contemporaneous with the author: besides wooden or stilted
prose, in some cases the translators didn’t have a sufficient grasp
of French to put into English what Verne actually wrote; many books
were actually cut by a third or more; one translation had at least
one sentence added by the translator to nearly every paragraph in the
story; and more than one novel had the names of its primary
characters changed! (The website of the </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://www.najvs.org/"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">North
American Jules Verne Society</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
[http://www.najvs.org/] has links to a number of online essays by its
members, several of which address the state of English Verne
translations -- which continue to be reprinted more than a hundred
years after their first appearance.) </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://www.ibiblio.org/julesverne/" target="_blank"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">Butcher</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
and others blame these less-than-accurate (and, in some cases,
downright bad) translations for Verne’s reputation in the U.S. as a
bad stylist, a promoter of bad science, and as simply a writer for
children.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But
Butcher and others — among them </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://www.waltertalksbooks.com/Walter.html"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">Walter
James Miller</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
Edward Baxter, Frederick Paul Walter—have been translating some of
Verne’s most famous works anew and bringing into English several
works that hadn’t been translated before, all of which helps to
repair the Frenchman’s literary reputation in Britain and the U.S.
These new translations have been appearing from </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://www.oup.com/us/"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">Oxford
University Press</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
(in affordable paperbacks), </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://www.wesleyan.edu/wespress/"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">Wesleyan
University Press</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
</span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://www.oup.com/us/" target="_blank"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">Universityof Nebraska Press</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
and other publishers.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Verne
is of interest to pulp readers because, </span></span></span><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">first</span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
as one of the most translated novelists in the world, his novels take
the readers to many of the locations that would later be the exotic
settings for many, many pulp adventure stories. (The UNESCO “Most
frequently translated authors” resource ranks Verne at # 4 in 1980
[behind V.I. Lenin, </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
Bible</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
and Agatha Christie]. In 1994 Verne moved down the list to # 7 [after
Christie, Danielle Steele, </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
Bible</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
Victoria Holt, P. Vandenberg, and Stephen King]. As of 2012, he's Number Two. The reference is at
this site --
click <a href="http://www.unesco.org/xtrans/bsstatexp.aspx?crit1L=5&nTyp=min&topN=50" target="_blank">here</a>.) </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Typically,
Verne’s characters were the first whose fictional feet stepped in a
particular locale that maybe Doc Savage or some other pulp adventurer
would later visit. This trait for exploring “strange, new worlds”
gave birth to the umbrella name for Verne’s series of novels,
</span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_Extraordinaires"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">Voyages
Extraordinaires</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Second</span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
he’s also sometimes called the </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">grandfather
of modern science fiction</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">.
That's not exactly accurate. Verne’s novels typically don’t
extrapolate into scientific technology beyond what was actually
available at the time he wrote them. (Okay, traveling to the moon
inside a capsule fired from a giant cannon may be pushing that
argument a tad.) Instead, Verne is more of an adventure writer, whose
novels are grounded in the world of science.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Verne
was very concerned with basing his extrapolations on existing
knowledge. For instance, when someone described his work as similar
to that of H.G. Wells, Verne "openly criticized Wells' novels as
lacking in scientific verisimilitude:"</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We
do not proceed in the same manner. It occurs to me that his stories
do not repose on very scientific bases. . . I make use of physics. He
invents. I go to the moon in a cannonball discharged from a cannon.
Here there is no invention. He goes to the Mars [sic] in an airship
which he constructs of a metal which does away with the law of
gravitation. . . But show me this metal. Let him produce it.</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
(Robert H. Sherard, "Jules Verne Revisited," </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">T.P.'s
Weekly</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
[Oct. 9, 1903]: 589; quoted in Jules Verne, </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Invasion
of the Sea</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
[Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2001]: 209)</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Still,
the SF pulp writer who wasn’t influenced in some fashion by Verne’s
works was probably rare.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Further,
or </span></span></span><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">third</span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
many of Verne’s novels originally saw print as serial publications
in a magazine published by his book publisher, Jules Hetzel, and
titled </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Magasin
d’Éducation et de Récréation</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">.
So, Verne is linked to the pulp writers of the 20th Century by the
medium his work first appeared before the public. (Ah, imagine Nemo
and the </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Nautilus</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
painted by DeSoto! The lighter-than-air craft </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Resolute</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
from </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Five
Weeks in a Balloon</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
painted by Blakeslee!)</span></span></span><br />
<br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ce3AKeb167E/UBCob_YT-OI/AAAAAAAAANw/Pb27TX-Xj1Q/s1600/Capt+Hatteras_front_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ce3AKeb167E/UBCob_YT-OI/AAAAAAAAANw/Pb27TX-Xj1Q/s320/Capt+Hatteras_front_cover.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
<strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On,
then, to </span></span></span></strong><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Captain
Hatteras</b></span></span></span></em><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
This novel, the second by Verne to be published (first serialized in
Hetzel’s magazine from March 20, 1864 [vol. 1, no. 1] to December
5, 1865 [vol. 4, no. 42]; first book publication in 1866), relates
the reaching of the North Pole by the eponymous hero. Using the word
</span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">hero</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
might prompt a few quibbles, however; Hatteras’ monomania to reach
the Pole recalls Captain Ahab’s obsession with finding and
destroying Moby Dick. (Melville’s novel was published in 1851.)
Most of Hatteras’ crew mutinies during the course of the novel, and
Hatteras himself meets a less-than-happy fate.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Certainly
Verne was influenced by the source materials he drew upon, which were
the accounts of actual voyages to find the Northwest Passage and to
reach the Pole; perhaps the most famous of these at the time of
writing was the expedition led by Sir John Franklin, which ended
badly for Franklin and most of his men. The explorers in Verne’s
novel refer frequently to Franklin and other, similarly doomed
expeditions. (Dan Simmons’ recent horror novel, </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
Terror</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
also focuses on the Franklin expedition.)</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hatteras
is a remarkable character who could easily have walked onstage in a
larger-than-life pulp novel. He enters the story as a mystery — an
order and funds arrive anonymously for a ship to be built according
to certain specifications, but its use is not expressed. A crew is
assembled, although their destination is not named, nor is the name
of their captain — they are told only that he will join them at
some point on the journey. The first mate receives a final letter
telling which direction to go once the ship leaves port. The crew
begins to place supernatural significance on the presence of the
apparently absent-but-all-knowing captain. Finally, Hatteras reveals
himself as a disguised member of the crew.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Of
interest to pulp fans is what Hatteras finds marking the North Pole —
an active volcano. (Volcanoes also play an important role in Verne’s
subsequent novel, </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Journey
to the Center of the Earth</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">.)
Here we see a reference to many pulp-era SF/fantasy works that place
a temperate zone heated by volcanic activity (or other geological
reasons) and surrounded by the cold polar regions. This relates to
the theory put forth in 1818 by an American infantry captain named
John Cleves Symmes that launched numerous hollow-earth stories.
Symmes claimed:</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">To
All the World! I declare the Earth is hollow, and habitable within;
containing a number of concentrick [sic] spheres, one within the
other, and that is it open at the poles 12 or 16 degrees; I pledge my
life in support of this truth, and am ready to explore the hollow if
the world will support and aid me in this undertaking.</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
(Reproduced in Jacques Van Herp, </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Panorama
de la science-fiction</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
(Verviers, Belgique: Marabout, 1975), 100. Shared here thanks to
Arthur B. Evans’ article, “Literary Intertexts in Jules Verne’s
Voyages Extraordinaires” at this </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://jv.gilead.org.il/evans/literary.html#41"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">URL</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">,
http://jv.gilead.org.il/evans/literary.html#41)</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Later,
Symmes published his theory in a book (John Cleves Symmes and James
McBride, </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Symmes’s
Theory of Concentric Spheres: demonstrating that the earth is hollow,
habitable within, and widely open at the poles</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">.
Cincinnati: Morgan, Lodge & Fischer, 1826). Perhaps today’s
best-known stories about underground worlds are Edgar Rice Burroughs’
novels set in the prehistoric land of Pellucidar.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There
is much too-ing and fro-ing through the sea, around icebergs and
closing icefields that would crush Hatteras' vessel, and this very
accurate recounting of an arctic voyage may be perceived by today's
readers -- particularly those accustomed to the constant action and
thrills that mark most pulp fiction -- as needless padding or evading
the heart of the narrative. But Verne's adventure takes place in a
time during which "the shortest distance between two points"
is undertood but not always possible to accomplish. This so-called
padding actually heightens tension and makes more realistic the
events that follow.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Verne’s
novel may not have all the action and thrills of a pulp novel, but it
offers entertaining reading and a launch pad for many pulp-era tales
that would follow it.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Links:</span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />You
can purchase </span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
Adventures of Captain Hatteras</span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
(and other Verne novels mentioned in this article) at Amazon. Click
</span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Captain-Hatteras-Oxford-Classics/dp/0199552592/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343268537&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Adventures+of+Captain+Hatteras+oxford+press/pulprack-20"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">here</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
to learn more.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Visit
the website of the </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://www.najvs.org/"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">North
American Jules Verne Society</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
[http://www.najvs.org/] to check out links to a number of online
essays by its members.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">You
can learn more about Verne scholar and translator </span></span></span><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">William
Butcher</span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
at his home page by clicking </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://www.ibiblio.org/julesverne/"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">here.</span></a></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Learn
more about Walter James Miller, one of the first Verne scholars to
undertake correcting Verne's reputation in English, by visiting his
site -- click </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://www.waltertalksbooks.com/Walter.html"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">here</span></a>.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">You'll
find an online listing of Verne's Les Voyages Extraordinaires by
clicking </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://epguides.com/djk/JulesVerne/works.shtml"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">here</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">.
And for a look at scans of all the maps that were included in the
original editions of Jules Verne’s novels, click </span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a class="western" href="http://verne.garmtdevries.nl/"><span style="color: slategrey; font-size: x-small;">here</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
to visit the site of Verne collector Garmt de Vries.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<br />Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-58180460200500965932012-07-18T11:14:00.003-04:002012-07-18T11:14:56.967-04:00Jungle Tales back on New Pulp Best Seller list<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G7R6cgWHO3g/UAbS1xxaybI/AAAAAAAAANY/Oa1aEN2BquQ/s1600/JungleTalesB2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G7R6cgWHO3g/UAbS1xxaybI/AAAAAAAAANY/Oa1aEN2BquQ/s320/JungleTalesB2.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<strong><em>Jungle Tales Volume 1</em> is back on the New Pulp Best Seller list</strong> this week, as compiled by Barry Reese:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://barryreese.net/2012/07/16/new-pulp-best-seller-list-based-on-amazon-sales-ranks-71612/">http://barryreese.net/2012/07/16/new-pulp-best-seller-list-based-on-amazon-sales-ranks-71612/</a><br />
<br />
Many thanks to you who are celebrating the Tarzan Centennial by reading new jungle action stories!<br />
<br />
You can find out more about <em>Jungle Tales</em> at Amazon by clicking <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Tales-1-Aaron-Smith/dp/0615659977/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342624351&sr=1-1&keywords=jungle+tales/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">here</a>.Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-71288057022925952852012-07-02T13:34:00.001-04:002012-07-02T13:34:50.138-04:00Jungle Tales Vol. 1 climbs on Amazon sales rankings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZErztDsUNWI/T_HboPKgAnI/AAAAAAAAANI/rm_35rCAwWQ/s1600/JungleTalesB2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZErztDsUNWI/T_HboPKgAnI/AAAAAAAAANI/rm_35rCAwWQ/s320/JungleTalesB2.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<strong>According to Barry Reese's New Pulp Best Seller List last week</strong>, the print edition of <em>Jungle Tales Volume 1</em> debuted on the New Pulp Best Seller List at # 5. Barry's <a href="http://barryreese.net/2012/07/02/new-pulp-best-seller-list-based-on-amazon-sales-ranks-7212/" target="_blank">newest compilation</a> for this week shows Jungle Tales Vol. 1 still at the # 5 position, but the book's sales rank at Amazon.com has climbed from 200,775 to 162,939.<br />
<br />
<em>Jungle Tales Volume 1</em> includes my Ki-Gor story, "The Devil's Nest," Aaron Smith's "The Path of Life and Death," and Peter Miller's "Ki-Gor and the Secret of the Vikings." The print edition is now available at Amazon . . .Just click <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Tales-Volume-Aaron-Smith/dp/0615659977/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341248694&sr=8-1&keywords=jungle+tales+volume+1/thepulprack-20" target="_blank">here</a> to learn more.<br />
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It's nice to know that jungle action still has fans in this <a href="http://www.conferencealerts.com/show-event?id=99758" target="_blank">Tarzan Centennial</a> year!<br />
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<br />Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-57331308136694343172012-06-28T22:17:00.000-04:002012-06-28T22:17:07.381-04:00Atomic Robo is a Shadow fan!<a href="http://www.atomic-robo.com/" target="_blank">Atomic Robo</a> is a comic book that pulp fans should love. Its pages are infused with that very important ingredient most comics today are missing: FUN.<br />
<br />
Published by <a href="http://www.red5comics.com/" target="_blank">Red 5 Comics</a>, written by Brian Clevinger and drawn by Scott Wegener, Atomic Robo is a hero built by Nicola Tesla to battle evil in all its forms. His adventures range from World War II to the present as he battles Nazis, Commies, and bad robots of all stripes.<br />
<br />
And clearly, if this cover for companion magazine <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Robo-Science-Adventures-Comic/dp/B008F4MG82/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340936127&sr=1-1&keywords=real+science+adventures+clevinger\thepulprack-20" target="_blank">Real Science Adventures</a> is any indication, pulp fans should love Atomic Robo because he's a Shadow fan!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jouhkWSJE54/T-0PYYZdBxI/AAAAAAAAAMw/CC1PnmHEulc/s1600/RSA_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jouhkWSJE54/T-0PYYZdBxI/AAAAAAAAAMw/CC1PnmHEulc/s400/RSA_3.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-60965719580389692752012-06-28T15:47:00.000-04:002012-06-28T15:47:28.541-04:00Print edition of Jungle Tales Vol. 1 debuts at #5 on New Pulp Best Seller List<br />
According to Barry Reese's most recent compilation, the print
edition of Jungle Tales Volume 1 debuted on the New Pulp Best Seller
List at # 5!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://barryreese.net/2012/06/25/new-pulp-best-seller-list-based-on-amazon-sales-ranks-62512/">http://barryreese.net/2012/06/25/new-pulp-best-seller-list-based-on-amazon-sales-ranks-62512/</a><br />
<br />
Jungle Tales Volume 1, which includes my Ki-Gor story, "The
Devil's Nest," is now available at Amazon . . .<br />
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Tales-Volume-Aaron-Smith/dp/0615659977/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1340755685&sr=8-5&keywords=duane+spurlock%2Fthepulprack-20" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Tales-Volume-Aaron-Smith/dp/0615659977/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1340755685&sr=8-5&keywords=duane+spurlock%2Fthepulprack-20</a><br />
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Thanks for your support!<br />
<br />Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-61036332155748037272012-06-25T16:20:00.000-04:002012-06-25T16:20:37.113-04:00New Ki-Gor in Jungle Tales Volume 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JW389coObpg/T-jHk6e8RkI/AAAAAAAAAMA/tJU5FM1B04Q/s1600/JungleTalesB2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JW389coObpg/T-jHk6e8RkI/AAAAAAAAAMA/tJU5FM1B04Q/s320/JungleTalesB2.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tarzan-Apes-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199542880/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340654408&sr=1-1&keywords=all-story+tarzan+of+the+apes/thepulprack-20" target="_blank"><strong>Tarzan of the Apes</strong>, A Romance of the Jungle</a></em>, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, appeared in its entirety in the October 1912 issue of <a href="http://www.pulpmags.org/database_pages/all_story.html" target="_blank">The All-Story Magazine</a>. The jungle adventure genre captured the reading public in a flash.<br />
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I'm contributing to the Tarzan Centennial with a novella in a new anthology: Jungle Tales, Volume 1, from new pulp publisher Airship 27, features three stories about popular jungle hero Ki-Gor. My story, "The Devil's Nest," finds our hero searching for a lost American heir, encoutering a lost tribe of warriors, and battling a squad of mercenaries hunting down the lost gold mines of Ophir, the source of King Solomon's gold.<br />
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This action-packed anthology also features stories by Aaron Smith and Peter Miller, a bold painted cover by Bryan Fowler, and interior illustrations by Kelly Everaert. The eBook version currently is available from Airship 27's Hangar, which you can reach by clicking <a href="http://www.robmdavis.com/OScommerce/product_info.php?products_id=85&osCsid=4934eefcf304e00ace989fd9c215894c" target="_blank">here</a>. A print version will soon be available.<br />
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Publisher Ron Fortier's press release follows:<br />
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<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>CLASSIC JUNGLE
ADVENTURES</b></div>
Airship 27 Productions, a leader in the
New Pulp Fiction movement, is thrilled to announce the release of
their latest title, JUNGLE TALES Vol. One.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One of the most popular sub-genres of
the classic pulp magazines were those with jungle settings. With the
success and popularity of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan stories,
editors began clamoring for similar tales featuring jungle heroes.
Soon dozens of cheap loin-cloth wearing imitators were popping up
everywhere, including a few jungle queens to add spice to the mix.
By far the most successful of these Tarzan clones was the
blond-haired Ki-Gor, the Jungle Lord whose adventures appeared
regularly in the pages of <i>Jungle Stories</i> magazine.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now Airship 27 Productions offers up
this new collection with three brand new adventures of Ki-Gor and his
lovely, red-headed mate, Helene, as they travel into the mysterious,
uncharted jungles of Africa. Penned by Aaron Smith, Duane Spurlock
and Peter Miller, here are a trio of fast-paced tales that have the
Jungle Lord discovering a hidden village of Vikings, crossing paths
with dinosaurs in a lost valley and battling cannibals to save the
life of a benevolent jungle princess. This is the pulse-pounding
action and thrill-a-minute adventure fans have come to expect from
the classic jungle pulps.
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“It’s hoped,” said Managing
Editor, Ron Fortier, “that each new volume of this title will shine
the spotlight on a different classic pulp jungle hero. Maybe even a
jungle queen or two.” This premier features a stunning cover by
painter Bryan Fowler with magnificent interior illustrations by Kelly
Everaert. JUNGLE TALES Vol. One<i> </i>kicks off another new series
pulp fans are sure to appreciate and enjoy.
</div>
<br />
<i><b>AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – Pulp
Fiction For A New Generation!</b></i><br />Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3767086764382593168.post-76464723717664202822012-06-23T22:14:00.000-04:002012-06-23T22:14:18.290-04:00New URL for The Shadow in ReviewJohn Olson's excellent Web site, The Shadow in Review, has a new URL:<br />
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<a href="http://home.comcast.net/~deshadow/">http://home.comcast.net/~deshadow/</a><br />
<br />
Be sure to check it out!<br />
<br />
And remember: the weed of crime bears bitter fruit!<br />Duane Spurlockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.com0