Danger Is My Business: An Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines: 1896-1953

by Lee Server

Another well illustrated (color and b&w) work on popular culture. An Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp 1896-1953 . Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Genres: Pulp, History, Nonfiction, Art

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1993

About the author

Lee Server specialises in books on popular culture and literary history.

He is the critically acclaimed author of such as 'Danger Is My Business: The Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines' (1993), 'Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback' (1995) and the biography 'Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care' (2001).

Reviews

[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 4 out of 5]

El surgimiento, auge y caída de las novelas pulp en un recorrido impecable, muy bien escrito y que aborda con una esmerada objetividad un medio tan modesto como patético y alucinante. Más entrañable, imposible.

[Buddy Scalera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally, everything you could ever want to know about the pulps. Fascinating details about the stories, the authors, and the editors.

The author takes it from the earlies pulps to the most "modern" stories. He breaks the narrative down by both timeline and genre, so you can jump around to read your favorite topics without ever feeling lost.

The author also happens to be an excellent prose writer, so the history is really colorful and fun. Also, there are plenty of photos, so it makes a nice keeper for the bookshelf.

[Brad McKenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my eyes, The Pulps were like The Early Blues: they weren't always pretty but they were the cause for so much that came after it. Like the Blues and Rock and Roll, Soul, and Hip Hop, The Pulps gave us Hard-boiled detective fiction, Science Fiction, and even comic books. I hadn't realized they were so diverse; there was even Spicy pulps, which were basically erotica.

Named for the cheap pulp-y paper they were printed on, as opposed to glossy magazines, they sadly weren't made to stand the test of time. I wonder how many authors we lost because of that. I enjoyed reading about the industry and was shocked to learn the height lasted only about 20 years; the 1920s to the 1940s.

Some of the people involved were horrible, just as so many of the stories were horrible. But if you like the history of books or the history of America, you could do worse than this book.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful history of 'Pulp' magazines.

[Michael Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another look at the magazine and book industry through the cover art vs content.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

An accurate overview of the pulp magazine era - starting from the early days of Argosy and the story papers, the books gives a fair description of the various genres of pulp magazines, some of the notable pulp writers, and their eventual decline.

Anyone wanting basic information on the classic days of pulp would do good to check out this book.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I browsed this picture book of the pulp magazines. The text is interesting as are the illustrations (great pulp covers) and photos. Some inside stories of pulp writers like Lester Dent (of Doc Savage fame) are included. This is the sort of book a pulp magazine collector might enjoy.

[Rob Salkowitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Superficial, occasionally inaccurate, and redundant to many other better books on this subject.