Dust of Death / The Stone Man

Doc Savage Sanctum Editions #10

by Kenneth Robeson (House Name), Lester Dent, Harold A. Davis

The legendary pulp superman battles evil in two expanded novels by Lester Dent and Harold A. Davis writing as Kenneth Robeson, incorporating never-before-published text from the original manuscripts. In "The Dust of Death", after Long Tom is arrested on spying charges, Doc Savage, Monk, and Ham intervene in an Amazon jungle border war as they battle the mysterious Inca in Gray.. Then, in "The Stone Man", the Man of Bronze and his Iron Crew journey to Arizona and discover a lost race and a strange mist that transforms men into stone. This pulp reprint showcases the classic pulp covers by Walter Baumhofer and Emery Clarke, all of Paul Orban's interior illustrations, and historical commentary by Will Murray.

Genres: Pulp

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2007

About the author

Kenneth Robeson was the house name used by Street and Smith Publications as the author of their popular character Doc Savage and later The Avenger. Though most Doc Savage stories were written by the author Lester Dent, there were many others who contributed to the series, including:

William G. Bogart
Evelyn Coulson
Harold A. Davis
Lawrence Donovan
Alan Hathway
W. Ryerson Johnson

Lester Dent is usually considered to be the creator of Doc Savage. In the 1990s Philip José Farmer wrote a new Doc Savage adventure, but it was published under his own name and not by Robeson. Will Murray has since taken up the pseudonym and continued writing Doc Savage books as Robeson.

All 24 of the original stories featuring The Avenger were written by Paul Ernst, using the Robeson house name. In order to encourage sales Kenneth Robeson was credited on the cover of The Avenger magazine as "the creator of Doc Savage" even though Lester Dent had nothing to do with The Avenger series. In the 1970s, when the series was extended with 12 additional novels, Ron Goulart was hired to become Robeson.

Reviews

[Bruce Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like the old pulps, these two reprints are classics. Well-written, full of suspense and easy to read, Doc Savage was kick-ass before the term was invented. No matter who wrote these books, they had multiple authors, they stayed true to the storytelling origins.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't get me wrong, LOVE pulp fiction, but Doc Savage just never grabbed me, and still doesn't. Still, read a few of these if you're a fan of this most excellent era of American fiction.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

reread both of these in 2013; this edition is from the original manuscripts of each of these stories