Pulp Magazine Authors and Literature Fans discussion

I've been reading Harold Lamb's pulp stories over the last few months, and I have to say I've really enjoyed them. University of Nebraska's Bison Press has published 8 volumes of Lamb's old pulp stories and I eventually hope to aquire and read them all. I'm currently in a little bit of a quandry because I own volumes 3 and 4 - Riders of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Three and Swords of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Four so I've actually started and read some of both - but I was able to check out volumes 1 and 2 - Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume One and Warriors of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Two from the library so I'm trying to read at least some of them before I have to turn the books in. So far reading the stories out of order doesn't seem to diminish my enjoyment of them at all.
Lamb was a major influence on Robert E. Howard and his stories of historical adventure are both fast paced and interesting, with little plot twists you don't always see coming. The first 4 volumes that Bison has reprinted are most of Lamb's tales of a character called Khlit the Cossack, who has adventures across middle Asia around the early 1600's. Lamb was actually a fairly good historical non fiction writer who later made his money penning biographies of historical figures such as Genghis Khan (see his Genghis Khan: Emperor of All Men ) and Hannibal among others, so even his fiction from the pulps seems to be very well researched. Just reading some of the stories made me want to go out and read some histories of the Cossacks, Russia in the 1600's and the Mogul Empire, among other subjects.
The series is edited by Howard A. Jones who's a writer of historical fiction in his own right and I think did a really good job of pulling these stories together and rescuing them from being forgotten.
Any of you who like historical adventure fiction would find these interesting I think.

Lamb's Omar Khayyam was an early favorite of mine along with Tamerlane the Earth Shaker. I hadn't realized he was an influence on REH. That's neat.

I've been collecting a few of Lamb's novels; but I do need to get off my ass and start reading more of him. The only book I've read by Lamb thus far is "A Garden to the Eastward."
While on the topic... one of Lamb's books that I own is called "The Three Palladins." "Three Palladins" is another one of Lamb's Genghis Khan novels. Here on Goodreads, I see this book is listed as thus: "The Three Palladins" (Tales of the Werewolf Clan). Now, if you click on Amazon.com, you will also notice the book listed in the same manner: "Three Palladins" (Tales of the Werewolf Clan). Well, I don't see this "Tales of the Werewolf Clan" stuff written anywhere on my copy of "The Three Pallidins."
There is another author, however, who does have a book(s) titled "Tales of the Werewolf Clan." That writer would be H. Warner Munn, and I do own his "Tales of the Werewolf Clan," Volume II.
In any event, this is puzzling to me. If anyone could proffer up some insight on this, I'd appreciate it. I'm thinking Amazon.com might have misnamed Lamb's "Three Palladins," getting it confused with H. Munn's books, but I'm not for certain. Three Palladins

O'Ruairc, thanks for bringing that boo-boo in the Goodreads database to my attention. A lot of these records are just imported Amazon records; so any accidental conflation in Amazon's database winds up getting repeated here. As a Goodreads librarian, I went to the Three Palladins record just now and edited out the conflation in the title.

Steven, I'll keep this series by Lamb in mind for future reading! (I won't add it to my shelves until I move a few dozen books that are there now to the "read" shelf, though --one Goodreader has complained about people using the "to-read" option to pad their book totals, and mine is probably so padded already that it looks like it's in a "fat suit." :-))

Thank you much, Werner, for identifying and correcting the issue I had with Lamb's "Three Palladins." I was mightily confused by it. You librarian-types are alright in my book. You ought to go work for Amazon.com. Hell, it seems those jugheads are needing someone to square them away.

You're welcome, O'Ruairc! Glad I can help out once in awhile. :-)

I did recently order Swords from the West because HL was a big fav of my literary hero REH and today i picked up the book from the bookstore. It looked awesome !

So i'm reading Swords from the West collection right now.

After the first story i saw the quality of his writing,what made him so important in his time. A calmer version of REH historical adventure writing. I will enjoy spending time on his 600 page collection.

Good to know taking a chance on a book,new author that cost me $40 is worth it.

I hope you like it Mohammed, I haven't read SFTW yet, but I'm looking forward to getting to it after finishing off the Cossack volumes.

One book that is out there in the same spirit as Lamb's fiction is Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure by Michael Chabon. Chabon mentions Michael Moorcock as a main inspiration, but I can definitely see touches of both Fritz Leiber and Lamb in the book. It's set in the same Central Asia setting tha Lamb loved, although during an earlier period, the 11th century. I've glanced at it and it looks like a rousing adventure story that most anyone in the group would probably enjoy. It's on my way too long "to be read" list, although I plan on getting around to it before my school starts back in August...

Ó Ruaírc wrote: "I've been collecting a few of Lamb's novels; but I do need to get off my ass and start reading more of him. The only book I've read by Lamb thus far is "A Garden to the Eastward."
While on the top..."

You mention H. Warner Munn and his Tales of the Werewolf Clan in your post. Those are some stories that I've always wanted to read. The first one The Werewolf of Ponkert is pretty easy to find and fairly affordable, but the later tales are rare and pretty pricey. I wish someone would reprint them...

Chabon knows his classic fantasy,pulp writers. I have seen him hail in mainstream mags fav writers like Jack Vance,REH.

I disliked his Policeman book that was a lame noir book but i might try his regular books later.

Mohammed wrote: "I disliked his Policeman book that was a lame noir book but i might try his regular books later."

If that's the only novel by Chabon you've read, Mohammed, I recommend trying The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay at some point. As a comics fan, I think you might like it. I really did.

Steven,

In addition to Munn's, Tales of the Werewolf Clan, Volume II, I discovered that I also have, The Werewolf of Ponkert on my shelves. When the mood so takes me, I'll get around to reading them. I generally like going through my horror stories during the fall, around the time of Halloween. I'm not familiar with Chabon; in truth, I'm not familiar with many contemporary writers at all, but I will mark the recommendations you fellas listed in these posts, thanks!

Adam wrote: "Mohammed wrote: "I disliked his Policeman book that was a lame noir book but i might try his regular books later."

If that's the only novel by Chabon you've read, Mohammed, I recommend trying The ..."

Yeah i have heard good things about that book. The comics fan in me thought it sounded interesting when i first read about it.

Is this a Michael Chabon blog, or a Harold Lamb blog? I'm starting to loose track.

For your information, I am about to make a great revelation in literature here: There are two authors named "Harold Lamb." A hush fell over the room, and then...

It is the truth. Author number 1, whom we all remember as the author of "The Crusades," "The Curved Saber," "Durandal," and many more is Harold Lamb #1- His full name is "Harold Albert Lamb." Harold Lamb # 2 is known as "Harold Lamb." He is the author of about 8 western novels, including, "Son Of Tobias," "John Gideon Shaw," and "Hillbilly justice," to name only a few.

And this is about as far as my research has gone so far. Finding information so far, for two authors with the same
name, has been pretty difficult. I am trying to come up with a complete list of the works of Harold Lamb, but have not found one yet. He has written one book, "Son of Tobias," which I can't even locate a copy of the picture on the dust jacket anywhere on the Internet. I didn't believe something like that was possible.

So anyone who can find any information more definate they would like to share, please let me know. Contact me here.

Bruce Nordstrom

Hi Bruce, I have a pretty extensive list of what Harold Lamb #1 wrote. Send me your email to pachecomictx@gmail.com and I will send it to you or you can go to http://www.haroldlamb.com/. I believe they have them all there.
Michael Pacheco

Thanks for the offer, but I'm just now working on the list. I'll post it when I know it.

Bruce

I spent an hour or so looking for "Harold Lamb," on the OCLC website today. And trust me, things can get confusing when you have 2 authors and one name.

I think I got very lucky with the research, since OCLC lists this "other" Harold Lamb as "Lamb, Harold 1912-" and the "real" Harold Lamb as "Lamb, Harold 1892 - 1962." Otherwise I think the confusion of referring to one Lamb, and the other person thinking you meant the other one could have been even more confusing.

So HL-1912, is the author of "Hillbilly Justice," "Son of Tobias," "Silver City," "The Mexican," "Return to Silver City," "Killing Spree," "The Striker," and "John Gideon Shaw."

Still going to do some looking for HL 1912, and see if I can find some bio information. I cannot locate cover pictures for "Son of Tobias," or "Killing Spree," after looking on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and a few others. Google is next, I guess.

If anyone else has notice this confusion of 2 authors with the same name, please feel free to contribute anything you like. These stories are all Westerns, and I haven't read any of them, so I won't be doing any reviewing of books until I have read at least one. Haven't checked at GoodReads for reviews yet either. One more item for my list.

Bye for now.

Bruce

Yes, I bought the book "Silver City" awhile back thinking it was the Harold Lamb of Adventure Magazine, etc and found out differently. ON the Harold Lamb website he did not write westerns. The second Harold Lamb wrote mostly westerns I believe.

I found out yesterday I made a mistake in the information I sent you. Harold Lamb #2 is "Harold Lamb, 1929-." That doesn't make this much better, but...

Bruce

I've read a fair bit of Lamb -- the first three Bison collections and the stuff put out by Donald M. Grant and The Crusades: The Whole Story of the Crusades and a few others. Someday I need to try some of his other biographies and historical non-fiction.

And I wish (probably in vain) that Bison would release another fiction volume -- Howard Andrew Jones at one point said he wanted to do one more volume with the complete Durandal and some other bits & bobs, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hope these websites will interest you.
House of the Falcon, by Harold Lamb, online: https://archive.org/stream/housefalco...

Lamb’s stories from “Collier’s,” online, printable w/ pix: http://www.unz.org/Author/LambHarold

Bruce