Pulps Collected by Author Robert Weinberg


Robert Weinberg

Pulps Collection


Bob has collected pulp magazines, the fiction magazines published approximately from 1900 to the early 1950's, most of his life. He has a huge collection and has edited many books reprinting stories from the pulps. Pictured here are some of Bob's favorite pulps from his collection.


Soldiers of Fortune - 1932
Soldiers of Fortune - February 1932
Black Mask - September 1929
Black Mask - September 1929
Real Spicy Horror - April 1937
Real Spicy Horror - April 1937
Mind Magic - July 1931
Mind Magic -
July 1931
All About Television - 1927
All About Television - 1927

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Science and Invention - 1924
Science and Invention - August 1924
An SF cover two years before Amazing Stories was published!
Real Detective Tales - June 1924
Real Detective Tales - June 1924
Published by the same printer who also published Weird Tales. "The Bride of Siva" by Seabury Quinn was similar to the Jules de Grandin stories.
Strange Detective Stories - November 1933
Strange Detective Stories - November 1933
Very scarce.
Detective Book Magazine - Summer 1938
Detective Book Magazine - Summer 1938
Scarce reprint magazine, with the first reprint in pulp form of "Creep Shadow" by A. Merritt. One of the hardest Merritt items to locate.
Detective Book Magazine - Winter 1953
Detective Book Magazine - Winter 1953
Rare reprint of John Dickson Carr's horror novel, "The Burning Court" with a stunning Kelly Freas cover painting.

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The Angel Detective - July 1941
The Angel Detective - July 1941 - The only issue of this rare pulp featuring a masked detective and his Eskimo assistant.
The Popular Magazine - 2nd August issue, 1930
The Popular Magazine - 2nd August issue, 1930 - The Popular was a long-running action/adventure magazine. It rarely ran any science fiction. However, 1930 saw publication of "Morgo the Mighty" by Sean O'Larkin. This serial novel featured a number of incredible covers, including this one for the first installment of the story.
Telling Tales - 2nd October issue, 1924
Telling Tales - 2nd October issue, 1924. A risqué cover for this pulp about "speed, spice, and sparkle."

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The Popular Magazine - 1930
The Popular Magazine - 1930. One of the scarcest SF pulps ever is this issue of The Popular Magazine from 1930 with the 2nd installment of the serial, "Morgo the Mighty." This is the famous giant rooster cover!
Movie Action Magazine - November 1935
Movie Action Magazine - November 1935 - A pulp featuring stories based on upcoming movies, with photos from the films used as illustrations for the fiction.
Black-Hood Detective - September 1941
Black-Hood Detective - September 1941 - Another very rare detective hero pulp. The Black Hood also appeared as a comic book character in the early 1940's.

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Excitement - October 1930
Excitement - October 1930 - a fine copy of this scarce Street & Smith pulp magazine that lasted for 11 issues in 1930-1931. A great robot cover by Jerome Rozen illustrating "Kosmac, the Terror of the Iron Horde."
Excitement - November 1930
Excitement - November 1930 - A fine copy of this scarce pulp, featuring a great Rozen painting for "The Monster of Marong" by J. Allan Dunn. Also included in this issue was another Kosmac robot story, "The March of the Iron Men."

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Ace G-Men - 1942
ACE G-MEN - a striking cover from 1942 - This pulp featured several excellent series characters, the most popular being the Suicide Squad.
Operator 5 - December 1934
OPERATOR 5 - December 1934 cover - Bob's favorite pulp cover and one of the best pulp paintings ever done. Illustrating the novel, "Legions of Starvation." Art by John Newton Howitt.

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Dusty Ayres
DUSTY AYRES AND HIS BATTLE BIRDS was a futuristic air-war pulp series. It ran for 11 issues. When the decision was made to cancel the magazine, the final novel actually featured Dusty Ayres and his friends killing the evil villain trying to conquer the USA. It was perhaps the only hero pulp that actually featured a clear-cut end to the series.
The Spider - July 1939
THE SPIDER - July 1939 - The first hero pulp Bob ever bought, featuring the novel, "The Spider and the Slaves of Hell." In this scene, the villains plan to blow up an office building and have planted huge explosives on the roof. They've cut all the elevator cables. The Spider is captured at the scene of the carnage by the police. They're too busy to take him to jail so they put a ball and chain on his leg to keep him prisoner. While the police try to climb to the roof by the emergency stairs (blocked of course by the villains), the Spider takes matters into his own hands and climbs up the outside of the building, carrying the ball and chain with him! This cover, taken directly from the novel, shows the Spider reaching the rooftop, ball and chain slung over one arm, about to fight three villains armed only with a knife. They don't write stories like that anymore!!

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The Secret Six - November 1934
THE SECRET SIX - issue # 2, November 1934 - A great cover painting by Henry Alan.
The Thrill Book - August 1919
THE THRILL BOOK - August 15, 1919 issue. The cover for the first part of the serial, "The Head of Cerberus" by Francis Stevens. Many pulp scholars consider this novel the first alternate-world story ever published.

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The Thrill Book - October 1919
THE THRILL BOOK - October 1, 1919 - a famous cover! This same cover art was used 12 years later as the cover painting for the first issue of THE SHADOW. Street & Smith, the publishers of THE THRILL BOOK and THE SHADOW, didn't want to spend any money for a cover illo for the new magazine, so they decided to pick a painting already in stock. This cover was the only one that featured a shadow as part of the cover. However, the novel in the magazine, "The Living Shadow," didn't have an oriental villain. So, writer Walter Gibson was told by his editor to insert an oriental villain into the already finished story so that the novel would match the cover! The magazine, which no one expected to sell very well, was an immense hit, and lasted for 325 issues.
The Thrill Book - March 1919
THE THRILL BOOK - March 1, 1919 - the scarce first issue of the magazine most pulp collectors feel is the rarest of all pulp runs. THE THRILL BOOK lasted for 16 issues bi-weekly, all published in 1919. Only a few complete sets are known to exist. Bob owns six of the sixteen issues.

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Dime Detective
DIME DETECTIVE was one of the great detective pulps. It had some terrific covers. Here are a few of Bob's favorites.
June 15, 1934 by John Howitt.
Dime Dective
DIME DETECTIVE was one of the great detective pulps. It had some terrific covers. Here are a few of Bob's favorites.
February 15, 1934 by John Howitt.
Dime Detective
DIME DETECTIVE was one of the great detective pulps. It had some terrific covers. Here are a few of Bob's favorites.
April 15, 1934 by John Howitt.
Dime Detective
DIME DETECTIVE was one of the great detective pulps. It had some terrific covers. Here are a few of Bob's favorites.
October 1932 by William Reusswig.
Jungle Stories
One of the rare Clayton pulps JUNGLE STORIES from 1931.
Buck Jones
BUCK JONES is one of the rarest of all western pulp titles.
Astounding 1930
Astounding was perhaps the greatest of the early SF magazines. Early issues had stunning covers.
January 1930 (the first issue) with cover art by Wesso.
Astounding 1931
Astounding was perhaps the greatest of the early SF magazines. Early issues had stunning covers.
Another great Wesso cover, for May 1931. This painting defines the term, BEM, a bug-eyed monster!
Astounding 1931
Astounding was perhaps the greatest of the early SF magazines. Early issues had stunning covers.
The Red Hell on Jupiter, Oct 1931, by Wesso.
Astounding 1933
Astounding was perhaps the greatest of the early SF magazines. Early issues had stunning covers.
Beyond the Sphinxes' Cave, Nov 1933, art by Howard V. Brown.

EXCITEMENT
Another early issue of EXCITEMENT magazine.
EXCITEMENT
Another rare issue of EXCITEMENT with an SF cover.
All-Detective
All-Detective was one of the scarcest mystery pulps of the early 1930's.
All-Detective
Another great All-Detective cover by Norman Saunders.
All-Detective
All-Detective ran a number of "Click Rush" stories by Lester Dent.
All-Detective
Another scarce issue of All-Detective.
Soldiers of Fortune
One of the other three issues of Soldiers of Fortune, published in 1931.
Soldiers of Fortune
another issue of Soldier of Fortune. The third of the four issues published.
Soldiers of Fortune
the fourth and final issue of Soldier of Fortune from 1931.
Weird Tales
A great Weird Tales cover by Margaret Brundage, June 1933.
Weird Tales
Another great Brundage Weird Tales cover for September 1933.
Weird Tales
Another great Brundage painting for December 1934 Weird Tales.
Weird Tales
The stunning Brundage painting for the first part of the serial, "Red Nails," published in Weird Tales, July 1936.

All-American Fiction was a short-run magazine started by Argosy Publications in 1937 to expand its readership in the adventure fields. Unlike its incredibly popular sister-magazine, Argosy, All-American did not run any serials or continue novels in its issues. As advertised on the cover, every story was complete in the issue. Unfortunately, readers seemed to prefer long adventure serials and the All-American format did not last very long. The magazine was folded back into Argosy with the November issue of Argosy.

Noted authors who appeared in All-American included Richard Sale, J. Bedford-Junes, Ted Roscoe, Joel Townsley Rogers, Max Brand, Cornell Woolrich, Murray Leinster, Luke Short, and Gordon Chase.

All-American Fiction All-American Fiction All-American Fiction All-American Fiction
All-American Fiction All-American Fiction All-American Fiction All-American Fiction

The Octopus and The Scorpion were both one-shot pulps published in 1939 by Popular Publications in hopes of capturing fan attention with wild villains. Neither pulp succeeded and they only lasted a single issue. Both novels were credited as being written by Randolph Craig. It was thought that Craig was a house named used by Norvell Page, author of most of the Spidernovels. In researching the Popular magazine files, Bob turned up checks crediting Ejler Jacobson with writing the two stories.

The Octopus The Scorpion

Dr. Yen Sin was the featured villain for three issues of his own magazine published by Popular Publications. Like Wu Fang before him, he was a sinister oriental with plans to conquer the United States. The novels were Fu Manchu imitations but written without Sax Rohmer's talent.

Dr. Yen Sin: The Mystery of the Dragon's Shadow Dr. Yen Sin: The Mystery of the Singing Mummies Dr. Yen Sin: The Mystery of the Golden Skull

Among the many magazines Bob collects, one of the most interesting is Science and Invention, published by Hugo Gernsback, considered the father of modern science fiction. Science and Invention was a continuation of Gernsback's earlier magazine, Electrical Experimenter, with a somewhat wider scope. The magazine was published from 1920 (when its name was changed from Electrical Experimenter) to 1931, when it ceased publication during the worst of the Depression. Gernsback printed numerous speculative non-fiction articles in Science and Invention. He also published a number of science fiction novels in serial format, with many of the serials running 8 or 9 installments. Frank R. Paul illustrated most of these serials, many of which were written by Ray Cummings. Notable among the serials was A. Merritt's rewritten version of his novel The Metal Monster, which had been previously published in All-Story, and which Gernsback retitled The Metal Emperor. Perhaps the most famous issue of Science and Invention was the August 1923 issue of the magazine which Gernsback called his special "Scientific Fiction Number." It's been suggested that this issue was a try-out for Amazing Stories, which Gernsback began publishing in April 1926. Reproduced below are some of the many Science and Invention issues in Bob's collection.

Science and Invention - June 1920
June 1920 -- A transition issue from Electrical Experimenter to the new title, Science and Invention)
Science and Invention - February 1921
February 1921 -- With a wonderful cover by Howard V. Browne
Science and Invention - March 1923
March 1923 - Reprinting H.G. Wells' story, "The Star"
Science and Invention - May 1923
May 1923 - The automobile of 1973 (50 years in the future!)
Science and Invention - February 1926
February 1926 - A piano that works by light beams. Something still not invented
Science and Invention - November 1926
November 1926 - With a serial installment of "Into the 4th Dimension" by Ray Cummings
Science and Invention - January 1928
January 1928 - With the fourth installment of 'The Metal Emperor' by A. Merritt
Science and Invention - July 1928
July 1928 - With a wonderful octopus cover and the tenth installment of 'The Metal Emperor. Also with an incredible double-page illustration by Frank R. Paul

Science and Invention - August 1923 August 1923

The famous Scientific Fiction Number,
with the short story, 'The Man from the Atom,'
a worlds-within-worlds story by G. Peyton
Wertenbaker, along with the serial,
'Around the Universe' by Ray Cummings.

Pirate Stories and High-Seas Adventures were two pulps published by Hugo Gernsback in the 1930's. The two magazines were both bi-monthly and alternated issues. Thus the first issue of Pirate Stories was dated and published in November 1934, while the first issue of High-Seas Adventures was dated and published in December 1934. Then came Pirate Stories, January 1935, followed by High-Seas for February 1935, etc.. Unfortunately, neither magazine caught on with the reading public. High-Seas only lasted for four issues and then was combined with Pirate Stories. Pirate Stories lasted four issues on its own, then combined with High-Seas for two more issues. In total, there were ten issues of the two pulps, four of High-Seas and six of Pirate Stories.

Each issue of the two pulps featured a complete novel of adventure on the high seas or of piracy. These novels were written by some of the top pulp adventure scribes of the time, including such stalwarts as F. van Wick Mason, Captain Dingle, Morgan Robertson, and others. Expensive writers, especially for Hugo Gernsback who had a well-deserved reputation for being tight with a dollar. Some research by pulp fans revealed the truth about the novels - they were reprints of stories that had run as serials in other pulps like Argosy and All-Story magazines. Gernsback no doubt bought second magazine rights, a move similar to what he did with early issues of Amazing, filling his magazines with reprints instead of original material. Since there wasn't much of a market for pulp adventure fiction in the mainstream book field, publishers jumped at the chance to earn any extra money from their serials. A typical reprint fee offered by Gernsback in the 1930's was 1/7th of a cent per word, or $100 for a 70,000 word novel. No writer ever got rich being published by Hugo Gernsback.

Bob has complete sets of Pirate Stories and High-Seas Adventures. They are definitely one of the more interesting runs of the 1930's pulps.

Pirate Guns Shaghaied Skull Island The War Game Pirate Vengeance
Outlaw of the Sea Galeons of Death The Sea Rogue The Son of Long John Silver The Pearl Gang


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