Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Exciting Western, December 1944

This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my rather ragged copy in the scan. The cover art is by Sam Cherry, not one of his best, in my opinion, but still a decent cover.

Despite being called a novel on the cover, the lead story in this issue is more of a novelette. It’s “The Dude Wrangler” by William Polk. This is a contemporary Western, set on a dude ranch in West Texas during World War II. Young cowboy Tom Glenning rides in looking for a job. Tom’s family once owned the spread when it was a working cattle ranch, but when he inherited it, he lost the place because he was such a wastrel. Now he’s reformed and just looking for a job, with no hard feelings. Or so he says. It won’t take readers very long to realize that this is one of those stories where nothing is what it appears to be. And the author does a good job of spinning a highly entertaining yarn.

William Polk has ten stories listed in the Fictionmags Index. The first nine of them appeared in the Twenties and Thirties in various slick and literary magazines. “The Dude Wrangler” is the tenth story in that list, and it’s the only Western and the only pulp story. Which leads me to suspect that “William Polk” is a pseudonym, probably slapped on by a Thrilling Group editor who was unaware of the previous stories published under that byline. However, that’s pure speculation on my part. Maybe the other William Polk actually did have a pulp Western story in him. Chances are we’ll never know, and it’s a good story no matter who wrote it.

Bascom Sturgill appears to have been the real name of an author who published a dozen stories in various Western pulps during the Forties. His short-short in this issue, “Snake-Bite Justice”, is about an old prospector seeking to avenge his partner’s murder. It’s well-written, has a nice little twist in the end, and is a pretty good story.

I’ve always found the series about Alamo Paige, Pony Express rider, to be okay, some stories better than others (which is to be expected in a house-name series) but always readable. The novelette in this issue, “The Pony Express Pays Off”, finds Paige and another Pony Express rider trying to save a fortune in diamonds that will rescue the company from debt. There’s a considerable amount of action, but at the same time the story seems to meander around a lot, filling pages but not in a very compelling fashion. I’d say this is a below average entry in the series. I don’t have any idea who wrote it under the name Reeve Walker, but I did notice a couple of oddities in style that might help me identify him someday: characters have a habit of exclaiming “What in time!” and they carry their guns in “skin-holsters”.

I’ve come to be fond of the work of Archie Joscelyn, who was a prolific pulpster but wrote even more novels under his own name and several pseudonyms, most notable among them Al Cody and Lynn Westland. His story in this issue, “Out of the Horse’s Mouth”, is an entertaining tale about a circus performer who’s framed for a robbery and murder. It’s well-written, moves right along, and has just enough of a clever plot to be interesting. Joscelyn was a consistently good author.

I don’t know anything about Hal White except that he published about fifty stories in the pulps, a mixture of Westerns, air war stories, and detective yarns. His short-short in this issue, “Man on a Horse”, about an outlaw seeking revenge on a lawman, isn’t very good. I had to read the ending twice just to figure out what happened, and I wasn’t impressed when I did understand it.

Donald Bayne Hobart is another writer, like Archie Joscelyn, who was both prolific and consistently good. “Job for the Boss”, his story in this issue, is about a young cowboy trying to bring about peace between a couple of feuding old-timers, one of whom is the owner of the spread the cowboy rides for. It’s okay, reasonably entertaining but nothing more than that, and not one of the better efforts I’ve read from Hobart.

I’ve become quite a fan of the Navajo Tom Raine series, especially the novelettes written by C. William Harrison under the Jackson Cole house-name. I’m pretty sure that “Not By a Dam Site” is by Harrison, and it’s another in a run of top-notch stories that includes “Boothill Beller Box” in the previous issue and “Passport to Perdition” in the issue after this. “Not By a Dam Site”, as you’d probably guess, centers around government efforts to build a dam and flood a valley in Arizona, and the resistance to that plan from the townspeople, ranchers, and homesteaders who live in that valley. A couple of government surveyors have died under mysterious circumstances, and Arizona Ranger Tom Raine is sent in to get to the bottom of things. He does, of course, after some suitable action. However, the plot’s not quite as complex in this one and the action a bit more sparse than usual, so I wouldn’t put it in the top rank of Navajo Raine stories, but it’s still entertaining and well worth reading. Raine is an excellent character.

I’d say this is a pretty average issue overall of EXCITING WESTERN. It begins and ends very well with “The Dude Wrangler” and “Not By a Dam Site”. The stories in between are okay with the one exception, but none of them are outstanding. If you have a copy on hand, it’s worth reading, but I wouldn’t go to a lot of trouble to rustle one up.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Famous Western, Summer 1944

That's a nice dramatic cover on this issue of FAMOUS WESTERN, although the hand holding the knife looks 'way too large to me. It's almost as big as the other guy's head! There are some good authors inside, including T.W. Ford, Joe Austell Small, Wilbur S. Peacock, and Archie Joscelyn. Also on hand are Lee Floren, Brett Austin (Lee Floren), Lee Thomas (also Lee Floren), Charles S. Richardson, the completely unknown to me James Lebur (he published a dozen stories in various Western pulps, but I don't recall ever coming across his name before), and house-name Cliff Campbell. Hmm, wonder if that could be Lee Floren? I wouldn't rule it out.

The Nightmare Riders - Lynn Westland (Archie Joscelyn)

The very prolific Archie Joscelyn’s best-known pseudonym was Al Cody, but he wrote quite a few Western novels under the name Lynn Westland, too. THE NIGHTMARE RIDERS is an early Westland novel, published by lending library publisher Phoenix Press in 1940. My copy doesn't have a dust jacket, but I found the above image on-line.

This novel makes use of the old amnesia plot. I used it myself in one of my Longarms, I recall. In THE NIGHTMARE RIDERS, a drifting cowpoke who can’t remember who he is comes across a bushwhacked old-timer who recognizes him and calls him by the name Jody Johnson. But who is Jody Johnson? The old-timer dies before he can reveal that. Jody decides he might as well use that name, even though it means nothing to him, and soon discovers that the murdered man owned a ranch and had a beautiful granddaughter. The local saloon owner/cattle baron has his eyes on the ranch and also on a gold mine located on the spread, even though the diggings have never paid off. Jody hangs around to help the granddaughter, of course, and maybe find out more about who he really is.

That doesn’t take long, because he soon sees the deputy in town tacking up a reward poster stating that Jody Johnson is wanted for murder.

Well, we’re off on a whirlwind of action after that, as Jody foils the villain’s schemes and gradually uncovers the truth of his own identity. Joscelyn’s prose, especially at this stage of his career, runs toward the melodramatic, but a little purple prose never bothered me much. There are some excellent, highly suspenseful scenes late in the book that take place in the mine’s underground tunnels. I’m a little claustrophobic to start with, and this section was genuinely creepy to me. The ending’s not quite as dramatic as it could have been, but it still worked okay.

THE NIGHTMARE RIDERS reminded me of a 1930s B-Western movie, maybe not top tier Republic Pictures stuff, but better than, say, Monogram or PRC. It’s not one of Archie Joscelyn’s best novels but I still had a fine time reading it.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Lariat Story Magazine, December 1934

I'm not a big fan of artist Fred Craft, but I'll admit that his cover for this early issue of LARIAT STORY MAGAZINE is pretty dynamic. And the line-up of authors in this issue can't be beat: Walt Coburn, Eugene Cunningham, Tom Roan, Richard Wormser, James P. Olsen, C.K. Shaw, Archie Joscelyn, and house-name John Starr. Lots of good reading there, I'll bet.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Ace-High Western Stories, May 1945

Another dramatic, action-packed cover on this issue of ACE-HIGH WESTERN STORIES. I don't know the artist. As always with Western pulps from Popular Publications, the lineup of authors is a good one and the story titles are great. On hard are prolific Western pulpsters Thomas Thompson, Wayne D. Overholser, Archie Joscelyn, and M. Howard Lane, but the lead-off story in this issue is by science fiction legend Clifford D. Simak. Simak was a solid enough Western writer that I think he could have made a bigger name for himself in that genre if he'd wanted to, but of course his main interests lay elsewhere.

Bitter Creek - Al Cody (Archie Joscelyn)

Al Cody is the pseudonym most often used by Montana Western writer Archie Joscelyn, who also wrote novels under his own name and the name Lynn Westland. Joscelyn got his start in the pulps in the 1920s but became a lot more prolific during the Thirties, when he turned out stories for WILD WEST WEEKLY under various house-names in addition to publishing quite a bit under his own name. He didn’t start using the Cody and Westland names until the Forties, but over time, Al Cody became the best-known of all the names Joscelyn used, although he still turned out a lot of paperback Westerns under his real name.

It was as Al Cody that Joscelyn wrote the novella “Bitter Creek”, which first appeared in the January 1947 issue of the pulp WESTERN ACTION. He expanded it into a full-length novel which was published in hardback by Dodd, Mead in July of that same year. Without comparing the two versions, I don’t imagine Joscelyn had to expand the novella very much, since it occupied 50 pages of small print in the pulp. The novel version also came out in paperback from Pocket Books in December 1950. It was also reprinted in paperback by Avon in 1960. I featured the pulp in one of my Saturday Morning Western Pulp posts a while back and decided to read the novel, so I found a copy of the Pocket Books edition. That’s it in the scan, ugly sticker pull and all.

The protagonist, Clyde Cassel, returns to his hometown in the Bitter Creek country of Montana following the Civil War. He comes back minus the right arm he lost in battle and also without the girl he was engaged to marry, who up and married an old rival while Cassel was off fighting the war. Not only that, the same lowdown skunk also took over Cassel’s ranch while he was gone. So he comes home an embittered cripple . . . but it’s not long before folks are trying to kill him and the town boss—who may or may not be a crook—offers him the job of marshal. Cassel finds himself caught in the middle of a power struggle between this unexpected ally and his old enemy, and anyone who underestimates him because he has only one arm is in for a surprise.

The premise of this book—the hero coming home from the war only to find himself in danger because everything has changed—is pretty standard in Westerns, and in other genres, as well. Quite a few hardboiled crime novels from the late Forties and Fifties use the same plot. The appeal depends on the execution, and Joscelyn does a pretty darned good job of that, giving us a rough around the edges but still likable protagonist, some despicable villains, an unexpected plot twist or two, a well-done romantic angle that’s not too obtrusive, and a few characters who are hard to pin down. Not everything turns out the way you think it might, which is always a bonus.

Joscelyn’s prose had some occasional clumsiness to it that never goes away completely even in his best books, and that’s true in this one. But there’s some really excellent writing, as well, and the same sense of authenticity that’s to be found in Walt Coburn’s work. BITTER CREEK isn’t the best of Joscelyn’s novels I’ve read so far—I think DOOMROCK, POWDER BURNS, and THE THUNDERING HILLS are better—but it’s right up there close to the same level. I really enjoyed it, and if you’re a traditional Western reader and haven’t tried anything by Archie Joscelyn or Al Cody yet, BITTER CREEK wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Wild West Weekly, July 27, 1929

Remington Schuyler was the regular cover artist for WILD WEST WEEKLY during the late Twenties. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of his work, but I like this one pretty well. WILD WEST WEEKLY always published a lot of series and house-name stories, of course, and this issue is no exception. The lead feature for a number of years was the Billy West/Circle J series, published under the house-name Cleve Endicott. The one in this issue is actually by Phil Richards, who wrote the Kid Calvert series in WESTERN ACES that I liked a lot. Also on hand are J. Allan Dunn with a Whistlin' Kid story as by Emery Jackson; Galen C. Colin with a Lum Yates story as by Collins Hafford; a Looshus Carey story by Houston Irvine (don't know either of those names); a Ranny Kid story by Clee Woods (I've at least heard of Clee Woods and seen his name on many Western pulp TOCs), and non-series stories by Stephen Payne, Archie Joscelyn, Paul S. Powers (twice, as by Philip F. Deere and Kent Bennett), and Gip Akin, whoever he was.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Action, January 1947

The cover on this issue of WESTERN ACTION is credited to Robert Stanley. It doesn't look exactly like a typical Stanley cover to me, but maybe I'm just used to his Mike Shayne covers. Archie Joscelyn has two stories in this issue, one under his own name and the lead novella as by Al Cody. Also on hand are T.W. Ford, Ralph Berard (Victor H. White), and Cliff Campbell, the last of those a house-name who could have been any of the other guys in this issue, or even none of them, although that doesn't seem likely. The Columbia pulps edited by Robert W. Lowndes were low-budget affairs but often quite good.

As a bonus, here's the cover of the Pocket Books edition of the novel BITTER CREEK, under the Al Cody by-line. There was also a hardback edition published by Dodd, Mead.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Cowboy Stories, November 1934

Great cover by Tom Lovell on this issue of COWBOY STORIES, and some fine writers inside, too: Philip Ketchum, James P. Olsen, Archie Joscelyn, S. Omar Barker, John Colohan, house-name Ken Martin, and some lesser-known writers, H. Fredric Young, Lee Willenborg, and Rand Rios. This one would sure catch a potential buyer's eye on the newsstand.

Forgotten Books: Legion of the Lawless - Lynn Westland (Archie Joscelyn)

Archie Joscelyn’s writing career lasted for more than fifty years, starting in the pulps in 1921 and continuing until the late Seventies. He wrote hundreds of stories, mostly for the Western pulps, but he’s best remembered for the Western novels (at least two hundred of them) he wrote under his name and the pseudonyms Al Cody, Lynn Westland, and Tex Holt.

I’ve read a number of Joscelyn’s novels and have found him to be a consistently entertaining author of traditional Westerns, with his books ranging from good to excellent, other than the novels from very late in his career, which are not good. Recently, I read his Lynn Westland novel LEGION OF THE LAWLESS, published by Harlequin in 1953, back when Harlequin published other genres besides romances. That’s my copy in the scan.

This novel takes place soon after the Civil War and concerns the Army’s effort to control the bands of former guerrillas who have turned outlaw and are preying on the cattle drives that have started up the trails from Texas to the railhead in Missouri. Captain Phil Lansing is in command of the cavalrymen sent to track down the mysterious leader of the renegades known as Texas Red. Lansing and his men encounter a cattle drive up from the San Saba country in Texas, being led by a beautiful young woman named Joan Ellis. Lansing falls for her, of course, never realizing that her brother is actually the infamous Texas Red, who has promised the herd safe passage through the region controlled by the renegades.

With some writers, that would be enough plot for a book right there, but Joscelyn often has some oddball twist in his tales, and that’s true here. Stalwart cavalry officer Phil Lansing is the nominal protagonist of the book, but it’s none other than Texas Red Ellis, the notorious outlaw his own self, who turns out to be the hero. Like an owlhoot GAME OF THRONES, there are others vying for power among the renegades, plus the threat of Indians, so Joscelyn has plenty going on as the action stampedes toward an epic showdown in an Indian burial ground. (Yes, there is an actual stampede. Of course there is.)

LEGION OF THE LAWLESS isn’t in the top rank of the Joscelyn books I’ve read (DOOMROCK and THE THUNDERING HILLS are the best I’ve encountered so far), but it’s a good solid traditional Western with just enough interesting angles to set it apart. Joscelyn is one of those writers whose prose can range from slightly awkward to vivid and poetic, sometimes on the same page. If he’d been a little more consistent in his writing, I think he would be better remembered than he is. I enjoyed this book and I’m glad I have probably two dozen more of Archie Joscelyn’s novels on my shelves. If you’re a fan of traditional Westerns, he’s worth reading.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Short Stories, December 1942

There's so much happening on this cover, I thought at first it might be by Norman Saunders. But it's not listed on his website and I don't think the style is quite right to be one of his. However, lots of action there and I still like it. Inside is a pretty good bunch of authors, including Tom W. Blackburn, James P. Olsen, Gunnison Steele, Ralph Berard, Archie Joscelyn, Kenneth Fowler, and Rod Patterson. 

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Wild West Weekly, December 27, 1941

You can't really tell this is a Christmas issue by looking at the cover art on this WILD WEST WEEKLY, but it says so right there: "A Thrilling Sonny Tabor Novel of Christmas by Ward M. Stevens". The story is actually called "Six-Gun Santa". Paul S. Powers, who wrote the Sonny Tabor series under the Stevens pseudonym, has a second Christmas story in this issue under his own name, called "Vigilante Christmas". Also on hand are stories by Norman A. Fox (writing as Clint McLeod), William R. Cox, Chuck Martin, Archie Joscelyn (writing as Andrew A. Griffin), R.S. Lerch, and a poem by S. Omar Barker. All that probably would be enough to get me in the Christmas spirit. 

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Cowboy Stories, June 1936

Since Robert E. Howard Days is going on in Cross Plains, Texas, this weekend, here's a pulp featuring one of his stories. As I understand it, the dates on pulp magazines were actually off-sale dates, not on-sale dates, so this issue of COWBOY STORIES would have been on the newsstands before Howard's death on June 11 and unsold copies would have been pulled a few days before that. Howard's name isn't on the cover, but inside is his story "A Man-Eating Jeopard", featuring his character Buckner Jeopardy Grimes. This issue also features a novella by Luke Short and stores by S. Omar Barker, Archie Joscelyn, Hapsburg Leibe, and Alfred L. Garry.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Story, January 2, 1943

Another good cover on this issue of the iconic WESTERN STORY, and two of the best Western writers ever, T.T. Flynn and Peter Dawson (Jonathan Glidden) have stories inside. The Dawson is an installment of his serial "Trail Boss", the novel version of which was reprinted by Bantam, an edition I remember reading in junior high. Also on hand are several other enjoyable authors such as Archie Joscelyn, Victor H. White (writing as Ralph Berard), and M. Howard Lane. 

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: North-West Romances, Spring 1944

Here's another good Mountie cover on this issue of NORTH-WEST ROMANCES. I don't know who the artist is, but I know there are some fine authors with stories in this issue, with the biggest name probably being Dan Cushman. Two authors better known for Westerns rather than Northerns are also on hand, William Heuman and Archie Joscelyn, both of them writers I like quite a bit. Fiction House regular R.S. Lerch contributes a story, as well. Looks like a good issue of the leading Northern pulp.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Wild West Weekly, December 26, 1942

This is the Christmas issue of WILD WEST WEEKLY from 1942. There's a Christmas poem by S. Omar Barker and a Christmas story by Norman W. Hay writing under the house-name William A. Todd, but judging by the titles, that's the extent of the holiday content. Although "Border Blizzard" by Lynn Westland (Archie Joscelyn) might be a Christmas story, I don't know. Other authors include Walker A. Tompkins with a White Wolf story under the Hal Dunning name, James P. Webb, and Wayne D. Overholser.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Blue Ribbon Western, February 1946

Nice atmospheric cover on this issue of BLUE RIBBON WESTERN. That looks like the work of H.W. Scott to me, but I'm not sure I'm right. Inside are stories by Archie Joscelyn, who I've found to be a pretty reliably entertaining Western author under that name as well as his pseudonyms Al Cody and Lynn Westland; Lee Floren, one of his yarns featuring Buck McKee, which are generally some of Floren's best work; and Joe Austell Small, a fairly prolific author of Western pulp yarns but best remembered as the long-time editor and publisher of the magazines TRUE WEST and FRONTIER TIMES.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Exciting Western, April 1946

Injury to a hat alert! I like this cover by Sam Cherry, as I do most of Cherry's work. I also like EXCITING WESTERN, especially the Tombstone and Speedy stories by W.C. Tuttle. They're not as good as the Hashknife and Sleepy stories, but they're pretty entertaining. There's also an Alamo Paige story by Reeve Walker (a house name; I think maybe Walker Tompkins wrote this series), and stories by Syl McDowell, Gunnison Steele (Bennie Gardner), Archie Joscelyn, and Barry Scobee (the pride of Fort Davis, Texas). Looks like a good issue.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Famous Western, March 1943

We're right in the middle of a saloon gunfight on the cover of this issue of FAMOUS WESTERN. Looks like the work of H.W. Scott to me, but I could be wrong about that. Inside are stories by Chuck Martin, Archie Joscelyn, Lee Floren (twice, once under his name and once as Cliff Campbell), and Fred Gipson, the author of OLD YELLER his own self, among other, lesser-known scribblers. Edited by Robert W. Lowndes, of course.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Wild West Weekly, March 9, 1940

Was Sonny Tabor the most popular character who ever appeared in WILD WEST WEEKLY? Maybe. Those stories were featured on the cover many times, as in the case of this issue with a nice cover by Richard Case. In addition to Paul Powers, who was really Ward M. Stevens, of course, authors in this issue include Dean Owen, Lynn Westland (really Archie Joscelyn), and Allan R. Bosworth, an excellent Western pulpster who wrote under a lot of the house-names in WILD WEST WEEKLY as well as his own.