By coincidence Memorial Day 2016 falls on the traditional day, as it must every so often. But I don't have a Memorial Day pulp cover to mark the occasion. I get the impression that pulps were less likely to do holiday-themed covers than the slicks, probably because pulp covers (Adventure aside) are designed to promote specific stories, none of which in a May 30 issue might have a military theme. Looking at the lineup of this Adventure for Memorial Day 1923 I can guess that George Surdez's story deals with the military, but it's probably not the U.S. military. Herve Schwedersky's "Behind the Lines" is almost certainly military as well, but you still have to ask whose military? The lead stories, if we can judge by the cover billing, are "The Defense of Yang Chou," by William Ashley Anderson, who had some first-hand experience in China as a tobacco man, and the serial "Hurricane Williams' Revenge" by Gordon Young, acclaimed long afterward as a pioneer of the hard-boiled style. There are shorter pieces by Negley Farson, Will H. Grattan, Frank H. Huston, Chester L. Saxby and Barry Scobee. The cover seems to be the only pulp work by one H. O. Holman, and it must have made an impression, because Adventure would return to the minion with a vicious animal on a leash motif, as we saw back on March 15. May you, too, observe the holiday as you see fit.
I see from my notes in this issue that I read many of the stories during a 10 year span: 1973, 1977, 1983 are the dates. My favorite was RED AUTUMN by Hugh Pendexter, one of ADVENTURE'S very best authors. But that was a serial installment. My favorite short was "The One Man Feud" by Barry Scobee which deals with army life. A young soldier finally conquers the fear of being touched. The Anderson novelette is about a young American being involved in 1911 Chinese revolutions.
ReplyDelete