Most twice-a-month pulps had cover dates of the 1st and 15th of each month, the great exception being Short Stories, which preferred the 10th and 25th. When Adventure first went twice-a-month in 1917 its cover dates were the 3rd and 18th. When it reverted to twice-a-month in 1926, after nearly five years as a thrice-monthly, it used the 8th and 23rd as cover dates for the remainder of the year, plus an extra issue dated December 31, before adopting the more conventional 1st and 15th dating system. To sum up, this 1926 issue is the only September 8 Adventure there is, and it's an intriguing mix of familiar faces and proven talents along with writers who are pretty much strangers to me. The proven quantities include L. Patrick Greene (of Major fame), Ernest Haycox, Ralph R. Perry and Leonard H. Nason, the last in the middle of Chevrons, a five-part serial. Raymond S. Spears and Charles Victor Fischer were established names who've never made much of an impression on me. Negley Farson, Wilkeson O'Connell and W. Townend are just about meaningless names to me, while David Clarallan Jr.'s "The Cannibal" is apparently his only pulp story anywhere. He presumably tells something of himself, as was expected of first-time Adventure authors, in this issue's Camp-Fire letters section, but Clarallan, described as a traveler in the FictionMags Index, didn't hang around the fire too long.
Negley Farson, Wilkeson O'Connell and W. Townend are just about meaningless names to me, while David Clarallan Jr.'s "The Cannibal" is apparently his only pulp story anywhere. He presumably tells something of himself, as was expected of first-time Adventure authors, in this issue's Camp-Fire letters section, but Clarallan, described as a traveler in the FictionMags Index, didn't hang around the fire too long.
ReplyDeleteNegley Farson had an interesting life.
Wilkeson O'Connell was actually Lucie Wilkeson O'Connell, one of the few women authors in Adventure magazine.
W. Townend is remembered today mainly as P.G. Wodehouse's friend, but was one of the top authors in Adventure.
As for David Clarallan, this is what he had to say about himself in the Campfire column in the same issue:
Sydney, Australia.
I hadn’t expected to try autobiography. But here goes:
Like too many others I drifted into trying fiction through the medium of newspapers and into Adventure through looking for adventure. Unfortunately, although I have spent a good share of my time in seeking something exciting, I’ve had to be content with it at second-hand. In America, in Europe, in Australia and through the East it has been my fortune to be just around the corner from adventures which always happen to somebody else. But the joy of being on the go, of seeing new places, queer peoples and the men who have accomplished what I would like to do is recompense enough for not having done it.
If you care for the bare facts of my existence, I was born in St. Louis twenty-six years ago and when in the States lived in New York, where at present I have no address.
The essentials of the plot of the present story happened to a friend of mine who commanded a steamer on the African coast until the charge of cannibalism made it unhealthy.
—David Clarallan.
Sai, once again you've gone above and beyond in helping to make this blog a source of historical information for pulp fans. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLove going through those old issues, finding clues to who the authors were. Which leads me to my next sentence, the one i don't like to say much: I made a mistake.
ReplyDeleteWilkeson O'Connell is actually Louisa Wilkeson O'Connell (1894-1945), not Lucie.I made a spelling mistake in my earlier comment. Interestingly enough, she has an entry in the December 23, 1926 issue of Adventure, but presented herself as a man:
FOR several issues now we have published biographical sketches of our authors at the end of Camp-Fire so that readers who may not have been present when the authors joined our writer’s brigade may meet them now. This time we are presenting Wilkeson O’Connell.
His first story in our magazine in 1925 was a war story—by which is meant a story of the World War —but almost all of his work since then has been in the field of American history dealing either with earlier wars or with episodes on the lives of the pioneers and frontiersmen. Mr. O’Connell has the gift of making us feel that our forebears really lived.
His own life has not been eventful, as the world interprets the word. He was born at Plattsburg, N. Y., December 24, 1894. He never received a formal education, since he was considered “too delicate to go to the public school,” but being of an inquiring disposition and having access to a good library, he is as “educated” as any one could wish. His stories, if nothing else, bear witness to this.
Mr. O’Connell spent his childhood in New York State—Plattsburg, on his grandfather’s farm near Buffalo and Fort Niagara. In 1902 he went west to Mount Clemens, Michigan, then to Hot Springs, Arkansas. He lived in San Francisco in 1903 and 1904 and the next two years in Fort Snelling, Minn.
Since then he has resided in Ithaca, New York, from where he occasionally runs down to the city of New York to see a play or enjoy a concert. He enjoys bridge, friendly conversation and books.
Mr. O’Connell frequently writes of country which he knows, and has caught army “atmosphere” and ways of speech from his early life in military posts, but of course most of his historical material is drawn from books. He reads biographies and old histories full of anecdotes and gossip rather than the more modem accounts which, while more accurate, lack color and detail. Enjoyment is what Mr. O’Connell seeks when he reads. Probably that is why other people enjoy what he writes.—J. M. C.
How do i know it's her? The Dec 24 1894 date in Campfire is the day she was born. The other details match what i can see on genealogical research sites.
It's a sobering reminder of how different things were back then. And how much things have changed since then for the better.