Does it seem odd that Hulbert Footner's detective Mme. Storey is the star of this 1929
Argosy's cover story, and one of the pulp's most popular series characters, but isn't shown on the cover? I suppose it's because she's never actually "taken for a ride" herself in the story. That bit of gangster slang had been popularized by the recent talkie hit
The Lights of New York, in which it almost instantly became legendary as an example of stitled line reading. The other cover story is a new railroad serial by Francis Lynde, a real old-time (age 73) who'd been publishing since 1894. I hadn't heard of him before finding his name here, but that's because my interest in
Argosy starts after 1930, and that was the year Lynde died. Elsewhere this issue, Erle Stanley Gardner wraps up a two-parter, Fred MacIsaac continues his serial
Run, Dan, Run! and H. Bedford-Jones carries on with his fictional account of Cyrano de Bergerac, while J. E. Grinstead, John H. Thompson and Harold de Polo contribute short stories.
Francis Lynde has been unjustly forgotten. His fiction appeared in dozens of books published by the major hardcover firms like Scribners. He was one of the main writers for THE POPULAR MAGAZINE which was one of the best pulps in the teens and twenties. Lynde is probably best known for his short stories starring Scientific Sprague. He also was quite good at writing novels with a railroad and business background.
ReplyDeleteThanks for filling in some detail, Walker.
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