Black Dog Books is bringing Adventure back into print, sort of. Doug Ellis writes of two new projects he’s working on for the publisher focused on “bringing awareness to the significance on popular culture that characters originating in the pulp magazines have had, and keeping adventure-based fiction available to the reading public.”
Ellis writes “Adventure first appeared in November 1910. Quickly attracting top name authors, it soon became renowned for publishing the type of fiction its name implied. It grew into a powerhouse in the genre fiction field, particularly during the 17-year period from 1911 to 1927 when it was edited by Arthur Sullivant Hoffman, and was later dubbed by Time magazine, the ‘No. 1 Pulp’. Paying top rates, at times published as frequently as thrice per month, a crack editorial staff—which early on included Pulitzer Prize-winning author Sinclair Lewis—published adventure fiction in all genres from the top authors of the day, including Talbot Mundy, Rafael Sabatini, H. Rider Haggard, and Harold Lamb, along with Pulitzer winner T.S. Stribling. Many of its stories were singled out for inclusion in ‘best story of the year’ anthologies during its heyday, or have been reprinted in single author collections. But with the exception of a single anthology published in 1927, there has not been an anthology devoted exclusively to the best fiction published in Adventure.
“With the advent of The Best of Adventure series, Black Dog Books will change that. Under the series editorship of pulp historian Doug Ellis, The Best of Adventure series will consist of a series of ‘Best of’ anthologies compiled from Adventure. Volume 1 of this series, featuring two dozen stories culled from the 26 issues and over 500 stories published from November 1910 through December 1912, will debut in July 2010, a few months before the 100th anniversary of Adventure. Volume 2 of this series, also in production, will reprint Adventure‘s best stories from 1913-1914, while Volume 3 will cover 1915-1916. Future volumes will continue chronologically.
“In addition to The Best of Adventure series, Black Dog Books has also launching a related line, The Adventure Library, which will print single author collections of rare but deserving stories from the pages of Adventure—the first of these, The Black Death by Marion Polk Angellotti is now available, and future volumes appearing soon will include In the Grip of the Minotaur by Farnham Biship and Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (ancient Northmen matched against the glory of Troy and Crete), The Decree of Allah by George E. Holt (tales of intrigue and adventure in Morocco), and King Corrigan’s Treasure by H.D. Couzens (the exploits of Captain Billy Englehart in the South Seas). With many more to follow.