ABSTRACT
Thanks to the recent retro revival of 1940s pulp magazine images, which adorn everything from fridge magnets to glossy art books, this genre is typically remembered for its covers, not its content.1 Beyond their glossy covers, most magazines published in North America during the pulps’ heyday, from the 1920s to the 1940s, offered thrills and frights. Crime fiction monthlies like The Black Mask and Dime Detective, along with romance, science fiction, and adventure magazines, were the staple products in pulp publishers’ warehouses. Rather than offering classic mystery stories set in parlours and solved by aristocratic sleuths, these magazines featured short, fast-paced fictional narratives in which low life evildoers tried (unsuccessfully) to outwit crafty detectives.2 Many Hollywood screenwriters and novelists, including Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, made their start in pulp magazines where they honed their trademark hard-boiled style.
