What Were the Pulps?

"Pulp" means a lot of different things today. To many people, "pulp"means something lurid, sleazy and sensationalist. That's what Quentin Tarantino meant when he called his movie "Pulp Fiction," a violent and outrageous look at the seedy side of American life. "Pulp" refers to something thrilling and low-rent at the same time - that, at least, is a common definition of the term.

"Pulp," however, can refer to something more specific, a certain kind of magazine. "The pulps" were fiction magazines, printed on rough wood-pulp paper, written largely for working-class readers between the turn of the century and the mid-1950's. The pulps earned a poor reputation in those years; they were seen as cheap, lurid, and sensationalist, a connotation, as we've seen, that survives to this day. To some extent their reputation was well-earned, but pulp writing, at its best, had a great deal to recommend it: boundless imagination, quick-paced narrative, and clear, unpretentious, idiomatic prose styles. These are genuine literary virtues, and they were characteristic of pulp writing. The pulps pioneered many of the genres that we take for granted today, such as science fiction and hard-boiled mystery stories. For better or for worse, contemporary popular culture is a direct descendant of pulp fiction.

The pulps were relentlessly capitalistic, with few pretentions of artistic or social value. But while the commercial media of today tend to be conservative and shy of risks, the pulps could be remarkably inventive and experimental. While many of the pulps focused on the most popular genres -- Westerns, war, romances, mysteries, science fiction and superheroes -- publishers also came out with magazines about laughably esoteric subjects. There were railroad stories, Zeppelin stories, Ranch Romances, Underworld Romances, "Weird Menace" stories, courtroom stories, "lucky" stories, "Spicy" stories, super-villain stories and countless other genres that never went anywhere, but provide the Pulps with some of their eccentric charm.

Despite all their goofiness and shameless sensationalism, the pulps still deserve attention today. The rest of the Pulp Pages describe the highlights of the Pulp era, from the late 19th century to the dawn of the Cold War.

Bibliography

There are dozens of good books on the pulps as a whole. Lee Server's Danger is My Business, still in print, is probably the best place to begin. Tony Goodstone's Pulps and Ron Goulart's Cheap Thrills are also quite informative. One of my personal favorites is Deadly Excitements, an often funny collection of essays by the late Robert Sampson. Finally, Frank Gruber's book, The Pulp Jungle, describes what it was like to write for the pulp market.

Other Sites

If you want to learn more about the pulps, turn to any of the following pages:

• dotPulp -- This page is linked to a wide variety of pulp pages.
• The Pulp Zone is back, happily.  A nice site.
• This page is devoted to an author's reminiscence about pulps.
• Adventure House -- Publishers of High Adventure, the pulp reprint magazine.
• Here's information on DePaul University Archives Pulps Collection.
• PULPDOM Magazine -- A magazine devoted to pulp fiction.   There's also E-Pulp.
• Yahoo! - Pulp Fiction -- A list of other pulp-fiction sites on the Web.  You can also turn to BrEaKfAsT lInKs, Paperback and Pulp Links, the pulp section of terminal lit, and (for a few links) The Pulp Fiction Discussion and Gaming Society.