John William Jakes made publishing history in 1974 with the Kent Family Chronicles. He created a whole new publishing category. What he had done that no one had ever done before was to reach the bestsellers list with a paperback series. But who was this Jakes guy, anyway? Had he ever published anything before 1974? He sure did. John Jakes began as a Pulp writer.
John Jakes began publishing his writing in 1950 while still in college. He began as a Science Fiction writer, then became a true Pulpster penning SF, Westerns and detective stories. In the decades to come he would win a small following as a writer of Sword & Sorcery then historical novels as Jay Scotland. All this before he hit the big time with the North & South trilogy as well as the Kents.
Did the fledgling Pulp writer (by night) and ad man (by day) have any inkling what lie ahead? Probably not, but to John’s credit he always wrote what interested him, what offered him a challenge, shifting between genres and venues. If the Pulps hadn’t died, he could have spent his entire career writing Westerns. Or Space opera. Or hard-boiled. But he did all of these, and well, before moving onto bigger things.
1950
“Cybernetic” (poem) (Fantasy Book, October 1950) was John’s only poem. I suspect the low, low pay told him to try fiction instead.
“The Dreaming Trees” (Fantastic Adventures, November 1950) was the first of six stories he wrote for the old Ray A. Palmer magazines, now edited by Howard Browne.
“Your Number Is Up!” (Amazing Stories, December 1950)
1951
“No Dark Gallows For Me” (Fantastic Adventures, January 1951)
“Death Has Green Eyes” (Fantastic Adventures, March 1951)
“The Secret of the Burning Finger” (Amazing Stories, March 1951)
“Half-Past Fear” (Super Science Stories, August 1951)
“Hang-Town Welcome” (10 Story Western, August 1951) as Alan Henry. The first of sixteen Westerns he did in the early 1950s. Later Jakes would pick his favorites for In The Big Country (1993) (aka The Bold Frontier). The rest like “Hang-Town Welcome” could let ride off into an orange sunset…
“‘Old Spacemen Never Die!'” (Amazing Stories, October 1951)
1952
The Texans Ride South (1952)
“Android Kill” (Planet Stories, January 1952) was the first of three stories Jakes wrote for Malcolm Reiss’s unabashedly space opera Pulp, Planet Stories. He was in good company with Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Gardener F. Fox and Raymond Z. Gallun.
“Guns of Johnny Reb” (Fifteen Western Tales, January 1952) as Alan Henry
“The Most Horrible Story” (Imagination, January 1952) was a Lovecraftian piece and the first of four he did for William Hamling. John would re-sell this story to a much higher paying market in 1955, Playboy.
“The Fire Magicians” (Amazing Stories, February 1952)
“Space Opera” (Imagination, March 1952)
“Machine” (F&SF, April 1952) shows John could write the literary stuff in Science Fiction. Anthony Boucher chose this one and “Crack-up”.
“The Beast” (IF, May 1952) was the first sale to the Horace L. Gold magazines. Most authors, unless they were already famous, had to prove themselves in IF before being allowed to appear in Galaxy.
“And the Monsters Walk” (Fantastic Adventures, July 1952)
“Frozen Hell” (Planet Stories, July 1952)
“Killer at Little Egypt” (Man to Man, July 1952) is an excursion into Men’s Magazine adventure fiction. These slightly pornographic mags gave many of the old Pulp writers markets after the Pulps failed.
John Jakes appears on Beat the Clock, August 23, 1952
“Coffins to Mars” (Fantastic Adventures, September 1952)
“Lobo Loot” (Max Brand’s Western Magazine, September 1952)
“With Wings” (Space Science Fiction, September 1952)
“Doom Jungle” (Fantastic Adventures, October 1952) is quite obviously a Men’s Magazine tale re-written to sell to an SF market. Really not very good but it showed a professionalism on Jakes’ part.
“Gun Brothers” (Western Novels and Short Stories UK, October 1952)
“Idiot Command” (Amazing Stories, October 1952)
“Skin Game” (Imagination, October 1952)
“Cold and Gravy” (Best Western, November 1952)
“The Opener of the Crypt” (Fantastic Adventures, November-December 1952) was a sequel to Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Cask of Amontillado”. A comic book version would appear in 1973.
“The Running Hounds” (IF, November 1952)
1953
“Checkmate Morning” (Avon Fantasy and Science Fiction Reader, January 1953) was first of three sales to Donald A. Wollheim’s series of small magazines. Avon Fantasy and Science Fiction Reader was the last of them before DAW created his ACE Doubles lines. John Jakes would later sell him a Western and an SF novel to that series.
“The Gun-Doc of Hangman’s Gap” (Max Brand’s Western Magazine, January 1953)
“McCloud’s Private War” (.44 Western Magazine, January 1953)
“Mescalero Drums” (Big-Book Western, January 1953)
“War Drums of Mercury Lost” (Planet Stories, January 1953)
“Stage to Western Birch” (Western Short Stories, February 1953)
“The Winning of Poker Alice” (Complete Western Book, February 1953)
“Coffin Corner” (Detective Story Magazine, March 1953)
“The High-Iron Killer” (Big-Book Western, March 1953)
“Hunt the Red Roe” (Avon Fantasy and Science Fiction Reader, April 1953) as Alan Payne
“Forever Is So Long” (Avon Fantasy and Science Fiction Reader, April 1953)
“Jackrogue Second” (Rocket Stories, April 1953) is typical of many sales to poorer magazines. Rocket Stories was no Astounding Science-Fiction or Galaxy. Despite that, it did publish the kind of action tale Jakes liked to write.
“Earth Can Be Fun” (Imagination, May 1953)
“To the Last Bullet” (New Western Magazine, May 1953)
“The Tinhorn Fills His Hand” (10 Story Western, June 1953)
“The Girl in the Golden Cage” (Thrilling Detective, Summer 1953) as Alan Payne
“The Fiends in the Bedroom” (Cosmos Science Fiction, September 1953)
“Marshals Die on Sunday” (Big-Book Western, September 1953)
“Death Rides Here” (10 Story Western, October 1953) Another cover mention! Only a few years after starting Pulp writing, Jakes was getting his name on the cover, a sign of a readers’ favorite.
“Pistol Patriots” (Double Action Western, November 1953)
“With Intent to Kill” (Cosmos Science Fiction, November 1953)
1954
Gonzaga’s Woman (1954)
“Survey” (Cosmos Science Fiction, March 1954)
“Crack-Up” (F&SF, September 1954)
“Dirge for the Sane” (Fantastic Universe, September 1954)
“The Revenge of Edwin Mudd” (Amazing Stories, November 1954)
1955
“The Most Horrible Story in the World” (reprint of “The Most Horrible Story” (Playboy, February 1955)
“Malice in Wonderland” (The Pursuit Detective Magazine, March 1955)
“Tex” (Manhunt, May 1955)
“Stripped For Murder” (Fifteen Detective Stories, June 1955) This may be Jakes’ first time getting the cover (not just a mention) for a story!
“No Place to Hide” (Hunted Detective Story Magazine, August 1955)
“The Taint” (Science Fiction Quarterly, August 1955)
“Guilt” (Hunted Detective Story Magazine, October 1955)
“Chained” (The Saint Mystery Magazine, December 1955)
The Pulps ended around 1955. Jakes had already moved onto the new magazines that took their place. He was also ready to start selling novels as well …
Next time…The Magazine and Paperback Era….
