If you missed the last one…
This episode in the works of Arthur J. Burks, is brought to you by Whispers of Ice and Sand: Space Westerns. The book is actually only half Space Westerns with Neely the retired Ranger on the planet Utukku. Inspired by the stories of Louis L’Amour, they have a definite Western feel. The other half is the Space Opera adventures of Sudana and Zaar, a human captain and her android companion. Sudana and Zaar will be featured in new novella in the upcoming, Ships of Steel our companion series to Swords of Fire!
Something happened in 1937. Arthur J. Burks only wrote twenty-one stories. That’s not even two a month. John Pelan at Cathedral of Horror explains:
…Somewhere in late 1937 the quality of his work dropped off noticeably. My friend and frequent colleague, Stefan Dziemianowicz has pronounced post-1937 Burks as “unreadable”. In point of fact, Burks’ voluminous productivity in the weird menace genre also fell off drastically for Popular Publications, with more stories appearing in Thrilling Mystery and elsewhere.
Burks gave Frank Gruber some advice back in 1934″ “The life of a pulp writer is seven years. At the end of seven years you’ve got to go on to better writing, or go downhill.” (The Pulp Jungle, 1967)
One of the things that may have had an influence on AJB was his friendship with L. Ron Hubbard, who drew Burks’ interests toward the occult and the unexplained. Burks would end his career writing odd books on unusual topics and even giving sessions as a mystic. Did such activity cut into his writing? I don’t know. That’s a question for John Locke, who presented a talk called “Born Writing: The Unparalleled Career of Arthur J. Burks” at Pulpfest in 2019.
January
“The Vengeance of Dorn” (Popular Detective, January 1937)
“Don’t Be Afraid to Criticise” (Science Fantasy Correspondent, January/February 1937)
February
“Slack Wires” (Clues Detective Stories, February 1937)
March
“Chivalry Is for Chumps” (G-Men, March 1937)
April
“Crime Hunters” (Thrilling Detective, April 1937)
“Many Niagaras” (Clues Detective Stories, April 1937)
“From Time’s Black Vault” (Horror Stories, April/May 1937)
May
“Deep Soundings” (Clues Detective Stories, May 1937)
“Murder School” (Thrilling Detective, May 1937)
June
“Quantity Production” (Writer’s Digest, June 1937)
“Yellow and Handsome” (Popular Sports, June 1937)
“Fury Fighters” (Fight Stories, Summer 1937)
July
“Survival” (Thrilling Detective, July 1937) This is not the same story as the SF piece that will appear in Marvel Science Stories, August 1938.
September
“Salute for Sunny” (Sky Fighters, September 1937)
“When the Graves were Opened” (reprint) (Weird Tales, September 1937) I’m not going to chase all of AJB’s reprints but the ones from Weird Tales are of more interest to me. AJB would have received no money for this.
November
The Golden Horseshoe” (Astounding Stories, November 1937)
“The Canyon of Missing Brides” (Terror Tales, November/December 1937)
December
“Angel in the Dust Bowl” (Astounding Stories, December 1937) as Spenser Lane There is a chance this story was written by Clifton B. Kruse. ISFDB and The FictionMagsIndex don’t agree.
“Captain Dangerous” (Thrilling Adventures, December 1937)
“Courage by the Stars” (The Lone Eagle, December 1937)
“Floodgates of Hell” (Horror Stories, December 1937-January 1938)
“Too Many Murders” (Thrilling Detective, December 1937)
Conclusion
The days of huge production are over for Arthur J. Burks but some of his best SF and Fantasy is still to come as he starts writing for John W. Campbell starting with “The Fatal Quadrant” (Astounding Stories, February 1938). Will the quality of his work improve? Not according to critics like E. F. Bleiler who writes AJB off as “pretty bad”. He has yet to verer off into writing Occult nonfiction, a sideline that will become his main profession.
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