If you missed the last one…
Another 5.5 stories a month. Arthur J. Burks was one of the “million-word-a-year” men and this consistent production shows he wrote much and quickly. But the math doesn’t quite work at least in 1936 anyway. At approximately 50 stories that would mean every story was 20,000 words on average, much too high. I wish I had accurate word counts and could actually add it up. The Million monicker would have pleased him but I suspect he sold much less. That being said, if he received between $50 and $100 for most stories he was still earning something around four thousand a year when the average salary in the US was four hundred.
Of what he was writing, we see the old stand-bys: aviation fiction, detective stories, sports and adventure yarns. The Shudder Pulps have fallen back with Horror Stories going bimonthly, allowing Weird Tales to buy one. “Dictator of the Atoms” appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories, showing AJB had made the transition to Thrilling’s SF magazine. Most of his sales are to this chain so why not the little SF he was producing? Thrilling Wonder Stories arrived in 1936 when Beacon Magazines bought the title from Hugo Gernsback (Wonder Stories) who was giving up on SF Pulp (for a while). TWS was intended to be a more juvenile/adventure oriented Pulp than others on the market. It was edited by Mort Weisinger, Burks’ friend from Science Fiction Digest and even had a comic book in it.
January
“Eagles of Destruction” (Wings, Winter 1936)
“The Giant Killer” (Fight Stories, Winter 1936)
“Never Kill a G-Man” (Popular Detective, January 1936)
“The Stuntster” (Sky Fighters, January 1936)
February
“Cloud Rider” (Sky Fighters, February 1936)
“Death by Inches” (Popular Detective, February 1936)
“Her Lover—The Executioner” (Terror Tales, February 1936)
“Hop to Havana” (Thrilling Adventures, February 1936)
“Precipice” (Top-Notch Magazine, February 1936)
“The Women Loved by Death” (Horror Stories February/March 1936)
March
“Call Me Monster” (Terror Tales, March 1936)
“Juramentado” (The Lone Eagle, March 1936)
“Hell Around the Corner” (Thrilling Detective, March 1936)
“Satan of Suchow” (Top-Notch Magazine, March 1936)
“Thumb-Nail Sketches of Dime Mystery Authors: No. 1: Arthur J. Burks” (Dime Mystery, March 1936) biography
“Trembling Hero” (Detective Tales, March 1936)
April
“The Kid Had Courage” (Fight Stories, Spring 1936)
“A Bride for Death” (Terror Tales, April 1936)
“Dark Room” (Clues Detective Stories, April 1936)
“Death in a Cockpit” (Sky Fighters, April 1936)
“Invitation to the Morgue” (Dime Mystery Magazine, April 1936)
“The Phantom Fix” (aka “Too Old to Be a Hero!”) (Detective Tales, April 1936)
“Speed Wings” (The Lone Eagle, April 1936)
May
“Air Show (Thrilling Adventures, May 1936)
“Kurda’s Corridor” (Thrilling Mystery, May 1936)
“Python Patrol” (Top-Notch Magazine, May 1936)
“The Room of Shadows” (Weird Tales, May 1936)
“Satan’s Honeymoon” (Dime Mystery, May 1936)
“Wooden Soldiers” (Sky Fighters, May 1936)
June
“The Death Kiss” (Thrilling Mystery, June 1936)
” Mates for Madmen” (Terror Tales, June 1936) as Spencer Whitney
“They Call Me Killer” (Terror Tales, June 1936)
“The Standout” (The Phantom Detective, June 1936)
“Turn out the Lights” (Clues Detective Stories, June 1936)
“The Chair Where Terror Sat” (Horror Stories, June/July 1936)
July
“Black Falcon’s Return” (Sky Fighters, July 1936)
“The Dragnet” (Clues Detective Stories, July 1936)
“The Paper Tiger” (Smashing Novels Magazine, July 1936)
August
“The Exile” ( Thrilling Detective, August 1936)
“Reprieve for the Damned” (Detective Tales, August 1936)
“Green-Eyed Vengeance” (Secret Agent X, August 1936)
“Iceman of Mars” (Sky Fighters, August 1936)
“Dance of the Damned” (Horror Stories, August/September 1936)
September
“A Case of Scotch” (Sky Fighters, September 1936)
“Empty Cannon” (The Phantom Detective, September 1936)
“Greetings from the Fiction Guild” (West, September 1936) article
“The Red Hope” (Thrilling Sports, September 1936)
October
“Body of the Crime” (Clues Detective Stories, October 1936)
‘The Butcher Bird” (War Birds, October 1936)
“Pretty Boy” (Sky Fighters, October 1936)
“Dictator of the Atoms” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1936)
“The Informer” (The Feds, October 1936)
November
“It Doesn’t Take Much Dynamite” (Clues Detective Stories, November 1936)
December
“Hot Shekels” (The Feds, December 1936)
“Jack-in-the-Box” (Clues Detective Stories, December 1936)
“Hostage of the Tomb” (Horror Stories, December 1936/January 1937)
Next time…1937
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