Lost Worlds of the Pulps

The lost worlds of the Pulps began almost immediately after a certain book. The Lost World (1912) by Arthur Conan Doyle, oddly, signaled the end of an era. The wave of adventuring in distant, lost lands that began with H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines (1885) ended with Arthur Conan Doyle’s tale of Professor George Challenger only a quarter century later. Did people stop writing lost world novels? Far from it! But the days of Victorian novelists providing those tales was done. The American Pulp magazine was now the domain of the land steeped in mist and mystery.

The Pulps had a thousand flavors to satisfy all tastes. There were Westerns, detective, love, horror, sports and many other types of Pulps. But two, in particular, were the province of the lost world: Adventure and Science Fiction Pulps. It is the last that we are going to look at here. Why not both? It is the difference between the slightly unplausible and the outright fantastic.

Magazines like Adventure, Action Stories and general fiction Pulps like Short Stories and Top-Notch gave us Marching Sands by Harold Lamb, The Pathless Trail by Arthur O. Friel, Om: The Secret of Abhor Valley by Talbot Mundy and No-Man’s Land by John Buchan, all masterpieces of the adventure genre. While great fun, they don’t have the same imaginative power of even the weakest of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ work (something like The Land of the Hidden Men or The Cave Girl.) For sheer spectacle and wonder, you have to look to the fantastic Pulps.

Or as in the case of ERB, All-Story and Argosy, the Munsey soft weeklies that had its share of Westerns, spy novels, romances and tales of ordinary life, but also published the first masters of Pulp lost worlds: Edgar Rice Burroughs (and later his clones), A. Merritt and Francis Stevens.

Robert Ames Bennet

Bennet is a bit of an anomaly, pre-dating Burroughs. He started as a Victorian novelist and then became a magazine writer.

Thyra: A Romance of the Polar Pit (1901)

The Bowl of Baal (The All-Around Magazine, November 1916-February 1917)

 

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Right on the heels of Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs was the man to take cavemen and dinosaurs to the next level. He did this with his Tarzan and then Pellucidar, the world inside the Earth and the lost island of Caspak where evolution plays out in a life time.

The Return of Tarzan (The New Magazine, June-December 1913)

“The Cave Girl” (All-Story, July-September 1913)

At the Earth’s Core  (All-Story, April 4-25, 1914)

The Mucker (All-Story Cavalier, October 24-November 14, 1914)

Pellucidar (All-Story Cavalier, May 1-29, 1915)

Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (All-Story, November 18-December 16, 1916)

“The Cave Man” (All-Story, March 31-April 21, 1917)

The Land That Time Forgot (Blue Book, August-December 1918) Hugo Gernsback reprinted these short novels in Amazing Stories.

Tarzan the Terrible (Argosy All-Story, February 12-March 26, 1921)

Tarzan and the Golden Lion (Argosy All-Story, December 9, 1922-January 20, 1923)

Tarzan and the Ant Men (Argosy All-Story, February 2-March 15, 1924)

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (Blue Book, December 1927- May 1928)

Tarzan and the Lost Empire (Argosy All-Story, October 1928- February 1929)

Tanar of Pellucidar (Blue Book, March -August 1929)

Tarzan at the Earth’s Core (Blue Book, September 1929-March 1930)

The Land of the Hidden Men (aka Jungle Girl) (Blue Book, May-September, 1931)

Tarzan and the City of Gold (Argosy, March 12-April 16, 1932)

Tarzan and the Lion Man (Liberty, November 11, 1933-January 6, 1934)

Back to the Stone Age (aka Seven Worlds to Conquer)(Argosy, January 7-February 13, 1937)

Tarzan and the Forbidden City (aka The Red Star of Tarzan) (Argosy, March 19-April 23, 1938)

“Tarzan and the Castaways” (Argosy, August 23, 1941)

“Return to Pellucidar” (Amazing Stories, February 1942)

“Tiger Girl” (Amazing Stories, March 1942)

“Men of the Stone Age” (Amazing Stories, April 1942)

Land of Terror (1944)

“Savage Pellucidar” (Amazing Stories, November 1963)

 

Charles B. Stilson

Stilson was hired to replace Burroughs. Through mismanagement, Munsey lost its exclusive on ERB stories and had to put up with Burroughs auctioning off manuscripts. Munsey decided to write some new adventures in the Burroughs style. Stilson went on to write many less fantastic adventures later.

Polaris of the Snows (All-Story, December 18, 1915-January 1, 1916)

Minos of Sardanes (All-Story, August 12-26, 1916)

Polaris and the Immortals (All-Story, September 15-October 13, 1917)

 

A. Merritt

A. Merritt was the most famous fantasy writer of the first part of the 20th Century. Famous enough to get his own Pulp magazine, A. Merritt’s Fantasy Magazine. He was not a full-time writer, but still managed to produce a number of classics. Often when Pulp fiction has a lost world story it is called “Merritt-esque”.

“The Moon Pool” (All-Story Weekly, June 22, 1918)

“Conquest of the Moon Pool” (All-Story Weekly, February 15-March 22, 1919)

 

The Metal Monster (Argosy All-Story, August 7-September 25, 1920)

The Face in the Abyss (Argosy All-Story, September 8, 1923)

“The Snake Mother” (Argosy, October 25-December 6, 1930)

Dwellers in the Mirage (Argosy, January 23-February 27, 1932)

 

Francis Stevens

Stevens was really Gertrude Barrows Bennett, the first major female writer of Lost Worlds and Science Fiction. She was so good people thought she was A. Merritt’s pen name. Sadly, after a few years, she gave up writing for other work.

“The Nightmare” (All-Story, April 14, 1917)

“Friend Island” (All-Story Weekly, September 7, 1918)

Citadel of Fear (Argosy, September 14-October 26, 1918)

 

Victor Rousseau

Rousseau was a writer of Northerns and Science Fiction.

Eric of the Strong Heart (Railroad Man’s Magazine, November 16, 1918-January 15, 1919)

My Lady of the Nile ( Argosy All-Story, March 7-28 1921)

The Eye of Balamok (Fantastic Novels, May 1949)

 

Otis Adelbert Kline

Another Burroughs clone, Kline had his own Tarzan in Jan of the Jungle, his own interplanetary series set on Venus. He also wrote some Western-flavored lost race pieces abut a character named Bart Leslie.

“The Demons of Tlaxpam” (Weird Tales, January 1929)

“The Secret Kingdom” (Amazing Stories, October November December 1929)

“The Cyclops of Xoatl” (with E. Hoffman Price) (Weird Tales, December 1936)

 

A. Hyatt Verrill

Verrill was a Science Fiction author who knew the wilderness and wrote comfortably about secret places in the corners of the earth.

The Golden City: A tale of Adventure in Unknown Guiana (1916)

The Trail of the White Indians (1920)

The Bridge of Light (Amazing Stories Quarterly, Fall 1929) by A. Hyatt Verrill. The book received a nicely illustrated book version in 1950.

The King of the Monkey Men (Amazing Stories Quarterly, Spring 1928)

The Treasure of the Golden God (Amazing Stories, January–February 1933)

Through the Andes (Amazing Stories, September October November 1934)

The Inner World (Amazing Stories, June July August October 1935)

 

S. P. Meek

Meek was a retired military man who wrote SF and the popular Dr. Bird series for awhile before taking up dog books for children..

“The Drums of Tapajos” (Amazing Stories, November December 1930 January 1931)

“Troyana” (Amazing Stories, February March April 1932)

 

William L. Chester

Another Burroughs clone, Chester wrote of Kioga who lives in a Hyperborean realm in the Arctic. The first novel was filmed as a serial with Herman Brix.

Hawk of the Wilderness (Blue Book, April-October 1935)

One Against the Wilderness (Blue Book, March-August 1937)

Kioga of the Wilderness (1976)

Kioga of the Unknown Land (1978)

 

Charles W. Diffen

Diffen was one of the few writers to make the transition from the Clayton Astounding to the Tremaine Astounding. His lost races won’t be purchased by the Campbell Astounding.

“Two Thousand Miles Below” (Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June  September 1932)

“Land of the Lost” (Astounding Stories, December 1933–January 1934)

One novel I should mention because it breaks all the rules is James Hilton’s Lost Horizon (1933). (In Hollywood, it was King Kong, also 1933.)  If you had told someone in 1932 that a lost race novel would become the darling of 1934 I think you would have been laughed at. The whole idea had become a Pulp cliche, long-echoing the masterpieces of H. Rider Haggard and the 1880s. Despite that, Lost Horizons is more often seen as a literary work, not a Pulp story. It gave us the expression “Shangri-La”, meaning a hidden paradise or utopia. It is one of the most popular novels of the 20th century. Go figure.

It also explains the resurgence of lost world fiction in SF Pulps after 1934.

 

Kenneth Robeson (Lester Dent et al.)

The adventurer Doc Savage was a monthly hero Pulp character who often went to lost lands and forgotten places. I won’t list every Doc saga that featured such. Instead here are my favorites:

The Man of Bronze (March 1933) by Lester Dent

The Land of Terror (April 1933) by Lester Dent

Land of Always-Night (March 1935) by W. Ryerson Johnson & Lester Dent

Quest of Qui (July 1935) by Lester Dent

The South Pole Terror (Oct 1936) by Lester Dent

Ost (aka The Magic Island)(August 1937) by Lester Dent

The Golden Peril (December 1937) by Harold A. Davis & Lester Dent

The Red Terrors (September 1938) by Harold A. Davis

Of course, other hero Pulps may have gone to far off places but most of them liked to stay on the mean streets of the city.

 

Edmond Hamilton

Edmond Hamilton was a professional Science Fiction writer, back when that was a crazy thing to be. As such he wrote all kinds of SF including these stories with a strong lost race element. Many of his stories have lost cities in them.

“The Lake of Life” (Weird Tales, September October November 1937)

“The Fire Princess” (Weird Tales, August September October 1938)

“The Valley of the Invisible Men” (Amazing Stories, March 1939)

“Daughter of Thor” (Fantastic Adventures, August 1942)

“Lost City of Burma” (Fantastic Adventures, December 1942)

“Valley of the Gods” (Weird Tales, May 1946)

The Valley of Creation (Startling Stories, July 1948) (with Leigh Brackett)

 

Jack Williamson

Jack Williamson started out as an acolyte of  A. Merritt. The two were even going to write something together though nothing came of it. Williamson wrote the Merrittesque novel, Golden Blood for Weird Tales. A professional like his friend, Edmond Hamilton, he went onto write many different kinds of Science Fiction.

Golden Blood (Weird Tales, April May June July August September 1933)

“Xandulu” (Wonder Stories, March April May 1934)

 

Robert Moore Williams

Ray A. Palmer wanted more Edgar Rice Burroughs. He published ERB stories (which formed the later books) but Burroughs would leave writing when the war came. Palmer hired Robert Moore Williams to fill the gap. The novels were illustrated by J. Allen St. John, the artist most associated with Burroughs.

Jongor of Lost Land (Fantastic Adventures, October 1940)

The Return of Jongor (Fantastic Adventures, April 1944)

Jongor Fights Back (Fantastic Adventures, December 1951)

 

Howard Browne

Howard Browne was the next author hired to play ERB. He only produced two novels. He would later become the replacement editor for Ray Palmer.

Warrior of the Dawn (Amazing Stories, December 1942–January 1943)

The Return of Tharn (Amazing Stories, October November December 1948)

 

Ray A. Palmer (as J. W. Pelkie)

Tired of waiting on others, Palmer assumed the pseudonym of J. W. Pelkie and wrote his own. Palmer wanted to continue the Tarzan and John Carter series after ERB’s death but was turned down by the writer’s heirs.

“Toka, King of the Dinosaurs” (Fantastic Adventures, October 1945)

“Toka and the Man Bats” (Fantastic Adventures, February 1946)

“Toka Fights the Big Cats” (Fantastic Adventures, December 1947)

“In the Sphere of Time” (Planet Stories, Summer 1948)

 

John Taine

Pen name of Eric Temple Bell, Taine’s first novels were all lost race pieces. Most of these were reprinted by Famous Fantastic Mysteries.

The Purple Sapphire (1924) was reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, August 1948

The Gold Tooth (1927)

The Greatest Adventure (1929) was reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, June 1944

 

E. Charles Vivian

Vivian wrote under his own name and the Gees series as Jack Mann.

The Valley of the Silent Men (1923) (aka Fields of Sleep)by E. Charles Vivian reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries August 1949

The People of Darkness (1924)

 

Don Wilcox

Wilcox was one of Ray Palmer’s regulars. Sometimes he wrote of lost lands when he wasn’t writing about outer space.

“Queen of the Living Puppets” (Fantastic Adventures, October 1941)

“The Ice Queen” (Fantastic Adventures, January 1943)

“Princess of the Sea” (Fantastic Adventures, January 1947)

 

Singles

Mary Gnaedinger at Famous Fantastic Mysteries, a reprint Pulp, loved the lost lands. They were usually novel-length and she could pick from the best of the Argosy years. These stories were usually illustrated by Virgil Finlay or Lawrence Sterne Stevens.

“Sunken Cities” (Munsey’s Magazine, October 1923) by Douglas Newton reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries May-June 1940

The Golden City (Argosy, May 13-June 17,1933) by Ralph Milne Farley

Dian of the Lost Land (1935) by Edison Marshall, reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries April 1949

The Smoking Land  (Argosy, May 29-July 3, 1937) by Frederick Schiller Faust (aka Max Brand writing as George Challis)

“The Mound” (Weird Tales, November 1940) by H. P. Lovecraft and Zelia Bishop

The Valley of the Flame (Startling Stories, March 1946) by Keith Hammond (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore)

“Goddess of the Golden Flame” by William P. McGivern (Fantastic Adventures, July 1947)

“Shallajai” (Weird Tales, July 1950) by Arthur J. Burks

Conclusion

When we think of lost worlds we almost always go to Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines, Allan Quatermain or She, then perhaps others like Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, or The Village in the Treetops then others and finally Doyle’s Lost World. The Pulps followed shortly after and supplied plenty of new adventures that are often not as well-remembered. The Pulpsters, especially Edgar Rice Burroughs, A. Merritt and Francis Stevens, wrote classics worthy to stand beside the Victorian masters. Many other Pulpsters weren’t as original but provide entertaining thrills worthy of a Sunday afternoon off.