ISBN: 9780816045778 - 0816045771
Paperback: 320 pages
Data: November 2002
Format: PDF
Description: Written by established pulp fiction and popular culture author Server, Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers includes information on more than 200 nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers. Arranged in alphabetical order, each entry includes a biographical sketch and list of the author's works (arranged by pseudonym). Also included is an introduction that serves as a concise overview and traces the start of the industry of pulp serials to the genre that it is today.

Rather than being comprehensive, the encyclopedia aims to provide "a representative sampling," and in some cases leaves out better-known and widely covered writers in favor of others who are more obscure. Among the names one will find here are James M. Cain, Zane Grey, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Mickey Spillane, and Jacqueline Susann. Approximately 30 percent of the writers do not appear in other author sources like Contemporary Popular Writers (St. James, 1997), and for those who do, the emphasis is often not on any contributions to pulp fiction. Many authors who have become mainstream, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ian Fleming, are included, and their humble beginnings are the focus of these articles. Some readers may be miffed to discover that their favorite (and often best-selling) authors--such as Tom Clancy and Mario Puzo--are identified with the pulp genre, but Server makes a good argument for inclusion. Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers fills a niche in sourcebooks on authors and is recommended for libraries with large literature criticism collections.