Have you ever heard of Pygmalion?
For those of you who don’t exactly know what we are talking about, it’s about an ancient king of Cyprus who was also able to sculpt.
The legend narrates that he carved in stone a female figure of extraordinary perfection, so beautiful that he ended up falling in love with her. Indeed his love was so great that every day he covered her with kindness and gifts, but realizing with time that she couldn’t return in no way his attentions, he turned to the goddess Aphrodite to ask her to let him meet a woman of equal beauty. The goddess did more: she breathed life into the statue making her a real woman so that the two got married and had a son (another version says it was a daughter).
What has all this to do with “pulps”? Quickly said: the June 1929 issue of Science Wonder Stories contained the short tale “The Marble Virgin” by Kennie McDowd, an obscure author of whom just a few details are available online. Although renovated versions of the original myth had already been written (most notable the famous George Bernard Shaw‘s play), this story is interesting for its singular mix of proto technology, dystopian future as seen in the 1920s, and veiled libido. Certainly McDowd’s version can hardly be described as a masterpiece, but it’s sure it can provide a pleasant reading hour. If you are intrigued by this you can find the story, in the July 1942 Startling Stories version, here.
All right, back to business.
19 MORE ISSUES
This month our site has got the following issues in their respective sections:
– 2 WESTERN STORY (January 27, 1934; October 28, 1939)
– 4 10 STORY BOOK (November 1921, January 1922, May 1922, July 1934)
– 5 ADVENTURE (September 18, 1918; April 20, 1925; April 1, 1929; April 15, 1929; December 1, 1929) and
– 1 ASTOUNDING STORIES (February 1936).
In addition, two new entries have been added to our Pulp Magazines To Read section:
– TELLING TALES, 2 issues from 1924-1925, and
– BLUE BOOK, 5 issues from 1926-1934.
For February 2022 we have scheduled an old ambition of ours: the awesome FATE magazine, a must for all lovers of paranormal and supernatural events, in its early version.
PULP COVERS
The amount of restored covers on our site is constantly growing: in January we added 9 more western covers (from 1911 to 1950), 3 horror covers (from 1937 to 1939) and 3 sci fi covers (from 1941 to 1975).
Finally, for all fans of PULP FICTION, the original movie soundtrack can now be listened on our Home Page at the bottom right.
A virtual hug to you all
See you next month on
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