Ohio State University’s Thompson Library will again be hosting a lecture by a prominent pulp authority in conjunction with the start of this year’s PulpFest. Laurie Powers, the granddaughter of author Paul S. Powers, will be discussing her grandfather’s life and work. The editor and co-author of Pulp Writer: Twenty Years in the American Grub Street, an autobiography and appreciation of her grandfather, Laurie is the publisher of Laurie’s Wild West, an Internet blog site that has become a favorite destination for those interested in the pulps. She is currently working on a biography of pulp editor Daisy Bacon, editor of Love Story Magazine.
Paul S. Powers was a prolific pulp fiction writer whose career spanned over twenty-five years. From 1925 to 1950, Powers wrote over 450 stories for a variety of fiction magazines. An expert in the American West, he wrote over 400 stories for the famous pulp magazine Wild West Weekly alone. His western characters Sonny Tabor, Kid Wolf, Freckles Malone, and Johnny Forty-five enraptured an entire generation of readers during the Great Depression. Other stories appeared in magazines such as Weird Tales, Thrilling Detective, Mystery Tales, Exciting Western, Thrilling Western, Texas Rangers, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and more.
In December 2013, Laurie and her aunt and uncle, Pat and Ted Binkley, generously donated a collection featuring the personal papers of Paul S. Powers as well over 400 pulp magazines featuring his work to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Ohio State University. They will be part of the university’s significant popular fiction holdings in the William Charvat Collection of American Literature, one of the world’s foremost collection of materials in this field, and their growing pulp fiction magazine collection. There they will be available for viewing and study by scholars, students, and pulp fiction enthusiasts and historians.
All PulpFest 2014 attendees are cordially invited to attend Laurie Powers’ lecture at Ohio State’s Thompson Library on Thursday, August 7th, beginning at 4:30 PM. It will be held in Room 150 A/B. The library is located at 1858 Neil Avenue, about two and one-half miles from the Hyatt Regency Columbus. Click on the Thompson Library link above for directions.
