Laurie’s Wild West

Unlike Walker Martin, who has been attending pulp cons since 1972, Laurie Powers has only been to the first two PulpFests. But she’s already considered part of the gang. One of the sixteen nominees for the 2010 Munsey Award, Laurie is the granddaughter of Paul S. Powers, a prolific author of pulp fiction during the 1930s and 40s. An author herself, Laurie’s work can be found on the Internet at Laurie’s Wild West where she writes about books, movies, life in Los Angeles, and pulp fiction. Her three-part convention report began appearing on her website on Friday, July 30. It appears here in revised form with permission.
 

Today was the first day of PulpFest, going on until Sunday at the Ramada Plaza in Columbus Ohio. It was a terrific day–a good turnout and a whole lotta really, REALLY nice pulps laying around. This is a place where you can see some of the rarest pulps, like Strange Suicides, on the same rack as Adventure, Popular and Dime Detective.

The day did not start out auspiciously for me. I set two alarms the night before for 6 AM. Or, at least I thought I had set two alarms. I woke up at ten minutes to eight. So for most of the day I had to deal with feeling rushed AND with jet lag.

But never mind. It’s been wonderful catching up with everyone, including our regulars Walker Martin (who has been so wonderful in dragging people over to my table so they’ll buy a copy of Pulp Writer) and Barry Traylor, Ed Hulse, Jack Irwin, Will Murray and so many others I am forgetting to mention.

Will Murray aka Kenneth Robeson

I would like to send out again my condolences to Scott Hartshorn, whose father passed away just a few days ago, while Scott was on his was to PulpFest. Only a few months earlier, his mother had passed. Scott is here, and it’s probably a good thing. All of his friends as well as all of the treasures in this room will keep him occupied.

We had a TV cameraman from the local news station show up and take photos; we’re hoping that it showed up on the local news tonight. Last year we had the same coverage and it brought a lot of people out to the convention.

I was on a panel Friday night about the Western pulps, along with Ed Hulse, William F. Nolan (the guest of honor and author of Logan’s Run) and Don Hutchison (who wrote The Great Pulp Heroes). This year is the 90th anniversary of Max Brand’s first appearance as a pulp writer in Western Story Magazine. So a lot of the discussion was about Brand. But I did get my two cents in about Pulp Writer and those lesser-known writers such as my grandfather, Paul Powers. It was a great time.

Before our panel, Bill Nolan spoke about his writing career and how Logan’s Run came about. A very entertaining speaker, Nolan has tons of knowledge about the pulps. He is now working on a biography of Frederick Faust, the man who was Max Brand.

So far I have been very good in my pulp buying. I’ve bought a Popular–the October 1904 issue that has the first "Chip of the Flying U" story by B.M. Bower, a female Western writer I am very interested in. I also picked up a wonderful Western Story, the October 12, 1929 issue that features a story by Cherry Wilson. I’m expecting that tomorrow I won’t be as disciplined because I will realize that time is running away with me. As for Sunday when the dealers start slashing prices, forget it. I might as well clean out my savings account now.

Things have been popping here at PulpFest. Yesterday was a terrific day on a lot of levels, no small thanks to all of the wonderful people here. The dealer room was packed for a good portion of Friday. Pulps were sold, (and bought), deals were made, friendships formed, and I managed to sell quite a few copies of Pulp Writer as well. Of course I had to turn right around and spend the money on pulps, which wasn’t my plan, but.."Oh, well." I bought more Populars (including three I won in the auction), a few Love Stories, and a amazing 1930 Wild West Weekly with a very unusual Kid Wolf cover. I have my sights set on a Sea Stories this morning.

Last night was the announcement of the Munsey Award, which went to Mike Chomko, who is most deserving of the award and was a popular choice judging from the reception of the room. I was very happy to see Mike win. After the awards announcement, a panel consisting of Bill Nolan, Ed Hulse, Walker Martin, and John Wooley spoke on the 90th anniversary of Black Mask magazine, birthplace of the hard-boiled detective story and launching pad for some of the finest crime fiction of the 20th century. Nolan spoke of the very early years, Ed on the hard-core years of the late 1920s and the early 1930s, Walker on the early 1940s and John spoke of the later years. It was a fascinating panel and the turnout was excellent. I would say at least 100 people attended.

Following the panel was the auction, with an astounding 142 lots up for bid. Items ranged from Walter Gibson’s (The Shadow) typewriter, to lots of pulps, to massive collections of science fiction paperbacks, to a Shadow thermos.

I spent both Friday and Saturday catching up with everyone and meeting new people. Karen Cunningham Davis, Frederick C. Davis’ granddaughter showed up for a while and it was great to see her again. We’re tossing around the idea of having a panel in the future for "pulp writer grandchildren" or some such thing. I met many others friends that I’ve "known" for years on the Internet like Morgan Holmes, Ron Hanna (pictured) of Wild Cat Books, Will Murray, Anthony Tollin, Ron Fortier from Airship 27, Matt Moring from Altus Press, Tom Roberts from Black Dog Books, and on and on.

I never really recovered from jet lag which was worse on this trip than when I went to England. Go figure. I have been trying to figure out why, and the only reason I can come up with is because I arrived late at night and I was tired to begin with. For those of you who I didn’t get around to seeing, or if I didn’t stick around to talk much, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to snub anyone–I was just unbelievably tired. As it was, I forgot to say good-bye to about 80% of the people I knew.

It was heartening to see a lot of new people there. Some were walk-ins, and some had come in from as far as both coasts. I met a lovely couple, Ann and Craig George, who came all the way from Denver. Ann and Craig have started up a new online book store, George’s Curious Books, and say they have a web site coming soon. As soon as it’s up I’ll pass along the link.

Another nice surprise was Arlene Hilfer, a professor from Hiram College in Ohio. Arlene says that she has already taught one class in pulp fiction at Hiram, and will be teaching another one this fall on…drum roll….The Spider vs. The Empire State, published by Age of Aces Books. I am going to try to talk Arlene into doing an interview for the blog.

I want to give a special shout out to Barry Traylor, Jack Cullers, Mike Chomko, and Ed Hulse, directors of the convention. They did a fantastic job and I know that the great turnout can be directly attributed to these men’s efforts in putting on a professional and very well-run convention.