Saturday, July 21, 2012

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Trails, November 1946

WESTERN TRAILS was the companion magazine to WESTERN ACES, published by A.A. Wyn, who went on to found Ace Books. This issue has a pretty colorful cover, and there's a good line-up of authors inside: J. Edward Leithead (one of my favorite Western pulp authors), Wilson L. Covert (who was also J. Edward Leithead), Gunnison Steele (Bennie Gardner), Barry Cord (Peter Germano), and D.B. Newton (who was really D.B. Newton, although he also wrote under the name Dwight Bennett, did a few Jim Hatfield novels in TEXAS RANGERS as Jackson Cole [as did J. Edward Leithead, Bennie Gardner, and Peter Germano], and wrote several of the novels in the Stagecoach Station paperback series published by Bantam under the name Hank Mitchum, as well as creating that series for Lyle Kenyon Engel's Book Creations Inc). So this is almost an all-TEXAS RANGERS-alumni issue. Although at this point Germano can't be considered an alumnus because he hadn't written any Hatfield novels yet. The things that take up space in my brain.

1 comment:

Walker Martin said...

What I find so fascinating about these western magazines that you have been discussing each Saturday, is the fact that they once were widely available all over the country, on just about every newstand. Now a western fiction title could not even get distributed. And if it did get distributed it would be only to a few outlets like Barnes & Noble. And then circulation would be so low that it would have to cease publication.

WESTERN TRAILS is not a big favorite of mine but it lasted 173 issues. That's a long life from 1928 to 1949, over 20 years.