Mountie pulp fiction.
Mountie Stories “Ghost River” & “Murder Without Penalty!” With more Northwestern Fiction from North-West Romances Magazine, Winter 1950-51 issue…
North-West Romances: Mountie Pulp Fiction Magazine – Dan Cushman, Robert W Service & More Northern Writers.
North-West Stories: Big Outdoor Stories of the WEST and NORTH first appeared on the magazine stands in May, 1925. It became one of the most popular and longest running pulp magazines of them all.
The Northwestern genre was thriving and this magazine dedicated solely to the genre gathered an avid readership. It featured yarns about Canadian Mounties, desperate gold prospectors, fur pirates, beautiful independent heroines, wild sled dogs, wilder wolves and the savage Northcountry.
In 1937 Fiction House changed the magazine’s title to North-West Romances: Stories of the Wilderness Frontier. Which helped it build even more sales. The name change reflected the wants of the genre’s loyal female readership (at least half the audience), giving them strong women characters and adding more women writers.
This Winter ’50-’51 issue of North-West Romances presented works from eight writers and a dramatic cover painting by Allen Anderson.
Two novellas: “The Wolf-Woman of Chandindu” by C Hall Thompson and “Bonanza!” by Dan Cushman.
Born in Pennsylvania, Charles Hall Thompson was a popular pulp Western writer as well as artist and singer. His “The Wolf-Woman of Chandindu” led off the storytelling: “North of the Circle, out on the ice-choked Chandindu… Morna, dark-skinned seductive daughter of a Pelly squaw and red-headed Irishman, set her sights on a stolen pelt-treasure. Then watched grimly while three wench-hungry brutes sought to lay the prize at her feet.”
This was a time when phrases like “squaw” and “half-breed” were commonly used in Mountie pulp fiction.
Even Dan Cushman, whose novel STAY AWAY, JOE was popular with First Nations, used ’em.
Cushman’s novella “Bonanza!” concluded this issue: “The Stormwind Cache…a quarter ton of accursed yellow gold that whetted the appetites of foolhardy adventurers. Big Jim Ryan swapped his Seattle suitcase for a packsack and a pair of moosehide mucks. And found himself riding a skin boat into the mouth of hell.”
Tom O’Neill’s short story “Ghost River” springs to action: “Eerie laughter haunts the Arctic night. Fighting men, out of fear, throw away their guns…and Sergeant Carnes of the Mounted launches a ghost patrol.”
With “Murder Without Penalty” William Brockie reports a “weird, true story of fiendish Northland murder that stumped the best brains of the Mounties.” William Brockie was a pen-name of C V Tench, an Englishman who settled in Canada in the mid 1920’s. He published short fiction and creative articles about the Northcountry in various newspapers and magazines from the late 20’s into the early 60’s. For more, see the fascinating TALES OF THE MOUNTED by William Brockie, Ex-Constable RCMP – Mounties Book Review.
Other shorter yarns in this issue were “Rainbow’s End” written by John M Poole. “Shroud of Snow” by Anson Slaughter. “Fossilbunk” by G W Tweeddale. And “The Ballad of Gum-Boot Ben” by Robert W Service.” The last was a reprint from Service’s best selling 1909 Klondike-era collection BALLADS OF A CHEECHAKO.
Oh to have been there when it first came out, my friend, to have seen that glorious pulp cover on the stands, to have snatched it up…
Live Free, Mon Ami! – Brian Alan Burhoe
Did you like this Mountie Pulp Fiction Magazine Review?
IF SO, YOU’VE GOT TO SEE “THE WRITERS OF THE NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE” — MY MOST POPULAR LITERARY HISTORY POST:
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A study of the many writers (most of them American) who helped create the magnificent Mythology of the North-West Mounted Police. Lavishly illustrated with dramatic book and magazine covers. FREE TO READ ==> The GREATEST AUTHORS OF NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE FICTION
For more about North-West Romances: Stories of the Wilderness Frontier, Click Here.
Keywords: Anson Slaughter, C Hall Thompson, Dan Cushman, G W Tweeddale, John M Poole, Northwestern fiction, Pulp fiction, pulp fiction magazines, Mountie fiction, Mountie Pulp Fiction, North-West Mounted Police, North-West Romances, RCMP, Robert W Service, Western writer
