Mystery, detective, and espionage fiction : a checklist of fiction in U.S. pulp magazines, 1915-1974 /

A remarkable pioneering effort, the first in a proposed exhaustive catalog, index, and checklist of pulp fiction. It is clearly, as coauthor Miller states in the preface, a labor of love, particularly considering the difficulties involved in its preparation. Covering 360 magazine titles, nearly 9,000 issues, and more than 58,000 stories, the compilers also had to consider such problems as title changes, erratic frequency and numbering, and the necessary gathering of firsthand information from sources that can be as difficult to find as they are fragile to handle. Cook is no stranger to this genre, having to his credit such works as Monthly Murders: A Checklist and Chronological Listing of Fiction in the Digest-size Mystery Magazines. . .(1982) and Mystery, Detective and Espionage Magazines (CH, Jun '84) in the "Historical guides to the world's periodicals and newspapers" series. Volume 1 contains an alphabetical list of magazine titles, with a chronological listing of each issue, including contents. Volume 2 lists authors, including their stories, with references to the sources in Volume 1. Index only; no analysis or illustrations. There is no effort to identify pseudonyms, and no story title index. Still, this should prove to be an invaluable finding tool for collectors and scholars. -A. Ellis, Northern Kentucky University