The Dime Detectives

"Between the dime novels of the late nineteenth century and the paper-backs of today, fans of popular literature turned to the pulp magazines for their entertainment. Printed on the cheapest possible paper, glued between lurid and colorful covers, the pulps achieved their heyday in the 1920s and 30s, before closing down in the 1950s. Their story is told in this book. In the rough-cut pages of the pulp magazine the chief American contribution to mystery fiction - the private detective - was born. The elegant British sleuth favored in earlier years gave way to a new breed of detective: wary, wisecracking, tough. In such magazines as Black Mask, Detective Fiction Weekly, Crimebusters, Thrilling Detective, Dime Detectives, and Spicy Detective, such authors as Dashiell Hamett, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, John D. MacDonald, Hank Searls, and John Jakes first appeared. This book offers a scholarly overview of crime pulp history, through the eyes of author and pulp magazine historian Ron Goulart." -- dust jacket.