Doc Savage was an American pulp magazine that was published from 1933 to 1949 by Street & Smith. It was launched as a follow-up to the success of The Shadow, a magazine Street & Smith had started in 1931, based around a single character. Doc Savages lead character, Clark Savage, was a scientist and adventurer, rather than purely a detective. Lester Dent was hired to write the lead novels, almost all of which were published under the house name "Kenneth Robeson". A few dozen novels were ghost-written by other writers, hired either by Dent or by Street & Smith. The magazine was successful, but was shut down in 1949 as part of Street & Smith's decision to abandon the pulp magazine field completely.
Dent's work was full of inventive ideas, and ranged across multiple genres. Science fictional gadgets were common, but there were also detective novels, westerns, fantasies, and straightforward adventures. Dent worked with Henry Ralston and (until 1943) John Nanovic, two editors at Street & Smith, to plot the novels, though in a few cases ghost-writers were given leeway to create their own plots without Dent's involvement. Early covers were painted by Walter Baumhofer; when Baumhofer left Street & Smith in 1936 he was replaced by R. G. Harris and then by Emery Clarke.
The magazine was very successful, reaching a circulation of 300,000. After the magazine ceased publication, the franchise continued; the novels were later reprinted as paperbacks, and new novels were eventually written by Philip José Farmer, pulp historian Will Murray, and James Patterson. The prose style was action-oriented and Dent had a low opinion of his work, describing his life's output as consisting mostly of "reams of saleable crap".
Publishing history
Development In 1930, CBS began broadcasting The Detective Story Hour, a radio program that used scripts from Detective Story Magazine, a pulp magazine published by Street & Smith. In every episode the narrator, named The Shadow, spoke the line: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows." in a sinister voice, and readers began asking at newsstands for "the Shadow magazine".Sterling (2004), p. 2075.Harmon (2011), p. 149. Henry W. Ralston, Street & Smith's business manager, decided that this was an opportunity to revive the idea of a magazine based around a single character.Murray (1983), pp. 486–491. This had been a common publishing approach during the era of the dime novel, with lead characters such as Nick Carter and Frank Merriwell, but had fallen out of fashion, because when readers tired of the lead character, they tired of the magazine.Goulart (1973), p. 76. Instead, pulp magazines often featured series of stories about popular protagonists, but never relied solely on them to sell a magazine.
The new magazine, titled The Shadow, was an immediate success, and Ralston began looking for other opportunities to create "hero pulps", as the genre became known.Weinberg (1985), pp. 183–185. An idea for a magazine titled The Phantom had to be abandoned when Standard Publications, a competing publisher that had also noticed the success of The Shadow, launched The Phantom Detective in early 1933.Sampson (1983), pp. 408–414. Ralston resurrected Carter in Nick Carter Magazine, with the first issue dated March 1933,Cox (1983), pp. 379–381. but also began planning a magazine based on a new character, to be named Doc Savage.Murray (1983), pp. 177–182. The name was inspired by Richard Henry Savage, an adventurer of the late 19th century; Doc Savage's first name, Clark, came from film star Clark Gable.Murray (2012), p. 203. Ralston began work on the idea for Doc Savage in early 1932, and when Street & Smith hired John Nanovic to edit The Shadow, the two of them collaborated on the concept.Murray (2012), pp. 399–403. Nanovic wrote up the notes from his and Ralston's discussions as a 28-page short story titled "Doc Savage, Supreme Adventurer" which provided "the characters, the basic concept, the background" for the whole series.
In February 1932 Frank Blackwell, Street & Smith's editor-in-chief, contacted Lester Dent, a pulp writer in his twenties with a dozen or so published stories, asking him to submit one or more novels for The Shadow.Murray (2012), p. 411. Dent had been hired by Dell Magazines the year before to write stories for Sky Riders and Scotland Yard, but both magazines had ceased publication within a few months of his arrival in New York.Murray (2012), p. 414. Nanovic's outline was probably not complete at the time Dent was first contacted; the concept for Doc Savage did not firm up quickly, and even the name for the new character was not settled for a long time.Murray (2012), p. 412. Dent's Shadow novel was rejected, partly through an unfortunate coincidence of plot with another Shadow novel submitted a few days earlier, but Dent was hired to write the Doc Savage novels regardless.Murray (2012), p. 375. Street & Smith may have been influenced to hire Dent by a story he wrote called "The Sinister Ray", the first of a series featuring Lynn Lash, a "gadget detective". The story appeared in the March 1932 issue of Detective-Dragnet, and featured the same scientific approach to detection that Ralston was seeking for Doc Savage.Murray (2012), p. 417.
Launch and magazine history Issue data for Doc SavageSpringSummerFallWinterJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec19331/11/21/31/41/51/62/12/22/32/419342/52/63/13/23/33/43/53/64/14/24/34/419354/54/65/15/25/35/45/55/66/16/26/36/419366/56/67/17/27/37/47/57/68/18/28/38/419378/58/69/19/29/39/49/59/610/110/210/310/4193810/510/611/111/211/311/411/511/612/112/212/312/4193912/512/613/113/213/313/413/513/614/114/214/314/4194014/514/615/115/215/315/415/515/616/116/216/316/4194116/516/617/117/217/317/417/517/618/118/218/318/4194218/518/619/119/219/319/419/519/620/120/220/320/4194320/520/621/121/221/321/421/521/622/122/222/322/4194422/522/623/123/223/323/423/523/624/124/224/324/4194524/524/625/125/225/325/425/525/626/126/226/326/4194626/526/627/127/227/327/427/527/628/128/228/328/4194728/528/629/129/229/329/429/5194829/630/130/230/330/4194930/530/631/1Issues of Doc Savage, showing volume and issue number. Underlining indicatesthat an issue was titled as a quarterly (e.g."Fall 1949") rather than as a monthly.The colors identify the editors for each issue:
The first issue of the new magazine was dated March 1933, and the lead novel was The Man of Bronze. The author was Lester Dent, but the novel was published as by Kenneth Roberts, a pseudonym intended by Street & Smith to be used for all future Doc Savage novels. A house name, as corporate pseudonyms like this were known, gave readers the illusion of consistent authorship, even though the novels that used the house name might conceal several different writers over time.Murray (2012), p. 1. The house name was changed to Kenneth Robeson from the second issue to avoid confusion with a real writer named Kenneth Roberts. The magazine was quickly successful, soon reaching 200,000 in circulation,Reynolds (1955), p. 205. and eventually settling at 300,000, a very high figure for a pulp magazine.Hulse (2013), pp. 287, 299.
Every issue featured a complete novel, and Dent wrote each of these for over a year. His contract with Street & Smith paid him $700 for each novel, but allowed him to hire ghost-writers if he wished, and in 1934 he began looking for another writer to take on some of the work.Murray (2012), pp. 1–2.Murray (2012), p. 6. The first ghost-writer he hired was Harold A. Davis, an old colleague of Dent's from his days working on the Tulsa World. Davis's The King Maker appeared in the June 1934 issue; he wrote a total of fourteen of the magazine's lead novels, ending with The Exploding Lake in the September 1946 issue.Murray (2012), pp. 20–21. Davis was followed by Ryerson Johnson, whose Land of Always-Night was written in late 1934Murray (2012), p. 7. and was printed in March 1935. Johnson wrote two more novels, but only one saw print: The Fantastic Island, in December 1935.Murray (2012), pp. 3–4. The other, The Motion Menace, was completely rewritten by Dent, who kept only the title and main plot idea; Dent's version saw print in May 1938. In about 1935 Street & Smith decided to commission a ghost-writer for Doc Savage independently of Dent; the reason why is unclear but they might have been trying to find a back-up for Dent, who was bored by his Doc Savage writing obligations and appeared likely to resign.Murray (2012), pp. 9–12. The writer they hired, Laurence Donovan, produced nine novels in just nine months, beginning with Cold Death in April 1935. The first one published was Murder Melody, which appeared in the November 1935 issue of Doc Savage. The stories written by Donovan have sometimes been credited to another pulp writer, Norman A. Danberg, but this is an error, prompted by an editorial mistake that made it appear that "Laurence Donovan" was a pseudonym of Danberg's. Another possible ghost-writer was Martin E. Baker, Dent's secretary from late 1934 to late 1935. Baker was paid $300 by Dent for work on an unidentified Doc Savage manuscript, which Dent may have either abandoned or completely rewritten.Murray (2012), pp. 323–326.
Donovan's rapid production meant that for two years Dent needed to spend much less time writing Doc Savage novels.Murray (2012), pp. 17–18. The last of the backlog was published in 1937, and a new ghost-writer was recruited: William G. Bogart, who worked for Nanovic and wrote short stories as well. At some point in the late 1930s Bogart left Street & Smith to write full time, and it was at about this time he began to write Doc Savage novels. He wrote nine between 1938 and 1940, starting with World's Fair Goblin, which appeared in April 1939.Murray (2012), pp. 29–32. Bogart's novels were subcontracted through Dent, but Street & Smith hired Alan Hathway as another ghost-writer in 1939, independently of Dent. By 1942 Hathway had produced four Doc Savage novels, all published between January 1941 and January 1942.Murray (2012), pp. 36–37. Dent also offered ghost-writing work to Edmond Hamilton, but Hamilton declined, citing the pressure of writing lead novels for Captain Future.Murray (2012), p. 37.
Dent's need for ghost-writers over the first few years of Doc Savage diminished after 1941, as he traveled less because of the war. Wartime paper shortages forced Street & Smith to cease publication of many of their titles, but Doc Savage was one of the handful of survivors. Nanovic was dismissed by Street & Smith in 1943, and for six months the magazines were edited by Charles Moran.Murray (2012), pp. 40–42. The format shrank from pulp to digest with the January 1944 issue. Moran was succeeded by Babette Rosmond, who gave the day-to-day work of managing Doc Savage to a sub-editor, a woman who was unfamiliar with the magazine. As a result, one of Dent's novels appeared under his own name, rather than under the house name Kenneth Robeson: this was The Derelict of Skull Shoal, in the March 1944 issue. In 1946 Dent rehired Bogart to write two more Doc Savage novels; Dent was now writing mysteries for book publication and needed to make time in his writing schedule. Bogart followed this with another three Doc Savage novels contracted directly with Street & Smith, rather than via Dent.Murray (2012), p. 43.