Lester Dent: The Man, His Craft and His Market [Paperback]

M. Martin McCarey-Laird (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

LESTER DENT: THE MAN, HIS CRAFT AND HIS MARKET will take you back to the heyday of pulp publishing. This fascinating book is a must read for fans of pulp stories, mysteries, detective stories, comic books or science fiction. It is a revealing history of the brilliant writer from La Plata, Missouri, who has inspired generations of adventure writers and whose influence can still be seen in fictional heroes today! -- From the Publisher

About the Author

Maggie Martin McCarey-Laird has had a diverse career including being a United Methodist minister and missionary, teaching English at Drake University and Des Moines Area Community College both in Des Moines, Iowa, and the University of Alaska, Nome campus; she's also been a radio talk show host in Albany, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Hidalgo Pub Co (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964100495
• ISBN-13: 978-0964100497
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,356,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for fans of pulp magazines or Doc Savage!, October 8, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Lester Dent: The Man, His Craft and His Market (Paperback)

Fans of Doc Savage will love this book, which is about the author of the Doc Savage pulp magazine stories. It was fun to read about Lester Dent -- his Doc tales have been my favorites for years, and I felt like I got to know him a bit from reading this book

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I liked this book!, August 20, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Lester Dent: The Man, His Craft and His Market (Paperback)

Great book about Lester Dent. I started reading the Doc Savage stories when I was a kid, and I still read them 30 years later. Fun to learn about my favorite author

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pretty skimpy, May 28, 2005

By 

C. S. Junker "soul_survivor" (Burien, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lester Dent: The Man, His Craft and His Market (Paperback)

This booklet --- almost a pamphlet, really --- is so brief as to be almost useless. There is far more detailed information about the pulp markets and Dent's career in Philip Jose Farmer's "Doc Savage an Apocalyptic Life". Much of the text quotes from two sources: Ron Goulart's "Cheap Thrills" and Will Murray's "The Secret Kenneth Robeson". Ron Goulart is a pulp historian and award-winning SF author; Murray is a long time Doc Savage scholar and author of several Doc Savage books.

Since so much of the information in this booklet is drawn from these two sources, I think my money would have been better spent hunting down copies of the Goulart and Murray books, rather than spending my money on this one.

In any case, what you get is very skimpy --- 89 pages of very large print and very wide margins, plus a brief bibliography and index. Hardly worth the price.