Stories from the Golden Age
101 total works
In the classic western movie The Searchers Jeffrey Hunter plays a young man with a mission in his heart and a chip on his shoulder. The character might well have been modeled on eighteen-year-old Lee Thompson, a trail-hand on a mission of his own-to save his dad, Diehard Thompson, the aging sheriff of Wolf River, Montana. Old Diehard's lost control of his town, and it seems every outcast and outlaw west of the Mississippi is on the prowl in Wolf River. Now Lee's come all the way from Texas to stand up for his father, a man who hasn't seen him since he was a boy and who doesn't know him from Adam. Lee's plan is a dangerous one-mix in with the desperadoes and risk death at their hand Under the Diehard Brand. But sometimes, the only way to restore the rule of law is to break it. Most of the Westerns published in the all-fiction magazines of the first half of the twentieth century were written by authors more familiar with the streets of New York than the cattle trails of Texas. Hubbard bucked the trend, and in the process changed the face of the Western adventure. He grew up in a time and a place where the Old West, though fading, still lived. His unique knowledge of the frontier, of its ways and its people, made him an authentic voice of this unique American experience. Also includes the Western adventures, Hoss Tamer, in which a circus horse trainer turned bronco buster has to figure a way to tame a gang of outlaws, and The Ghost Town Gun Ghost, the story of an old prospector who seems to have lost his wits; but is he crazy . . . or crazy like a fox? "Rife with action and adventure and laced with melodramatic undertones." -Library Journal
American arms merchant Blacky Lee is wanted by nearly every government in 1930s Europe? especially the Nazis. They want Blacky's head for selling them dud weapons, prompting his rapid (and illegal) escape across the Balkans to the kingdom of Aldoria with his business partner in tow. Aldoria is well chosen. Years before, Blacky discovered he was the spitting image of the country's Prince Philip, learned the archduke's speaking voice and memorized the royal family tree just in case. When Blacky brazenly impersonates the leader, things go surprisingly well ...that is, until he finds himself caught in the middle of a Communist plot to rig elections and take over.
Michael Patrick Obanon, proud owner of a 100,000-acre spread willed to him by his father, suddenly loses his entire inheritance when a band of criminals makes false claims on the ranch. Faced with having to save his property and his people, Obanon takes a courageous stand against the renegades. Yet he soon realizes it will take far more than mere weapons to win the day. With all guns seemingly drawn against him, Michael must come up with a devious strategy of his own to outwit the imposters and regain his birthright.
Pilot Terry Lee has taught Bill Trevillian everything he knows about flying, enough that Bill's know considered the ace of American test pilots just as war breaks out in World War II Europe. Unknown to Bill, Terry's also taught his own kid sister, Kip, who's now almost as good a pilot as Bill and quite the looker to boot. When France and Great Britain must choose between different American plane designs to outlfy the newest and deadliest Nazi fighters, the competing companies send their two best test pilots ...Kip and Bill. Unfortunately, a spy also has been sent to infiltrate and sabotage the planes to make sure that neither the French nor British will consider them safe enough to fly. Soon Kip and Bill suspect the other of sabotage? a problem that not only threatens their already electric relationship but their very lives.
Riveting, historical accounts of daredevils, pilots and brutal madmen...Tom Bristol's career as first mate of the Maryland bark Randolph abruptly ends during shore leave when he is press - ganged into serving aboard the British HMS Terror. Toil under the cruel whip of England is merciless: Crew members are treated as little more than chattel - barely fed, made to work past the brink of exhaustion and kept in line with a cat - o' - nine - tails. Fate finally smiles on young Bristol when the vessel is overtaken by pirates and he gladly turns coat and joins them.Yet Tom's new pirate mates desert him quickly after he's found guilty of killing a mutinous pirate and unwittingly harboring a woman on board. Marooned on a deserted island, Tom has nothing but a small supply of water, a gun and just enough bullets to kill himself. But Tom dreams up a devious plan that will return him to the high seas and make his past adventures pale compared to what he has in store for his many enemies..."Beats any Pirates of the Caribbean story you will find." - Associated Content
Circus dwarf Little Tom Little is the king of midgets, loved by crowds and carnival folk alike. Only he doesn't just want to be a bigger circus star, he wants to be just like the circus' tall and imposing leader. Trouble begins the moment that a set of ancient books containing the secret of switching bodies finds its way into Tom Little's tiny hands. When he magically trades his small frame with that of the circus chief, he finds himself in a giant-sized heap of trouble? his craving for height has landed him smack in the center ring surrounded by forty savage cats!
Lance Gordon's running out of room and time. Back in the Sierras he killed the man who murdered his father. Unfortunately that man turned out to be a Deputy Marshal, and now Lance has a price on his head. Lance wants only to live in peace, but he'll have to go through hell to get there. Running from the law and the cavalry, Lance heads for the one place no sheriff or soldier will go-into the territory ruled by The Baron of Coyote River. The Baron is the king of the cattle rustlers-as feared and hated as he is powerful. No one dares take him on ... until now. Lance is sick of running, and taking on the Baron is his last chance for a second chance. Before the battle is over, Coyote River will run red with blood, as Lance has vowed to redeem himself ... or die trying. Also includes the Western adventure, "Reign of the Gila Monster," in which a stranger rides into the roughest, toughest town in the West-and sets out to show the town who's boss. "Pure entertainment from the first page to the last with that L. Ron Hubbard touch giving this tale an enduring reader engagement from beginning to end." -The Midwest Book Review * An International Book Awards Finalist
Things are disappearing. Parts of buildings, parts of people, parts of the whole world. Old Shellback - a character as crazy - smart as Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future - thinks he needs glasses. But all he really has to do is open his eyes, and see that George Smiley the Messiah is busy dismantling the world. But two can play at this game. While George is making this world disappear, Old Shellback will make another one appear - and take an amazing journey back to a future of his own making.
As daring and defiant as Kirk Douglas journeying 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, there's no stopping diver Hawk Ridley as he takes the plunge into a briny world of untold riches and danger. The Caribbean is a fortune hunter's dream, salted with the gold of galleons long ago claimed by the deep. Now Hawk's headed for the Windward Passage of Haiti to stake his claim. But a rival team has also picked up the scent, and they're willing to turn the sea red with blood to get to the gold first. Fighting off ruthless competitors is nothing new to Hawk ...but fighting off a beautiful woman is a different story. Is she an innocent stowaway or a seductive saboteur? Between the cool millions lying on the bottom of the ocean, and the boiling - hot race to grab it, Hawk's about to find the answer and make a discovery Twenty Fathoms Down that will blow you out of the water. When it came to research, Hubbard was not one to head for the library. He always went to the source - in this case a U.S. navy deep - sea diver who agreed to show him the ropes and the danger.
Hubbard admits it was daunting - even frightening - but he returned from the experience with all the first - hand knowledge he needed to fathom the true nature of life and death underwater. "Primo pulp fiction." - Booklist
Hubbard admits it was daunting - even frightening - but he returned from the experience with all the first - hand knowledge he needed to fathom the true nature of life and death underwater. "Primo pulp fiction." - Booklist
Two escaped convicts, Paco Corvino and Lars Marlin, face off in Hubbard's fast-paced high seas action yarn, first published in the November 1937 issue of Argosy. Some years after Corvino and Marlin independently broke out of French Guiana's Devil's Island, the men meet by chance in Rio de Janeiro, where the debonair Corvino works as the steward of the Valiant, a luxury yacht due to set sail. Corvino persuades the Valiant's captain to hire Marlin, who's an experienced skipper, as part of the crew, unaware that Marlin blames his hellish stint on Devil's Island on his fellow escapee. Itching to take Corvino out with his trusty .38, Marlin must bide his time as the equally dangerous Corvino fingers his knife. Contraband cargo (heroin) and the yacht owner's beautiful daughter add spice to this taut pulp melodrama.
Sheriff Kyle of Deadeye, Nevada, is headed east to the nation's capital. Like Dennis Weaver in the television series McCloud, Kyle's about to discover that the law can be even wilder in the big city than in the Wild West. It's a fact that hits home when he's the one accused . . . of murder. Kyle's come to the city to give a report to his senator on the misdeeds of Nevada's filthy rich copper kings. But before he has a chance, he's knocked unconscious, later coming to alongside his senator-now dead, with Kyle's knife imbedded in the corpse. Welcome to Washington D.C., where corruption, intrigue and murder are all in a day's work. Kyle's got no alibi, no memory, and apparently doesn't have a prayer ... unless he can find a way to outwit, outfox and outmaneuver the masters of deception and double-crosses in this police procedural thriller. Much like Kyle, L. Ron Hubbard was born and bred on the western frontier and made his way east to explore and experience life in Washington, D.C. But unlike the sheriff, Hubbard enjoyed his time in the capital, where he went to college at Georgetown. He came to know the ins and outs of the city as well as he knew the arroyos and canyons of the west, giving him the kind of insights he needed to write stories like Killers Law. "...some of the most carefully and beautifully crafted trade paperbacks of our time." -Mystery Scene
There are all kinds of crazy, but there's only one Yukon Madness. And Royal Mountie Tommy McKenna-a role made for Canadian-born Glenn Ford-has seen first-hand the terror that follows in its wake ... his partner murdered and fed to a pack of wolves. But that's only a taste of the horrors to come. Bent on revenge, McKenna sets out to find the madman himself-a monster who goes by the name Itauk. He quickly finds, however, that there's only one way to get to the beast-through the man's raven-haired beauty of a girlfriend, Raja. But whose side is Raja on? Can McKenna win her over? Or will he too end up dead meat? The bait has been cast, the scent has been taken, and the trap has been set. The only question is, who is the predator and who is the prey? Hubbard never wrote a word, conceived a character, or described a setting without first finding out all he could about the people and places that drove his stories. He wrote: "I began to search for research on the theory that if I could get a glimmering of anything lying beyond a certain horizon, I could go deep enough to find an excellent story ... I began to read exhaustively ... I wanted information and nothing else." His exhaustive research-and search for the excellent story comes through in this book three times over. Also includes the adventures The Cossack which takes place in revolutionary Russia and explores the high price one man pays for refusing to kiss a Duchess, and The Small Boss of Nunaloha, the exotic story of a man who may be short, but who stands tall when it comes to defending his turf-an island in the Pacific.
Discover intrigue. Brent Calloway is hired by an insurance firm to board a cargo vessel undercover and ensure it makes its way to San Diego in one piece. Once the voyage is underway, Calloway finds fraud, a pattern of organized scuttlings and the true fate of another vessel captained by an old friend. But when Calloway's true identity is revealed, he must fight for his life - and the real danger begins. ALSO INCLUDES THE ADVENTURE STORY "GROUNDED" "...one of the great pulp writers, with colorful prose, lively action writing, exotic locales, fresh variations on standard characters and situations, and well - constructed plots." - Ellery Queen
Meet Lieutenant Flint: hard-edged and muscle-bound, radiating machismo-a bull of a soldier. In the opposite corner stands Captain Turner: with his pencil mustache and tailored shirts, he's a Trick Soldier-smart, crisply-dressed, and always at attention. They're fire and ice, oil and water... Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox in Casualties of War. Ten years ago and a thousand miles away, they attended boot camp together. They didn't get along then . . . and they don't get along now. Reunited in the Haitian jungles, in the midst of a fierce rebel uprising, they confront the most dangerous enemy of all-each other. It's time for heroes to rise and cowards to fall, and in the case of Lieutenant Flint and Captain Turner, bravery runs deep. When brute strength confronts military honor, the true measure of a man is not in his fists, but in his heart. A First Sergeant with the 20th United States Marine Corps Reserve, Hubbard knew exactly what it meant to be a Marine. As he wrote in 1935: "Most of the fiction written about [Marines] is of an intensely dramatic type, all do-or-die and Semper Fidelis." But the reality, he said, was far different. "I've known the Corps from Quantico to Peiping, from the South Pacific to the West Indies, and I've never seen any flag-waving. The most refreshing part of the U.S.M.C. is that they get their orders ... and do the job and that's that." It's that kind of unique and pointed insight that he brings to stories like Trick Soldier. Also includes the military adventures He Walked to War, in which Marine Sergeant E.Z. Go appears to take it easy, but always gets the job done ... even if it's hard as nails or dangerous as hell-in the end E.Z. does it; and Machine Gun 21,000, the story of a soldier who loses a gun and faces a court martial, but finds a way to save the day.
When several of the city's most respected citizens are inexplicably killed by what appear to be zombies, all Detective Terry Lane has to go on is a blue-grey glove, a Haitian pharmacy bill for some very unusual drugs and a death threat from a mysterious stranger. Matters are soon complicated when a beautiful nightclub singer shows up who claims to have information that could solve the case, but whose motives are plainly suspect. Against his better judgment, Terry investigates her lead only to find himself sealed in a coffin en route to the next zombie murder - his own.
A Chee-Chalker is a newcomer to Alaska; an Indian word meaning one who is inexperienced or has no knowledge. Bill Norton might be new to Ketchikan but he's no tenderfoot. In fact, he's one of the sharpest FBI agents this side of the Yukon-savvy, tough, and resourceful, like Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger. Norton's come to this rough-and-tumble town to look into a case of a missing person-his own boss-who vanished investigating a heroin smuggling operation. What Norton finds is a string of corpses, a gallery of rogues, and a fleet of fishing boats that specialize in red herrings. He also finds himself warming up to the heart-stopping halibut heiress Elaine Halloway. But is Elaine mixed up in the heroin trade ... or a victim of it? To find the truth Norton will have to make living men sweat-and dead men talk. Because every body fished out of the icy waters has a story to tell, and it will take all of Norton's CSI-like skills to squeeze it out of them. Hubbard wrote The Chee-Chalker in 1940 while on his Alaskan Experimental Radio Expedition. One of its main purposes was to test an experimental radio navigation system enabling the user to locate the source of radio transmissions. While in Ketchikan, Ron used this equipment to assist the US Army Signal Corp, Coast Guard, and local FBI. In the process, he helped uncover a Nazi saboteur who had invented a device to interfere with radio transmissions between Alaska and the continental United States. So it's not surprising that a radio station plays a significant role in this story.
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Tex Larimee is a grizzled Arizona sheriff who's leaving the deserts of Cactus County behind, blazing a trail east to mix it up with The Slickers in the canyons of Manhattan. Years later Clint Eastwood would follow the exact same trail in Coogan's Bluff-a western lawman on the loose in New York City. Tex's welcome to New York is a rude one. Robbed of his cash, gun and badge, he's locked in a room in back of a run-down bar. Breaking out of the bar, he goes looking for his best friend ... only to find him dead, his throat cut. And the cops accuse Tex of committing the murder.... But none of that's going to keep a good Arizona lawman down. Discovering he's been the subject of an elaborate frame-up job, Tex has got a few tricks of his own up his sleeve-and in his recovered Colt .45-to make even the toughest of city birds sing a different tune. Much like Tex, L. Ron Hubbard was born and bred on the western frontier and made his way east to explore and experience life in New York City. But unlike the sheriff, Hubbard enjoyed his time in the city, where his writing career took off as he became a leading figure in its literary world. He came to know the streets and haunts of Manhattan as well as he knew the arroyos and canyons of the west, giving him the kind of insights he needed to write stories like The Slickers. Also includes the mysteries Killer Ape , in which a man frees a mistreated orangutan, only to end up with a monkey on his back, as he's accused of aiding and abetting the ape in a case of murder, and Murder Afloat , the story of a top narcotics cop in the U.S. Secret Service who's pursuit of a million-dollar score could land him in some hot-and deadly-water.
U.S. Navy Lieutenant Steve Craig is in one hell of a mess. Being accused of murder is bad enough, but the local police are convinced he's killed his own father. Alfred Hitchcock couldn't have conceived a more diabolical plot for Cary Grant ... and now, for Steve Craig, the plot is about to get down and dirty. Steve's safe from the cops as long as he stays aboard his Navy ship-but the word safe isn't in his vocabulary. He slips off the vessel and vanishes into the seamy underside of the city, determined to find out who took his father's life ... even if it means risking his own. He follows a trail of smoke and mirrors and sudden violence to the Brass Keys to Murder. With them, Steve will seek to unlock the terrible truth behind his father's death ... and an astonishing secret that will change his life-and that of the woman he loves forever. Ron knew well the life at sea and the world surrounding it. Not only was he the son of a naval officer, he traveled back and forth across the Pacific, plied the China coast in a working schooner and commanded an expedition aboard a four-masted ship to the Caribbean. He walked the waterfronts of countless ports, sharing stories with the colorful-and often shady-characters inhabiting them. Originally published in April 1935 under the pen name Michael Keith, Brass Keys to Murder is a direct result of those adventures.