/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.10364607]

I'm trying to get into classic Pulp authors but i'm not sure where to start, what are some good compilations of the old pulps?

[Anonymous No.10364623]

>>10364607
Allow me to sum all of them up for you. Flawless man must rescue woman from absolute evil. There now you can move on to something else.

[Anonymous No.10364625]

>>10364623
You're not very fun :(

[Anonymous No.10364626]

picked up The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian recently and its great. Its the original Conan stories penned by Robert E. Howard in the order in which they were written (but not published). The stories are fantastic and breezy to read, but the compilation is great too. Its got really good but not overbearing illustrations and a ton of info in the back about how they got the nearest approximation of the original final versions of each story, including some unpublished early drafts.

[Anonymous No.10364628]

>>10364625
F-fine start with reading Almuric it's really good

[Anonymous No.10364640]

I'm reading L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth right now. I might continue with his other pulp stuff later, but I will probably get into A Feast Unknown right after it.

[Anonymous No.10364682]

>>10364607
There are a lot of Weird Tales authors who are worth reading, and who are still in print or recently in print: Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Howard, C.L. Moore, Fritz Leiber. They all excel in the short story form and have their own distinctive style and tone. Here are my recommendations for specific volumes.

Lovecraft - Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales (Penguin) This one had his most famous stories and would be perfect if it included The Dunwich Horror, but there is plenty here to get on with: Poe-like macabre stories and Cthulhu mythos stories.

Clark Ashton Smith - Dark Eidolon and others (Penguin) Smith's stories have more diverse and exotic settings and his prose is more consciously poetic, elevated, and morbid. I'm increasingly of the opinion that he is better than Lovecraft.

Robert Howard is a more dynamic and exuberant writer, with more active protagonists and fight scenes. If you like fantasy, pick up a volume of his collected Conan stories. There are also volumes of his horror stories, where he was also a capable writer. I don't rate him as much as Smith and Lovecraft but he does have good moments and he is more approachable for the general reader.

C.L. Moore wrote fantasy and SF series in Weird Tales, so if you like that pick up the collected Jirel Of Joiry (redheaded warrior princess in dark age France) or Northwest Smith (hard-bitten space smuggler usually becoming embroiled with an exotic femme fatale alien.) She is far more sensual than Lovecraft, and less sententious, not as morbid as Smith but as exotic, less neckbeardy than Robert Howard, but tends to be a formulaic plotter. Still, I rate her more than Howard.

Fritz Leiber is great if you like fantasy - his Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories are very D&D-like, just comfy stories about two friends who travel and have adventures - with some Lovecraftian and Conan-like moments.

That's enough to start with - there is Robert Bloch and Henry Kuttner, but I couldnt speak for these, not having read them.

[Anonymous No.10364705]

>>10364623
Stop being a fucking cunt, i know what they are.

[Anonymous No.10365455]

[Anonymous No.10365511]

>>10364607
If you're willing to go the ebook route, you can get a ton of stuff very cheaply, eg, via the "Megapack" series, which are nicely put together in my experience (eg. 'The Cthulu Mythos Megapack' includes a T.E.D. Klein story, The Events at Poroth Farm, that's difficult to find in any inexpensive anthology).
>https://www.amazon.com/Pulp-Crime-MEGAPACK®-Noir-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B01HTLU8Y0

^See the "Customers who bought this item also bought" list at the link for MANY additional such titles -- all variety of pulp fiction.

[Anonymous No.10365519]

>>10365455 is fantastic. I will say that Fafhrd's solo story is a slog if you don't already care about the characters, but I think it's worth reading in chronological order anyway.

[Anonymous No.10365685]

>>10364623
you obviously haven't read a lot of pulps, or maybe you keep picking the ones with the square jawed, ham fisted, barrel chested men

[Anonymous No.10365797]

>>10365455
Freaky. I picked that up today for a quarter. 4 for 1 at a thrift shop.