A look at the Popular Press

An unusual publisher this time is the Popular Press. It was originally established at Bowling Green State University in 1970, and was later acquired by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2003 where it still exists today, with many of the backlist available.

While not explicitly pulp-oriented, because it focuses on “popular culture,” it has published pulp-related non-fiction and pulp reprints, more so in its earlier days.

The press was founded by husband and wife team of Ray B. Browne (1922-2009) and Pat Browne. Ray had established the Center for the Study of Popular Culture at BGSU in 1968, and from there a separate scholarly program in popular culture, the first (and only) academic Department of Popular Culture in 1972 with bachelor and master degrees. He also founded the Library for Popular Culture Studies (in 1969) along with the Popular Press at BGSU as well. He founded the Popular Culture Association (in 1970) and the American Culture Assocation (in 1979) and is the founding editor of the Journal of Popular Culture (in 1967), which is now published by the PCA.

The Popular Press published a wide variety of books on popular culture. After Pat Browne retired in 2002, it was then acquired by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2003. As noted, they still publish books under that banner, but very little seems of interest to pulp fans.

Now as most readers of this blog are interested in pulp fiction, I have reviewed some of their works, and there are more. Several of these works are still available from UWP, so before you pay high prices, be sure to check what is still available from them.

Among the books of interest that Popular Press published were: Robert Sampson‘s works The Spider (the only book-length work on this character), Deadly Excitements: Shadows and Phantoms, and his six-volume Yesterday’s Faces series; The Defective Detective in the Pulps and More Tales of the Defective Detective; Michael L. Cook‘s Mystery Fanfare: A Composite Annotated Index to Mystery and Related Fanzines 1963-1981 and Dime Novel Roundup: Annotated Index, 1931-1981; A Comprehensive Index to Black Mask, 1920-1951; Collector’s Index to Weird Tales, Horrors and Unpleasantries: A Bibliographical History and Collector’s Price Guide to Arkham House, Selected Tales of Grim and Grue from the Horror Pulps and Sensuous Science Fiction from the Weird and Spicy Pulps by Sheldon Jaffery; The Dime Novel Western; Hollywood Troubleshooter: W.T. Ballard’s Bill Lennox Stories; Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective; Max Brand: Western Giant, The Life and Times of Frederick Schiller Faust; A Cent a Story! The Best from Ten Detective Aces; The Dime Novel Detective and Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (from the Dime Novels) edited by Garyn G. Roberts; and East of Samarinda by Carl Jacobi.

A few of these I have reviewed, and I hope to do more. I wonder if there has been anything dime-novel- or pulp-related that ran in The Journal of Popular Culture? The PCA runs conferences, and again I wonder if anything of interest to pulp fans has shown up? If any know, let me know.