Play Book Tag discussion

People have always loved stories. In the early 1900's, pulp fiction was not a genre about tough talking criminals and detectives, it was the term used for magazines printed on cheaper (not glossy) pulp paper. They were filled with short stories, and were a primary source of inexpensive entertainment. The most popular genres were Romance and Westerns. (Eventually someone had the idea to publish Romantic Westerns, which I know many of you will appreciate.)

Queen of the Pulps: The Reign of Daisy Bacon and Love Story Magazine was a revelation. (Thank you Anna, for stirring me to explore pulp fiction!) Daisy Bacon was the celebrated Editor of Love Story Magazine, the best selling pulp magazine in the heyday of pulp fiction. She put out a whole short-story magazine every week, reading thousands of pages of submissions, and working with both new authors, and well known novelists publishing under a pseudonym.

"Thirty years before Helen Gurley Brown told women in Cosmopolitan they could have it all, Daisy was vociferously saying the same in newspapers across the country."

Daisy Bacon was Editor of Love Story Magazine for decades. She hired her younger sister Esther, and the two of them made a great team. Daisy never married but she had a long-term relationship with a married man. His wife was a well known novelist. This biography is well supported by extensive research, but it's a bit dry. Daisy would be an excellent character in an historical fiction novel.

Detective and hero magazines became more popular later on, especially when they were tied to radio stories. Daisy also managed seven other pulp titles, including Detective Story Magazine, The Shadow ("the shadow knows"), and Doc Savage magazines during their last years as pulp fiction magazines.