The H. Bedford-Jones Pulp Fiction Megapack. H. Bedford-Jones

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      COPYRIGHT INFO

      The H. Bedford-Jones Pulp Fiction Megapack is copyright © 2013 by Wildside Press LLC. All rights reserved. Cover art © Aleksandra Smirnova / Fotolia.

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      “The Miraculous Buddha” originally appeared in Short Stories, April 10, 1944.

      “The House of Skulls” originally appeared in All-Story, January 25, 1919.

      “Written In Red” originally appeared in Short Stories, August 10, 1922.

      “Yellow Intrigue” originally appeared in Short Stories, March 1921.

      “Down the Coast of Barbary” originally appeared in All-Story, October 21, 1922.

      “Skulls” originally appeared in Short Stories, February 1921.

      The Opium Ship originally appeared as a four-part serial in the legendary pulp magazine The Thrill Book in the July 1, 1919; July 15, 1919; August 1, 1919; and August 15, 1919 issues.

      “Pirates Gold” originally appeared in Adventure magazine, December 20, 1922.

      The Second Life of Monsieur originally appeared in the November 1920 issue of Blue Book magazine, copyright © 1920 by The Story-Press Corporation, Inc.

      Nuala O’Malley originally appeared in All-Story Weekly magazine as a four-part serial, running from October 5, 1918, to October 26, 1918.

      “Mustered Out” originally appeared in Argosy and Railroad Man’s Magazine, April 5, 1919.

      “Irregular Brethren” originally appeared in the Blue Book magazine, August 1919.

      “Clancy, Detective” originally appeared in The Blue Book Magazine, April 1926.

      “The Thrust of a Finger” originally appeared in Complete Stories, March 1, 1932.

      “Three Smart Silks” originally appeared in Detective Dragnet, December 1930.

      “The Blue Beetle” originally appeared in Short Stories, April 25, 1932.

      “Rendezvous” originally appeared in Short Stories, April 10, 1933.

      “Test Pilot Number One” originally appeared in Short Stories, January 10, 1940.

      “The Curious Luck of the Earl Of Pugwash” originally appeared inShort Stories, February 10, 1942.

      D’Artagnan originally appeared in 1928.

      A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

      H. Bedford-Jones (1889-1949) was, at one point in the 1920s, among the highest paid, most read, and most popular authors in the English language. If you’ve never heard of him, it’s because he wrote primarily for magazines—Adventure, Argosy, Blue Book, The Thrill Book, Weird Tales, and many, many more. He turned out thousands of short stories and more than 100 novels (so many and in such diverse markets that no one has been able to complile a complete list). He was a fast writer—exceptionally so—and wrote with great style and vigor. In many ways, he was the Stephen King or Charles Dickens of his day.

      But because he published in ephemeral markets, his work came out each month—and then disappeared, to be replaced by next month’s stories in next month’s magazines. It’s not a great way to build an enduring audience. If you stop publishing in magazines, the editors replace your work with someone else’s…and the readership rapidly forgets you, which ultimately became Bedford-Jones’s fate.

      Still, pulp magazine collectors today seek out and relish his work. If you like a great adventure story well told, you can’t go wrong with anything by Henry James O’Brien Bedford-Jones!

      —John Betancourt

      Publisher, Wildside Press LLC

      www.wildsidepress.com

      ABOUT THE MEGAPACKS

      Over the last few years, our “Megapack” series of ebook anthologies has grown to be among our most popular endeavors. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”

      The Megapacks (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, A.E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)

      A NOTE FOR KINDLE READERS

      The Kindle versions of our Megapacks employ active tables of contents for easy navigation…please look for one before writing reviews on Amazon that complain about the lack! (They are sometimes at the ends of ebooks, depending on your reader.)

      RECOMMEND A FAVORITE STORY?

      Do you know a great classic science fiction story, or have a favorite author whom you believe is perfect for the Megapack series? We’d love your suggestions! You can post them on our message board at http://movies.ning.com/forum (there is an area for Wildside Press comments).

      Note: we only consider stories that have already been professionally published. This is not a market for new works.

      TYPOS

      Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.

      If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at [email protected] or use the message boards above.

      THE MEGAPACK SERIES

      MYSTERY

      The Achmed Abdullah Megapack

      The Charlie Chan Megapack*

      The Craig Kennedy Scientific Detective Megapack

      The Detective Megapack

      The Father Brown Megapack

      The Girl Detective Megapack

      The Jacques Futrelle Megapack

      The Anna Katharine Green Mystery Megapack

      The First Mystery Megapack

      The Penny Parker Megapack

      The Philo Vance Megapack*

      The Pulp Fiction Megapack

      The Raffles Megapack

      The Victorian Mystery Megapack

      The Wilkie Collins Megapack

      GENERAL INTEREST

      The Adventure Megapack

      The Baseball Megapack

      The Cat Story Megapack

      The Second Cat Story Megapack

      The Third Cat Story Megapack

      The Third Cat Story Megapack

      The Christmas Megapack

      The Second Christmas Megapack

      The Classic American Short Stories Megapack, Vol. 1.

      The Classic Humor Megapack

      The Dog Story Megapack

      The Doll Story Megapack

      The Horse Story Megapack

      The Military Megapack

      The Sea-Story Megapack

      SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

      The Edward Bellamy Megapack

      The First Reginald Bretnor Megapack

      The Fredric Brown Megapack

      The Ray Cummings Megapack

      The Philip K. Dick