Contexts: Source

Publishers' Checks to Pulp Authors

In the early 1920s, authors Edgar Rice Burroughs, Max Brand, and Zane Grey were earning between 5-10 cents per word, or $3000-4000 per novel, from pulp magazine serializations. By 1939, at a penny per word, the average pulp cost publisher Harry Steeger about $600 an issue for all stories total. The images below show examples of canceled checks and authors' payments retrieved from the publishing files of the Frank A. Munsey Co. (1882-1942) and Steeger's own Popular Publications, Inc. (1930-72). Authors represented here include A. Merritt, H. Bedford-Jones, Norvell Page, and Zane Grey. Bank stamps and dates of payment range from 1915 (Munsey Co.) to the late 1940s (Popular Inc.). New images will be added as they become available.

Zane Grey, $2000, The Frank A. Munsey Co., 1915.

Arthur Zagat, $105, Popular Publications, Inc., 1935.

Norvell Page, $85, Popular Publications, Inc., 1936.

Phillip Ketchum, $90, Popular Publications, Inc., 1937.

Norvell Page, $150, Popular Publications, Inc., 1937.

Emile Tepperman, $109, Popular Publications, Inc., 1939.

Abe Merritt, $100, The Frank A. Munsey Co., 1939.

H. Bedford-Jones, $180, Popular Publications, Inc., 1939.

Leo Durocher, $200, Popular Publications, Inc., 1945.

Frederick Davis, $525, Popular Publications, Inc., 1946.