I have received two very nice comments from my posting of the cover image of Love Nest Stories. It turns out that my prized acquisition is an amalgam of various other prior publications, nonetheless unique in its own right. First of all, there is no table of contents but internal advertising confirms it is a D.M. publication. The Bellem story is entitled "Double Dare". I'm sure my following of fellow pulp sleuths, a small but dedicated band, will tell me if it is original to this magazine or, more probably, reprinted.
The most comprehensive response was from Beau of Darwination. His website is http://www.darwinscans.blogspot.com/. He has given me permission to post portions of the text of his message and some additional images that he supplied:
"I saw your post of Love Nest Stories today. I haven't seen it for sale
before. I think I can clear up a little bit of the mystery for you on
the date and the nature of the pulp. I recognized the cover image
instantly, as it comes from an issue I just recently acquired, Pep
Stories 1935-12. The cover on your Love Nest Stories also reminded me
of an issue I'd seen recently on Ebay because of the font on the issue
number and pricing, an issue which Bookery's lists as issue #1 of the
second series of French Frolics from c. 1936. I'll attach the little
auction image of the issue. I knew something was odd about it because
I'm certain that the image had been used previously on a Donenfeld pulp
of approximately the same era (which looking through my files now armed
with a bit of knowledge was on the cover of Pep Stories 1935-08, I'll
attach it too as well as the original cover and contents page for Pep
Stories 1935-12). I looked at my copy of the issue of Pep Stories just
to double check that I remembered no Bellem story within and to confirm
that your contents must be different. My first thought was that these
reprints were pirated UK editions (I've long held and still do hold the
unconfirmed suspicion that there were periods in 1936 and 1937 where
Donenfeld sent returned/coverless pulps over to the UK where they
received new covers), but looking in Doug Ellis' Uncovered just now, he
clears up nicely the mystery surrounding these Love Nest and French
Frolics issues:
on page 54
"In addition to their regular titles, however, there were sporadic other
titles, such as Paris Frolics and French Frolics, both of which saw at
least a couple of issues in 1934. These were reprint publications,
binding returned, (easily printed by The Donny Press), with the contents
page stripped out so that the reader didn't realize he was buying the
same material twice. The cover paintings on both of these publications
were also reprints. This practice continued for at least a few years;
as late as 1936 a Donenfeld pulp, Love Nest Stories, was the same sort
of reprint magazine."
So I think this Love Nest Stories is pretty close in vintage to this
"2nd series French Frolics Issue 1". I don't think that Ellis is
completely on track, though, with the statement that the cover paintings
on all of the French Frolics were reprints. I'm attaching a couple of
the covers that, if they were reprinted, I at least recognize from no
other American pulp or even the style as that of any of the American
artists. I'd pegged the second of these as a likely UK pirate cover.
Hrm. One mystery is solved and another rises up. Ah well, such is the
nature of digging around in these things. Hopefully I'll get my greedy
hands on some of these issues at one time or another for a bit more
insight. One of these days (on my long long list of projects), I'll do
a post on the covers to some of the UK girlie pulp pirate editions.
I've learned the hard way from buying a few of them that they aren't the
real article and that some have close (and not so close) copies of
American covers done by the British!"
Cheers,
Beau
P.S. The wiliness of Harry Donnenfeld never ceases to amaze me.
The most comprehensive response was from Beau of Darwination. His website is http://www.darwinscans.blogspot.com/. He has given me permission to post portions of the text of his message and some additional images that he supplied:
"I saw your post of Love Nest Stories today. I haven't seen it for sale
before. I think I can clear up a little bit of the mystery for you on
the date and the nature of the pulp. I recognized the cover image
instantly, as it comes from an issue I just recently acquired, Pep
Stories 1935-12. The cover on your Love Nest Stories also reminded me
of an issue I'd seen recently on Ebay because of the font on the issue
number and pricing, an issue which Bookery's lists as issue #1 of the
second series of French Frolics from c. 1936. I'll attach the little
auction image of the issue. I knew something was odd about it because
I'm certain that the image had been used previously on a Donenfeld pulp
of approximately the same era (which looking through my files now armed
with a bit of knowledge was on the cover of Pep Stories 1935-08, I'll
attach it too as well as the original cover and contents page for Pep
Stories 1935-12). I looked at my copy of the issue of Pep Stories just
to double check that I remembered no Bellem story within and to confirm
that your contents must be different. My first thought was that these
reprints were pirated UK editions (I've long held and still do hold the
unconfirmed suspicion that there were periods in 1936 and 1937 where
Donenfeld sent returned/coverless pulps over to the UK where they
received new covers), but looking in Doug Ellis' Uncovered just now, he
clears up nicely the mystery surrounding these Love Nest and French
Frolics issues:
on page 54
"In addition to their regular titles, however, there were sporadic other
titles, such as Paris Frolics and French Frolics, both of which saw at
least a couple of issues in 1934. These were reprint publications,
binding returned, (easily printed by The Donny Press), with the contents
page stripped out so that the reader didn't realize he was buying the
same material twice. The cover paintings on both of these publications
were also reprints. This practice continued for at least a few years;
as late as 1936 a Donenfeld pulp, Love Nest Stories, was the same sort
of reprint magazine."
So I think this Love Nest Stories is pretty close in vintage to this
"2nd series French Frolics Issue 1". I don't think that Ellis is
completely on track, though, with the statement that the cover paintings
on all of the French Frolics were reprints. I'm attaching a couple of
the covers that, if they were reprinted, I at least recognize from no
other American pulp or even the style as that of any of the American
artists. I'd pegged the second of these as a likely UK pirate cover.
Hrm. One mystery is solved and another rises up. Ah well, such is the
nature of digging around in these things. Hopefully I'll get my greedy
hands on some of these issues at one time or another for a bit more
insight. One of these days (on my long long list of projects), I'll do
a post on the covers to some of the UK girlie pulp pirate editions.
I've learned the hard way from buying a few of them that they aren't the
real article and that some have close (and not so close) copies of
American covers done by the British!"
Cheers,
Beau
P.S. The wiliness of Harry Donnenfeld never ceases to amaze me.
