Pulp Magazine Authors and Literature Fans discussion

Anybody here read any Seabury Quinn? He was supposed to be the most popular of all the Weird Tales writers based on I suppose the fan letters on his stories.
Used to own some of his Popular Library pbs.
He is best known for his character Jules de Grandin.Based on Sherlock Holmes except he hunted supernatural dangers instead of criminals,and with his partner Dr. Trowbridge(his Dr Watson) this native of France worked out of a town called Harrisonville, New Jersey which has more demons, goblins,and scary beasties this side of Sunnydale.
His stories are pretty traditional and formulaic horror stories but if you love the writers from the heyday of Weird Tales he is worth tracking down
He also wrote a novella Roads which was published long ago by Arkham House. It is a delight, about another origin of Santa Claus.

Patrick, until I joined Goodreads, I'd never heard of Seabury Quinn. One of my Goodreads friends told me about him a couple of years ago, and I'd thought I'd added his story collection Night Creatures to my "to-read" shelf back then. It turns out I hadn't! I've corrected that omission just now, and thanks for your post --it was a good reminder.

This is fascinating. I'd NEVER heard of Seabury Quinn or Jules De Grandin but I'm currently writing a series of novels that feature LESTRADE from the Sherlock Holmes adventures in an alternative steampunk England that bears some resemblance to the America of Jack London's IRON HEEL (but with Babbage Steam Computers, I think you get the drift). SOME of the stories do have a supernatural angle, reflecting Conan Doyle's interest in the occult and as well as having Raffles the master cracksman killed in police custody I was going to introduce Professor Challenger (another of Doyle's characters) into some of the supernatural stories.

It occurs to me tht Jules De Grandin would fit well into one of these narratives - especially if Lestrade went to New Jersey (as Holmes went to America in THE VALLEY OF FEAR).

I've never heard of Seabury Quinn or Jules De Grandin, either. So many stories to read, so little time.

Gee, you folks must be young to not have heard of Quinn or DeGrandin! Or at least not reading horror stories in the 1930s and 1940s.
(of course times change - and he is somewhat dated these days - or at least DeGrandin stories are! Sacre Bleu!)

Of course we're "young." According to New Musical Express 70 is the new 50.....which makes me 30 (ha! ha!).

"New Jersey which has more demons, goblins,and scary beasties this side of Sunnydale." Living in PA, 12 miles from the border with NJ, I can confirm this! ;-)
I've had the paperback editions of de Grandin for years, but recently found out that there's a complete set, in three volumes! Wish I could afford the $250 price tag...

I have a couple of the Popular Library paperbacks. My favorite title from those is "The Skeleton Closets of Jules de Grandin. I love psychic investigator stories, so I've always thought they were fun though it's been a while since I've picked one up.