Pulp fiction was quite popular through the 1940s, when pulp magazines generated millions of sales. Unlike literary works, pulp fiction was considered “cheap,” both literally and figuratively. Pulp magazines were printed on less expensive pulp paper and the topics were often racy, characterized by a lot of action. The stories were appealing to an audience eager for adventure.

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Pulp magazines, which had been the nation’s single largest outlet for short stories, collapsed in the 1950s on the heels of post-WWII paper shortages. Lately there has been a resurgence of interest in pulp. But, with those magazines out of print, the stories are no longer accessible to readers.