Street & Smith’s WESTERN ADVENTURE
British Edition, February 1957, Vol. 1, No. 8
Cover art by H.W. Scott
As far as I can tell, most, if not all, the stories published in the 43 issues of the British pulp Street & Smith’s Western Adventure were originally published in the American pulp Street & Smith’s Western Story, of which there were over 2,000 editions.
The cover art was altered a bit for the British pulp but this is restricted to the text so a new title could be incorporated. I’ve included an image of the original at the end of this review, with a list of the story titles and notes on where they were first published – as you’ll see they don’t all come from a single issue of Western Story.
All of the yarns in the February 1957 edition are short stories, all seven or eight pages in length. Also mixed in are five columns; Where to Go and How to Get There by John North, Mines and Mining by J.A. Thompson, Range Savvy by H. Fredric Young, Guns and Gunners by Phil Sharpe, The Roundup – author unknown.
The opening story is Doomed Cargo by Norman A. Fox. This is a tale about a young riverboat deck sweeper who learns how to stand-up for himself when he finds the courage and initiative, he didn’t know he had, to thwart an attempt to steal the riverboat’s cargo and kill everyone onboard. I’ve only read a couple of other stories by Fox, and this is the most enjoyable so far, perhaps because I like riverboat tales.
Hot-Lead Headliners by John Colohan is next. I’ve not read anything by him before so was interested to sample his work. The story involved committing murder to cover up a previous killing. A drunk newspaper man overhears the bad guys plotting this new assassination attempt and knows he must do something to stop it happening. How he does this adds intrigue to the tale. Colohan also has a neat surprise waiting to be revealed at the end. Colohan’s tale proved to be a fun read.
Track Treachery by E.C. Lincoln is set in modern times and is about horse racing. Why would a leading horse suddenly turn and head to the side of the track and thus lose the race? I was intrigued enough to want to know the answer to that question so I struggled through the story to find out. The writing style didn’t click with me and I very nearly gave up with it. I probably would have done so had it been any longer.
After the disappointing pervious story, I was hoping that Murder Gun by B. Bristow Green would be better and I got my wish. This is a bank robbery tale where an innocent stranger to town gets accused of being one of the hold-up men. His capture leads to a make-shift court being set up that provides some tense scenes and a neat twist. I’ve never read anything by B. Bristow Green before and this story left me eager to explore more of his work.
Easy Does It by C.K. Shaw is the first of three stories she wrote that featured Windy Bill Wicks. I’ve seen a note saying that this tale was originally published as East Does It, but I think the U.K. title is correct as Wicks is told to take things easy more than once. In fact, the opening words are “Easy Windy.” The story is written in the first person and involves two sets of ranch hands at loggerheads with each other over a couple of slashed saddles and a knife that is found beside them. Of course, the knife owner says it wasn’t him and the knife was stolen. Proving this is what the story is about. This was another difficult to read tale due to its old-fashioned style. It was an ok story but didn’t make me want to read the other Windy Bill tales or any more of Chloe Kathleen Shaw work.
The next story was much better than the previous one. White Water Run by Hugh B. Cave is about a Mountie tracking down a murderer. It contains some gripping scenes of canoe travel through treacherous waters, surprises and a neat twist to the end. This was by far my favourite story in this issue of Western Adventure.
The final tale is Dead Man’s Horse by J. Lane Linklater in which a man has to make a choice of whether to hinder or help the law. Whichever way he chooses will mean a change to the way of life he has known which sees his word ruling the lives of those that live in and near Quiet Gulch. People can be safe there, whether good or bad as long as there aren’t any killings. Then a body is found… Linklater’s story is fast-paced and gripping and even though events play out as I expected I still found it to be a fun read.
For me, this issue of Western Adventure proved to be a patchy read in terms of quality of storytelling but the good far outweighed the bad. I’d only read stories by one of the authors before (Norman A. Fox) and have now added a couple more authors to my want to read more of list.
Doomed Cargo by Norman A. Fox – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, January 1941
Hot-Lead Headlines by John Colohan – original publication unknown
Track Treachery by E.C. Lincoln – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, January 1941
Murder Gun by B. Bristow Green – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, December 1942
Easy Does It by C.K. Shaw – Street & Smith’s Western Story, December 1942
White Water Run by Hugh B. Cave – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, February 1942
Dead Man’s Horse by J. Lane Linklater – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, February 1942
