By Jim Griffin
[Editor’s note: Frequent Pulp Rack contributor Jim Griffin provides this article about his efforts to collect Texas Rangers magazine, and his subsequent donation of that collection to a special museum in Texas. How many pulp collectors do you know who are willing to be that generous? Many thanks for sharing this article, Jim. And for spreading the word about pulps to an audience outside the typical pop culture crowd.]
Back in the 1970s, I started picking up Popular Library paperbacks featuring Texas Ranger Jim Hatfield at a used bookstore for 25 cents each. I had no idea the stories were actually reprints from old pulp magazines. In fact, I didn't even know there had been such a thing as pulp magazines.
Fast forward to the late 1990s, when I finally gave in and bought a computer. I had a fond recollection of the old 1950s TV series Tales of the Texas Rangers. along with its accompanying Dell comic books, so I started trolling eBay for VHS tapes of the show and copies of the comics. Lo and behold, when searching under "Texas Rangers," there was a listing for a TEXAS RANGERS MAGAZINE, featuring my hero of the paperbacks, Jim Hatfield. Needless to say, I started tracking them down with a vengeance.
After nearly five years of searching, I managed to obtain all but two of the 206 issues published. The last two, from August 1937 and February 1938, I have discovered are just about impossible to obtain. However, my collection includes the extremely hard to find Volume 1, Number 1 issue of October 1936, and the very valuable November 1949 issue.
I read every one of the magazines, of course, and had carefully filed them away. However, as a year or so went by, I began to contemplate the future of my collection. My nephew had shown interest for a while, enough so that I had gotten him quite a few TEXAS RANGERS of his own. But, as he approached his teens, his interest faded. I didn't want to see the collection broken up, and I sure didn't want to sell it myself.
Enter the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco. I'd visited the Museum, and knew they had a few issues of TEXAS RANGERS. I'm also friends with a Ranger who is assigned to Company F, which shares the Museum building. So, I contacted the Museum, and received a prompt reply, that they'd be more than happy to accept my collection, along with some other "Popular Culture" Texas Rangers books and artifacts I'd collected over the past few years. It seemed the best way to assure my collection would never be broken up, and could be enjoyed by future generations.
Therefore, in March of 2005, I packed up all 205 of my TEXAS RANGERS pulps (there were two of the November 1949 issue included), and shipped them off to Waco. Some of them will be part of the "Texas Ranger in Popular Culture" display at the Museum. Just as important, the Museum will be able to properly store and care for the pulps, in order to ensure they last as long as possible.
While I miss having the magazines here with me, I'm quite happy with the fact they are at a new, appropriate home, where they will receive the best possible care, and will be enjoyed by far more people than if I'd just kept them locked away in a closet. So, if you read this article and are ever in Waco, be sure to stop by the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, and check out my pulps.
© Jim Griffin
Links:
Other articles at The Pulp Rack by Jim are these:
-"Texas Rangers Magazine" Click here to read it.
-"Continuing Characters in Texas Rangers Magazine" Click here to read it.
-"Horses in the West: Reality vs. Fiction" Click here to read it.
-"Cowboy Music" Click here to read it.
-"Kirby Jonas" Click here to read it.
Posted by ds at July 22, 2005 04:35 PM
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