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Buckskin Brigades, L. Ron Hubbard’ first published book, was released in 1937.
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Appropriately, Mr. Hubbard’s primary outlet through these years was the pulps. Named for the pulpwood stock on which they were printed, the pulps were easily the most popular literary publication of their day. In fact, with some 30 million regular readers—a quarter of the American population—their impact was quite unique until the advent of television. But if the pulps were first and foremost a popular vehicle, they were by no means without literary value. Among others to launch their careers in the likes of Argosy, Astounding Science Fiction, Black Mask and Five Novels Monthly were Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert Heinlein. It was not for nothing, then, that Mr. Hubbard would proudly look back to these “dear old days,” to tell of the evenings spent with the great Dash Hammett, Edgar “Tarzan” Burroughs and Mr. Pulp himself, Arthur J. Burks. But if Mr. Hubbard would not particularly speak of his own status, it was no less legendary.
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