Bigger than Life by Marilyn Cannaday

Doc Savage starred in a pulp magazine that ran for 16 years. It was one of the most popular adventure magazines of the time. Each of the 182 issues featured a novel-length story by Kenneth Robeson, a house name owned by publisher Street & Smith. Each was supervised by the author contracted to produce them, Lester Dent, who wrote 165 of them himself. That was on top of writing stories and articles for other magazines and later in his career writing six novels.

 Dent, a native of La Plata, Missouri, was remarkable in ways that go far beyond his prolific catalogue of pulp adventure tales. Marilyn Cannady tells his personal story in Bigger Than Life.

 Bigger Than Life is the only book-length biography of Dent that I’m aware of. It is, unfortunately, a fairly short book. There is not much know about Dent’s childhood, partly because he didn’t talk or write much about it, though he was clearly shaped by his upbringing on isolated ranches and farms in Oklahoma, Wyoming and Missouri.

 Savage pursued fantastical adventures in the magazine; Dent was a real-world adventurer. He learned to sail, and hunted for treasure in the Caribbean using a metal detector of his own design. He was a pilot and ham radio operator. His interest in sailing, aircraft and technology informed many of his stories, both in Doc Savage and other magazines.

 Each chapter is written somewhat like an essay that focuses on a particular aspect of Dent’s life or career. This can make the book seem a bit disjointed, especially in comparison to biographies that take a more strictly chronological approach.

 Cannady, like Dent, grew up in La Plata. Her own experiences in the area, including a brief stint working at Dent’s aerial photography business, provide a flavor of what his life was like in Missouri.

 If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown by Paul Malmont

The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont

Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones

Mr. America by Mark Adams

1939 by David Gelernter

Pulp Art by Robert Lesser

 Cannaday, Marilyn. Bigger Than Life: The Creator of Doc Savage. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1990.