# $ciebtology Reprinting LR Hubbrads Pulp SciFi (from 1930's)? WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271 "2010-01-24T20:40:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/1 "2010-01-24T20:40:22Z")
I was just in an airport bookshop, and saw that a new Scientology fron publisher is coming out with “classic” editions of ElRon’s SciFi crap from the 1930’s-complete with garish cover art. I thought they might be fun to read…till I saw the price ($10.99)-for a low-quality paperback. I guess the cult is desparate for more money (must be those legal expenses)? Anyway-has anybody read any of this stuff? They look tremendously dated…will anyone buy them? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/2 "2010-01-24T21:16:01Z")
Not counting various Scientologists? I’d be interested in reading some of his work (“Fear” and “Typewriter in the Sky”), though I don’t think I would pay for it (I’ve cost the Scientologists farm more than what I’ve given them; I gave them nothing, but they gave me a few free books plus all I could eat at their party at a Lunacon in the 80s). Hubbard did write some decent SF. I have no idea how badly it dates, though. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/3 "2010-01-24T21:17:25Z")
You think that’s bad - all the paperbacks I buy in Canada have the US price and the Canadian price on them, so I can see that the book that sells for $10.99 in the US will cost me $14.99 here. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/4 "2010-01-24T21:22:08Z")
Have you looked at Scientology? It’s pure science fiction! Why not take it and market it as such? Seriously, I still enjoy _Battlefield Earth_. I’d try Hubbard’s early stuff, though I wouldn’t buy it new to avoid giving money to the Scientology folks. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/5 "2010-01-24T22:09:36Z")
Hubbard was a decent - not great, but decent - pulp writer. His best work were two novellas collected as Typewriter in the Sky and Fear, put out by Gnome Press, one of the first specialty publishers of f&sf. It’s highly collectible for itself, no matter what you think of Hubbard’s later career. Most of his pulp writing is unfindable, so I think a retrospective of his work is long overdue. You can find them all - about a zillion titles - at [Galaxy Press](http://www.galaxypress.com/index.php?cPath=48), where they are listed at $9.95 each. Not really out of line for low print editions these days, especially since many of them as listed as trade paperbacks. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/6 "2010-01-24T22:57:34Z")
Every dime you give them goes to the cause of oppressing, degrading, brainwashing and hurting other human beings. Have that on your conscience as you read. ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/7 "2010-01-24T23:21:31Z")
Galaxy Press sent me two sets of LRH’s books for free at my school. Each set had seven of his pulp novels plus three audiobooks. I put them on the back counter in my room as a joke, to see if anyone would notice the crazy-ass shit on the shelf. I let it sit there collecting dust for about two months before I threw it in the recycle bin. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/8 "2010-01-24T23:37:58Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Every dime you give them goes to the cause of oppressing, degrading, brainwashing and hurting other human beings. Have that on your conscience as you read. This is of course true. This is of course true for every other religion on earth. Life is a continuing moral dilemma. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/9 "2010-01-25T00:02:38Z")
I’ve posted about this before, but I once voluntarily exposed myself to his Mission: Earth series. The whole thing. It was probably the most masochistic thing I’ve ever done. Words fail. There just simply are not words sufficient to express how awful that series is. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/10 "2010-01-25T00:11:26Z")
_Audit This Book_ ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/11 "2010-01-25T00:17:56Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Every dime you give them goes to the cause of oppressing, degrading, brainwashing and hurting other human beings. Have that on your conscience as you read. Duh ! The solution (if you want to read them) is to buy them second-hand. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/12 "2010-01-25T03:40:09Z")
I started reading The Chee Chalker in Barnes and Noble. Not SF, but sort of a frontier detective story set in Alaska. I could put it down. If you want a taste, you can read some of it here: [link](http://books.google.com/books?id=MIJW_wRuMboC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+chee+chalker&source=bl&ots=cAjzNB_7UI&sig=d1C9f7RyQMR8dLQRNWc6St-xJpc&hl=en&ei=9BFdS4rpK5HgsQPpq4yPAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false) Reads like an episode of “Johnny Dollar”. Well, not quite that good. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/13 "2010-01-25T03:44:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > This is of course true. This is of course true for every other religion on earth. The important point is in the percentage. Some are almost harmless. Others, like Scientology, the harm goes off the scale. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/14 "2010-01-25T07:49:40Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > They look tremendously dated..will anyone buy them? As mentioned, Scientologists will buy them, and maybe a few others. It all goes to burnishing the image of Tubbard among the faithful, and they might as well, the just built a [fancy new printing facility](http://www.graphicartsonline.com/article/346312-_Church_of_Scientology_Builds_Printing_Plant.php), so they have a lot of capacity in-house to churn out this dreck. Of course the material is dated, and even in it’s time, with few exceptions, it wasn’t very good. Hubbard wrote under dozens of aliases and the pulps used his material chiefly as filler. Names like Asimov and Heinlein sold the issue, and Hubbard under pseudonym would pad out the page count. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/15 "2010-01-25T12:59:55Z")
I’m a bit surprised by it – I suspect they duid it simply to get his stuff out in print again. Hubbard’s stuff has never been all that popular, no matter what the Scientologists claim (or what L. Ron claimed) – I gvery rarely saw it in used book shops that were stacked to the gills with the works of other SF writers. But, besides the highgly collectible Gnome Press hardcover editions Exapno mentions, there were several reprintings of his stuff in paperback – there just weren’t a lot of them. Lancer and Ace published a few of his in the later 50s/early 60s, including Slaves of Sleep. I’ve seen Fear and others of his in paperback. The Final Blackout was printed by a company I never heard of in nthe 1960s – I suspect it was a pre-Bridge Scientology company, set up for the purpose of publishing that book alone. I was very surprised when DAW books – which was pretty big at the time – put out a new collection in 1970, collecting Hubbard’s “Ole Doc Methuselah” stories in one volume. After that, I didn’t see anything until the Scienos put out Battlefield Earth. I was looking for the Hubbard books because, having read Martin Gardner’s write-up on Dianetics in **Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science** , and the writings of various CSICOP members on the cult, I was curious about Hubbard’s writing. Having finally tracked some of them down, I didn’t care for them at all (not even Fear and Typewriter in the Sky, generally acknowledged to be his best). Hubbard has a nasty edge to his writing and I don’t find him compelling or interesting, and believe I’d think so even if he didn’t have all that Scientolog baggage. The bulk of his “fantastic” work was fantasy, not sciencve fiction. Despite his claims, the guy evidently didn’t know much science. But look up his books on organization some time – he knew how to organize and inffluence people. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/16 "2010-01-25T13:13:43Z")
Look at the Speculative Fiction Internet Database on Elron: [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?L.%20Ron%20Hubbard](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?L.%20Ron%20Hubbard) Look at how few of his works were reprinted after the mid-1950s. If you look at most other authors you’ll find quite a few printings during SF/fantasy boom of the 1960s and 1970s. This listing can’t be complete, though – as I say, I’ve seen Slaves of Slep (and Masters of Sleep), Fear, Typewriter in the Sky, and The Final Blackout in paperback published in the 1960s, and Beyond the Black Nebula was in an Ace collection from the late 1950s. Even so, it’s slim pickins. If Elron really had been a beloved author, there would have been more collections of his stuff – maybe even one of the Ballantine/Del Rey “The Best of…” collections. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/17 "2010-01-25T14:10:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I didn’t care for them at all (not even Fear and Typewriter in the Sky, generally acknowledged to be his best). Hubbard has a nasty edge to his writing and I don’t find him compelling or interesting, . Just out of curiosity, and because I have no interest on actually reading his stuff, what is the nasty edge you refer to? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/18 "2010-01-25T14:19:25Z")
You’d have to read his stuff to get it, but his characters had no endearing qualities and struck me as out-for-themselves types (not unlike Hubbard himself, reportedly). And there’s this, from L. Sprage de Camp’s essay “Elron of the City of Brass”: > [@](#): > > Fletcher Pratt and I had just finished our pre-war Harold Shea stories; “The Castle of Iron” had appeared in Unknown two issues earlier. Hubbard played a literary joke by having Harold appear before one of Jules’s fellow students: > > ``` > "He said he was a magician from another world [explains the student, who has been demonstrating a wand that turns into a super-serpent]. Well, I was just about to show the dean this double wand so I said this would be a good time to try it out and see if it really worked. I said I'd make a snake and then he'd rear up a monster and we'd see which one won. Well, he seemed kind of upset when I threw down the wand and it began to grow and he yelled some kind of chant that sounded like mathematics and the snake just kept on growing. I expected to see his monster any minute because he'd said he was a magician from another world and I figured he must be pretty good. But, by golly, the snake just grew up and then grabbed him up and ate him up before I could do anything about it." 3 > > ``` > > Some fans were indignant at Hubbard’s so brusquely bumping off a colleague’s hero. Pratt and I thought of writing a story to rescue Harold from the serpent’s maw and turn the tables, but after some floundering we gave it up. Another writer’s mise en scene, we found, cramps the imagination so severely that fancy plods when it should soar. In the end, we ignored Hubbard and sent Harold on to other milieux. > **[EL-RON OF THE CITY OF BRASS](https://www.xenu.net/archive/oca/elron.html)** ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/19 "2010-01-25T16:23:16Z")
That ISFDB listing only shows Hubbard’s f&sf work. He was a standard hack pulp writer through the 30s and none of that work is shown on that page. It’s obviously being reprinted in the Galaxy Press series, judging by the number of western, adventure, pilot and other-themed covers. Very little of those books seem to be f&sf at all. Most pulp work is never reprinted and most pulp work shouldn’t be. But I don’t have any objection to having somebody make some of it available in new editions given how difficult it is even for a scholar to go back and find a particular author’s output. You don’t have to give any money to Scientology of you don’t want to. I won’t even buy the Writers of the Future books for that reason. Putting a name as big as Hubbard back in print is hardly a major crime, even so. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271/20 "2010-01-25T16:35:08Z")
> [@](#): > > That ISFDB listing only shows Hubbard’s f&sf work. Yeah, but it doesn’t even list all of those. I have Slaves of Sleep from Lancer from circa 1970, and it’s not listed. Nor are Final Blackout, Fear, Typewriter in the Sky, nor the anthology with Beyond the Black Nebula. That’s why I said it was incomplete – it doesn’t even list all the genre work that ought to be there. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ciebtology-reprinting-lr-hubbrads-pulp-scifi-from-1930s-wtf/526271.md?page=2)