#43 – Wide World Adventures, August 1929, Adventure House BOOK REVIEW      
Krauser PUA | March 25, 2018 | by krauserpua
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[WIDE-WORLD-ADVENTURES-29.08]
Tommy Robinson visits Telford

Are you an adventurer?

Now, let’s be clear what it means to be an adventurer. Back in 1929
you might skip bail ahead of the bondsman in New York and sign onto a
ship headed for the South Seas. At other times in history an
adventurous spirit might trek his way through the Himalayas with just
a guide, a goat, and a curved blade. Or perhaps he’d run security on
a rubber plantation in the Ecuadoran jungle, horsewhip in hand and a
hundred sweaty natives cursing his name.

Adventure is harder to find in 2018. We live pampered, sheltered
lives, never far from Wi-Fi or video gaming. Are we condemned to
experience our adventures vicariously through others? _[1] _Are we
limited to storybooks, movies and games?

It was when reading the letters page at the back of this pulp magazine
reprint that I considered what role the magazine had originally
played, who its readers were, and why they read it. _Wide World
Adventures_ was evidently quite a new periodical and the editors were
soliciting reader opinion on content and help in spreading
word-of-mouth to friends and newsstand buyers _[2]_

In particular, this letter from one Fred H. Barner of 7 Valentine St,
Roxbury, Mass. _[3] _caught my eye. I’ll reproduce it in full
because it really jumped out at me:

> Dear Editor,
> 
> Even though I have only read two or three copies of WIDE WORLD
> ADVENTURES, I can call it the best magazine I have ever read. You
> can bet that I won’t miss a single copy. The stories can’t be
> any better.
> 
> The article in “With Pick and Pan” by John A. Thompson, on opal
> mining, struck me just right. Have any of the readers ever tried
> opaling or any other kind of mining? Let’s hear from you.
> 
> “Adventurers All” is great [THE NAME OF THE READER’S LETTERS
> SECTION, K.] Aren’t we all adventurers at heart even though we may
> be chained to a desk in some hot stuffy office? We can’t all roam
> around the world looking for adventure, but we can at least read
> about what someone else has done – someone who has been more lucky
> than most of us.
> 
> I would like to hear from some of you fellows who live in South
> American, Australia and Africa. Let’s hear from anybody, no matter
> where you live.

Aren’t we all adventurers at heart?

That letter could easily be a reader’s comment on a Player’s
Journey blog or a post in a pick-up forum like RVF
[https://www.rooshvforum.com/] or Naughty Nomad
[http://naughtynomadforum.com/forum/]. Not much has changed in 89
years. Young men still burn with the thirst for travel and adventure.
In 1929 they’d walk to the newsstand and pick up the latest from a
selection of their favourite pulp magazines. Nowadays we have daygame
blogs
[https://krauserpua.com/2017/08/06/what-are-the-best-daygame-blogs/]
and memoirs.

[1938-newsstand-colorized]
The newsstands have really gone downhill since then

It comes to the same thing: Adventurous men dreaming big and building
a community to facilitate it, either those lucky enough to chase down
experiences, or those slaving in an office and patiently plotting for
a future where they too will be free to roam. I’m so used to the
lifestyle that I’ve come to take it for granted. I’d like to
(posthumously) thank one Fred H. Barner of 7 Valentine St, Roxbury,
Mass. for reminding me just what a great time it is to be alive.

The world is still full of adventure. It’s really not hard to find,
be it a long weekend to spam approach Galleria mall and Florianska
street in Krakow, or to live by a beach in Thailand to swim, surf,
train BJJ, and chase dirty tourist girls _[4]_

Oh, and what about this issue of WIDE WORLD ADVENTURES?
[https://adventurehouse.com/shop/product/wide-world-adventures-0829/]
Is it any good? you ask.

Yes it is. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s towards the upper end of
writing quality for the pulps and every one of its seven stories was
fun to read. _The Cross And Rubies_ is a novella about two yahoos who
take a boat to Burma on a hot tip for buried treasure only to run into
local bandits and an odd white secret agent in their midst. _The
Coffin Ship_ is an undercover investigation into Chinese bandits
waylaying their own countrymen on the shuttle boat to Indonesian
copper mines. _Three Graves On The Beach_ is like a wild western
revenge tale as a grim man-hunter pursues the bandit troupe who
murdered his friend – but set in the South Seas. That was my
favourite. _Spinifex and Gold_ is an Australian Outback story of
betrayal._ The Jest Of The Jade Joss_ is a far east tale of
confronting a Triad warlord aboard his merchant ship. _African
Outlaws_ retells the legend of a hardy adventurer in the Transvaal as
he leaves mayhem behind him. Lastly is the hilariously-named
_Chink-Running_ about coyotes trying to outwit ICE on the Canadian
border, smuggling illegal immigrants into the USA.

Like I said, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

[WIDE-WORLD-ADVENTURES-chink running]
I find it hilarious, and that’s all there is to it

_If you’d like to live your adventure vicariously, be sure to grab
my memoir series [http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/evilempirepress]. If
you’d rather live it directly, get a hold of Daygame Infinite
[https://krauserpua.com/2017/12/29/daygame-infinite-buy-it-here/]._

[1] I put rather a high price on my own hide, so you won’t see me
picking up a rifle to fight ISIS in the Iraqi desert or infiltrate
Mexican drug cartels for the DEA. I’m quite happy experiencing that
vicariously, thank you very much.
[2] I’m sure this approach is more commercially successful than my
own rather high-handed attitude towards my own readers. Sorry, the
fact remains that I’m still a bit of a cunt.
[3] I guess I just doxxed him, 89 years after he wrote the letter.
[4] One reader knows exactly who I’m talking about.
 
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