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L. Ron Hubbard was born today (March 13) in 1911.

Hubbard is one of the many writers featured in The Beginner’s Guide to Pulp Fiction.

Known these days as the founder of Scientology, Hubbard was in fact a prolific writer of pulp fantasy, science fiction, adventure, westerns, mysteries and more. Hubbard wrote under his own name and multiple pseudonyms including Winchester Remington Colt, Kurt von Rachen and René Lafayette.

He published extensively in the pulps in the 1930s and ‘40s, with more than 140 published stories. Hubbard began publishing science fiction in 1938 with the “The Tramp,” appearing in Astounding Science Fiction. He would continue to write for Astounding, Unknown Worlds, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Super Science Stories, among others, until he published Dianetics in 1950.

It’s a birthday month of sorts for Doc Savage, one of the biggest stars to come out of the pulps.

Doc Savage debuted with his March 1933 issue.

Doc Savage is one of the many hero pulps featured in The Beginner’s Guide to Pulp Fiction.

With the runaway success of The Shadow, Street & Smith was on the lookout for another hero pulp in 1932.

Publisher Henry Ralston and editor John Nanovic worked with writer Lester Dent to create the character of Clark “Doc” Savage Jr., introducing him in the March 1933 issue of Doc Savage. Savage is a scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer and physician trained since childhood to be a “superman.” Known as “The Man of Bronze,” Savage had superhuman strength and great intelligence, with knowledge in almost every academic field.

Through most of his adventures, Savage is helped by a team of five aides: attorney Ham Brooks, chemist Monk Mayfair, engineers Long Tom Roberts and Renny Renwick, and geologist Johnny Littlejohn. Doc’s female cousin Pat Savage also joins the adventures at times.

The original pulp lasted until 1949 for a total of 181 issues. The original stories have been reprinted in various forms, most notably in a series of Bantam paperbacks in the 1960s and ‘70s and larger format reprints by Sanctum Books in the 2000s.

New authorized stories were written by Philip Jose Farmer and Will Murray in the 1990s. In recent years, Altus Press has also published new authorized stories in the series.

Besides the pulps, Doc Savage appeared in comic books, two different radio serials and a 1975 film directed by George Pal. Additional movies have been rumored over the years but have not yet come to fruition.

Pulp writer Henry S. Whitehead, one of the more unlikely writers for the classic pulp Weird Tales, was born today (March 5) in 1882.

Whitehead is one of the many writers featured in The Beginner’s Guide to Pulp Fiction.

He graduated from Harvard in 1904 as a classmate of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He later attended Berkeley Divinity School and was ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Church in 1912. He served as a pastor in New York City, then in 1921 became archdeacon of the Virgin Islands.

While living on the island of St. Croix, Whitehead began writing and corresponding with H. P. Lovecraft. His first pulp story, “The Intarsia Box,” appeared in Adventure in 1923. He would continue to write for Adventure and Black Mask, but Weird Tales was his primary outlet. He began writing for the magazine in 1924, with “Tea Leaves” appearing in the May issue. More than 25 of Whitehead’s stories were published in the magazine in the 1920s and ‘30s.

His career was cut short by his death in 1932 at the age of 50 in Dunedin, Fla., where Whitehead was working as rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd.