Pulphouse Publishing

Pulphouse Publishing was an American small press publisher based in Eugene, Oregon and specializing in science fiction and fantasy. It was founded by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch in 1988. The press was active until 1996. Over that period, Pulphouse published 244 different titles. [Smith, Dean Wesley, "Introduction," "Buried Treasures", edited by Jerry Oltion, Wordshop, p.1]

Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine

From 1988 through 1993, Pulphouse published a quarterly magazine in hardback form edited by Rusch. In addition to twelve issues, each of them themed, they published an "issue 0" which was a hardcover filled with blank pages to use as a sample to show perspective buyers. "Pulphouse" included stories by notable science fiction and fantasy authors including Charles de Lint, Michael Bishop, Michael Swanwick, and Harlan Ellison. In addition, each issue included essays on a variety of subjects. In 1989, Smith and Rusch won the World Fantasy Award in the category for their work on Pulphouse. "The Best of Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine" was by published by Tor Books in 1991 and collected stories which had already appeared in the magazine as well as stories which were slated for later publication.

Pulphouse Weekly

In 1991, Pulphouse announced plans to publish a weekly fiction magazine, also called "Pulphouse". Although they published 19 issues between 1991 and 1995, the magazine never achieved weekly status and after the fifth issue the subtitle was changed from "A Weekly Magazine" to "A Fiction Magazine". "Pulphouse Weekly" was edited by Smith. Over the course of its run, the magazine published stories by George Alec Effinger, Mike Resnick, Lawrence Watt-Evans, and Jeff VanderMeer. In addition to short stories, "Pulphouse" included serials by Spider & Jeanne Robinson and Robert Sheckley.

From 1992 through 1994, "Pulphouse Weekly" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine.

Starting with issue zero March 1, 1991 and running through issue 19. Issue 9 started giving a month, instead of a date, and Issues 15 through 19 were undated.

Author's Choice Monthly

See main article List of Author's Choice Monthly

Smith edited a series of twenty-nine monthly chapbooks for Pulphouse under the collective title "Author's Choice Monthly" from 1989 through 1992. Each of these books wehre published in a limited edition and included stories by a single author. Authors in the series included Karl Edward Wagner (#2 "Unthreatened by the Morning Light"), Damon Knight (#21: "God's Nose"), and Esther Friesner (#23: "It's Been Fun").

hort Story Paperback/Hardback

Short Story Paperback ($1.95)
# "Loser’s Night" by Poul Anderson
# "A Case of Painter’s Ear"' by John Brunner
# "Xolotl" by Robert Sheckley
# "All the Clocks Are Melting" by Bruce Boston
# "Blossoms" by Kim Antieau
# "Ecce Hominid" by Esther M. Friesner
# "A Case of Mistaken Identity" by L. Timmel Duchamp
# "The Cutter"' by Edward Bryant
# "The Girl Who Fell into the Sky" by Kate Wilhelm
# "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" by Robert Bloch
# "The Steel Valentine" by Joe R. Lansdale
# "The Quickening"' by Bishop, Michael
# "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" by Roger Zelazny
# "More Than the Sum of His Parts" by Joe W. Haldeman
# "No Way Street" by Bruce Clemence
# "The Spider Glass" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
# "Uncle Dobbin’s Parrot Fair" by Charles de Lint
# "Dinosaurs" by Walter Jon Williams
# "Listening to Brahms" by Suzy McKee Charnas
# "Black Air" by Kim Stanley Robinson
# "The Dark Country" by Dennis Etchison
# "Journey to the Goat Star" by Brian W. Aldiss
# "Piecework" by David Brin
# "I Remember, I Remember..." by Mary Caraker
# "Sedalia" by David J. Schow
# "Slumming in Voodooland"' by Brian M. Stableford
# "The Sword & the Stone" by Jane Yolen
# "The War of the Roses"' by Karen Joy Fowler
# "The Cat With the Tulip Face" by A. R. Morlan
# "Twilight Time"' by Lewis Shiner
# "Where the Summer Ends" by Karl Edward Wagner
# "Into Gold"' by Tanith Lee
# "Daisy, in the Sun" by Connie Willis
# "Inuit"' by M. Shayne Bell
# "The Shade of Lo Man Gong" by William F. Wu
# "Buckets" by F. Paul Wilson
# "The Pear-Shaped Man" by George R. R. Martin
# "The Evening & the Morning & the Night" by Octavia E. Butler
# "The Peacemaker" by Gardner R. Dozois
# "The Hero as Werwolf" by Gene Wolfe
# "The Bingo Man" by Joyce Carol Oates
# "Schrödinger’s Kitten"' by George Alec Effinger
# "Sisters" by Greg Bear
# "The Ghosts of Tivoli" by Nancy Holder
# "Dr. Pak’s Preschool" by David Brin
# "Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back" by Joe R. Lansdale
# "Fiddling for Waterbuffaloes" by S. P. Somtow
# "Rachel in Love" by Pat Murphy
# "Unaccompanied Sonata" by Orson Scott Card
# "Nine Lives" by Ursula K. LeGuin
# "The Skull of the Marquis de Sade" by Robert Bloch
# "Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood" by Charles de Lint
# "The Price of Oranges" by Nancy Kress
# "If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy" by F. M. Busby
# "My Brother’s Keeper" by Pat Cadigan
# "The Thermals of August" by Edward Bryant
# "Paper Dragons" by James P. Blaylock
# "Kirinyaga" by Mike Resnick
# "Candles on the Pond" by Sue Ellen Sloca
# "Shaunessy Fong" by William F. Wu

Axolotl Press

In 1989, Pulphouse Publishing acquired Axolotl Press (founded by John Pelan in 1986) and began using it as an imprint. From 1989 through 1994, 26 titles were published using some form of the Axolotl name.

Other imprints

In addition to Axolotl, Pulphouse introduced Mystery Scene Press, which published a handful of mysteries in 1993, including the first two volumes in an Author's Choice series focused on mysteries. Pulphouse also used Writer's Notebook Press from 1990 through 1994 for four titles which focused on non-fictional aspects of the science fiction writing business.

Mystery Scene Press Author's Choice Monthly (Single Author Collections) (Trade Paperback $5.95 Limited Cloth $25.00)
# "Deceptions" by Marcia Muller
# "Stacked Deck" by Bill Prozini
# "Opening Shots" by Stuart M. Kaminsky
# "Mostly Murder"' by Joe Gores
# "Dark Whispers and Other Stories" by Ed Gorman
# "Suspended Sentences" by Brian Garfield

Mystery Scene Press Short Story Paperback ($1.95)
# "The People of the Peacock" by Edward D. Hoch
# "Eight Mile and Dequindre" by Loren D. Estleman
# "Lieutenant Harald and the Treasure Island Treasure & My Mother, My Daughter, Me" by Margaret Maron
# "Cat's-Paw plus Incident" in a Neighbothood Tavern by Bill Pronzini
# "Ride the Lightning" by John Lutz
# "Afraid all the Time" by Nancy Pickard
# "The Perfect Crime" by Max Allen Collins
# "The Reason Why" by Ed Gorman
# "Outlaw Blues" by Teri White
# "My Heart Cries for You!" by Bill Crider [ Richard Gombert Collection]

Legacy

Pulphouse collapsed after wildly over-expanding the number of title published every year, including several commercially unviable lines (such as the "Short Story Paperback/Hardback" line), leaving at least one title (Harlan Ellison's "Ellison Under Glass") paid for but undelivered. [Jack Chalker and Mark Owings, "The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History", CD-ROM version, 2000]

In the Fall of 1996, Jerry Oltion published an anthology entitled "Buried Treasure", subtitled "An Anthology of Unpublished Pulphouse Stories," which, with the approval of Rusch and Smith, was designed to look like an issue of "Pulphouse Hardback".

Many of the authors who got their start publishing in Pulphouse publications or working for Rusch and Smith have gone on to have successful careers as science fiction and fantasy authors. Some authors who debuted in Pulphouse magazines include Adam-Troy Castro and Marina Fitch. Oltion and Nina Kiriki Hoffman were also closely connected to Pulphouse

References