The Golden Dolphin and Other Pirate Tales from the Pulps

by J. Allan Dunn

J. Allan Dunn -- one of the most popular writers for the pulp magazines of the early 20th Century -- wrote voluminously on every subject imaginable. Here are three of his swashbuckling tales of pirates, full of colorful action, beautiful women, and daring high-seas escapades! "The Golden Dolphin," a complete novel, tells the story of an expedition to discover what happened to a ship lost in the South Seas. "The Marooner," a novella, is the story of Long Tom Pugh, infamous buccaneer in the Caribbean, and his ship, the Scourge. "Forced Luck," another novella, tells of Barthelemy "Bart" Portuguese, superstitious freebooter, who believed a gold amulet guaranteed his success.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published May 15, 2005

About the author

Joseph Allan Dunn (1872-1941), best known as J. Allan Dunn, was one of the high-producing writers of the American pulp magazines. He published well over a thousand stories, novels, and serials from 1914-41.

He came to the United States in 1893. He spent about five years in Colorado, five years in Honolulu, ten years in San Francisco, and then relocated to the East Coast in 1913, after which his writing career blossomed. From 1914 forward, and in his pulp-writing career, he was known as "J. Allan Dunn"; before that he primarily went by "Allan Dunn."

While living in San Francisco, he worked for the Southern Pacific Company, which published Sunset magazine. He wrote an article for Sunset on author Jack London. The two became friends. In 1913, Dunn was a frequent visitor to London's Beauty Ranch in Glen Ellen, California. According to the diaries of Charmian London, London's second wife, she and Dunn spent a lot of time together, which prompted Jack London to reinvigorate his interest in her.

Reviews

[David Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of pirate-themed pulp stories from the pulp magazines of old, published between 1918 and 1922. It consists of three stories, the first being a short novel, the last two being novellas. And while the stories are entertaining enough, there are some major flaws in J Allan Dunn's writing style that make them much less than they could have been.

The first is the titular story, The Golden Dolphin. This is a short novel focused around a sailor helping a young women find her father, and also a potential fortune in pearls. Despite being in a pirate-themed book, it really isn't a pirate story. It's set in the early 1900s, and is more of a south seas adventure tale. I suppose since the villains do things to them at sea it could be considered a little pirate-like, but it doesn't read as such. The story is oddly structured, done in a two-act format with the first act being overly long, and the second much too compressed. Things set up it great length in the first part often get hand-waved away in the second. This is one of those rare cases where an extra twenty pages or so would've dramatically improved the book. The author also tends to write in purple prose, with long descriptive paragraphs more at home in Dickens then a fast-paced pulp story, and it really boggs things down. Additionally there are a number of old stereotypes at work here. I expect some of that in old writings, but usually it's a minor thing, around the edges. Here it takes the place of story and characterization in some places, unfortunately. The story wasn't without value, but wasn't particularly memorbale either.

The second story is called the Marooner, about a pirate with a tendency to leave his victims of waterless desert island in the Bahammas to die a slow death. A woman tied to one such victim goes out to try a rescue. This story has less stereotypes, but alot of basic tropes that don't work. The woman plays a seductress role, though why people are so taken by her isn't explained and she doesn't seem to play much of a role in the actual rescue. The story is also mostly told from the pirate's viewpoint, putting the reader in the strange place of wanting to sympathize with the pirate that the story looks to take down, while also sympathizing with the people he's hurt. It is strangely structured to say the least.

The third story is the best, called Forced Luck. This novella basically just follows the crazy ups and downs of a pirate preying on the Spanish near Cuba, who believes a medallion he holds guarantees him luck. This one is free of a lot of the overwriting and purple prose of the other stories, and just reads like a crazy travel-log of a devil-may-care pirate. A fun enough read.

All told, it's a middling effort. From what I've read online J Allan Dunn was one of the most prolific and popular pulp writers out there, but I don't really see why based on this book. His writing is nowhere near as good as Harold Lamb, Robert E Howard, Max Brand, or some of the other pulp superstars of the day.