photos courtesy of Laurie Powers

More Photos (2):

Other articles by Bonnie Henry:

Opinion by Bonnie Henry : Convention wisdom Opinion by Bonnie Henry : Tucson's unique attributes make promotion easy Opinion by Bonnie Henry : Wedded bliss Opinion by Bonnie Henry : Marking history Opinion by Bonnie Henry : Soon as I walk in a big-box, I disappear Opinion by Bonnie Henry : Small world Opinion by Bonnie Henry : Since when are reading and writing bad things? Opinion by Bonnie Henry: Still golfing at 96 Opinion by Bonnie Henry : Lawn-mower shooter has plenty of company Opinion by Bonnie Henry : Creating awareness

Driver/Transportation
DRIVERS Health Care
Project Insight
Asst Program Coordinator General
Border States Electric
Warehouse Associates Restaurants and Clubs
RED SKY
LINE COOK, SOUS CHEF, PREP COOK Health Care
ADMINISTRATOR Trades/Construction
Rice Plumbing
Plumbers General
Independent Fire & Safety
Fire Suppression Systems inspector

Week after week he pounded out what Americans thirsted after: "blood-and-thunder" yarns with heroes like Johnny Forty-five, who "continually rolled and tossed away cigarettes just to keep his trigger fingers nimble."

From 1928 to 1943, Paul S. Powers churned out 12,000-word novelettes and short stories — at a penny-and-a-half per word — for Wild West Weekly, which specialized in the genre known as pulp Westerns.

The Kansas-born author was as restless as his heroes, moving his family 15 times in as many years.

He loved Arizona and briefly lived in Flagstaff and Bisbee before eventually settling down in Orange, Calif., in the late 1930s.

But his first foray into Arizona came in 1929, when he drove his Cadillac to Tucson, staying at the old Willard Hotel, motoring down to Mexico, and picking up a Tucson bride who would be with him until his dying day.

"At that point he had already started to write Westerns and he wanted to be in the real West," says Powers' granddaughter, Laurie Powers, who lives in California.

While researching her grandfather's works several years ago, Laurie Powers came across his manuscript, "Pulp Writer: Twenty Years in the American Grub Street."

The book is a fascinating recounting of his own travels and travails. But it also offers a rare window into the business of pulp fiction, which was in its heyday from about the turn of the 20th century to the late 1930s.

Although he used at least eight pen names and wrote more than 400 stories, along with his only novel, "Doc Dillahay," Powers was not a major player in this genre, says his granddaughter.

"He was one of the guys in the trenches," says Laurie Powers, who has published her grandfather's long-lost manuscript and an explanation of how she discovered it — along with musings on the man she hardly knew.

"The only thing I really remember of him were his surroundings. I remember he worked in a bookstore," says Powers, 50, who will give a presentation and sign the paperback books ($19.95) on Oct. 15 through the Pima County Public Library.

Laurie Powers' father died when she was 7. "My mom remarried and my grandfather and stepfather did not get along."

Gradually, the family drifted apart. When Laurie went to college, she wrote a paper on "Doc Dillahay," an Arizona-based Western published in 1949 by Macmillan Publishing Co.

Written after Wild West Weekly had ceased publication in the mid-1940s, the novel was well-received but did not bring in the money that Powers' pulp writing had earned.

So he and his wife, Mary, moved to Berkeley, Calif., where he bought and sold rare books and worked in area bookstores. He died in 1971.

After Laurie turned in her paper on "Doc Dillahay," she still felt unsettled. "I had a nagging desire to find out more about my grandfather."

Knowing he had written under the pen name Ward Stevens, Laurie initially found four stories written under that name.

Further research brought her to Street & Smith. "It was the biggest publisher of pulp fiction for the first 30 years of the 20th century," says Laurie.

It was also the publisher for Wild West Weekly. Eventually, Laurie discovered 440 stories her grandfather had written, most under the name Ward Stevens.

More digging led her to her aunt and uncle, Pat Binkley and Tom Powers, children her grandfather had sired with his second wife, Mary, the girl he married from Tucson.

When they first met, Laurie's aunt showed her two huge boxes holding all of Paul Powers' papers — including the manuscript for "Pulp Writer."

For a time, Laurie aimed to write her own book about her grandfather. "I struggled and struggled and then I had an 'aha' moment. 'Why not let him say it himself.' "

And so she has, save for the prologue and epilogue that explain the genre of pulp Westerns — along with her own discoveries about her grandfather.

"I do feel closer to him," she says.

Opinion by

Bonnie

Henry

What: Presentation on "Pulp Writer" and book signing.

When and where: Noon Oct. 15, in the lower level conference room of the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave., and again at 7 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Bear Canyon Library, 8959 E. Tanque Verde Road.