This post, about another popular pulp writer from the early twentieth century, first appeared in 2012.
Otis Adelbert Kline
Since I’ve spent the last two Throwback Thursday posts on my favorite and most inspirational writer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, I decided to continue that theme with a story about a less famous author, Otis Adelbert Kline. What does one have to do with the other? Readers of the science fiction sub-genres of adventure fantasy, sword & planet, and lost worlds would undoubtedly know. For most others, probably not. But there is definitely a connection between the two, and even more so, a link between Kline and my other favorite writer of yesteryear, Robert E. Howard. You’ll see what I mean.
Like ERB, Kline was born in Chicago. His cradle-to-grave span (1891-1946) falls right into that of Burroughs (1875-1950). Kline also wrote for the popular pulp magazines of the time, his stories first appearing in the early 1920s in Weird Tales. Some of his works had titles such as, The Corpse on the Third Slab, The Thing of a Thousand Shapes, and The Cup of Blood. (I love these! What does that say about me?)
The supposed “feud” between ERB and Kline began in the late 1920s or early ’30s, when ERB was at the height of his popularity with his John Carter of Mars and Tarzan series, as well as other works. Kline published a novel titled Planet of Peril in 1929, which some considered a blatant knockoff of ERB’s Martian stories, except that Kline’s setting was the planet Venus. Over the next couple of years he followed this up with The Prince of Peril and The Port of Peril. Soon after, ERB began his own Venus (Amtor) series, which ultimately consisted of four books and a novelette. In “retaliation”—if one subscribes to the feud theory—Kline published two Martian novels in the ’30s, The Swordsmen of Mars and The Outlaws of Mars. And if that wasn’t enough, Kline took readers into the jungle with The Call of the Savage (Jan of the Jungle) and Jan in India. Both men also had stories that took place on the moon.
So on it went. In 1936 a fanzine article in Science Fiction News by none other than Donald A. Wollheim bore the title, “The Kline-Burroughs War.” Wow, the feud had become a war! Just think of the weaponry that could have been utilized from the various worlds that they created. Others expounded on this theory, and many believed it. The problem is, neither ERB nor Kline ever acknowledged any ill will toward the other, at least not publicly. Nor did any friend or family member ever hear one say anything about the other. Bottom line: this was probably a great way to sell a lot more books and magazines.
In an interesting twist, Kline gave up writing for the most part to focus on his career as a literary agent. Having himself written many stories for Weird Tales, Kline began a relationship with an established Weird Tales star, Robert E. Howard, the writer who created Conan the Barbarian. Kline became his agent in 1933, with Howard at or near the height of his popularity. After Howard committed suicide in 1936, Kline remained the agent for Howard’s estate.
I own a few of Kline’s novels in the old Ace editions with the .40¢ cover price, and I cherish them. Sure, they were imitative of ERB, but then, so were my early adventure fantasy and sword & planet novels of the 1980s. Who better to imitate—or emulate—than the master of these sub-genres? And we were hardly the only ones. If you’ve never read Otis Adelbert Kline, give him a try. His books are still out there.