Lester Dent (October 12, 1904 – March 11, 1959) was an American pulp-fiction writer, best known as the creator and main writer of the series of novels about the scientist and adventurer

Doc Savage Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a doctor, scientist, adventurer, detective, and polymath who "rights ...

. The 159 Doc Savage novels that Dent wrote over 16 years were credited to the house name

Kenneth Robeson Kenneth Robeson was the house name used by Street & Smith publications as the writer of their popular characters Doc Savage and later Avenger. Lester Dent wrote most of the Doc Savage stories; others credited under the Robeson name included: * ...

Early years

Dent was born in 1904 in La Plata, Missouri. He was the only child of Bernard Dent, a rancher, and Alice Norfolk, a teacher before her marriage. The Dents had been living in

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the sou ...

for some time, but had returned to La Plata so that Mrs. Dent could be with her family during the birth. The Dents returned to Wyoming in 1906, where they worked a ranch near Pumpkin Buttes, Wyoming. Dent's early years were spent in the lonely hills of Wyoming. He attended a local one-room school house, often paying for tuition with furs that he had caught. He had few companions or friends; this early loneliness may have helped develop his talents as a story-teller. Around 1919, the Dent family returned to La Plata for good, where Dent's father took up dairy farming. Dent completed his elementary and secondary education there. In 1923, Dent enrolled at Chillicothe Business College in

Chillicothe, Missouri Chillicothe is a city in the state of Missouri and the county seat of Livingston County, Missouri, United States. The population was 9,107 at the 2020 census. The name "Chillicothe" is Shawnee for "big town", and was named after their ''Chillico ...

. His original goal was to become a banker. However, while standing in the application line, he began talking to a fellow applicant about career options. He found out that the starting salary for a

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

operator was $20 a week more than a bank clerk, so he changed his major to telegraphy. After completing the course, he taught at CBC for a short time. In 1924, Dent became a telegraph operator for

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company ch ...

in Carrollton, Missouri. In 1925, he moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma, to work as a telegrapher for Empire Oil and Gas Company. It was in Ponca City that he met his future wife, Norma Gerling. They were married on August 9, 1925.

Writing career

In 1926, the Dents moved to Chickasha, Oklahoma, where Dent worked as a telegrapher for the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

. One of Dent's co-workers had published a story in a pulp magazine, earning the huge sum (for that time) of $450. Dent, a voracious reader, was very familiar with pulp magazines of the day, and was sure he could write at least as well, if not better. He took advantage of the slow time during the graveyard shift to write. His first professional sale was an action-adventure story entitled "Pirate Cay"; it appeared in the September 1929 issue of ''Top Notch'' magazine. Shortly after the publication of his story, Dent was contacted by Dell Publishing in New York City. They were willing to offer him $500 a month if he would write exclusively for their magazines. Dent, stunned by the good fortune, took some time considering the offer, but eventually accepted. The Dents relocated to New York, arriving January 1, 1931. Dent quickly learned the trade of the pulp writer, teaching himself how to write quickly and with few rewrites. After Dell ended its pulp line in May 1931, Dent retreated to Missouri to regroup. Soon, he was back in New York, writing for the other pulp chains. In 1932, Henry Ralston of Street and Smith Publications contacted Dent with a proposition for a new magazine. Ralston had scored a great success with ''

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...

'' magazine, and was interested in developing a second title around a central character. He had in mind an adventure hero, which appealed to Dent's love of that genre. While Dent was unhappy to later discover that his stories would be published under a house name (

), he was happy to receive $500 per novel (which would later increase to $750), and accepted Ralston's offer. Issue Number 1 of ''Doc Savage'' magazine hit the stands in February 1933; within 6 months it was one of the top selling pulp magazines on the market. Much of the success stemmed from Dent's fantastic imagination, fueled by his own personal curiosity. Dent was able to use the freedom that his new-found financial security allowed him, to learn and to explore. In addition to being a wide-ranging reader, Dent also took courses in technology and the trades. He earned both his

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communi ...

and pilot license, passed both the electricians' and plumbers' trade exams, and was an avid mountain climber. His usual method was to learn a subject thoroughly, then move on to another. An example is boating: in May 1934, Dent bought a 40-foot two-masted

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

" bugeye"

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...

, ''Albatross''. He and his wife lived on it for several years, sailing it up and down the eastern seaboard and even doing some sunken-treasure hunting in the Caribbean, then sold it in 1940. The Dents traveled extensively as well, enough to earn Lester a membership in the Explorers Club. He was sponsored by fellow pulp writer

J. Allan Dunn Joseph Allan Elphinstone Dunn (21 January 1872 – 25 March 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 1914–4 ...

and Navy Reserve Captain Charles Richardson Pond (1889–1969), a member of the family that owned Pond's Cosmetics and a pioneer of transoceanic flight. He was elected to membership on November 9, 1936 but was apparently not all that involved in the Club beyond bouncing story ideas off more experienced members. He contributed to a year-long one-time fundraiser for the Club conducted throughout the year 1939, for which he was awarded a

sterling silver Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by weight of silver and 7.5% by weight of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925. ''Fine silver'', which is 99.9% pure silver, is ...

miniature of the coveted Explorers Club Medal, No. 89 of an unknown number of such medallions, with a chain allowing it to be worn as a

bracelet A bracelet is an article of jewellery that is worn around the wrist. Bracelets may serve different uses, such as being worn as an ornament. When worn as ornaments, bracelets may have a supportive function to hold other items of decoration, suc ...

. He stopped paying his annual dues in December 1945 and was dropped from membership for this delinquency in January 1948. In 1940, the Dents returned to La Plata for good. Dent continued to write for ''Doc Savage'', but also found time to work in the other genres. His post-1941 Doc Savage work benefited from this; the later Savage novels are known for their tighter plotting, improved dialogue, and a shift towards mystery instead of super-science. Doc Savage himself began to shed his superhuman image, and to show a more fallible, human side. Dent may have recycled some generic detective stories as Doc tales; ''King Joe Cay'' features Doc working alone, in disguise, with no aides, gadgets, or headquarters, and an interest in the ladies. ''Doc Savage'' Magazine ceased publication in 1949. Of the 181 Doc Savage novels published by Street and Smith, 179 were credited to Kenneth Robeson; and all but twenty were written by Dent. The first novel, ''The Man of Bronze'', used the name Kenneth Roberts, but this was changed after it was discovered that there was another writer named Kenneth Roberts. The March 1944 issue, "The Derelict of Skull Shoal", was accidentally credited to Lester Dent. This was the only time during the run of the magazine that Dent's real name was used. Following his tenure on ''Doc Savage'', Dent found continuing success as a mystery and

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

writer. His last published short story was a Western entitled "Savage Challenge", published in the February 22, 1958 issue of the ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

''. A last novel, ''Lady in Peril'', was released as half of an Ace Double the month that Lester died. Dent suffered a heart attack in February 1959. He was hospitalized, but subsequently died on March 11, 1959. Dent is buried in the La Plata cemetery. The

Lester and Norma Dent House Lester and Norma Dent House, also known as the House of Gadgets, is a historic home located at La Plata, Macon County, Missouri. It was built in 1941, and is a one-and-a-half-story, Modern Movement style dwelling sheathed in brick and asbesto ...

was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1990. Since his death, Lester Dent has lived on in reprints and new stories discovered and marketed by his literary agent, Will Murray. In 2009, Hardcase Crime published his noir novel, ''Honey in His Mouth'' (written 1956, previously unpublished) to rave reviews. Black Dog Books has released five volumes of The Lester Dent Library. Altus Press issued ''The Weird Adventures of the Blond Adder'' in 2010 and ''Hell in Boxes: The Exploits of Lynn Lash and Foster Fade'' in 2012.

Appearances in fiction

Dent is a featured character in the Paul Malmont novel '' The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril'', which was published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pub ...

in 2006, and in the sequel '' The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown'' also

in 2011. The novels describe friendship and rivalry among pulp writers of the 1930s, and also include Walter Gibson, creator of

. Dent also appears in

Craig McDonald Craig McDonald is a novelist, journalist, communications specialist, and the author of the Hector Lassiter series, the Zana O'Savin Series, the novel ''El Gavilan'', and two collections of interviews with fiction writers, ''Art in the Blood'' ...

's Hector Lassiter novel '' The Running Kind'' (2014), which touches on Dent's passion for ham radio and aerial photography enterprises, circa 1950.

Pulp fiction formula

Dent's "Master Fiction Plot", often referred to as the
Lester Dent Formula
is a widely circulated guide to writing a salable 6,000-word pulp story. It has been recommended to aspiring authors by

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English people, English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy fiction, fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic nov ...

, among others. Moorcock summarizes the formula by suggesting: "split your six-thousand-word story up into four fifteen hundred word parts. Part one, hit your hero with a heap of trouble. Part two, double it. Part three, put him in so much trouble there's no way he could ever possibly get out of it...All your main characters have to be in the first third. All your main themes and everything else has to be established in the first third, developed in the second third, and resolved in the last third."

References

External links

*
The Master Fiction Plot

The Lester B. Dent Collection at the State Historical Society of Missouri
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dent, Lester 1904 births 1959 deaths Amateur radio people American male novelists Chillicothe Business College alumni Doc Savage Inkpot Award winners Novelists from Missouri People from Macon County, Missouri People from Chickasha, Oklahoma Pseudonymous writers Pulp fiction writers Writers from Missouri