ASI: Besides science fiction, what other kinds of stories could be found in the pulp magazines?

Jack: They existed in a dozen different categories, such as adventure, sports, war, westerns and romance. Science fiction, in the beginning, was one very small category and nobody knew what it was. You had to explain that science fiction was adventure stories with a science background so you could tell your friends what you were doing.

ASI: What made the adventure story magazines so popular?

Jack: One of the most popular was Adventure magazine. It featured stories set in exotic locations all over the world, and the editors insisted on the stories having valid local color. The writers generally had traveled to the places they were writing about. I imagine Ron must have read it because he became quite an adventure writer himself. I really didn’t know a great deal about these magazines as I was mainly interested in science fiction. But I saw them on the newsstands and wished I had the background and skills to write for them.