Pulp Writer: Twenty Years in the American Grub Street is Paul Powers' memoir of his career as a prolific and successful pulp fiction writer during the 1930's and 1940's. From his early writing days in Kansas, to his exploration of the ghost towns and mining camps of Colorado, to his adventurous and sometimes hedonistic life in Arizona and California, Powers weaves a page-turning and entertaining account of his life as a spinner of yarns for such magazines as Wild West Weekly and Weird Tales. Along the way, he gives us an inside account of how a pulp writer honed his craft and managed to crank out hundreds of short stories and novelettes featuring hugely popular characters such as Sonny Tabor and Kid Wolf.

Pulp Writer gives insight into a period of little-known American history: pulp fiction during the Great Depression. His story, sometimes hilarious, other times touching and always lively, chronicles his struggles in becoming a new writer, his locations and how they influenced his writing, his sometimes tumultuous relationship with his publisher, and the colorful and eccentric characters that came across his way.

In the prologue, his granddaughter, Laurie, tells of how she came upon his unpublished memoir and her reunion with Paul's side of her family. In addition, she gives a rich and detailed history of Wild West Weekly. In the epilogue, she chronicles the end of the pulp era and the heartbreaking story of what happened to her grandfather after the end of the pulps.

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