Harold Brainerd Hersey was a pulp

Pulp magazine

Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

 editor and publisher, and published several volumes of poetry. His pulp industry observations were published in hardback as Pulpwood Editor (1937).

Early life

He grew up in Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

, son of Augustine Haynes "Doc" Hersey, a newspaper reporter and publisher. The family moved to Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 in the late-1890s. While Mrs. Hersey and two daughters stayed at home, "Doc" took Harold with him on globe-trotting reportorial assignments. They visited many places in North America. In 1904-05, they traveled to the Far East

Far East

The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...

 for the Russo-Japanese War. The pair traveled extensively in eastern Asia. "Doc" died in D.C. in 1907, leaving Harold with his mother and sisters.

Harold worked at the Library of Congress for eight years while getting a degree from George Washington University

George Washington University

The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...

 at night. About 1914, he married Merle Williams; they had one child, a daughter Dorothy, Harold Hersey's only offspring. The marriage was brief. (Merle W. Hersey later moved to New York and edited a succession of sex-oriented "girly pulps" from about 1925-36.)

Harold Hersey moved to Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...

, New York, and helped Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger

Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood...

 launch her journal Birth Control Review. He met Fulton Oursler

Fulton Oursler

Charles Fulton Oursler was an American journalist, playwright, editor and writer. Writing as Anthony Abbot, he was an notable author of mysteries and detective fiction.-Life:...

. In 1917, Hersey teamed up with Arthur Moss

Arthur Moss

Arthur Harold Moss was an American expatriate poet, and magazine editor.-Life:His parents were German-Jewish and Turkish immigrants...

 to publish The Quill, a literary and satire magazine. He corresponded with T. Atkinson Jenkins, and Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...

. He was secretary to the Author's League, and supported Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...

 in his Genius censorship fight. He visited author Henry Leverage in Sing Sing

Sing Sing

Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the town of Ossining, New York...

.

Mid Life

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he was a lieutenant in public relations, but never went overseas. Several articles on military matters were published in Scribner's.

He was editor of Minaret magazine in Washington, D. C., with Shaemus O. Sheele, and Herbert Bruncken

Herbert Bruncken

Herbert Brunken was an American poet, and magazine editor.-Life:He lived in Wisconsin.He sent contributions for the Smart Set to H. L. Menken....

.
He got his first commercial publishing job with publisher Street & Smith in 1919 editing the legendary pulp The Thrill Book. Hersey was fired (or resigned) after 8 of the 16 issues. It's often cited as the first all-fantasy pulp, but in actuality it blended straight drama, adventure, sea stories, mysteries, etc., while also featuring a bit of fantasy.

After leaving Street & Smith

Street & Smith

Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as pulp fiction and dime novels. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks...

, Hersey immediately joined new pulp publisher, Clayton Publications in 1919 as a title editor, feature writer and later group editor for several of the Clayton magazines. Hersey is credited with creating Ranch Romances, the first western-romance hybrid. Ranch Romances was one of the last pulps to cease publication, lasting into the early '70s.

Magazine Publishers

After Clayton, Hersey had stints working for Bernarr Macfadden

Bernarr Macfadden

Bernarr Macfadden was an influential American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories...

, briefly replacing Fulton Oursler as Supervising Editor of the Macfadden magazines (1927), and the Eastern Distributing Company. In late 1928, Hersey with money fronted by a distributor started his own pulp chain, Magazine Publishers, also known as The Hersey Magazines. The covers sported an ancient Indian good luck symbol...a swastika-logo. Titles included The Dragnet Magazine, Sky Birds, Fire Fighters, and The Underworld Magazine. Some unknown disagreement with his co-founders/backers resulted in Hersey leaving the company in mid-1929. Magazine Publishers, with former Dell editor Aron Wyn at the helm, turned into the chain known as the Ace Group.

Good Story Magazine Company

Hersey founded another pulp chain, Good Story Magazine Company, with financial backing from Macfadden. Good Story's Gangster Stories was an immediate hit. Within a few months, a dozen titles had been issued, including some now-rare one-shots like Thrills of the Jungle and Love and War Stories. With the issue of February 1930, another gang pulp, Racketeer Stories, was introduced. The violence and lawlessness of the two gang pulps provoked outrage. Hersey was threatened with prosecution in the state of New York. The crisis passed, and the gang pulps remained the mainstay of Hersey's chain into 1932. Other Good Story pulps include Prison Stories, Murder Stories, and Miracle, Science and Fantasy Stories.

Hersey bought the company outright in late 1931 after Macfadden withdrew financing. Hersey went forward as an independent. From then on, the pulps were published by Headquarters, Blue Band, and other imprints. However, the company failed in 1932 and Hersey sold his holdings.

Throughout the '30s, Hersey continued to test the market with new magazines. He was editor-in-chief on a string of novelty magazines for H-K Publications (also known as the Hardy-Kelly Group) from 1941 forward. He died in 1956, while still holding that position.

Works

• Poetry: Rare and Collectible: 1923 Privately printed

• Pulpwood Editor, (1937).
• Margaret Sanger: The Biography of the Birth Control Pioneer, New York 1938