Henry Steeger Papers

Henry Steeger (1903-1990) was born on May 26, 1903 in New York, N.Y. He received a B.A. from Princeton University in 1925 and completed graduate study at the University of Berlin in 1926. In 1928, he married Shirley Steeger and together they had three children: Henry, Susan Shirley (Mrs. John Hall), and Nancy Victoria (Mrs. Richard Jennings). Henry Steeger died on December 28, 1990 from bone cancer.

Returning from Europe in 1927, Henry Steeger landed his first job at Dell Publishing and was with that firm until 1929. His duties began as co-editor with Ernest V. Heyn of Famous Story Magazine. He was then reassigned to the post of assistant editor with Gene Clancy on War Stories Magazine and War Birds. Next, he started and edited Sky Birds and, after Gene Clancy's departure, took on the editorship of War Birds. Henry Steeger not only worked on pulp magazines, but he also found time to write non-fiction works such as How to Fly an Airplane and The Question and Answer Book. He was also made editor of The Funnies, which, according to him, was the first of the comic books.

In 1930, he left Dell and pooling his money and publishing experience with Harold Goldsmith began Popular Publications, one of the most successful and prolific publishing houses for pulp magazines. The first four titles published, in October, 1930, were Battle Aces, Detective Action Stories, Gang World, and Western Rangers. The print run for the first issues of the four titles was about 100,000 each. Battle Aces sold close to 80,000, and was the only one of the four books that made a profit in the beginning. The other three sold around 40,000 to 60,000 copies each. Still, it was not until Popular Publications began Dime Detective in November, 1931, that, according to Steeger, "the profits started rolling in".

Before the demise of the pulps in the mid 1950's, Popular Publications had introduced well over 100 titles into the field, including Ace G-man Stories, Ace-High Detective Magazine, Argossy, Adventure, Thrilling Mysteries, Captain Satan, The Black Mask, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Four Star Love Magazine, .44 Western Magazine, Rangeland Sweethearts, Romance, Western Love Romances, and many more.

In addition to his publishing empire, Henry Steeger was active in the civil rights movement. Steeger served as President of the National Urban League from 1960-1964. Henry Steeger died in 1990.