Here's a photo of a classic old pulp magazine cover. . .but what's that in the upper right corner? Yep, that's a swastika! It was the symbol of The Hersey Magazines, a publishing house started by famed editor Harold Hersey in 1928. He took as his symbol a blue swastika. The swastika, before the Nazis got a hold of it, was a symbol for illumination and good fortune.
As you might expect, the logo was eventually changed. One of their magazines was called War Stories. Of course, they were talking about World War ONE. By the time World War Two came around the swastika had been ruined as a symbol in the Western world. For more on the history of this symbol, check out my article on The Swastika: Symbol of Peace and Harmony.
Home to author Sean McLachlan and the House Divided series of Civil War horror novels. A Fine Likeness, the first in the series, is available now. This blog is dedicated to the Trans-Mississippi Civil War and historical fiction, and occasionally veers off into adventure travel when I go somewhere interesting.
Looking for more from Sean McLachlan? He also hangs out on the Midlist Writer blog, where he talks about writing, adventure travel, caving, and everything else he gets up to. He also reproduces all the posts from Civil War Horror, so drop on by!
Friday, August 30, 2013
Wild West Photo Friday: Swastikas In The Wild West
Labels:
fiction,
Old West,
publishing,
pulp magazines,
Western,
Westerns,
Wild West,
Wild West Photo Friday
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Crappy way to lose one's logo.
ReplyDeleteEven crappier that a symbol of Peace and Harmony was so corrupted.
ReplyDeleteOops, posted that last comment under my teacher profile, not my personal one. It's me, Dianne Salerni. Rats. Guess I can't work on school stuff and comment on blogs at the same time. :P
ReplyDeleteYikes! I bet Harold was none too happy.
ReplyDelete