A complete issue · 192 pages · 1920
Munsey's Magazine, August 1920
A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1920 — all 192 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.
A complete issue · 192 pages · 1920
The August 1920 Munsey's Magazine features "The Roof Tree," serialized fiction by Charles Neville Buck, illustrated by Lee Conrey. This historical narrative follows two intertwined timelines across Appalachia and early American expansion. The contemporary plot opens with Kenneth Thornton witnessing his sister Sally shoot her brutish husband John Turk in self-defense during pregnancy. Thornton assumes guilt and flees Virginia for Kentucky, adopting the alias Cal Maggard to escape prosecution, believing his sister—a woman with child—cannot withstand trial. The narrative branches backward to colonial Virginia, where ancestor Caleb Parish serves General Washington defending Kentucky settlers. Washington warns of wilderness frontiers requiring steadfast protection. Parish's daughter Dorothy attracts rival suitors: the established Peter Doane and the newly-arrived young Kenneth Thornton, an officer bearing Washington's commission. The two timelines explore inherited patterns of conflict, sacrifice, and frontier ambition within the Thornton family legacy across generations.
Each page has its own page — the cartoon, who’s in it, and what the satire means.