Lester Dent

Born in La Plata Missouri in 1904, Lester Dent was an only child, and had a lonely childhood growing up, this is what may have lead to developing his talents as a story-teller. He graduated from Chillicothe Business College in Chillicothe Missouri in 1923. Originally wanting to be a banker, he became a telegraph operator for Western Union after hearing how much better their salaries were. It was in Ponca City, Missouri in 1925 that he met his future wife Norma Gerling. They were married in August of that year. A year after they moved to Chickasha, Oklahoma where Dent worked as a telegraph operator for Western Union. After reading a fellow operator's pulp story that had gotten published, Dent wrote his first story "Pirate Cay" which appeared in the 1929 issue of Top Notch magazine. Shortly after publication, he was contacted by Dell Publishing, who offered him $500 a month for him to write exclusively for their magazines. The Dent's moved to New York City in 1931, where Lester quickly learned the the trade of pulp author's, teaching himself how to write and with very few rewrites. After Dell's pulp line imploded in May 1931, Dent retreated back to Missouri, but was soon after writing for other pulp chains. In 1931, Street and Smith Publishing contacted him about creating another magazine centered around a central character, to build off the fame of the Shadow. Despite his unhappiness that the stories would be published under a house name, with the $500 a novel contract, he happily accepted. In 1933, Doc Savage magazine number 1 hit the stands, in 6 months it was one of the top selling magazines on the market. Lester was able to use his new-found financial security to learn and explore. An avid reader, he also earned his amateur radio and pilot's licenses, passed the electrician's and plumbers exams and was a avid mountain climber. His method was learn a subject thoroughly, then move on to the next. In the late 30's, Dent purchased a 40 foot two-masted schooner, which he and his wife lived on for several years, sailing up and down the East Coast of the US. Their extensive travels allowed him to be admitted membership in the Explorers Club. In 1940, the Dents returned to La Plata for good, with Lester continuing to write for Doc Savage and still finding time to work on other projects. When the magazine folded in 1949, Dent had written 179 of the 181 novels published by Street and Smith under the house name Kenneth Robeson, and all but twenty had been written by Dent. He continued to write for magazine's, his last published story was a Western entitled "Savage Challenge" for the February 1958 issue of Saturday Evening Post. Lester Dent died on March 11, 1959 after being hospitalized earlier that year for a heart attack. Dent's fame continues on in the various reprints of Doc Savage books, the ones I read can again be found at http://members.cox.net/comingattractions3/SanctumBooks.html. So don't hesitate, get out there and read more about the Man of Bronze today!