Harold F. Cruickshank

Canadian Harold F. Cruickshank was a World War I veteran, provincial civil servant, and from 1927–54 a prolific producer of fiction for American pulp magazines. He first specialized in Great War stories, including its subcategory, the war in the air. After those genres faded in popularity, he shifted to western and wilderness fiction, often featuring animals as his main characters.

Background

Cruickshank was born in Mold, Wales, in 1893, the son of Scots, Duncan Cruickshank (1855–1941) and Flora Ellen MacLeod (1860–1936). He had three brothers and a sister.

Cruickshank cited his Welsh birth as an influence: “Perhaps this is the reason I took to the writing game. Wales is peopled by bards, poets and singers. I cannot sing, nor recite, so had to tackle one of the arts.”

In 1906, Duncan Cruickshank, Harold, and older brother Allan (1884–1960) emigrated to Canada. Other family members joined later. As Harold recalled, “We pushed right out to the frontier of an unsettled district, to take over pioneering duties.” In a tale Cruickshank repeated frequently: “The first morning of our arrival . . . my brother accidentally shot me with a .22, a half-inch below my left eye. Bullet became embedded in cheekbone. No medical attention.”

He called Alberta a “wonderland of ‘Great Open Spaces.’ ”

On July 14, 1915, Cruickshank married Dorothy May Watts (1896–1996). They had two children. John Duncan Cruickshank (1916–1945) died during World War II in Sweden while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Edith Evelyn Nightingale (1921–2002) lived a long life in Edmonton.

World War I

Cruickshank enlisted in the Canadian Army in July 1915; nearly four years later, on April 25, 1919, he was discharged at the rank of full sergeant. He saw action at the Battle of the Somme (1916), the Battle of Cambrai (1917), the Battle of Amiens (1918), and on other fronts.

The war is where Cruickshank’s writing career really began, as recounted for a 1929 interview:

One flaming night in Flanders, a wounded American doughboy crawled painfully to a small shell-hole far out in No Man’s Land. As the “Yank” slid down into the muddy refuge he noted that the hole already had one tenant; a young Canadian infantryman, also wounded.

The American growled a “Hello buddy!” then glanced curiously at the “Canuck”; for the latter seemed utterly oblivious to the presence of another person. By the light of the star-shells hovering overhead, the Canadian was busily engaged scribbling in a tattered note-book; muttering to himself all the while, and occasionally gazing straight ahead into vacancy.

Finally the Yank’s curiosity could stand the strain no longer.

“Hey Buddy! Whatcha doin’—makin’ out your will?” he asked.

Throwing down his pencil in fury, the Canuck glanced up.

“No you damn fool!” he replied; “I was writing a poem; but now you’ve spoiled my metre!”

. . . At any rate the poem was finished before the stretcher bearers found the two men, and Harold had the thrill of seeing his first bit of creative writing in print. It was published in The Listening Post, a small paper edited by the Canadian infantry unit.

Pulp writer

In 1921, Cruickshank joined the provincial government civil service.

Beginning in 1922, his poems appeared intermittently in his hometown Edmonton Journal. The first known was “May” (May 2, 1922). The poems tended to feature wilderness or World War themes. The latter were occasionally timed to appear on or about Armistice Day, e.g., “Remembrance Day” (November 10, 1931). He was not paid for these contributions.

He sold his first major story to Western Home Monthly in 1923.

In 1926, Cruickshank enrolled with the Palmer Institute of Authorship, a correspondence course, to upgrade his storytelling skills. The institute, responding to the exploding growth in the magazine fiction markets, trained several students who subsequently had success in the American pulps. Cruickshank's first appearance in the Palmer student magazine came in the July 1926 issue, when he announced that he had sold a story, “The Will of the North” to a Canadian magazine.

Early in 1927, he was “overjoyed” when he sold a story to Dell Publishing for $75. Dell had launched a mania for Great War fiction with their pulp War Stories, first issue dated November 1926. Cruickshank’s first appearance in a Dell magazine was “War Wolves” (War Stories, August 19, 1927).

After three sales to Dell, Cruickshank sold a story to Dell’s leading rival in Great War fiction, Fawcett’s Battle Stories. Fawcett, paying higher rates, became his primary market, with Dell his secondary. He did so well with Battle that he occasionally had two stories in a single issue; in these cases, the second story appeared under the pseudonym Bert Fraser, built on his middle name. Cruickshank regularly contributed short stories. His numerous sales to Fawcett and Dell ran into the early 1930s. This corresponded with the waning of the Great War fad, at least for ground combat; air-war fiction remained popular.

When Henry Steeger was an associate editor for the Dell pulps, he became acquainted with Cruickshank’s work. In 1930, Steeger co-founded Popular Publications, which would prove to be one of the most successful pulp publishers. In June of that year, he asked Cruickshank to appear in the first issue of his first magazine, Battle Aces (October 1930). Cruickshank’s contribution, “The Lone Eagle,” actually appeared in the third issue (December). Keko stories appeared in 17 issues of Ace-High Magazine, and once in New Western Magazine. In 1942, Cruickshank became musketry officer for the North Edmonton Battalion. He gave lectures to his battalion and also published newspaper articles about the First World War to underscore vigilance for the Second. Presumably, these wartime activities detracted from his fiction production.

Later years

Once the war ended, Cruickshank’s writing returned to prewar levels. The years of 1946–52 mark the last phase of his pulp career. He published 200 stories in this period, averaging 29 sales a year. His main markets remained Thrilling and Popular. The vast majority were westerns. He only published two more air stories, both for Sky Fighters in 1946. In 1974, he wrote former Thrilling chief editor Leo Margulies that he was selling everything he wrote. Most of this material was for local historical or government publications. The accompanying photo shows the beaming Cruickshank surrounded by the pulp magazines his tales had appeared in. The piece was widely reprinted in Canadian newspapers.

On March 31, 1979, Harold F. Cruickshank died in Misericordia Hospital, Edmonton, after several months of failing health.

Works

Selected fiction “War Wolves”, War Stories, August 19, 1927 (first published pulp story) “A Kamerad for Shorty”, Battle Stories, December 1927 (first appearance in a Fawcett pulp) “The Gods of War”, Battle Stories, June 1928 “Every Third Man a Pick”, Canadian War Stories, May 1929 “In the Canadian Outfit”, Under Fire Magazine, June 1929 “Riverfolk”, Boys' Life, September 1929 “The Shell-Shocked Major”, Battle Stories, April 1930 “Spy Hunter of the Somme”, Battle Stories, July 1930 “The Lone Eagle”, Battle Aces, December 1930 (first appearance in a Popular pulp) “The Sky Wolf's Brood”, Battle Aces, January 1931 (first series character: Bill Hennedy, The Sky Wolf) “Jinx Peelot”, Sky Fighters, November 1933 (first appearance in a Thrilling pulp) “Château of Death”, George Bruce's Contact, December 1933 “The Outlaw Patrol”, G-8 and His Battle Aces, June 1934 “Ace of Blades”, Sport Story Magazine, February 1935 “Hockey Heritage”, Sport Story Magazine, April 1935 “The Vampire Flight”, Dare-Devil Aces, December 1935 “Torture Dance”, Doc Savage Magazine, November 1936 “White Phantom”, Thrilling Adventures, April 1937 (first appearance of Olak, the White Phantom) “Keko Steals a Mate”, Ace-High Magazine, April 1937 (first appearance of Keko) “Hockey Headman”, Thrilling Sports, March 1938 “Horned Queen of the Jackpine Wastelands”, Big-Book Western Magazine, April 1948 “To the Death”, 2-Gun Western, August 1954 (last published pulp story)

Selected journalism “Some Advice”, Writers' Markets & Methods, October 1933 “Writing the Animal Story”, Writer's Digest, October 1944 “Death Mist at Ypres Recalled”, Edmonton Journal, April 24, 1945 “From Germ to Climax”, Writer's 1947 Year Book, February 1947 “Why Have a Single Viewpoint”, Writer's Digest, March 1948

Reprints

Resources . Brief bio with a reprint of Cruickshank’s December 19, 1963 letter discussing his mentorship of air pulp author Robert J. Hogan. Reprints obituary.