Doc Savage novels

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
27,466
Not sure why, but was thinking of these novels while I was over in Spain
these past two weeks, and wondered if anyone else remembers reading them?

See info Here

There was also a movie made staring Ron Ely a while back, 1975 as it
turns out, check info Here

A real scifi type hero using brains and brawn.

Anyone else remember this guy? ;)
G2
 
I ran though all of them back in the day, along with Ron E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, fun reading!
 
Same here. It was right after I got out of the army that they came out with paperback editions. Utterly fantastic; what with "anesthetic" bullets and all, but fun.
 
Yah, those as well, good read, also I thought they gave a person a good moral code
for those just starting out to live by...
G2
 
I read about twenty of the Doc Savage novels in the late seventies. I think they were reprinted from the thirties. Loved them. I also saw the movie with Ron Ely. I would like to locate the Shadow stories, too. That time period had a nostalgic air that I liked very much, perhaps people cared more about there fellow man then.
RKH
 
There were about a hundred and thirteen of them, I think. Books one through about 92 or 93 were singles and the rest were doubles. I never could get into the Doc stories, I didn't like the writer's style very much. But, they were a fantastic concept, with Doc, the Man of Bronze and his three buddies, traveling all over the world to fight evil. They're still traded heavily on eBay. If you get lucky you can find a whole set of them, but it will cost you about three or four hundred bucks for a set in good condition.
 
Read about a dozen of them & liked them

Didn't love them; they were a bit too much "over the top"

But they were interesting & very entertaining, the writer had some freakin' imagination!
 
I had totally forgotton Doc Savage. I remeber reading these "back in the day" They were a good read, not to heavy, but fun. Steven
 
I read a bunch of them back in the day. They were fun. I'll have to see if I've got any of them left. I seem to recall that he would do brain surgery on criminals to stop them from committing crimes.

if you want to read a "racy" adult version of Doc Savage, read "A Feast Unknown" by Jose Phillip Farmer.
 
At about the same time, I was reading all of that Robert Howard stuff; Conan, Bran Mak Morn, and all that.
For some reason, I never quite got into the Burroughs stuff; Tarzan impressed me as a schizophrenic. "Ah, I'm a civilized Englishman now. Think I'll nip into the bush and kill something with my bare hands, just for old times sake..."
 
When I was a teenager, my bookstore didn't have any Doc Savage novels, but I found one at the library and enjoyed it. I spent quite a bit of time totally immersed in Burrough's Barsoom novels... I always thought John Carter was the perfect role model for young men reaching adulthood, what with his inflexibly correct morals and honor code.

Shann said:
if you want to read a "racy" adult version of Doc Savage, read "A Feast Unknown" by Jose Phillip Farmer.
Click to expand...

I read it when I was a young fellow - egads, it was depraved. I tried reading it again this year but as a grown man I found it turned my stomach a little. That's one of those things like my old "DOA" and "Felch" underground comix that I would hate for anybody to find in my collection after I die. :D
 
Not sure what brought that to memory for me, glad to see I'm not alone in
reading those :) it's been a while though!

G2
 
Gary, if you want a real treat, find a copy of "Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life" by PJ Farmer. It's a biography of Clark Savage Jr, the gang, and all of his literary antecedents. Gotta admit, when I came across it in the early mid 1970s I was so convinced there was a real Doc somewhere I wrote the Empire State Building asking for a tour of his old space there :-)

Farmer also did one like this with Tarzan as the subject. Amazing stuff, so good that part of it was done as an article in Esquire, back in the day. They are likely out of print but not very hard to find.
 
More trivia, both Doc Savage and the Shadow were taught the martial art of Baritsu by Sherlock Holmes. Baritsu first appears in a Sherlock Holmes story and is considered to be a mispelling of Bartitsu, the art developed by Edward Barton-Wright combining Japanese jiujitsu, savate and french cane fighting(la Canne),wrestling and boxing. Bartitsu first appeared in the 1890's, making it the first martial art combining Eastern and Western influences, at least 70 years before Bruce Lee.
 
WOW! What a blast from the past. I had collected and read over a hundred Doc Savage novels in the early seventies. Did any of you read the Avenger series. It came later, and the hero was the total opposite of Doc. I read and collected those also. Same Kenneth Robeson name on the novels. I didn't realize until years later that there was no Kenneth Robeson. Just a Ghost name that many writers wrote under. Fun stuff!
I also read alot of The Mack Bolan, The Executioner series when I was in the USMC in the seventies.
I read all of Howards Conan novels. Andre Norton was another author I enjoyed. The Beastmaster was a great book, with virtually nothing in comon with the movies other than a vague animal similarity. WitchWorld was a great series by Norton also.
All of Micheal Morcocks different Eternal Champions like Elrik of Melnibone were great reading for me. Ah, Stormbringer, now that was a blade. Evil, but a hell of a blade.
Boy does this thread bring me back to a fun escapist literature period of my life.:D Some great stories .
 
I too, read and collected the Doc novels. Used to make regular trips to the used book stores in the area (and always checked the phone books for used book stores in a new area).

Need to get mine out of storage and complete my collection. Also collected the Destroyer series as well.
 
Yep, read Mack Bolan and also loved the Destroyer series and wished they did the next
movie of Remo Williams, never happened though.

Another trio of newer books by Stephen Lawhead, the Song of Albion trilogy

Also Terry Goodkind, though getting a bit TOO many in the series started out well
with Wizard's First Rule.

And Terry Brooks, Magic Kingdom For Sale, SOLD! one of my fav's

Glad to have brought some old things back into your memories ;)
G2
 
You folks have jarred my memory about some fun books. I read all the ERB Tarzan novels in my teens and went on to read most of his other novels. I liked his Venus novels and his flying ship. Also, the executioner series with Mack Bolan. And I liked the Robert howard Conan books. I read the first short story about Conan in a collection of short stories in a science fiction collection and a few years later discovered the howard's Conan books.
RKH
 
In high school in the early seventies, I borrowed them from a friend who collected them. I'll have to reread a few for fun.

I always assumed that James Coburn's "Flynt" movies were inspired by Doc Savage - anyone know for sure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top