SOURCE: "Doc Savage and His Circle" in Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines, Arlington House, 1972, pp.75-84.

In the following essay, Goulart explores the origins and style of Dent's Doc Savage novels.

Recently it had occurred to Doc Savage he might be turning into too much of a machine—becoming, in fact, as superhuman as many persons thought he was. He did not like that idea. He had always been apprehensive lest something of the kind occur. The scientists who had trained him during his childhood had been afraid of his losing human qualities; they had guarded him against this as much as possible. When a man's entire life is fantastic, he must guard against his own personality becoming strange.

—Kenneth Robeson, The Dagger In The Sky

You never know what sort of monument you'll get or what you'll be remembered for. Lester Dent had hoped...