Doc Savage - The Man of Bronze

Our recent new listings include five of Lester Dent's stories about Doc Savage, a fictional larger-than-life character created by Henry W. Ralston and John L. Nanovic for Street and Smith Publications.  The stories were originally published in the 1930s and 1940s in the pulp magazine Doc Savage Magazine, and comprised 181 issues, mostly written by Mr. Dent under the by-line of "Kenneth Robeson".

The character of Doc Savage is one of near-superhuman abilities, having been trained from birth for great strength and endurance, a photographic memory, mastery of the martial arts, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the sciences.  He is a physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, researcher, and musician - a twentieth-century renaissance man times ten squared.  Because of his skin, hair, and eye coloring, he is known as "The Man of Bronze".

sabreblade writes in a 2010 Hubpage post
"Doc was a man for a simpler time.  He was a hero with no real faults.  You couldn't corrupt him, he didn't kill, he didn't lie, he didn't mope about past failures (he didn't fail), and he wasn't driven by tragedy and revenge."

The Doc Savage oath sums up the character's mindset:
"Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man."

The world would most certainly be a better place if those ideals were universally embraced.  Perhaps it is a good time to (re)discover The Man of Bronze.

Merchants of Disaster (Doc Savage #41)
The Gold Ogre (Doc Savage #42)
The Men Who Smiled No More (Doc Savage #45)
Land of Long Ju Ju (Doc Savage #47)
Devil On the Moon (Doc Savage #50)

Keep Reading,
Diana