Steeger Properties, LLC

Steeger Properties, LLC, is the owner of the copyrights to nearly 150 pulp magazine titles and their stories, totaling an estimated 6,000 issues and 30,000 individual stories which are now available for dramatic adaptation.

The pulp magazines were the Number One source of fiction to adapt on the big screen in the early era of Hollywood. The stories within the pages offered entertaining genre fiction ranging from adventure and mysteries to science fiction and westerns and everything in between.

Among the highlights in the Steeger Properties, LLC, intellectual property holdings is the most prominent pulp magazine ever published: Black Mask. As the periodical where the hard-boiled detective story was created and cultivated, Black Mask’s historical significance in popular fiction is unequaled.

Originally launched in 1920 by H.L. Mencken, Black Mask magazine became the most influential detective magazine by championing the use of tough crimefighters and private detectives portrayed in a more violent, hard-boiled fashion. It was also in the pages of Black Mask wherein Dashiell Hammett introduced Sam Spade and first published The Maltese Falcon.

Black Mask’s place in popular culture history is well-documented. Editor Joseph T. Shaw once claimed that “President Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and Herbert Hoover read Black Mask.” In fact, the Library of Congress considers the magazine so important that it has retained its Black Mask set in its permanent holdings of Special Collections.

While the popularity of pulp fiction has fluctuated over the years, the stories within the pages are classic fiction and are as influential to American pop culture as ever. They are fast paced, well-written short stories and novels featuring classic characters. There’s a huge audience that hasn’t had contact with these stories. By reintroducing them, these classic hard-boiled detective, mystery, western, and science fiction stories will be available for generations to come.