author
Arthur Sullivant Hoffman
1876–1966
Best remembered as the editor who helped make Adventure one of the great pulp magazines, he also wrote practical books on fiction and taught others how to tell a gripping story. His career moved through magazines, correspondence with major writers, and an early role in the movement that became the American Legion.
1 Audiobook
Fundamentals of fiction writing
by Arthur Sullivant Hoffman
About the author
Born in Columbus, Ohio, on September 28, 1876, Arthur Sullivant Hoffman became an influential American magazine editor and writing teacher. He is most closely associated with Adventure, which he edited from 1912 to 1927, during the years when the magazine built its reputation as a leading home for action and adventure fiction.
Hoffman's surviving archival record shows how wide his literary world was. His correspondence includes exchanges connected with Adventure and other magazines, and with well-known figures such as Joseph Conrad, Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, Theodore Roosevelt, Harold Lamb, and W. C. Tuttle. That gives a sense of how connected he was to the magazine and publishing culture of his time.
He also wrote books for aspiring authors, including Fundamentals of Fiction Writing and Fiction Writers on Fiction Writing, which reflect his practical interest in how stories work on the page. Beyond publishing, archival sources credit him with founding an early organization whose name was later reused for the modern American Legion. He died in 1966.