Hundreds of readers, writers and fans in the pulp community – and I count myself in all three groups – are still reeling from the news of the sudden passing of Will Murray last week (August 25) at the age of 73. Will was an enormous figure in the pulp community – not just a prolific fiction writer but also a historian and a scholar. Since the twilight of the original pulp fiction era in the late 1940s, he more than anyone else kept interest in Doc Savage – and Doc’s creator, pulp writer Lester Dent – alive in the latter half of the 20th century and beyond.
I first became aware of Will in the 1990s, in the years when I started my deep dive into the rich history of pulp fiction and its impact on contemporary genre fiction, film and television. Based on everything I read about him at the time, it was obvious that he was one of the most knowledgeable individuals on the planet about the pulps. It was an honor to become part of his circle of friends years later.
Will’s lifetime output of fiction and nonfiction work was massive, and I’m proud to say that it included a few short stories that appeared in three anthologies published by Flinch Books, the small press I co-founded with Jim Beard in 2015: “The De-Nazification Blues” in Occupied Pulp (2021), “The Law of Judge Colt” in Six-Gun Legends (2023), and “Hero Forgers” in the recently published Freeform Flinch (2026). “Hero Forgers” was Will’s last published work before his death.
I sat on a panel with Will at Pulpfest this past summer, barely a month ago. Jim Beard moderated the hour-long discussion entitled “Working with Licensed Characters.” Somewhere during the presentation, the conversation veered into the subject of how fiction writers continue to motivate themselves in an era when recreational reading is on a sharp decline. Will stated his position succinctly and unapologetically: “I plan to do this until I’m dead.”
Sadly, his time came just weeks later – far sooner than any of us expected.
A giant in the pulp community has written his last chapter. He is survived by an army of friends and fans who will undoubtedly keep his story alive, each in their own way, for years to come.