A veteran Coast Guard captain witnesses an impossible rescue at sea, then finds himself chasing an explanation no naval report could ever record. As another convoy battles through the North Atlantic, he must decide whether to trust what every sailor knows cannot exist. Heroes Die Hard by Leroy Yerxa. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast. Today’s story has one of the most unusual publishing histories we’ve ever featured. Heroes Die Hard first appeared in the December 1943 issue of Fantastic Adventures magazine—but if you looked at the byline, you wouldn’t have seen Leroy Yerxa. Instead, the story was credited to Henry Gade, one of several pseudonyms used by Yerxa during his remarkably productive career. Here’s the incredible part. That December 1943 issue contained ten stories… and every single one of them was written by Leroy Yerxa. Some carried his real name, while others appeared under pen names, but the entire issue came from one writer. In all the years we’ve been exploring vintage science fiction, we’ve never come across another magazine issue quite like it. Yerxa was one of the most prolific contributors to the Ziff-Davis magazines. His first published story, “Death Rides at Night,” appeared in the August 1942 issue of Amazing Stories when he was just twenty-seven years old. Over the next four years, before his tragic death in 1946 at only thirty years of age, he sold more than seventy stories to Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures, many of them under assumed names. From that December 1943 issue of Fantastic Adventures magazine, written by one man, on page 128, Heroes Die Hard by Leroy Yerxa… Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A boastful hunter claims he chased the last living mammoth through a hidden northern valley until only one of them could endure. His proof sounds impossible, but the boots on his feet make disbelief far less comfortable. The Angry Mammoth by Jack London. Lost Sci-Fi Premium - https://lostscifi.supercast.com/ Buy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffee Newsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/ Facebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebook YouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtube X - http://Lostscifi.com/x Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguy Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/lostscifipodcast.bsky.social Merchandise - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee $200 Someone $100 Tony from the Future $75 James Van Maanenberg $50 James Van Maanenberg, MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener $25 Fintan Quigley, Curious Jon, David Bell, Steve, Miriam, Someone, Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener $15 Every Month Someone $15 Steve, Someone, SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener $10 David, Anonymous Listener $5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue $5 Tammy, Owen, Bruce, Someone, TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listener Listen without commercials and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes every month with Lost Sci-Fi Premium—start your free 7-day trial today. https://lostscifi.supercast.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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