Ratings

My ratings of Old Timey authors I've been digging on over the years.  By quality of writing and my enjoyment of same.  Better on top, worst below.

Talbot Mundy (Jim Grim books.  Remarkably well written for a pulpy storyline.  And the dude knew the Near East)
Robert E Howard (Conan.  Purple, but good)
Harcourt Pennyworth Lovecraft (Cthulhu ftagn!  Plodding, but good)
Louis L'Amour (good cowboy action)
Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, John Carter.  First to start busting out of the old skool)

E. W. Hornung (Wrote Raffles the Cracksman... all these lower on the list high back the 19th Century more than those higher on the list, with a more staid and older story formula, usually clunky romantic bits to appeal to lady-readers of the day, too.  Where they don't do this, I like them better.)
Zane Gray (less good cowboy stuff.  TOO old timey in the style.  More poorly written romantic sub plots you see from the era.  Have you even TALKED to a lady in your life, man?)
Sax Rohmer (Fu Manchu.  Too derivative and old timey.  Dumb Sherlock with a Watson that thinks with his little brain versus Chinaman Moriarty.)
Lester Dent (Doc Savage.  Very 20th Century, but reads like Japanese anime storylines from the 60s.  [Marine Boy!  Speed Racer!]  If I have to trudge through another scent with Monk and Ham bickering...)


Bonus ratings, Hard Boiled

Dashiel Hammett (the king)

Raymond Chandler (slightly better writer than above, but I like Dash's style)
Mickey Spillane (somebody should cosh that guy behind the ear, see how HE likes it)


Old timers I still need to check out.

E. E. Doc Smith
Lord Dunsany
Clark Ashton Smith