Edwin Balmer edited "Blue Book" from 1927 to 1929. Balmer managed to raise the circulation of the magazine to 180,000 by 1929, probably due to the reappearance of Burroughs' Tarzan stories in the magazine. Balmer was succeeded by "Blue Book's" longest running editor, Donald Kennicott (1929 to January 1952). Later editors were Maxwell Hamilton (February 1952 through the mid-1950s) and Andre Fontaine in the mid-1950s, followed by Frederick A. Birmingham. Maxwell Hamilton returned for the 1960 revival, followed by B. R. Ampolsk in 1967. Cover artists during the 1930s included Dean Cornwell, Joseph Chenoweth,, Henry J. Soulen, and Herbert Morton Stoops, who continued as the cover artist during the 1940s. Interior Illustrators for the magazine included Alex Raymond and Austin Briggs (better known for their comics work), John Clymer, John Richard Flanagan, Joseph Franke, L. R. Gustavson, and Henry Thiede. The first "Blue Book" contributors included science-fiction authors George Allan England, William Hope Hodgson and William Wallace Cook. "Blue Book" also published the "Freelances in Diplomacy" (1910) series by Clarence H. New (1862–1933) a series of early spy stories. Rider Haggard and Albert Payson Terhune also published work in "Blue Book". Zane Grey and Clarence E. Mulford added their Western stories to the magazine's selection of fiction. In the 1920s, "Blue Book"s roster of authors included two of the world's most famous writers of popular fiction: Edgar Rice Burroughs and Agatha Christie. In addition to Tarzan, Burroughts published material about "Nyoka, the Jungle Girl" in "Blue Book". Nyoka first appeared in "The Land of Hidden Men," a 1929 "Blue Book" short story by Burroughs. The characters of Sax Rohmer, James Oliver Curwood, and Beatrice Grimshaw appeared in "Blue Book". Adventure fiction was a staple of "Blue Book"; in addition to Burroughs, P. C. Wren, H. Bedford-Jones, Achmed Abdullah, George F. Worts, Lemuel De Bra (who specialized in "Chinatown" thrillers) and William L. Chester (with his Burroughs-influenced "Hawk of the Wilderness", about a white boy adopted by Native Americans) all published in the magazine.