Students of the sociology of literature have found the analysis of mass fiction to be a useful index to changing values in a society. This study reports the results of examining hero models and themes in stories published by five important American magazines between 1921 and 1940, and finds that shifts in the treatment of the heroes and themes reflect a number of important social trends. Patricke Johns-Heine was Research Assistant at the University of Wisconsin at the time this study was prepared. She is now a Chicago resident and is assisting in the preparation of a forthcoming volume on Max Weber. Hans H. Gerth, Associate Professor of Sociology at Wisconsin, was co--author of a volume on Max Weber which appeared in 1946, and has contributed to various sociological journals.