Argosy was an American magazine, founded in 1882 as The Golden Argosy, a children's weekly, edited by Frank Munsey and published by E. G. Rideout. Munsey took over as publisher when Rideout went bankrupt in 1883, and after many struggles made the magazine profitable. He shortened the title to The Argosy in 1888 and targeted an audience of men and boys with adventure stories. In 1894 he switched it to a monthly schedule and in 1896 he eliminated all non-fiction and started using cheap pulp paper, making it the first pulp magazine. Circulation had reached half a million by 1907, and remained strong until the 1930s. The name was changed to Argosy All-Story Weekly in 1920 after the magazine merged with All-Story Weekly, another Munsey pulp, and from 1929 it became just Argosy.
In 1925 Munsey died, and the publisher, the Frank A. Munsey Company, was purchased by William Dewart, who had worked for Munsey. By 1942 circulation had fallen to no more than 50,000, and after a failed effort to revive the magazine by including sensational non-fiction, it was sold that year to Popular Publications, another pulp magazine publisher. Popular converted it from pulp to slick format, and initially attempted to make it a fiction-only magazine, but gave up on this within a year. Instead it became a men's magazine, carrying fiction and feature articles aimed at men. Circulation soared and by the early 1950s was well over one million.
Popular sold Argosy to David Geller in 1972, and in 1978 Geller sold it to the Filipacchi Group, which closed it at the end of the year. The magazine has been revived several times, most recently in 2016.
Publication history
The Golden Argosy
In the late 1870s, Frank Munsey was working in Augusta, Maine, as the manager of the local Western Union office. He helped a friend get a job at a publisher in Augusta, and after a couple of years his friend moved to New York City to work for another publishing company. Munsey was becoming more familiar with the publishing industry during this time, and decided he wanted to launch a magazine of his own. He had some difficulty in getting anyone to agree to invest, but eventually persuaded a stockbroker he knew to put in $2,500 ($79,000 in 2023), of which $500 was a loan to Munsey. Munsey invested $500 of his own, and his friend in New York City added another $1,000, making a total of $4,000 ($126,000 in 2023) in capital.[1][2] Munsey resigned from Western Union, and moved to New York on September 23, 1882, bringing with him manuscripts he had bought for the magazine before leaving Augusta.[3]
Frank Munsey
Once in New York, Munsey quickly realized that the cost estimates he had made, based on what he had been able to learn while in Maine, were unrealistically low.[4][5] His original plan for the magazine had been to make it a close copy of Golden Days, a weekly paper for children published in Philadelphia by James Elverson,[6] and to include lithographed covers and internal illustrations.[4][5] He abandoned these ideas and came up with a simplified approach, still based on Golden Days, that he believed could be made profitable. He wrote to the stockbroker who had promised $2,500 to get the funds sent to him, but received no reply, and since this made it impossible to start the magazine as planned, Munsey released his New York friend from his promise of investment. This left Munsey with only about $40 ($1,260 in 2023), along with the manuscripts he had in hand, which had cost over $500 to acquire. He began looking for a publisher who would back the new magazine, and eventually persuaded E. G. Rideout to take it on. The first issue, titled The Golden Argosy, with Munsey as editor and manager, was dated December 9, 1882;[4][5] it was eight pages long and cost five cents ($1.58 in 2023).[7] Subscribers were offered a set of colored chromolithographs along with their subscription.[4]
Five months later Rideout went bankrupt. Munsey had not drawn all his salary, and Rideout had borrowed money from him as well, so he was owed about $1,000 ($33,000 in 2023) by the bankrupt company. He claimed the magazine's title and subscription list in return for his debt, succeeding over a competing claim from a publisher who would have merged the magazine's subscriptions into those of his own publication.[8][9][10] The first issue with Munsey as publisher was dated September 8, 1883.[11] Munsey again was reduced to a few dollars, but he was able to borrow $300 ($9,800 in 2023) from Oscar Holway, a banker in Augusta who was a friend.[8][9] At about this time he bought some stories from Malcolm Douglas, but when Douglas came to collect his payment Munsey offered him the job of editor, at $10 ($300 in 2023) per week, in lieu of payment for the stories. Douglas accepted.[8]
Issue data for The Golden Argosy and The Argosy up to 1894[12]
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
1882
Dates:
9,16,23,30
Volume:
1/1 to 1/4
Issue:
1 to 4
1883
Dates:
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
Volume:
1/5 to 1/8
1/9 to 1/12
1/13 to 1/17
1/18 to 1/21
1/22 to 1/25
1/26 to 1/30
1/31 to 1/34
1/35 to 1/38
1/39 to 1/43
1/44 to 1/47
1/48 to 1/51
1/52, 2/1 to 2/4
Issue:
5 to 8
9 to 12
13 to 17
18 to 21
22 to 25
26 to 30
31 to 34
35 to 38
39 to 43
44 to 47
48 to 51
52 to 56
1884
Dates:
5,12,19,26
2,9,26,23
1,8,25,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,23,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
1,9,26,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
Volume:
2/5 to 2/8
2/9 to 2/12
2/13 to 2/17
2/18 to 2/21
2/22 to 2/26
2/29 to 2/30
2/31 to 2/34
2/35 to 2/39
2/40 to 2/43
2/44 to 2/47
2/48 to 2/52
3/1 to 3/4
Issue:
57 to 60
61 to 64
65 to 69
70 to 73
74 to 78
79 to 82
83 to 86
87 to 91
92 to 95
96 to 99
100 to 104
105 to 108
1885
Dates:
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
Volume:
3/5 to 3/9
3/10 to 3/13
3/14 to 3/17
3/18 to 3/21
3/22 to 3/26
3/27 to 3/30
3/31 to 3/34
3/35 to 3/39
3/40 to 3/43
3/44 to 3/48
3/49 to 3/52
4/1 to 4/4
Issue:
109 to 113
114 to 117
118 to 121
122 to 125
126 to 130
131 to 134
135 to 138
139 to 143
144 to 147
148 to 152
153 to 156
157 to 160
1886
Dates:
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
Volume:
4/5 to 4/9
4/10 to 4/13
4/14 to 4/17
4/18 to 4/21
4/22 to 4/26
4/27 to 4/30
4/31 to 4/35
4/36 to 4/39
4/40 to 4/43
4/44 to 4/48
4/49 to 4/52
5/1 to 5/4
Issue:
161 to 165
166 to 169
170 to 173
174 to 177
178 to 182
183 to 186
187 to 191
192 to 195
196 to 199
200 to 204
205 to 208
209 to 212
1887
Dates:
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,212,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,23
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
Volume:
5/5 to 5/9
5/10 to 5/13
5/14 to 5/17
5/18 to 5/22
5/23 to 5/26
5/27 to 5/30
5/31 to 5/35
5/36 to 5/39
5/40 to 5/43
5/44 to 5/48
5/49 to 5/52
6/1 to 6/5
Issue:
213 to 217
218 to 221
222 to 225
226 to 230
231 to 234
235 to 238
239 to 243
244 to 247
248 to 251
252 to 256
257 to 260
261 to 265
1888
Dates:
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
3,10,.17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
Volume:
6/6/ to 6/9
6/10 to 6/13
6/14 to 6/18
6/19 to 6/22
6/23 to 6/26
6/27 to 6/31
6/32 to 6/35
6/36 to 6/39
6/40 to 6/44
6/45 to 6/48
6/49 to 6/52
7/1 to 7/5
Issue:
266 6o 269
270 to 273
274 to 278
279 to 282
283 to 286
287 to 291
292 to 295
296 to 299
300 to 304
305 to 308
309 to 312
313 to 317
1889
Dates:
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
Volume:
7/6 to 7/9
7/10 to 7/13
7/14 to 7/18
7/19 to 7/22
7/23 to 7/26
8/1 to 8/5
8/6 to 8/9
8/10 to 8/14
8/15 to 8/18
8/19 to 8/22
8/23 to 89/1
9/2 to 9/5
Issue:
318 to 321
322 to 325
326 to 330
331 to 334
335 to 338
339 to 343
344 to 347
348 to 352
353 to 356
357 to 360
361 to 365
366 to 369
1890
Dates:
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
Volume:
9/6 to 9/9
9/10 to 9/13
9/14 to 9/18
9/19 to 9/22
9/23 to 10/1
10/2 to 10/5
10/6 to 10/9
10/10 to 10/14
10/15 to 10/18
10/19 to 10/22
10/23 to 11/1
11/2 to 11/5
Issue:
370 to 373
374 to 377
378 to 382
383 to 386
387 to 391
392 to 395
396 to 399
400 to 404
405 to 408
409 to 412
413 to 417
418 to 421
1891
Dates:
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
Volume:
11/6 to 11/10
11/11 to 11/14
11/15 to 11/18
11/19 to 11/22
11/23 to 12/1
12/2 to 12/5
12/6 to 12/9
12/10 to 12/14
12/15 to 12/18
12/19 to 12/23
12/24 to 13/1
13/2 to 13/5
Issue:
422 to 426
427 to 430
431 to 434
435 to 438
439 to 443
444 to 447
448 to 451
452 to 456
457 to 460
461 to 465
466 to 469
470 to 473
1892
Dates:
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
Volume:
13/6 to 13/10
13/11 to 13/14
13/15 to 13/18
13/19 to 13/22
13/23 to 14/1
14/2 to 14/5
14/6 to 14/10
14/11 to 14/14
14/15 to 14/18
14/19 to 14/23
14/24 to 15/1
15/2 to 15/6
Issue:
474 to 478
479 to 482
483 to 486
487 to 491
492 to 495
496 to 499
500 to 504
505 to 508
509 to 512
513 to 517
518 to 521
522 to 526
1893
Dates:
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
Volume:
15/7 to 15/10
15/11 to 15/14
15/15 to 15/18
15/19 to 15/23
15/24 to 16/1
16/2 to 16/5
16/6 to 16/10
16/11 to 16/14
16/15 to 16/19
16/20 to 16/23
16/24 to 17/1
17/2 to 17/6
Issue:
527 to 530
531 to 534
535 to 538
539 to 543
544 to 547
548 to 551
552 to 556
557 to 560
561 to 565
566 to 569
570 to 573
574 to 578
1894
Dates:
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
3,10,17,24
Volume:
17/7 to 17/10
17/11 to 17/14
17/15 to 17/18
Issue:
579 to 582
583 to 586
587 to 590
Frank A. MunseyMalcolm DouglasMatthew White Not all bibliographic sources include Douglas, but Munsey's biographer, George Britt, gives details of Douglas's hire, and he is described in J. Randolph Cox's The Dime Novel Companion as "the real editor of Golden Argosy".[13][8][14] Douglas's first issue was dated September 8, 1883, and White took over with the December 4, 1886 issue.[12][note 1]
A friend from Augusta, John Fogler, who had become cashier of Augusta's First National Bank, was able to arrange another loan for Munsey, of $1,000.[16] Munsey managed to maintain the regular weekly schedule but the financial pressure on him was enormous.[17][18] Rideout had set up Munsey in an office on Barclay Street in what is now known as Tribeca, in Manhattan; Munsey moved to an office on Warren Street nearby to reduce the rent, and he and Douglas would eat in a German beer saloon where they could get a free lunch. Munsey and Douglas assembled free material by rewriting items from English boys' papers. One week, Douglas was unable to find enough material to fill an issue. Munsey wrote a short story that night: "Harry's Scheme, or Camping Among the Maples", about two boys in the Maine woods, and turned it in to Douglas the next morning.[17][13][note 2] Douglas twice saw Munsey write a letter to Elverson, offering the subscription list of The Golden Argosy in return for a job at $50 per week, but Munsey did not mail either letter.[17][18]
In 1884 James Blaine was the Republican candidate for President. Blaine knew of Munsey from Augusta, and his campaign needed help with publicity: Munsey proposed a new magazine, Munsey's Illustrated Weekly, to carry campaign news. It only lasted two months, from September 6 to November 8, 1884, but it helped Munsey by giving him an official-seeming presence in publishing that made it much easier for him to obtain credit for paper and other supplies.[20] Before the campaign he had been unable to get credit; after it he was $8,000 ($253,000 in 2023) in debt to his suppliers. Ten years later Munsey recalled the change, and said "That debt made me. Before, I had no credit and had to live from hand to mouth. But when I owed $8,000 my creditors didn't dare drop me. They saw their only chance of getting anything was to keep me going."[21] Munsey had a bank account in New York, but kept two more, in Maine and Chicago, moving funds between them constantly: "I kept thousands of dollars in the air between these three banks. It was a dizzy, dazzling, daring game, a game to live for, to die for, a royal glorious game".[22] Munsey told a story of being unable to meet payroll because the New York bank would not give him credit. He went to the bank, upbraided the president for his "effrontery", and left without letting the man speak.[22] When his employee went to the bank again that day, he was able to cash the payroll check.[22]
The fact that The Golden Argosy never missed an issue also helped Munsey persuade the businesses he worked with to extend him credit, which in turn helped him invest in the business. In the winter of 1885/1886 he wrote a serial, Afloat in a Great City, with the intention of using it as the basis for an advertising campaign to increase subscriptions. Munsey owed $5,000 at this point, and went into debt by about another $10,000 to advertise the story, distributing 100,000 sample copies of the March 13, 1886 issue containing the first installment of the serial in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the surrounding areas. The campaign was a success, and from being a more-or-less breakeven concern, The Golden Argosy began to net Munsey about $100 a week in profit, not counting the cost of the campaign. This convinced Munsey to invest further in building circulation.[23][24] A new editor, Matthew White, took over from Douglas at the end of the year; White had been the founder and editor of The Boys' World, which Munsey bought in 1887,[8] merging the subscriptions with The Golden Argosy.[25][26] At the same time Munsey doubled the page count and increased the price from five cents to six.[23][27][28] In 1887 he began a national advertising campaign, with traveling representatives as far west as Nebraska, and a mail campaign for points further west.[24] He wrote another story, The Boy Broker, for serialization, beginning in the February 5, 1887 issue,[24][29] and credited it with adding 20,000 to The Golden Argosy's circulation.[24][30] Over five months the campaign gave away 11,500,000 sample issues: his debt ballooned to $95,000 ($3.22million in 2023), but he was now clearing $1,500 ($51,000 in 2023) a week in profit, and circulation reached 115,000 in May 1887.[24][31][note 3]
The Argosy
Monthly issue data for The Argosy from 1894 to 1917[12]
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
1894
18/1
18/2
18/3
18/4
18/5
18/6
19/1
19/2
19/3
1895
19/4
19/5
19/6
20/1
20/2
20/3
20/4
20/5
20/6
21/1
21/2
21/3
1896
21/4
21/5
21/6
22/1
22/2
22/3
22/4
22/5
22/6
23/1
23/2
23/3
1897
23/4
23/5
23/6
24/1
24/2
24/3
24/4
25/1
25/2
25/3
25/4
26/1
1898
26/2
26/3
26/4
27/1
27/2
27/3
27/4
28/1
28/2
28/3
28/4
29/1
1899
29/2
29/3
29/4
30/1
30/2
30/3
30/4
31/1
31/2
31/3
31/4
32/1
1900
32/2
32/3
32/4
33/1
33/2
33/3
33/4
34/1
34/2
34/3
34/4
35/1
1901
35/2
35/3
35/4
36/1
36/2
36/3
36/4
37/1
37/2
37/3
37/4
38/1
1902
38/2
38/3
38/4
39/1
39/2
39/3
39/4
40/1
40/2
40/3
40/4
41/1
1903
41/2
41/3
41/4
42/1
42/2
42/3
42/4
43/1
43/2
43/3
43/4
44/1
1904
44/2
44/3
44/4
45/1
45/2
45/3
45/4
46/1
46/2
46/3
46/4
47/1
1905
47/2
47/3
47/4
48/1
48/2
48/3
48/4
49/1
49/2
49/3
49/4
50/1
1906
50/2
50/3
50/4
51/1
51/2
51/3
51/4
52/1
52/2
52/3
52/4
53/1
1907
53/2
53/3
53/4
54/1
54/2
54/3
54/4
55/1
55/2
55/3
55/4
56/1
1908
56/2
56/3
56/4
57/1
57/2
57/3
57/4
58/1
58/2
58/3
58/4
59/1
1909
59/2
59/3
59/4
60/1
60/2
60/3
60/4
61/1
61/2
61/3
61/4
62/1
1910
62/2
62/3
62/4
63/1
63/2
63/3
63/4
64/1
64/2
64/3
64/4
65/1
1911
65/2
65/3
65/4
66/1
66/2
66/3
66/4
67/1
67/2
67/3
67/4
68/1
1912
68/2
68/3
68/4
69/1
69/2
69/3
69/4
70/1
70/2
70/3
70/4
71/1
1913
71/2
71/3
71/4
72/1
72/2
72/3
72/4
73/1
73/2
73/3
73/4
74/1
1914
74/2
74/3
75/4
76/1
76/2
76/3
76/4
77/1
77/2
77/3
77/4
78/1
1915
78/2
78/3
78/4
79/1
79/2
79/3
79/4
80/1
80/2
80/3
80/4
81/1
1916
81/2
81/3
81/4
82/1
82/2
82/3
82/4
83/1
83/2
83/3
83/4
84/1
1917
84/2
84/3
84/4
85/1
85/2
85/3
85/4
86/1
86/2
86/3
Matthew White Matthew White was editor throughout this period, though Mott reports that he spent a year or more in London working for Munsey during 1913–1914,[15][33][34] and according to Moskowitz the editorial duties for The Argosy were handled by Bob Davis, the editor of All-Story Weekly, during this time.[15]
The improvement in Munsey's finances in 1887 was temporary, though before Munsey realized it he had given up his cheap rooms and moved to the Windsor Hotel on Fifth Avenue.[35] Another advertising campaign was launched; it cost $20,000 ($678,000 in 2023) but produced no results, and Munsey began to experiment with the magazine, trying to find a profitable approach. He shortened the title to just The Argosy with the December 1, 1888 issue to make it sound more like an adventure magazine and less like a children's paper.[35][36][15] He later commented that he had not realized the problems attendant on magazines for children—they grew up quickly and dropped their subscriptions, so circulation was very difficult to maintain, and because they had little spending power it was hard to interest advertisers.[37] He reduced the page size and increased the page count, and added illustrated covers, and cut the price, and then reversed all these changes, but nothing worked.[35] In 1890 circulation dropped to the point where it no longer covered its own costs.[38] The expenses Munsey had taken on after the successful campaign in 1887 were now a drain, and when his friend Fogler visited, and was impressed that Munsey was living at the Windsor, he told Fogler, "I can't afford it ... but it is a means to an end. It gives me standing to have the acquaintance of the men I meet here."[35] Fogler also discovered on that visit that Munsey had a personal pew in a popular church, which cost him $1,000 ($85,000 in 2023) a year.[35]
Munsey launched two more periodicals, hoping that they would establish themselves as profitable before The Argosy failed completely.[39] The first was Munsey's Weekly, launched on February 2, 1889;[39][40] the second was a newspaper, the DailyContinent, which he took over in February 1891 and gave up on four months later.[39][41] The Weekly was not a success either, and in late 1891 Munsey converted it into a monthly, Munsey's Magazine, priced at twenty-five cents ($8.48 in 2023). Fogler, now working for a bank in Kansas, arranged a loan for Munsey that grew to $8,000 ($271,000 in 2023), with half Munsey's stock as collateral. During the Panic of 1893 the bank called in the loan, and Munsey offered Fogler the stock if he would take over the loan. Fogler declined, and Munsey had to arrange for another loan at 18% interest to cover the repayment.[39] In October1893 Munsey cut the price of Munsey's Magazine to ten cents ($3.16 in 2023). He had to struggle to distribute it at this price, since the American News Company had a monopoly on magazine distribution and had little interest in a low-priced magazine. By the February issue Munsey was printing 200,000 copies, and it soon became successful enough to guarantee his financial security.[42]
The Argosy did not share in the success of Munsey's Magazine; circulation continued to decline, but Munsey kept it going, as he later said, "as a matter of sentiment", and to see what could be made of it. From a high of 115,000 the circulation fell to 9,000 for the March 24, 1894 issue, which was the last one as a weekly. Munsey switched it to monthly publication with the April issue, and circulation jumped to 40,000 immediately, but went no higher for over two years.[43] With the October1896 issue Munsey changed it to carry fiction only, targeted at adults rather than children.[43][34][12] Starting with the December issue he began printing it on cheap wood-pulp paper,[43][34] making The Argosy the first pulp magazine.[33] The all-fiction format brought about another jump in circulation to 80,000.[43] In 1898, with circulation still at around 80,000, Munsey bought Peterson's Magazine and merged it into The Argosy.[43][44] A year or so later circulation began to climb again: Munsey spent nothing on advertising, but circulation reached 300,000 in 1902, and hit half a million in 1907, 25 years after it was launched.[43] The magazine absorbed two other Munsey publications, The Puritan and Junior Munsey, in 1902, and Munsey credited some of the increase in circulation to the mergers.[45]
Weekly issue data for The Argosy from 1917 to 1942[12][46]
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
1917
Dates:
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
Volume:
87/1 to 87/4
88/1 to 88/4
89/1 to 90/1
1918
Dates:
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
Volume:
90/2 to 91/1
91/2 to 92/1
92/2 to 93/2
93/3 to 94/2
94/3 to 95/2
95/3 to 96/3
96/4 to 97/3
97/4 to 98/4
99/1 to 99/4
100/1 to 100/4
101/1 to 102/1
102/2 to 103/1
1919
Dates:
4,11,18,25
1,8,25,22
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
Volume:
103/2 to 104/1
104/2 to 105/1
105/2 to 106/2
106/3 to 107/2
107/3 to 108/3
108/4 to 109/3
109/4 to 110/3
110/4 to 111/4
112/1 to 112/4
113/1 to 113/4
114/1 to 115/1
115/2 to 116/1
1920
Dates:
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
Volume:
116/2 to 117/2
117/3 to 118/2
118/3 to 199/2
119/3 to 120/2
120/3 to 121/3
121/4 to 122/3
122/4 to 123/4
124/1 to 124/4
125/1 to 125/4
126/1 to 127/1
127/2 to 128/1
128/2 to 129/1
1921
Dates:
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
Volume:
129/2 to 130/2
130/3 to 131/2
131/3 to 132/2
132/3 to 133/3
133/4 to 134/3
134/4 to 135/1
135/2 to 135/6
136/1 to 136/4
136/4 to 137/2
137/3 to 138/1
138/2 to 138/5
138/6 to 139/4
1922
Dates:
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
Volume:
139/5 to 140/2
140/3 to 140/6
141/1 to 141/4
141/5 to 142/3
142/4 to 143/1
143/2 to 143/5
143/6 to 144/4
144/5 to 145/2
145/3 to 146/1
146/2 to 146/5
146/6 to 147/3
147/4 to 148/2
1923
Dates:
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
Volume:
148/3 to 148/6
149/1 to 149/4
149/5 to 150/3
150/4 to 151/1
151/2 to 151/5
151/6 to 152/4
152/5 to 153/2
153/3 to 153/5
153/6 to 154/5
154/6 to 155/3
155/4 to 156/1
156/2 to 156/6
1924
Dates:
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
Volume:
157/1 to 157/4
157/5 to 158/2
158/3 to 159/1
159/2 to 159/5
159/6 to 160/4
160/5 to 161/2
161/3 to 161/6
162/1 to 162/5
162/6 to 163/3
163/4 to 164/1
164/2 to 164/6
165/1 to 165/4
1925
Dates:
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
Volume:
165/5 to 166/3
166/4 to 167/1
167/2 to 167/5
167/6 to 168/3
168/4 to 169/2
169/3 to 169/6
170/1 to 170/4
170/5 to 171/3
171/4 to 172/1
172/2 to 172/6
173/1 to 173/4
173/5 to 174/2
1926
Dates:
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,.25
Volume:
174/3 to 175/1
175/2 to 175/5
175/6 to 176/3
176/4 to 177/1
177/2 to 177/6
178/1 to 178/4
178/5 to 179/3
179/4 to 180/1
180/2 to 180/5
180/6 to 181/4
181/5 to 182/2
182/3 to 182/6
1927
Dates:
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
Volume:
183/1 to 183/5
183/6 to 184/3
184/4 to 185/1
185/2 to 185/6
186/1 to 186/4
186/5 to 187/2
187/3 to 188/1
188/2 to 188/5
188/6 to 189/3
189/4 to 190/2
190/3 to 190/6
191/1 to 191/5
1928
Dates:
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24,31
1,8,15,22,29
Volume:
191/6 to 192/3
192/4 to 193/1
193/2 to 193/6
194/1 to 194/4
194/5 to 195/2
195/3 to 196/1
196/2 to 196/5
196/6 to 197/3
197/4 to 198/2
198/3 to 198/6
199/1 to 199/4
199/5 to 200/3
1929
Dates:
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23
2,9,26,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
Volume:
200/4 to 201/1
201/2 to 201/5
201/6 to 202/4
202/5 to 203/2
203/3 to 203/6
204/1 to 204/5
204/6 to 205/3
205/4 to 206/2
206/3 to 206/6
207/1 to 207/4
207/5 to 208/3
208/4 to 209/1
1930
Dates:
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
Volume:
209/2 to 209/5
209/6 to 210/3
201/4 to 211/2
211/3 to 211/6
212/1 to 212/5
212/6 to 213/3
213/4 to 214/1
214/2 to 214/6
215/1 to 215/4
215/5 to 216/2
216/3 to 217/1
217/2 to 217/5
1931
Dates:
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
Volume:
217/6 to 218/4
218/5 to 219/2
219/3 to 219/6
220/1 to 220/4
220/5 to 221/3
221/4 to 222/1
222/2 to 222/5
222/6 to 223/4
223/5 to 224/2
224/3 to 225/1
225/2 to 225/5
225/6 to 226/3
1932
Dates:
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
Volume:
226/4 to 227/2
227/3 to 227/6
228/1 to 228/4
228/5 to 229/3
229/4 to 230/1
230/2 to 230/5
230/6 to 231/4
231/5 to 232/2
232/3 to 232/6
233/1 to 233/5
233/6 to 234/3
234/4 to 235/2
1933
Dates:
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
Volume:
235/3 to 235/6
236/1 to 236/4
236/5 to 237/2
237/3 to 238/1
238/2 to 238/5
238/6 to 239/3
239/4 to 240/2
240/3 to 240/5
240/6 to 241/4
241/5 to 242/2
242/3 to 242/6
243/1 to 243/5
1934
Dates:
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
Volume:
243/6 to 244/3
244/4 to 245/1
245/2 to 245/6
246/1 to 246/4
246/5 to 247/2
247/3 to 248/1
248/2 to 248/5
248/6 to 249/3
249/4 to 250/2
250/3 to 250/6
251/1 to 251/4
251/5 to 252/3
1935
Dates:
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
Volume:
252/4 to 253/1
253/2 to 253/5
253/6 to 254/4
254/5 to 255/2
255/3 to 255/6
256/1 to 256/5
256/6 to 257/3
257/4 to 258/2
258/3 to 258/6
259/1 to 259/4
259/5 to 260/3
260/4 to 261/1
1936
Dates:
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
Volume:
261/2 to 261/5
261/6 to 262/4
262/5 to 263/2
263/3 to 263/6
264/1 to 264/5
264/6 to 265/3
265/4 to 266/1
266/2 to 266/6
267/1 to 267/4
267/5 to 268/3
268/4 to 269/1
269/2 to 269/5
1937
Dates:
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
Volume:
269/6 to 270/4
270/5 to 271/2
271/3 to 271/6
272/1 to 272/4
272/5 to 273/3
273/4 to 274/1
274/2 to 274/6
275/1 to 275/4
275/5 to 276/2
276/3 to 277/1
277/2 to 277/5
277/6 to 278/3
1938
Dates:
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
Volume:
278/4 to 279/2
279/3 to 279/6
280/1 to 280/4
280/5 to 281/3
281/4 to 282/1
282/2 to 282/5
282/6 to 283/4
283/5 to 284/2
284/3 to 284/6
285/1 to 285/5
285/6 to 186/3
286/4 to 287/2
1939
Dates:
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
4,11,18,25
2,9,16,23,30
Volume:
287/3 to 287/6
288/1 to 288/4
288/5 to 289/2
289/3 to 290/1
290/2 to 290/5
290/6 to 291/3
291/4 to 292/2
292/3 to 292/6
293/1 to 293/5
293/6 to 294/3
294/4 to 295/1
295/2 to 295/6
1940
Dates:
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22,29
6,13,20,27
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
7,14,21,28
Volume:
296/1 to 296/4
296/5 to 297/2
297/3 to 298/1
298/2 to 298/5
298/6 to 299/3
299/4 to 300/2
300/3 to 300/6
301/1 to 301/5
301/6 to 302/3
302/4 to 303/1
303/2 to 303/6
304/1 to 304/4
1941
Dates:
4,11,18,25
1,8,15,22
1,8,15,22,29
5,12,19,26
3,10,17,24,31
7,14,21,28
5,12,19,26
2,9,16,23,30
6,13,20,27
4
1,15,29
13,27
Volume:
304/5 to 305/2
305/3 to 305/6
306/1 to 306/5
306/6 to 307/3
307/4 to 308/2
308/3 to 308/6
309/1 to 309/4
309/5 to 310/3
310/4 to 311/1
311/2
311/3 to 311/5
311/6 to 312/1
1942
Dates:
10,24
7,21
7,15
1,15
Volume:
312/2 to 312/3
312/4 to 312/5
312/6 to 313/1
313/2 to 313/3
Matthew WhiteA. H. Bittner (June 1928 – June 1931Don Moore (July 1931 – July 1934)Frederick Clayton (August 1934 – April 1936)Jack Byrne (May 1936 – June 1937)Chandler H. Whipple (July 1937 – June 1939)George W. Post (July 1939 – February 1942Harry Gray (March 1942 – August 1942)
The Argosy's circulation fell from this peak, and it returned to a weekly schedule in 1917.[12][15] In 1906 Munsey had started The Railroad Man's Magazine, which carried both fiction and non-fiction; after the January 18, 1919 issue it was merged into The Argosy, which was briefly retitled Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine, reverting to just Argosy with the May 31 issue.[47][48][49] Paper shortages caused by World War I forced a reduction in the page count of both The Argosy and All-Story Weekly, another Munsey fiction magazine, and costs continued to go up after the war. Most of the other major fiction magazines of the day increased their price to twenty cents ($6.08 in 2023). At fifteen cents, Top-Notch Magazine was an exception, but Munsey kept both Argosy and All-Story at only ten cents. In 1920 he merged All-Story Weekly into The Argosy, explaining that this let him keep the price of the combined magazine at ten cents, while saving "all the cost of stories in one magazine, all the cost of the editorial force, all the cost of typesetting, all the cost of making electrotype plates, and many other minor costs".[50]Sam Moskowitz, a magazine historian, argues that the low price, sustained through most of the 1920s, must have been a strong benefit to circulation, which is reported to have reached half a million when the combined magazine, now titled Argosy All-Story Weekly, debuted. Circulation stayed at about 400,000 during the following decade.[50] The first issue of the new magazine added pages to allow it to carry continuations of the serials that had been running in each of the two magazines before the merger, and Moskowitz comments that this approach "was such that it is doubtful that a single nonduplicating reader was lost from either magazine".[50] The page count gradually dropped again as the serials were completed, from 224 after the merger to 144 at the end of the year.[50]
Dewart, Popular Publications, and later revivals
Monthly issue data for The Argosy from 1942 to 1970[12][46]
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
1942
313/4
313/5
313/6
314/1
314/2
314/3
314/4
314/5
1943
314/6
315/1
315/2
315/3
315/4
315/5
315/6
316/1
316/2
316/3
316/4
317/1
1944
317/2
317/3
317/4
318/1
318/2
318/3
318/4
419/1
319/2
319/3
319/4
1945
320/1
320/2
320/3
320/4
321/1
321/2
321/3
321/4
211/1
1946
322/2
322/3
322/4
323/1
323/2
323/3
323/4
1947
324/1
324/2
324/3
324/4
324/5
324/6
325/1
325/2
325/3
325/4
325/5
325/6
1948
326/1
326/2
326/3
326/4
326/5
326/6
327/1
327/2
327/3
327/4
327/5
327/6
1949
328/1
328/2
328/3
328/4
328/5
328/6
329/1
329/2
329/3
329/4
329/5
329/6
1950
330/1
330/2
330/3
330/4
330/5
330/6
331/1
331/2
331/3
331/4
331/5
331/6
1951
332/1
332/2
332/3
332/4
332/5
332/6
333/1
333/2
333/3
333/4
333/5
333/6
1952
334/1
334/2
334/3
334/4
334/5
334/6
335/1
335/2
335/3
335/4
335/5
335/6
1953
336/1
336/2
336/3
336/4
336/5
336/6
337/1
337/2
337/3
337/4
337/5
337/6
1954
338/1
338/2
338/3
338/4
338/5
338/6
339/1
339/2
339/3
339/4
339/5
339/6
1955
340/1
340/2
340/3
340/4
340/5
340/6
341/1
341/2
341/3
341/4
341/5
341/6
1956
342/1
342/2
342/3
342/4
342/5
342/6
343/1
343/2
343/3
343/4
343/5
343/6
1957
344/1
344/2
344/3
344/4
344/5
344/6
345/1
345/2
345/3
345/4
345/5
345/6
1958
346/1
346/2
346/3
346/4
346/5
346/6
347/1
347/2
347/3
347/4
347/5
347/6
1959
348/1
348/2
348/3
348/4
348/5
348/6
349/1
349/2
349/3
349/4
349/5
349/6
1960
350/1
350/2
350/3
350/4
350/5
350/6
351/1
351/2
351/3
351/4
351/5
351/6
1961
352/1
352/2
352/3
352/4
352/5
352/6
353/1
353/2
353/3
353/4
353/5
353/6
1962
354/1
354/2
354/3
354/4
354/5
354/6
355/1
355/2
355/3
355/4
355/5
355/6
1963
356/1
356/2
356/3
356/4
356/5
356/6
357/1
357/2
357/3
357/4
357/5
357/6
1964
358/1
358/2
358/3
358/4
358/5
358/6
359/1
359/2
359/3
359/4
359/5
359/6
1965
360/1
360/2
360/3
360/4
360/5
360/6
361/1
361/2
361/3
361/4
361/5
361/6
1966
362/1
362/2
362/3
362/4
362/5
362/6
363/1
363/2
363/3
363/4
363/5
363/6
1967
364/1
364/2
364/3
364/4
364/5
364/6
365/1
365/2
365/3
365/4
365/5
365/6
1968
366/1
366/2
366/3
366/4
366/5
366/6
367/1
367/2
367/3
367/4
367/5
367/6
1969
368/1
368/2
368/3
368/4
368/5
368/6
369/1
369/2
369/3
369/4
369/5
369/6
1970
370/1
370/2
370/3
370/4
370/5
370/6
371/1
371/2
371/3
371/4
371/5
371/6
Harry Gray (May – August 1942)Burroughs Mitchell (September – October 1942)Rogers Terrill (November 1942 – Feb 1944)Harry Steeger (Mar 1944 – Jul 1949 and Jun 1955 – April 1970)Jerry Mason (Aug 1949 – Jun 1953)Howard J. Lewis (Jul 1953 – Sep 1954)James B. O'Connell (Oct 1954)Ken W. Purdy (Nov 1954 – May 1955)Hal Steeger (May 1970 – Dec 1970)
In December 1925 Munsey had appendicitis, and never recovered; he died, aged 71, on December 22.[51] The Frank A. Munsey Corporation, which continued as the publisher, was sold to William Dewart, who had been working for Munsey.[52] Matthew White, who had been editor since 1886, was finally replaced by A. H. Bittner in 1928. Bittner stayed as editor for three years; and his successors throughout the 1930s each lasted between one and three years.[12] In October1929 Munsey's Magazine and Argosy All-Story Weekly were combined and immediately split again into two magazines: one was titled All-Story Combined with Munsey's, and the other continued as Argosy.[53][47]
In 1932 Don Moore, who had become editor in July1931,[54][55] bought two stories from Frank Morgan Mercer that turned out to have been copied from earlier stories by H. Bedford-Jones and James Francis Dwyer. Up to this point Argosy paid on acceptance; because of the plagiarism the policy was changed to pay new authors only after publication, to allow plagiarism to be detected.[56][57][58][note 4]
Moore left to work at Cosmopolitan in mid-1934, and was replaced by Frederick Clayton, who had been associate editor.[59] In 1936 Clayton was hired by Liberty, and Jack Byrne, who had been working at Fiction House, took over as editor for a year before being replaced by Chandler Whipple.[60][61] Another Munsey magazine, All-American Fiction, was merged into Argosy in 1938.[62][47] In 1939 Whipple resigned and George Post, who had been part of Whipple's editorial team, became editor.[63][64]
Argosy remained a weekly until the October 4, 1941 issue, then switched to an irregular schedule with two issues a month.[65] Post left in early 1942, and was briefly replaced by Harry Gray and then for two issues by Burroughs Mitchell.[46][66][12]
In September1942 Popular Publications, a pulp magazine publisher, bought all the Munsey pulp magazine titles from Dewart, including Argosy,[67][68] which by this time had a circulation of only 40,000 to 50,000.[69][note 5] The new editor was Rogers Terrill. Argosy ceased to use pulp paper from 1943, becoming a slick magazine.[73][74] In early 1944 Harry Steeger, the owner of Popular, took over the editorship for five years,[12] hiring Jerry Mason away from This Week in 1949 to replace himself as editor.[12][75] Mason stayed for four years; when he left in mid-1953 Howard Lewis was promoted to editor from executive editor.[76][77] Lewis resigned in 1954,[78] and was replaced for one issue (October 1954) by James O'Connell,[12] who had been fiction editor of Argosy since 1948.[79]Ken Purdy, the editor of Argosy's main rival, True, was hired,[70][71][78] but stayed less than a year.[12] Steeger later said that hiring Purdy was the most expensive mistake he ever made; Argosy ran at a substantial loss under his editorship.[80] Steeger then took the editing chair again.[12][75] Circulation prospered under Popular, reaching 600,000 in June1948, and 1.25million by 1954.[71][72] This growth was aided by some lucky publicity, broadcast to millions of radio listeners: after the acquisition by Popular, Argosy was the subject of a question on the popular Take It or Leave It radio show, which referred to it as a pulp magazine. Two weeks later the show's host apologized, and asked the studio audience to chant "Argosy is a slick" on the air.[72][81]
Argosy's circulation remained over a million until at least 1973,[70][82] and the advertising revenue this provided made the magazine an attractive acquisition target.[83] Steeger sold Popular Publications to David Geller's Brookside Publications in 1972.[83][84] In early January 1978 Geller sold the company to the Filipacchi Group.[83][85][86] The last issue from Popular was dated November/December1978.[73]
Special issues, associated magazines, and revivals
Monthly issue data for The Argosy from 1971 to 1979[12]
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
1971
372/1
372/2
372/3
372/4
372/5
372/6
373/1
373/2
373/3
373/4
373/5
373/6
1972
374/1
374/2
374/3
374/4
374/5
374/6
375/1
375/2
375/3
375/4
375/5
375/6
1973
376/1
376/2
376/3
376/4
376/5
376/6
377/7
377/8
377/9
377/10
377/11
377/12
1974
379/1
379/2
379/3
379/4
379/5
379/6
380/1
380/2
380/3
280/4
280/5
280/6
1975
281/1
281/2
281/3
281/4
281/5
281/6
282/1
282/2
282/3
282/4
282/5
382/6
1976
383/1
383/2
383/3
383/4
383/5
384/1
384/2
384/3
384/4
384/5
384/6
1977
384/7
384/8
385/3
385/4
385/5
385/6
386/1
386/2
386/3
386/4
386/5
1978
386/6
387/1
387/2
387/3
387/4
387/5
387/6
388/1
388/2
338/3
1979
339/1
339/2
339/3
339/4
Hal Steeger (Jan 1971 – Jan 1972)Milt Machlin (Feb 1972 – Mar 1973)Gil Paust (Apr 1973 – Feb 1974)Randolph Sugar (Mar 1974 – Apr 1975)Ernest Baxter (May 1975 – Jun 1976)Lou Sahadi (July 1976 – Nov/Dec 1978)Garrik Roen (Aug 1979 – Nov 1979)
In addition to the monthly issues, between 1975 and 1978 Argosy published about fifty special issues on specific topics such as sharks, basketball, guns, or treasure hunting. There were also two associated magazines: Argosy UFO appeared in July 1976 and ceased publication with its eighth issue, dated Winter 1977/1978. Argosy Gun produced four issues dated from Fall 1977 and Summer 1978, and may have published more.[47]
Argosy has been revived four times. Four monthly issues appeared starting in August1979, published by Lifetime Wholesalers, Inc. The last issue was dated November1979.[12][73] Between 1989 and 1994, six issues were produced by Richard Kyle, at irregular intervals.[87] Three more issues, dated in 2004 and 2005, appeared from Lou Anders and James A. Owen, with the third issue edited by Owen alone, and retitled Argosy Quarterly. One more issue, from Altus Press, appeared in 2016,[12][87] edited by Matthew Moring.[88]
Contents and reception
Early years
Cover of The Golden Argosy for May 19, 1883, featuring the first installment of Hector's Inheritance by Horatio Alger
The first issue of The Golden Argosy included the first installment of two novels: Do and Dare, or a Brave Boy's Fight for a Fortune, by Horatio Alger, which took the cover page, and Nick and Nellie, or God Helps them that Helps Themselves, by Edward S. Ellis. There were also short stories and some non-fiction. The target audience was both boys and girls, from ten to twenty years old.[89][15] When Munsey began to write serialized novels for the magazine, starting with Afloat in a Great City in 1886, he used the same basic plot that Alger had been successful with: rags to riches stories of boys succeeding against the odds.[17] Other early serials were boys' adventure tales, occasionally with science fiction ideas such as lost races. Multiple serials often ran simultaneously.[12] Early contributors included Harry Castlemon, whose Don Gordon's Shooting-Box began serialization in the March 3, 1883 issue;[15][90]Frank H. Converse, who in addition to an early serial (A Voyage to the Gold Coast, or Jack Bond's Quest, beginning in the March 24, 1883 issue) had several short stories in the first couple of years of the magazine;[15][91]Oliver Optic, (Making a Man of Himself, beginning in the October 20, 1883 issue);[15][92] and G. A. Henty (Facing Peril: A Tale of the Coal Mines, from September 5, 1885).[15][93]
The magazine's subtitle, Freighted with Treasures for Boys and Girls, was dropped in 1886, though the contents were still aimed at the same youthful readers as before.[15]P. T. Barnum's Dick Broadhead: a Story of Wild Animals and the Circus was serialized from May to August 1887.[15][94] There was little science fiction in the early years; one exception was The Conquest of the Moon, by Andre Laurie, which began serialization in The Argosy in 1889;[34] another was William Murray Graydon's The River of Darkness; or, Under Africa (1890). "When the Redcoats Came to Bennington", an early story by Upton Sinclair, appeared in the December 1895 issue.[15][95]
Pulp era
Editorial policy
Cover of the August 15, 1925 issue
After the change to an all-fiction monthly format in 1896, The Argosy was a men's and boy's adventure magazine,[15] though The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes many of the serials in the first decade or so after the change as "still only a little above juvenile adventure stories".[12] In 1926, Albert William Stone, a fairly prolific pulp author, visited Manhattan to meet with the editors of the various magazines he had been selling to, and find out more about what their requirements were for submissions.[96] Stone had sold several stories to Bob Davis, the editor of All-Story Weekly, before its merger with The Argosy, but had never sold to Matthew White, who had been editor of The Argosy since before the change to pulp format.[97][12] White had sent Stone an encouraging note in reply to an early submission of his: "Two things I like about this story are its Western atmosphere, and its brevity—two thousand five hundred words ... If those hints are of any value to you, try us again."[97] In the interview with Stone, White expanded upon what he was looking for. "I require yarns ... that violate the traditions relative to 'logical development'. By this I mean that I do not want the story developed in what is commonly called the 'natural' way. I require unexpected development—surprises at every turn it is possible to have them without destroying the convincingness of the story ... In other words, stories that are a constant challenge to the author's inventive ability, one situation after another, and that keep the writer perspiring freely."[98]
Ed Hulse, a historian of pulp magazines, while generally praising the quality of the fiction in Argosy during the pulp era, comments that during the 1920s some "bland, conventional dramas" appeared in the magazine, by writers such as Edgar Franklin, Isabel Ostrander, and E. J. Rath. Hulse suggests that this editorial policy was aimed at attracting more women readers to the magazine.[99]
After White's editorship, and for the next fifteen years, the requirements that Argosy's editors sent to writers' magazines such as Writer's Digest and Author & Journalist emphasized that they were looking for stories focused on action, with a masculine point of view. Bittner's comments in 1928 asked for "any good clean story with sound plot, rapid-fire action and strong masculine appeal", and gave a long list of genres all of which were acceptable—even romance so long as "the love element is not unduly stressed".[100] In 1931 Moore outlined the stories to be excluded: "love or domestic tales, sex stories, stories with a predominant woman interest or told from a woman’s viewpoint".[101] In 1935 Clayton provided a list of hackneyed plots to be avoided, including escaping convicts, an underwater adventure in which the hero fights an octopus and a giant clam as well as the villain, and a legionnaire who "dies gloriously for Dear Old France".[102] The policy of action stories told from a male viewpoint continued through the rest of the decade.[103]
New writers
Cover of the October 1905 issue
Many writers who later became well-known sold to The Argosy early in their careers. William MacLeod Raine's first story, "The Luck of Eustace Blount", appeared in the March 1899 issue.[104][105]William Wallace Cook contributed numerous serials in the first decade of the 20th century, beginning with The Spur of Necessity in the September1900 issue after half-a-dozen sales to other markets.[106][107] Cook wrote adventure fiction with elements of satire, an unusual combination for the pulps.[108]James Branch Cabell's first sale was to The Argosy; his "An Amateur Ghost" appeared in the February1902 issue.[109][110]William Hamilton Osborne's first sale was also to The Argosy, but after paying for it White returned the story to Osborne as the plot was too similar to other stories that had appeared elsewhere. It did eventually appear in the New York Daily News, but Osborne's first appearance in print was in The Argosy with "Turner's Luck with Rouge et Noir", in the September 1902 issue.[111][112]Louis Joseph Vance, the creator of the character The Lone Wolf, published most of his fiction in The Popular Magazine, but his first two sales were to Munsey, including The Coil of Circumstance, a serial that began in the November 1903 Argosy.[113][114]Albert Payson Terhune, later the author of Lad: A Dog, frequently published in the Munsey magazines early in his career.[115][116] His first sale to The Argosy was "The Fugitive", a novella that began serialization in the August 1905 issue, and he sold a dozen more stories to the magazine over the next few years.[115] An early story by Mary Roberts Rinehart, "The Misadventures of a Pearl Necklace", appeared in February the following year.[117]
The first pulp issue, in December 1896, included a science fiction story, "Citizen 504", by C. H. Palmer, and science fiction featured regularly thereafter.[34] Five science fiction adventure novels by William Wallace Cook appeared, starting in 1903 with A Round Trip to the Year 2000, or A Flight Through Time. Lost race stories continued to appear, such as Frank Aubrey's A Queen of Atlantis (1899), Frank Savile's Beyond the Great South Wall (1899–1900),[12] and Perley Poore Sheehan's The Abyss of Wonders (1915), described by Hulse as "arguably the finest lost race novel ever to appear in a Munsey magazine".[118]Francis Stevens contributed another lost world novel, The Citadel of Fear, in 1918.[118]
Humorous stories about scientific inventions were another theme.[12] Howard Rogert Garis began selling to Argosy in 1904; his "Professor Jonkin" stories were lighthearted examples of the genre,[119] and other examples came from H.D. Smiley, whose "Bagley's Coagulated Cyclone" and "Bagley's Rain-Machine" appeared in the September 1906 and February 1907 issues.[120][121] Some more sophisticated science fiction also appeared, including "Finis", an end of the world story by Frank Lillie Pollock, in June 1906.[12][122]George Griffith, an important early science fiction writer from the UK, published almost none of his work in the US in his lifetime. An exception was The Lake of Gold, serialized in The Argosy from December 1902 to July 1903, in which a group of Britons and Americans use the riches from a lake of gold in Patagonia to enforce peace across Europe.[123][124][note 6]
Erle Stanley Gardner, later famous for his Perry Mason detective stories, sold "Rain Magic", his first science fiction short story, to Argosy in 1928, and went on to write several more. Gardner combined science fiction with detective plots in some of these stories, and he was not the only writer to do so: Garret Smith's "You've Killed Privacy!" in the July 7, 1928 Argosy was about using CCTV to catch criminals, and Leinster's "Darkness on Fifth Avenue", in the November 30, 1929 Argosy, about a device that can bring artificial darkness to an area, was originally intended for the detective pulps.[133]
Other genres
Cover of the November 10, 1917 issue
Argosy's Western fiction included Zane Grey's Last of the Duanes, which appeared in the September 1914 Argosy,[134] and Walt Coburn's first story, "The Peace Treaty of the Seven Up", in the July 8, 1922 issue.[135][136]Max Brand, a very prolific Western writer, sold his first pulp stories to All-Story in 1917, but by the end of the year had begun selling to Argosy too.[137][138]Clarence Mulford was the creator of the character Hopalong Cassidy; the first few stories in the series appeared in other magazines, but many were published in Argosy in the early 1920s.[139][118]Robert E. Howard, best known for his stories about Conan the Barbarian, also wrote Westerns, several of which were published in Argosy in the mid-1930s.[140]
O. Henry appeared in the March 1904 Argosy with "Witches Loaves".[141]H. Bedford-Jones, a popular author with over 1,000 stories published in the pulps over his career, sold his first story, "Out of a Stormy Sky", to The Argosy in 1910, and appeared in its pages regularly for the next four decades.[118][142] Bedford-Jones's series about adventurer John Solomon began with The Gate of Farewell, serialized in the January and February 1914 issues, and continued in The Argosy and elsewhere for over twenty years.[118][143]George Worts published the first of his "Peter the Brazen" series, about an "expert wireless operator and dauntless adventurer", in Argosy in the October 5, 1918 issue; it became one of the most popular series in the magazine, with all twenty stories appearing in Argosy into the mid-1930s.[144][145] Under his own name and a pseudonym, Loring Brent, Worts contributed scores of other stories to Argosy over the same period.[145][146]Johnston McCulley had launched his Zorro series in All-Story in 1919 and more episodes appeared in Argosy after the two magazines merged.[147]
Fred MacIsaac, one of Argosy's most popular authors, first appeared in the November 1, 1924 issue with the first installment of his novel Nothing but Money. Most of MacIsaac's work was not science fiction; an exception was The Hothouse World, a serial that ran in Argosy from February 21 to March 28, 1931.[148][149]Theodore Roscoe was a frequent contributor of adventure stories set in exotic locations such as Timbuktu and Saigon. He traveled the world once his writing began to pay him well enough to allow him to do so, and used the experience to add color to his stories.[150]Borden Chase sold his first story, "Tunnel Men", to Argosy in 1934 while he was a laborer on the tunnel being built under the East River in New York. He became a regular contributor, and his "East River", which appeared in Argosy in December 1934, was filmed the following year as Under Pressure.[151]Ship of the Line, an early novel in C. S. Forester's stories about Horatio Hornblower, was serialized in Argosy in early 1938.[152][153] Max Brand, though best known for his Westerns, wrote in many other genres as well, including historical fiction and mystery stories. He was the creator of Dr. Kildare, and four novels in the series appeared in Argosy between 1938 and 1940.[153][154] Mystery contributors included Cornell Woolrich, beginning with "Hot Water" in the December 28, 1935 issue,[155][156] and Norbert Davis.[157]
Art
In 1903 Street & Smith launched The Popular Magazine, an early pulp rival to The Argosy with color art on the cover. Up to this point The Argosy had had text only on the cover, and no art, but in 1905, probably in response to The Popular Magazine, it began to run limited color art on the cover, and in 1912 it began to use full-color cover art.[158] At the start of the 1920s the most frequent cover artists for Argosy were Modest Stein, Stockton Mulford, and P. J Monahan; by the end of the decade Paul Stahr and Robert Graef had taken over most of the covers, and remained the main cover artists until the mid-1930s. Hulse considers the artwork of this era to have been "consistently good".[148] Towards the end of the 1930s Rudolph Belarski, Emmett Watson, and George Rozen become regular cover artists.[153]
Virgil Finlay was a popular illustrator for the Munsey magazines at the end of the 1930s and start of the 1940s. When Argosy planned to reprint Seven Footprints to Satan, one of A. Merritt's novels, in 1939, Merritt persuaded the editor, G. W. Post, to use Finlay as the interior illustrator.[159][160]
Men's magazine era
Transition from pulp format
Gypsy Rose Lee, the author of The G-String Murders, which were part of Argosy's citation for obscenity in 1942
In 1942, in an attempt to revive the magazine's fortunes, the all-fiction format was abandoned and articles about World War II and "sensationalized" news stories were added.[33][161] The cover was redesigned starting with the March 7, 1942, issue, with the outline of a jet plane replacing the galleon behind the title, and a picture of the film star Dorothy Lamour on the cover instead of the usual adventure-themed cover art.[161] The title was changed to The New Argosy, though this change was reversed with the August issue.[12][65] The publication frequency was changed to monthly starting in May.[65]
The new version of Argosy was almost immediately caught in a crackdown by Frank Walker, the Postmaster General. The Post Office declared that publishers should consider "decency and good morals" in deciding what could be included in a mailed magazine, and promptly notified dozens of publishers that they had to attend a hearing in Washington or lose their permits. Argosy's citation from the Post Office listed stories considered to be obscene; the list included The G-String Murders, a serial by Rose Louise Hovick (better known as the burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee) that began in May 1942, and "How Paris Apaches Terrorize Nazis in Girl Orgies" and "Sex Outrages by Jap Soldiers", articles in the July and August 1942 issues.[162] The hearings were thought by most publishers to be pointless, and nobody from Munsey attended. Argosy briefly lost its permit as a result,[163][note 8] but did not miss any issues.[65]
When Popular Publications acquired Argosy at the end of 1942, they announced that it would immediately return to a fiction-only format.[164] Richard Abbott, the editor of Writer's Digest, commented that Popular were "again making Argosy the fine old book it was", and that when they acquired Argosy it had "recently been degraded by wretched editing".[165] In September1943, the format changed from pulp to slick, but Popular still planned to print only fiction. Rogers Terrill, the editor, announced that "we have stepped out of the pulp field entirely ... We felt there was room in the country for an all-fiction slick, and we're it."[74][166]
Slick men's magazine era
Harry Steeger, the founder of Popular Publications, and Jerry Mason, from 1949 to 1953 the editor of Argosy
By the end of 1943, the policy had changed back to include feature articles again as well as fiction.[167][168] This made Argosy a competitor with slick general men's magazines such as True.[74] The publisher, Harry Steeger, later explained the reason for the change of focus, arguing that women had been the primary target for advertisers before World War II, but afterwards "new buying pursuits were adopted by the male and it began to be recognized by the advertising agencies that the male was an individual to be reckoned with in the purchase of all types of products ...".[74] The non-fiction material was mostly written in-house; in 1950 Argosy rejected over 99% of the unsolicited non-fiction manuscripts it received.[169]
In September 1948 Erle Stanley Gardner began a true-crime column in Argosy called "The Court of Last Resort".[170] Gardner enlisted assistance from professional experts to examine the cases of dozens of convicts who maintained their innocence after their appeals were exhausted. The column ran for ten years, ending in October 1958, and was adapted for television as a 26-episode series by NBC. Many of the convictions were eventually overturned.[171][75]
Assessment
John Clute, discussing the American pulp magazines in the first two decades of the twentieth century, has described The Argosy and its companion The All-Story as "the most important pulps of their era."[172] In the era before the Second World War, Argosy was regarded as one of the "Big Four" pulp magazines, along with Blue Book, Adventure and Short Stories.[173][174] In the early 1960s Theodore Peterson, a magazine historian, considered the slick incarnation of Argosy, along with True, to be "the best magazines of their kind".[70] Peterson suggests that it was the success of these two magazines that led to the expansion of the men's magazine market during the 1950s.[70]
Additional bibliographic details
Titles
Argosy's title changed many times, either in an attempt to attract more readers, or because of mergers with other magazines.[175]
Title
Issue dates
Notes
The Golden Argosy
December 9, 1882 – November 24, 1888
The Argosy
December 1, 1888 – January 18, 1919
Shortened to avoid the implication that it was a children's magazine.[15]
Often Argosy Weekly on the cover, but just Argosy on the masthead.[47]
The New Argosy
March 7, 1942 – July 1942
Part of an attempt to improve circulation.[12][161]
Argosy
August 1942 – March/April 2004
Argosy Quarterly
Spring 2005
Argosy
Fall 2016
Reprint magazines and anthologies
The long history of Argosy meant that by the 1930s there were many stories readers had heard of but could no longer obtain. In response to reader requests, Munsey launched Famous Fantastic Mysteries in 1939 to reprint old stories from both Argosy and All-Story Weekly. The following year Munsey launched Fantastic Novels, another reprint magazine, to make longer stories available without needing to serialize them in Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Fantastic Novels only lasted five issues before being discontinued in 1941, but Famous Fantastic Mysteries lasted for 81 issues, ceasing publication with the June 1953 issue.[177][178] Popular brought back Fantastic Novels for another 20 issues between 1948 and 1951, and also produced five issues of A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, also as a reprint venue for stories from the old Munsey magazines, between 1949 and 1950.[178][179]
In 1976 Popular published two anthology magazines of stories, mostly science fiction and fantasy, titled The Best of Argosy Annual, though only some of the stories included had originally appeared in Argosy.[49] A collection of science fiction stories from the early years of The Argosy was edited by Gene Christie and published in 2010, titled The Space Annihilator and Other Early Science Fiction From the Argosy.[12]
There was a Canadian reprint edition; the first and last known issues were dated April 21, 1924, and July 1960.[49]
↑ Richard Titherington was hired by Munsey in September 1886, and recalls White being hired in December of that year, but adds that in his recollection he, Munsey and White worked together on the magazine without specific titles, and that it was not until 1889 that White could be said to have definitely taken over as editor.[15]
↑ This is how Munsey's biographer recounts the events, citing Douglas as his source, but "Harry's Scheme" appeared in the February 3, 1883 issue of The Golden Argosy, before Rideout went bankrupt, so Douglas may not have been editor at the time, or he may have been hired before Munsey took control of the magazine.[13][19]
↑ Britt quotes a circulation of 150,000, but this appears to be an error as Munsey twice cites a circulation peak of 115,000 in his own account of events.[24][32][31]
↑ Bedford-Jones tracked down Mercer's address and went to see him, taking a police officer with him in the hope of taking him to court. To his surprise he discovered that Mercer had been quite unaware that plagiarism was illegal, and had thought only that he had come up with a clever way of making money. The police officer commented to Bedford-Jones that Mercer "didn't belong in jail, but in the bughouse".[57]
↑ Peterson gives a circulation of 11,500 at the time of the acquisition,[70] and Newsweek gives it variously as 40,000 and 47,000.[71][72] Moonan gives a figure of 40,000.[33]
↑ The other work of Griffith's to appear in the US was Stories of Other Worlds, in 1900, in the US edition of Pearson's Magazine, which at the time carried the same material as the UK edition.[125] Thus, while two of Griffith's serials were published in the US, only The Lake of Gold was published in a magazine that was both edited and published in the US.[124][126]
↑ The story had been written at White's request, after Leinster had mentioned in a letter he was working on a story that started "The whole thing began when the clock on the Metropolitan Tower began to run backwards". Once White asked to see it, Leinster "had to write it or admit I was lying".[127]
↑ First-class mail was much more expensive than a second-class mailing permit, so the permanent loss of a permit meant the death of the magazine.[163]
Related Research Articles
Asimov's Science Fiction is an American science fiction magazine edited by Sheila Williams and published by Dell Magazines, which is owned by Penny Press. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac Asimov's consent for the use of his name. It was originally titled Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and was quickly successful, reaching a circulation of over 100,000 within a year, and switching to monthly publication within a couple of years. George H. Scithers, the first editor, published many new writers who went on to be successful in the genre. Scithers favored traditional stories without sex or obscenity; along with frequent humorous stories, this gave Asimov's a reputation for printing juvenile fiction, despite its success. Asimov was not part of the editorial team, but wrote editorials for the magazine.
Frank Andrew Munsey was an American newspaper and magazine publisher, banker, political financier and author. He was born in Mercer, Maine, but spent most of his life in New York City. The village of Munsey Park, New York, is named for him, along with The Munsey Building in downtown Baltimore, Maryland, at the southeast corner of North Calvert and East Fayette Streets.
Oriental Stories, later retitled The Magic Carpet Magazine, was an American pulp magazine published by Popular Fiction Co., and edited by Farnsworth Wright. It was launched in 1930 under the title Oriental Stories as a companion to Popular Fiction's Weird Tales, and carried stories with far eastern settings, including some fantasy. Contributors included Robert E. Howard, Frank Owen, and E. Hoffman Price. The magazine was not successful, and in 1932 publication was paused after the Summer issue. It was relaunched in 1933 under the title The Magic Carpet Magazine, with an expanded editorial policy that now included any story set in an exotic location, including other planets.
Fantastic Universe was a U.S. science fiction magazine which began publishing in the 1950s. It ran for 69 issues, from June 1953 to March 1960, under two different publishers. It was part of the explosion of science fiction magazine publishing in the 1950s in the United States, and was moderately successful, outlasting almost all of its competitors. The main editors were Leo Margulies (1954–1956) and Hans Stefan Santesson (1956–1960).
Fight Stories was a pulp magazine devoted to stories of boxing. Published by Fiction House, it ran 47 issues cover-dated June 1928 to May 1932, followed by a four-year hiatus. It then ran an additional 59 issues, dated Spring 1936 - Spring 1952. It is best remembered for publishing a large number of stories by Robert E. Howard. The magazine also published fiction by Arthur J. Burks.
Uncanny Tales was a Canadian science fiction pulp magazine edited by Melvin R. Colby that ran from November 1940 to September 1943. It was created in response to the wartime reduction of imports on British and American science-fiction pulp magazines. Initially it contained stories only from Canadian authors, with much of its contents supplied by Thomas P. Kelley, but within a few issues Colby began to obtain reprint rights to American stories from Donald A. Wollheim and Sam Moskowitz. Wollheim's and Moskowitz's later accounts of the relationship with Colby differ. Moskowitz reported that he found out via an acquaintance of Wollheim's that Colby had been persuaded by Wollheim to stop buying Moskowitz's submissions. Paper shortages forced the magazine to shut down after less than three years. It is now extremely rare.
Munsey's Magazine was an American magazine founded by Frank Munsey in 1889 as Munsey's Weekly, a humor magazine edited by John Kendrick Bangs. It was unsuccessful, and by late 1891 had lost $100,000. Munsey converted it into an illustrated general monthly in October of that year, retitled Munsey's Magazine and priced at twenty-five cents. Richard Titherington became the editor, and remained in that role throughout the magazine's existence. In 1893 Munsey cut the price to ten cents. This brought him into conflict with the American News Company, which had a near-monopoly on magazine distribution, as they were unwilling to handle the magazine at the price Munsey proposed. Munsey started his own distribution company and was quickly successful: the first ten cent issue began with a print run of 20,000 copies but eventually sold 60,000, and within a year circulation had risen to over a quarter of a million copies.
Avon published three related magazines in the late 1940s and early 1950s, titled Avon Fantasy Reader, Avon Science Fiction Reader, and Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader. These were digest size magazines which reprinted science fiction and fantasy literature by now well-known authors. They were edited by Donald A. Wollheim and published by Avon.
The All-Story Magazine was a Munsey pulp. Debuting in January 1905, this pulp was published monthly until March 1914. Effective March 7, 1914, it changed to a weekly schedule and the title All-Story Weekly. In May 1914, All-Story Weekly was merged with another story pulp, The Cavalier, and used the title All-Story Cavalier Weekly for one year. Editors of All-Story included Newell Metcalf and Robert H. Davis.
Amazing Stories Annual was a pulp magazine which published a single issue in July 1927. It was edited by Hugo Gernsback, and featured the first publication of The Master Mind of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which had been rejected by several other magazines, perhaps because the plot included a satire on religious fundamentalism. The other stories in Amazing Stories Annual were reprints, including two stories by A. Merritt, and one by H.G. Wells. The magazine sold out, and its success led Gernsback to launch Amazing Stories Quarterly the following year.
The Black Cat was an American fiction magazine launched in 1895 by Herman Umbstaetter, initially published in Boston, Massachusetts. It published only short stories, and had a reputation for originality and for encouraging new writers. Umbstaetter's editorial approach was unusual in several ways: the cover price was low, at five cents; he paid based on merit instead of story length; and he was willing to buy stories by new authors rather than insisting on well-known names. He frequently ran story contests to attract amateur writers. The magazine was immediately successful, and its circulation was boosted by the appearance in an early issue of "The Mysterious Card", by Cleveland Moffett, which was so popular that two print runs of the issue it appeared in sold out.
Argosy magazine was the title of three magazines published in the United Kingdom, one in the late 19th century, another in the middle of the 20th century, and the other, very briefly, in the early 21st century.
Doc Savage was an American pulp magazine that was published from 1933 to 1949 by Street & Smith. It was launched as a follow-up to the success of The Shadow, a magazine Street & Smith had started in 1931, based around a single character. Doc Savage's lead character, Clark Savage, was a scientist and adventurer, rather than purely a detective. Lester Dent was hired to write the lead novels, almost all of which were published under the house name "Kenneth Robeson". A few dozen novels were ghost-written by other writers, hired either by Dent or by Street & Smith. The magazine was successful, but was shut down in 1949 as part of Street & Smith's decision to abandon the pulp magazine field completely.
Daisy Sarah Bacon was an American pulp fiction magazine editor and writer who was best known as the editor of Love Story Magazine from 1928 to 1947. She moved to New York in 1917, working at several jobs before being hired in 1926 by Street & Smith, a major pulp magazine publisher, to assist with "Friends in Need", an advice column in Love Story Magazine. Two years later, she was promoted to editor of the magazine, retaining that role for nearly twenty years. Love Story was one of the most successful pulp magazines, and Bacon was frequently interviewed about her role and her opinions of modern romance. Some interviews commented on the contrast between her personal life as a single woman, and the romance in the stories she edited; she did not reveal in these interviews that she had a long affair with a married man, Henry Miller, whose wife was the writer Alice Duer Miller.
War Birds was a pulp magazine published by Dell from 1928 to 1937. It was the first pulp to focus on stories of war in the air, and soon had competitors. A series featuring fictional Irishman Terence X. O'Leary, which had started in other magazines, began to feature in War Birds in 1933, and in 1935 the magazine changed its name to Terence X. O'Leary's War Birds for three issues. In these issues the setting for stories about O'Leary changed from World War I to the near future; when the title changed back to War Birds later that year, the fiction reverted to ordinary aviation war stories for its last nine issues, including one final O'Leary story. The magazine's editors included Harry Steeger and Carson W. Mowre.
The Spider was an American pulp magazine published by Popular Publications from 1933 to 1943. Every issue included a lead novel featuring the Spider, a heroic crime-fighter. The magazine was intended as a rival to Street & Smith's The Shadow and Standard Magazine's The Phantom Detective, which also featured crime-fighting heroes. The novels in the first two issues were written by R. T. M. Scott; thereafter every lead novel was credited to "Grant Stockbridge", a house name. Norvell Page, a prolific pulp author, wrote most of these; almost all the rest were written by Emile Tepperman and A. H. Bittner. The novel in the final issue was written by Prentice Winchell.
The Western Raider was an American pulp magazine. The first issue was dated August/September 1938; it was followed by two more issues under that title, publishing Western fiction, and then was changed to a crime fiction pulp for two issues, titled The Octopus and The Scorpion. Both these two issues were named after a supervillain, rather than after a hero who fights crime, as was the case with most such magazines. Norvell Page wrote the lead novels for both the crime fiction issues; the second was rewritten by Ejler Jakobsson, one of the editors, to change the character from The Octopus to The Scorpion.
Captain Zero was an American pulp magazine that published three issues in 1949 and 1950. The lead novels, written by G.T. Fleming-Roberts, featured Lee Allyn, who had been the subject of an experiment with radiation, and as a result was invisible between midnight and dawn. Under the name Captain Zero, Allyn became a vigilante, fighting crime at night. Allyn had no other superpowers, and the novels were straightforward mysteries in Weinberg's opinion, though pulp historian Robert Sampson considers them to be "complex...[they] pound along with hair-raising incidents..full of twists and high suspense". Captain Zero was the last crime-fighter hero magazine to be launched in the pulp era, ending an era that had begun with The Shadow in 1931. There was room in the magazine for only one or two short stories along with the lead novel; these were all straight mystery stories, without the veneer of science fiction of the Captain Zero novels.
Battle Birds was an American air-war pulp magazine, published by Popular Publications. It was launched at the end of 1932, but did not sell well, and in 1934 the publisher turned it into an air-war hero pulp titled Dusty Ayres and His Battle Birds. Robert Sidney Bowen, an established pulp writer, provided the lead novel each month, and also wrote the short stories that filled out the issue. Bowen's stories were set in the future, with the United States menaced by an Asian empire called the Black Invaders. The change was not successful enough to be extended beyond the initial plan of a year, and Bowen wrote a novel in which, unusually for pulp fiction, Dusty Ayres finally defeated the invaders, to end the series. The magazine ceased publication with the July/August 1935 issue. It restarted in 1940, under the original title, Battle Birds, and lasted for another four years. All the cover art was painted by Frederick Blakeslee.
Marvel Tales and Unusual Stories were two related American semi-professional science fiction magazines published in 1934 and 1935 by William L. Crawford. Crawford was a science fiction fan who believed that the pulp magazines of the time were too limited in what they would publish. In 1933, he distributed a flyer announcing Unusual Stories, and declaring that no taboos would prevent him from publishing worthwhile fiction. The flyer included a page from P. Schuyler Miller's "The Titan", which Miller had been unable to sell to the professional magazines because of its sexual content. A partial issue of Unusual Stories was distributed in early 1934, but Crawford then launched a new title, Marvel Tales, in May 1934. A total of five issues of Marvel Tales and three of Unusual Stories appeared over the next two years.
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