Argosy (magazine)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Argosy was an American pulp magazine, published by Frank Munsey. It is generally considered to be the first American pulp magazine.
The magazine began as a general information periodical entitled The Golden Argosy. The first issue was published in December 9, 1882, and came out weekly. In December 1888 the title was changed to The Argosy. Publication switched from weekly to monthly in April 1884, at which time the magazine began its shift towards pulp fiction. It eventually published its first all-fiction issue in 1896. The magazine switched back to a weekly publication schedule in October 1917. In January 1919, The Argosy merged with Railroad Man's Magazine, and was briefly known as Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine. This was followed in 1920 by a merger with All-Story Magazine, resulting in a new title, Argosy All-Story Weekly.
Later changes included a change to bi-weekly publication in November 1941, then monthly publication in July 1942. The most significant change occurred in September 1943, when the magazine not only changed from pulp to slick paper, but began to shift away from its all fiction content. The fiction content continued to grow smaller over the next few years, with the magazine eventually becoming a "men's magazine." The final issue of the original magazine was published in November 1978.
During its original 96-year run, it published works in a number of literary genres, including science fiction and westerns. Edgar Rice Burroughs published some of his Tarzan and John Carter of Mars stories in the magazine. Other authors who appeared in the original run included Ellis Parker Butler, Max Brand, and Robert E. Howard. Towards the end of its run, it became associated with the men's adventure pulp genre of "true" stories of conflict with wild animals or wartime combat, and later was considered a softcore men's magazine.
[edit] Revivals
- The magazine was revived briefly from 1990 to 1994. There were only five issues published sporadically during that time.
- A quarterly published "slick" revival began in 2004. It briefly went on hiatus before resuming publication in 2005 as Argosy Quarterly. The focus of this version is on new, original fiction.
