Blue Book (magazine)

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Blue Book was a popular 20th-century American magazine which had a lengthy 70-year run under various titles from 1905 to 1975.

Launched as The Monthly Story Magazine, it was published under that title from May 1905 to August 1906, with a change to The Monthly Story Blue Book Magazine for issues from September 1906 to April 1907. For the next 45 years (May 1907 to January 1952) it was known as The Blue Book Magazine, and that was shortened February 1952 to simply Bluebook, continuing until May 1956. With a more exploitative angle, the magazine was revived October 1960 as Bluebook for Men, and the title again became Bluebook for the final run from 1967 to 1975.

The early publishers were Story-Press Corporation and Consolidated Magazines, followed in 1929 by McCall. After H.S. Publications took over the reins in October 1960, Hanro (Sterling) was the publisher from August 1964 until March 1966 and then the QMG Magazine Corporation, beginning April 1967.

The succession of editors included Karl Edward Harriman, Donald Kennicott (1929 to January 1952), 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 C. Chenoweth, Henry J. Soulen and Herbert Morton Stoops, who continued as the cover artist during the 1940s.

Writers during the 1940s included Nelson S. Bond, Max Brand, Gelett Burgess, Agatha Christie, Irvin S. Cobb, William Lindsay Gresham, Robert A. Heinlein, MacKinlay Kantor, Willy Ley, Theodore Pratt. Ivan Sanderson, Luke Short (pseudonym of Frederick D. Glidden,1908-1975), Booth Tarkington. Albert Payson Terhune, and Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and Philip Wylie.