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, targeted at the boys adventure market.
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In late September 1882, Munsey had moved to New York City to start Argosy, having arranged a partnership with a friend already in New York and working in the publishing industry, and with a stock broker from Augusta, Maine, Munsey's previous home. Munsey put most of his money, around $500, into purchasing stories for the magazine.
Once he was in New York, the stock broker backed out, and Munsey decided to release his New York friend from involvement, since they were now hopelessly underfunded. Munsey then pitched the magazine to a New York publisher, and managed to convince him to publish the magazine and hire Munsey as editor.[1]
The first issue was published on December 2, 1882, (dated December 9, 1882, a common practice at the time) and came out weekly. The first issue was eight pages, cost five cents, and included the first installments of serialized stories by Horatio Alger, Jr. and Edward S. Ellis.
Other authors associated with Argosy's early days include Annie Ashmoore, W. H. W. Campbell, Harry Castlemon, Frank H. Converse, George H. Coomer, Mary A. Denison, Malcolm Douglas, Colonel A.B. Ellis, J. L. Harbour, D. O. S. Lowell, Oliver Optic, Richard H. Titherington, Edgar L. Warren and Matthew White Jr. White would become the Argosy's editor from 1886 to 1928.[2]
Five months after the first issue, the publisher went bankrupt and entered receivership. By placing a claim for his unpaid salary, Munsey managed to assume control of the magazine. It was a very unlikely financial proposition; subscriptions had been sold that had to be fulfilled, but Munsey had almost no money and credit from printers and other suppliers were impossible to come by. Munsey borrowed $300 from a friend in Maine, and managed to scrape along as he learned the fundamentals of the publishing industry.
Munsey found that targeting children had been a mistake, as they did not stay subscribed for any length of time, since they grew out of reading the magazine. Additionally, children did not have much money to spend, which limited the number of advertisers interested in reaching them.
In December 1888 the title was changed to The Argosy. Publication switched from weekly to monthly in April 1894, 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.
Prior to World War One, The Argosy had several notable writers, including Upton Sinclair, Zane Grey, Albert Payson Terhune, Gertrude Barrows Bennett (under the pseudonym Francis Stevens), and former dime novelist William Wallace Cook.[3]
All-Story Magazine was another Munsey pulp. First published January 1905, it was published monthly for 11 years. A subsequent change to a weekly schedule led to a name change to All-Story Weekly. Eventually it merged with The Cavalier, after which it was known as All-Story Cavalier Weekly for a time, before the name was changed back. Editors of All-Story included Newell Metcalf and Robert H. Davis.[4]
Today, All-Story is chiefly remembered as the magazine that first published Edgar Rice Burroughs, publishing A Princess of Mars in serial form, and later The Gods of Mars.[4] Other All-Story writers of note were mystery novelists Rex Stout and Mary Roberts Rinehart,[3] Western writers Max Brand and Raymond S. Spears, and contributing horror and fantasy, Tod Robbins, Abraham Merritt, Perley Poore Sheehan and Charles B. Stilson.[3]
In 2006, an example of the October 1912 issue of All-Story Magazine, featuring the first appearance of Tarzan in any medium, sold for $59,750 in an auction held by Heritage Auctions of Dallas.[5]
In 1920, All-Story Weekly was merged into The Argosy, resulting in a new title, Argosy All-Story Weekly.
In November 1941 the magazine switched to bi-weekly publication, 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. Over the next few years the fiction content grew smaller (though still with the occasional short-story writer of stature, such as P. G. Wodehouse), and the "men's magazine" material expanded. 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 science fiction writers published by Argosy included Ralph Milne Farley, Ray Cummings, Otis Adelbert Kline and A. Merrit.[2]
Argosy published a number of adventure stories by Johnston McCulley (including the Zorro stories), C.S. Forester (adventures at sea), Theodore Roscoe (French Foreign Legion stories), L. Patrick Greene, (who specialized in narratives about Africa),[3] and George F. Worts' tales about Peter the Brazen, an American radio operator who has adventures in China.[6] H. Bedford-Jones wrote a series of historical swashbuckler stories for Argosy about an Irish soldier, Denis Burke.[7] Borden Chase appeared in Argosy with crime fiction.[8] Two humorous mystery-adventure serials by Lester Dent appeared in Argosy's pages.[9] More serious mystery stories were represented by Cornell Woolrich, Norbert Davies and Fred MacIsaac.[3]
Max Brand, Clarence E. Mulford, Charles Alden Seltzer[10] and Tom Curry[11] wrote Western fiction for the magazine. Other authors who appeared in the original run included Ellis Parker Butler, Hugh Pendexter, Robert E. Howard and Gordon MacCreagh.[12] Towards the end, it became associated with the men's adventure pulp genre of "true" stories of conflict with wild animals or wartime combat, Erle Stanley Gardner's articles on The Court of Last Resort, and later it was considered a softcore men's magazine.
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, edited by James A. Owen. The focus of that version was on new, original fiction. It was only published into 2006.
A British Argosy magazine (also known as “The Argosy”) was founded by Alexander Strahan in 1865,[13] and later owned and edited by Ellen Wood. It ran until 1901.
A later British Argosy was a short story magazine in paperback size focusing on reprints, published from 1926 to 1974,[14] with stories and serials by leading authors, plus page-fillers of ostensibly amusing quotations, excerpts and cartoons. Lord Dunsany and Ray Bradbury were among writers whose material appeared in the UK Argosy.[2]