Argosy (magazine)
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, targeted at the boys adventure market.
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.
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.
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.
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 novel
ist William Wallace Cook.
All-Story included Newell Metcalf and Robert H. Davis.
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
. Other All-Story
writers of note were mystery novelists Rex Stout
and Mary Roberts Rinehart
, Western writers Max Brand
and Raymond S. Spears
, and contributing horror and fantasy, Tod Robbins
, Abraham Merritt, Perley Poore Sheehan
and
Charles B. Stilson.
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.
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.
, 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.
Argosy published a number of adventure stories
by Johnston McCulley
(including the Zorro
stories),
C.S. Forester (adventures at sea), Theodore Roscoe
(Foreign Legion
stories), L. Patrick Greene,
(who specialized in narratives about Africa
), and George F. Worts' tales about Peter the Brazen, an American radio operator who has adventures in China
. H. Bedford-Jones
wrote a series of historical swashbuckler
stories for Argosy about an Irish soldier, Denis Burke. Borden Chase
appeared in Argosy with crime fiction
. Two humorous mystery-adventure serials by Lester Dent
appeared in
Argosy's pages. More serious mystery stories were represented by Cornell Woolrich
, Norbert Davies
and Fred MacIsaac.
Max Brand
, Clarence E. Mulford
, Charles Alden Seltzer
and Tom Curry 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. Towards the end, it became associated with the men's adventure
pulp genre of "true" stories of conflict with wild animals or war
time combat, Erle Stanley Gardner
's articles on The Court of Last Resort, and later it was considered a softcore
men's magazine.
. The focus of that version was on new, original fiction. It was only published into 2006.
. It ran through 1901.
A later British Argosy was a short story magazine in paperback size focusing on reprints, published from 1926 to 1974, 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.
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
, published by Frank Munsey
Frank Munsey
Frank Andrew Munsey was an American newspaper and magazine publisher and author. He was born in Mercer, Maine but spent most of his life in New York City...
. 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.
Launch of Argosy
In late September 1882, Munsey had moved to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
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
Stock broker
A stock broker or stockbroker is a regulated professional broker who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers or Agency Only Firms on behalf of investors...
from Augusta, Maine
Augusta, Maine
Augusta is the capital of the US state of Maine, county seat of Kennebec County, and center of population for Maine. The city's population was 19,136 at the 2010 census, making it the third-smallest state capital after Montpelier, Vermont and Pierre, South Dakota...
, 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.
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.
Horatio Alger, Jr.
Horatio Alger, Jr. was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many formulaic juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty...
and Edward S. Ellis.
Other authors associated with Argosy's early days include Annie Ashmoore, W. H. W. Campbell, Harry Castlemon
Harry Castlemon
Charles Austin Fosdick , better known by his nom de plume Harry Castlemon, was a prolific writer of juvenile stories and novels, intended mainly for boys. He was born in Randolph, New York, and received a high school diploma from Central High School in Buffalo, New York...
, Frank H. Converse, George H. Coomer, Mary A. Denison, Malcolm Douglas
Malcolm Douglas
Malcolm Douglas was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.He represented the Hunua electorate from 25 November 1978 after the 1978 general election, until 24 May 1979, when he was unseated by a decision of the Electoral Court in favour of Winston Peters...
, 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.
Five months after the first issue, the publisher went bankrupt and entered receivership
Receivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
. 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.
Shift towards pulp fiction
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
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
, Zane Grey
Zane Grey
Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the Old West. Riders of the Purple Sage was his bestselling book. In addition to the success of his printed works, they later had second lives and continuing influence...
, Albert Payson Terhune
Albert Payson Terhune
Albert Payson Terhune was an American author, dog breeder, and journalist. The public knows him best for his novels relating the adventures of his beloved collies and as a breeder of collies at his Sunnybank Kennels, the lines of which still exist in today's Rough Collies.-Biography:Albert Payson...
, Gertrude Barrows Bennett
Gertrude Barrows Bennett
Gertrude Barrows Bennett was the first major female writer of fantasy and science fiction in the United States, publishing her stories under the pseudonym Francis Stevens. Bennett wrote a number of highly acclaimed fantasies between 1917 and 1923 and has been called "the woman who invented dark...
(under the pseudonym Francis Stevens),
and former dime novel
Dime novel
Dime novel, though it has a specific meaning, has also become a catch-all term for several different forms of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S...
ist William Wallace Cook.
All-Story Magazine
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 ofAll-Story included Newell Metcalf and Robert H. Davis.
Today, All-Story is chiefly remembered as the magazine that first published Edgar Rice Burroughs, publishing A Princess of Mars
A Princess of Mars
A Princess of Mars is a science fiction novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first of his Barsoom series. It is also Burroughs' first novel, predating his famous Tarzan series. Full of swordplay and daring feats, the novel is considered a classic example of 20th century pulp fiction...
in serial form, and later The Gods of Mars
The Gods of Mars
The Gods of Mars is a 1918 Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel, the second of his famous Barsoom series. It was first published in All-Story as a five-part serial in the issues for January-May 1913. It was later published as a complete novel by A. C...
. Other All-Story
writers of note were mystery novelists Rex Stout
Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the...
and Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase. She is considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing...
, Western writers Max Brand
Max Brand
Frederick Faust, aka Max Brand|thumb|rightFrederick Schiller Faust was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary Westerns. Faust wrote mostly under pen names, but today is primarily known by only one, Max Brand...
and Raymond S. Spears
Raymond S. Spears
Raymond S. Spears was an author of western and adventure stories. He was born in Belleview, Ohio in 1876. The son of John R. Spears, a naval historian and Celestia Colette Smiley Spears, a teacher. Raymond was educated in Philadelphia...
, and contributing horror and fantasy, Tod Robbins
Tod Robbins
Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins was an American author of horror and mystery fiction. Robbins attended Washington and Lee University and—along with Mark W...
, Abraham Merritt, Perley Poore Sheehan
Perley Poore Sheehan
Perley Poore Sheehan was an American film writer, novelist and film director...
and
Charles B. Stilson.
In 2006, an example of the October 1912 issue of All-Story Magazine, featuring the first appearance of Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
in any medium, sold for $59,750 in an auction held by Heritage Auctions
Heritage Auctions
Heritage Auction Galleries is the world's largest collectibles auctioneer and the third largest auction house, with over $700 million in annual sales and 600,000 online bidder-members...
of Dallas.
Argosy All-Story Weekly
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
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
), and the "men's magazine" material expanded. The final issue of the original magazine was published in November 1978.
Genres
During its original 96-year run, it published works in a number of literary genresGenre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre....
, including science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and Westerns. Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
published some of his Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
and John Carter of Mars stories in the magazine; other
science fiction writers published by Argosy included Ralph Milne Farley, Ray Cummings
Ray Cummings
Ray Cummings was an American author of science fiction, rated one of the "founding fathers of the science fiction pulp genre". He was born in New York and died in Mount Vernon, New York....
, Otis Adelbert Kline
Otis Adelbert Kline
Otis Adelbert Kline born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, was an adventure novelist and literary agent during the pulp era. Much of his work first appeared in the magazine Weird Tales. Kline was an amateur orientalist and a student of Arabic, like his friend and sometime collaborator, E...
and A. Merrit.
Argosy published a number of adventure stories
Adventure novel
The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...
by Johnston McCulley
Johnston McCulley
Johnston McCulley was the author of hundreds of stories, fifty novels, numerous screenplays for film and television, and the creator of the character Zorro...
(including the Zorro
Zorro
Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....
stories),
C.S. Forester (adventures at sea), Theodore Roscoe
Theodore Roscoe
Theodore Roscoe was an American biographer and writer of adventure, fantasy novels and stories. Roscoe's stories appeared in pulp magazines including Argosy, Wings, Flying Stories, Far East Adventure Stories, Fight Stories, Action Stories and Adventure. A collection of his stories, The Wonderful...
(Foreign Legion
Foreign legion
Foreign legion or Foreign Legion is a title which has been used by a small number of military units composed of foreign volunteers.It usually refers to the French Foreign Legion, part of the French Army established in 1831.It can also refer to:...
stories), L. Patrick Greene,
(who specialized in narratives about Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
), and George F. Worts' tales about Peter the Brazen, an American radio operator who has adventures in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. H. Bedford-Jones
H. Bedford-Jones
Henry James O'Brien Bedford-Jones was a Canadian historical, adventure fantasy, science fiction, crime and Western writer who became a naturalized United States citizen in 1908. After being encouraged to try writing by his friend, writer William Wallace Cook, Bedford-Jones began writing dime...
wrote a series of historical swashbuckler
Swashbuckler
Swashbuckler or swasher is a term that emerged in the 16th century and has been used for rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen ever since. A possible explanation for this term is that it derives from a fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was applied with much...
stories for Argosy about an Irish soldier, Denis Burke. Borden Chase
Borden Chase
Borden Chase was an American writer.Born Frank Fowler, he went through an assortment of jobs, including driving for gangster Frankie Yale and working as a sandhog on the construction of New York's Holland Tunnel, before turning to writing, first short stories and novels, and later, screenplays...
appeared in Argosy with crime fiction
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
. Two humorous mystery-adventure serials by Lester Dent
Lester Dent
Lester Dent was a prolific pulp fiction author, best known as the creator and main author of the series of novels about the superhuman scientist and adventurer, Doc Savage. The 159 novels written over 16 years were credited to the house name Kenneth Robeson.-Early years:Dent was born in 1904 in...
appeared in
Argosy's pages. More serious mystery stories were represented by Cornell Woolrich
Cornell Woolrich
Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich was an American novelist and short story writer who sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley....
, Norbert Davies
and Fred MacIsaac.
Max Brand
Max Brand
Frederick Faust, aka Max Brand|thumb|rightFrederick Schiller Faust was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary Westerns. Faust wrote mostly under pen names, but today is primarily known by only one, Max Brand...
, Clarence E. Mulford
Clarence E. Mulford
Clarence E. Mulford was the author of Hopalong Cassidy, written in 1904. He wrote it in Fryeburg, Maine, United States, and the many stories and 28 novels were followed by radio, feature film, television, and comic book versions. Clarence was born in Streator, Illinois. He died of complications...
, Charles Alden Seltzer
Charles Alden Seltzer
Charles Alden Seltzer was an American writer. He was a prolific author of western novels, had writing credits for more than a dozen film titles, and authored numerous stories published in magazines, most prominently in Argosy.-Life:Seltzer was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, the son of Lucien B....
and Tom Curry wrote Western fiction for the magazine.
Other authors who appeared in the original run included Ellis Parker Butler
Ellis Parker Butler
Ellis Parker Butler was an American author.Butler was born in Muscatine, Iowa. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays and is most famous for his short story "Pigs is Pigs", in which a bureaucratic stationmaster insists on levying the livestock rate for a...
,
Hugh Pendexter
Hugh Pendexter
Hugh Pendexter was an American journalist, novelist, screenwriter.Pendexter began his career as a humorous writer; some of this early work was anthologised in Mark Twain's book,Library of Humor and Wit....
, Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
and Gordon MacCreagh. Towards the end, it became associated with the men's adventure
Men's adventure
Men's adventure is a genre of magazines that had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. Catering to a male audience, these magazines featured glamour photography and lurid tales of adventure that typically featured wartime feats of daring, exotic travel or conflict with wild animals.These magazines are...
pulp genre of "true" stories of conflict with wild animals or war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
time combat, Erle Stanley Gardner
Erle Stanley Gardner
Erle Stanley Gardner was an American lawyer and author of detective stories, best known for the Perry Mason series, he also published under the pseudonyms A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J...
's articles on The Court of Last Resort, and later it was considered a softcore
Softcore
Softcore pornography is a form of filmic or photographic pornography or erotica that is less sexually explicit than hardcore pornography. It is intended to tickle and arouse men and women. Softcore pornography depicts nude and semi-nude performers engaging in casual social nudity or non-graphic...
men's magazine.
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, edited by James A. OwenJames A. Owen
James A. Owen is an American comic book creator, publisher and writer. He is best known for his creator-owned comic book series Starchild and as the author of The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica novel series, that began with Here, There Be Dragons in 2006.-Life and career:Owen...
. The focus of that version was on new, original fiction. It was only published into 2006.
UK Argosy
A British Argosy magazine (also known as “The Argosy”) was founded by Alexander Strahan in 1865, and later owned and edited by Ellen WoodEllen Wood (author)
Ellen Wood , was an English novelist, better known as "Mrs. Henry Wood". She is best known for her 1861 novel East Lynne.-Life:...
. It ran through 1901.
A later British Argosy was a short story magazine in paperback size focusing on reprints, published from 1926 to 1974, with stories and serials by leading authors, plus page-fillers of ostensibly amusing quotations, excerpts and cartoons. Lord Dunsany and Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
were among writers whose material appeared in the UK Argosy.
External links
- Checklist of Argosy covers
- Founding of the Munsey Publishing House, published in 1907 on their 25th anniversary
- Argosy All-Story Weekly Article at the "Newsstand: 1925" website
- A History of The Argosy at the Pulp Magazines Project