142-420: 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
284-400: A 24-year period he bought, operated and/or sold as many as 17 papers. During a period in which the total number of American newspapers was in decline, Munsey became known for merging many of his properties. Though perhaps wise financially, his mergers earned him a great deal of enmity from those who worked in the industry. He would be referred to at various times as " Executioner of Newspapers ",
426-476: A chromolithograph that has then been treated to imitate the variable surface of an oil painting, either by brushing with varnish, or some form of embossing or stamping. The print is usually glued to canvas to further the imitation. Chromolithography is a chemical process based on the rejection of water by grease. The image is applied to stone, grained zinc or aluminium surfaces, with a grease-based crayon or ink. Limestone and zinc are two commonly used materials in
568-524: A competing claim from a publisher who would have merged the magazine's subscriptions into those of his own publication. The first issue with Munsey as publisher was dated September 8, 1883. 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. At about this time he bought some stories from Malcolm Douglas, but when Douglas came to collect his payment Munsey offered him
710-570: A couple of miles from Mercer, Maine . His father, Andrew Chauncey Munsey, was a Civil War veteran who had been born in Quebec; his mother was Mary Jane Merrit Hopkins Munsey. The family moved around Maine several times: first to Gardiner , six months after he was born; then three years later to Bowdoin . They stayed in Bowdoin until 1868, then moved to Lisbon Falls , and again in about 1878 to Livermore Falls . Frank had three older sisters, and
852-474: A couple of years. Exceptions included some of Walter R. Brooks ' Mr. Ed stories. The late 1940s saw more science fiction again, with stories by Nelson Bond , A. Bertram Chandler , and Robert A. Heinlein , whose " Gentlemen, Be Seated! " appeared in the May 1948 issue, and in the 1950s Argosy published work by Ray Bradbury , Arthur C. Clarke , and Philip José Farmer . In 1977 one of Argosy 's special issues
994-399: 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. 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
1136-595: 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. Early contributors included Horatio Alger , Oliver Optic , and G. A. Henty . During the pulp era, many famous writers appeared in Argosy , including O. Henry , James Branch Cabell , Albert Payson Terhune , Edgar Rice Burroughs , Erle Stanley Gardner , Zane Grey , Robert E. Howard , and Max Brand . Argosy
1278-443: 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
1420-430: A lithograph), on which colours were then overprinted. To make an expensive reproduction print, once referred to as a "chromo", a lithographer, with a finished painting in front of him, gradually created and corrected the many stones using proofs to look as much as possible like the painting, sometimes using dozens of layers. Oleograph is sometimes used as a synonym for a chromolithograph, but more properly refers to
1562-657: 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
SECTION 10
#17327974913831704-424: 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". In 1931 Moore outlined the stories to be excluded: "love or domestic tales, sex stories, stories with a predominant woman interest or told from
1846-431: A million in 1907, 25 years after it was launched. 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. The Argosy 's circulation fell from this peak, and it returned to a weekly schedule in 1917. In 1906 Munsey had started The Railroad Man's Magazine , which carried both fiction and non-fiction; after
1988-420: 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
2130-449: 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. 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
2272-552: A new way to print in colour. Godefroy Engelmann of Mulhouse in France was awarded a patent on chromolithography in July 1837, but there are disputes over whether chromolithography was already in use before this date, as some sources say, pointing to areas of printing such as the production of playing cards . The first American chromolithograph—a portrait of Reverend F. W. P. Greenwood —was created by William Sharp in 1840. Many of
2414-696: 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. An early story by Mary Roberts Rinehart , "The Misadventures of a Pearl Necklace", appeared in February the following year. The first pulp issue, in December 1896, included a science fiction story, "Citizen 504", by C. H. Palmer, and science fiction featured regularly thereafter. Five science fiction adventure novels by William Wallace Cook appeared, starting in 1903 with A Round Trip to
2556-487: A personal pew in a popular church, which cost him $ 1,000 ($ 85,000 in 2023) a year. Munsey launched two more periodicals, hoping that they would establish themselves as profitable before The Argosy failed completely. The first was Munsey's Weekly , launched on February 2, 1889; the second was a newspaper, the Daily Continent , which he took over in February 1891 and gave up on four months later. The Weekly
2698-403: A prominent lithography house now known primarily for its stunning E.T. Paull sheet music covers. They also made advertisements, maps, and cigar box art. Hoen and his brothers Henry and Ernest took over the E. Weber Company in the mid-1850s upon Edward Weber's death. August Hoen's son Alfred ran the firm from 1886 throughout the early 20th century. Rufus Bliss founded R. Bliss Mfg. Co., which
2840-574: A pulp magazine publisher, bought all the Munsey pulp magazine titles from Dewart, including Argosy , which by this time had a circulation of only 40,000 to 50,000. The new editor was Rogers Terrill . Argosy ceased to use pulp paper from 1943, becoming a slick magazine. In early 1944 Harry Steeger , the owner of Popular, took over the editorship for five years, hiring Jerry Mason away from This Week in 1949 to replace himself as editor. Mason stayed for four years; when he left in mid-1953 Howard Lewis
2982-455: A series of stories in Argosy about Joel Quaite, a time detective who travels into the past to solve mysteries. 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
SECTION 20
#17327974913833124-548: A woman’s viewpoint". 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". The policy of action stories told from a male viewpoint continued through the rest of the decade. 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
3266-617: A younger sister and brother. Frank worked at a grocery store in Lisbon Falls, and since the store included the local Post Office he was able to teach himself to use the telegraph. At age sixteen he moved to Portland as the telegraph operator for a hotel, and after jobs in Rye Beach , Boston and elsewhere he returned to Maine, where he was hired by Western Union in about 1877 to manage their branch office in Augusta . As Augusta
3408-451: Is achieved by the use of a key outline image and registration bars which are applied to each stone or plate before drawing the solid or tone image. Ben-Day medium uses a raised gelatin stipple image to give tone gradation. An air-brush sprays ink to give soft edges. These are just two methods used to achieve gradations of tone. The use of twelve overprinted colours would not be considered unusual. Each sheet of paper will therefore pass through
3550-491: 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
3692-458: Is the state capital of Maine, Munsey had an opportunity to meet local politicians, and he made the acquaintance of James Blaine , one of Maine's senators. Augusta was also the center of a major part of the American magazine publishing industry, and among other local businessmen Munsey met Edward Charles Allen , who had founded People's Literary Companion in 1870 and become very successful in
3834-547: The 1912 Republican Party nomination for the presidency. Munsey and George W. Perkins provided the financial backing for Roosevelt's campaign leading up to the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Roosevelt and his supporters bolted from the convention, Munsey was one of the most outspoken critics of what were labeled as "corrupt proceedings" and announced that Roosevelt would run at
3976-550: The Baltimore Ravens , opened on the first floor facing the ground level streets. Munsey died in New York City on December 22, 1925, from a burst appendix at age 71. In his will he made large bequests to his sister, nephew and niece, generous bequests to many cousins, and gifts and annuities to a large number of old acquaintances. He also bestowed large sums to 17 of his upper management employees, but nothing to
4118-540: The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. The original location was on the northern edge of the devastated downtown district. The Munsey Building was notable for its upstairs offices and its ground floor printing presses, visible to passers-by through large department store, display-style windows designed and built for "The News" of Baltimore. Under Hearst's ownership, the paper moved again in 1924 to East Pratt Street between Commerce and South Streets (facing
4260-821: The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue in New York City. This bequest included ownership of the Sun-Herald newspaper, The Mohican Stores grocery chain, and real estate holdings in Manhasset, New York , on the north shore of Long Island. Under the leadership of Museum President Robert W. DeForest , the Metropolitan Museum developed part of the land into a planned residential community called Munsey Park, New York . It featured Colonial-style houses and streets named after American artists. The community's first model home opened in 1928. By 1950
4402-495: The Windsor Hotel on Fifth Avenue. 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. He later commented that he had not realized
Argosy (magazine) - Misplaced Pages Continue
4544-468: The plagiarism the policy was changed to pay new authors only after publication, to allow plagiarism to be detected. Moore left to work at Cosmopolitan in mid-1934, and was replaced by Frederick Clayton, who had been associate editor. 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. Another Munsey magazine, All-American Fiction ,
4686-603: The " Dealer in Dailies " and the " Undertaker of Journalism ." Newspapers with a period of Munsey ownership: The sale of the Herald in 1924 left Munsey owning only two newspapers at the time of his death the following year. The Evening Telegram was sold to Scripps-Howard in 1927, two years after Munsey's death. Munsey also authored a number of novels: Munsey founded the Munsey Trust Company in 1913. It
4828-550: The 1930s each lasted between one and three years. In October 1929 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 . In 1932 Don Moore , who had become editor in July 1931, 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
4970-658: 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
5112-402: The 19th century. Other methods were developed by printers such as Jacob Christoph Le Blon , George Baxter and Edmund Evans , and mostly relied on using several woodblocks with different colours. Hand-colouring also remained important. For example, elements of the official British Ordnance Survey maps were coloured by hand by boys until 1875. The initial chromolithographic technique involved
5254-629: The February 1902 issue. 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. Louis Joseph Vance ,
5396-481: The February 5, 1887 issue, and credited it with adding 20,000 to The Golden Argosy 's circulation. Over five months the campaign gave away 11,500,000 sample issues: his debt ballooned to $ 95,000 ($ 3.22 million 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. 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
5538-477: 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. 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
5680-444: The July and August 1942 issues. The hearings were thought by most publishers to be pointless, and nobody from Munsey attended. Argosy briefly lost its permit as a result, but did not miss any issues. When Popular Publications acquired Argosy at the end of 1942, they announced that it would immediately return to a fiction-only format. Richard Abbott, the editor of Writer's Digest , commented that Popular were "again making Argosy
5822-471: The June 1953 issue. 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. In 1976 Popular published two anthology magazines of stories, mostly science fiction and fantasy, titled The Best of Argosy Annual , though only some of
Argosy (magazine) - Misplaced Pages Continue
5964-608: The Maples", about two boys in the Maine woods, and turned it in to Douglas the next morning. 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. 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
6106-484: 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. A new editor, Matthew White , took over from Douglas at
6248-417: The March 1899 issue. William Wallace Cook contributed numerous serials in the first decade of the 20th century, beginning with The Spur of Necessity in the September 1900 issue after half-a-dozen sales to other markets. Cook wrote adventure fiction with elements of satire, an unusual combination for the pulps. James Branch Cabell 's first sale was to The Argosy ; his "An Amateur Ghost" appeared in
6390-663: The March 3, 1883 issue; 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; Oliver Optic , ( Making a Man of Himself , beginning in the October 20, 1883 issue); and G. A. Henty ( Facing Peril: A Tale of the Coal Mines , from September 5, 1885). The magazine's subtitle, Freighted with Treasures for Boys and Girls ,
6532-505: The Museum had sold the Munsey real estate interests to other developers, realizing an estimated four million dollars from these transactions. At the time of his death his fortune was estimated to be $ 20 million to $ 40 million. Today with the rate of inflation it would be valued at $ 250 million to $ 500 million. Chromolithography Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour prints . This type of colour printing stemmed from
6674-523: 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. 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
6816-498: The Redcoats Came to Bennington", an early story by Upton Sinclair , appeared in the December 1895 issue. After the change to an all-fiction monthly format in 1896, The Argosy was a men's and boy's adventure magazine, 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". In 1926, Albert William Stone ,
6958-516: The September 1914 Argosy , and Walt Coburn 's first story, "The Peace Treaty of the Seven Up", in the July 8, 1922 issue. 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. 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
7100-649: 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. The Argosy 's sister magazine, All-Story Weekly , was the venue for most of the science fiction in the Munsey magazines, but Argosy printed Murray Leinster 's first science fiction story, "The Runaway Skyscraper", in 1919. Leinster's first sale, "The Atmosphere", had appeared in The Argosy
7242-743: 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), 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". Francis Stevens contributed another lost world novel, The Citadel of Fear , in 1918. Humorous stories about scientific inventions were another theme. Howard Rogert Garis began selling to Argosy in 1904; his "Professor Jonkin" stories were lighthearted examples of
SECTION 50
#17327974913837384-567: The artist draws and perhaps prints his own limited number of reproductions. This is the true lithographic art form. Alois Senefelder , the inventor of lithography, introduced the subject of coloured lithography in his 1818 Vollstaendiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerey (A Complete Course of Lithography) , where he told of his plans to print using colour and explained the colours he wished to be able to print someday. Although Senefelder recorded plans for chromolithography, printers in other countries, such as France and England , were also trying to find
7526-402: The business. Munsey became determined to publish a magazine, and having saved $ 500 and persuaded two acquaintances to invest $ 3,500 ($ 111,000 in 2023), he spent his $ 500 on acquiring manuscripts, and left Augusta for New York in 1882. There he discovered that the cost estimates he had made were unrealistically low. He simplified the plans for the new magazine and wrote to the main investor for
7668-415: 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
7810-474: The challenge of producing chromolithographs, despite criticisms, was because he felt quality art should not be limited to the elite. Prang and others who continued to produce chromolithographs were sometimes looked down upon because of the fear that chromolithographs could undermine human abilities. With the Industrial Revolution already under way, this fear was not something new to Americans at
7952-474: The change to pulp format. 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." 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
8094-476: 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." 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
8236-540: The cheaper forms of printing that replaced them. Many chromolithographs have deteriorated because of the acidic frames surrounding them. As stated earlier, production costs of chromolithographs were low, but efforts were still being made to find a cheaper and faster way to mass-produce coloured prints. Although purchasing a chromolithograph may have been cheaper than purchasing a painting, it was still expensive in comparison to other colour printing methods which were later developed. Offset printing replaced chromolithography in
8378-414: The chromolithographs were cheaply produced, but top-quality chromos were costly to produce because of the necessary months of work and the thousands of dollars worth of equipment that had to be used. Although chromos could be mass-produced, it took about three months to draw colours onto the stones and another five months to print a thousand copies. Chromolithographs became so popular in American culture that
8520-481: The chromolithographs were created and purchased in urban areas. The paintings were initially used as decoration in American parlours as well as for decoration within middle-class homes. They were prominent after the Civil War because of their low production costs and ability to be mass-produced , and because the methods allowed pictures to look more like hand-painted oil paintings . Production costs were only low if
8662-475: The convictions. NBC adapted the series for television in 1957. 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. In the late 1870s, Frank Munsey was working in Augusta, Maine , as the manager of the local Western Union office. He helped
SECTION 60
#17327974913838804-416: The cost of typesetting, all the cost of making electrotype plates, and many other minor costs". 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
8946-457: 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. 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
9088-494: The covers, and remained the main cover artists until the mid-1930s. Hulse considers the artwork of this era to have been "consistently good". Towards the end of the 1930s Rudolph Belarski , Emmett Watson , and George Rozen become regular cover artists. 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
9230-483: 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 . Albert Payson Terhune , later the author of Lad: A Dog , frequently published in the Munsey magazines early in his career. His first sale to The Argosy was "The Fugitive",
9372-422: 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
9514-405: The direct form of printing, the inked image is transferred under pressure onto a sheet of paper using a flat-bed press. The offset indirect method uses a rubber-covered cylinder that transfers the image from the printing surface to the paper. Colours may be overprinted by using additional stones or plates to achieve a closer reproduction of the original. Accurate registration for multi-coloured work
9656-518: The early 1920s. 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. O. Henry appeared in the March 1904 Argosy with "Witches Loaves". 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
9798-476: 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". 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. Argosy 's title changed many times, either in an attempt to attract more readers, or because of mergers with other magazines. The long history of Argosy meant that by
9940-404: The editing chair again. Circulation prospered under Popular, reaching 600,000 in June 1948, and 1.25 million by 1954. 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
10082-401: The editor, G. W. Post, to use Finlay as the interior illustrator. 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. 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
10224-406: The end of 1943, the policy had changed back to include feature articles again as well as fiction. This made Argosy a competitor with slick general men's magazines such as True . 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
10366-482: The end of the year; White had been the founder and editor of The Boys' World , which Munsey bought in 1887, merging the subscriptions with The Golden Argosy . At the same time Munsey doubled the page count and increased the price from five cents to six. In 1887 he began a national advertising campaign, with traveling representatives as far west as Nebraska, and a mail campaign for points further west. He wrote another story, The Boy Broker , for serialization, beginning in
10508-479: The era has been labeled as "chromo civilization". Over time, during the Victorian era , chromolithographs populated children's and fine arts publications, as well as advertising art, in trade cards, labels , and posters . They were also once used for advertisements, popular prints, and medical or scientific books. Even though chromolithographs served many uses within society at the time, many were opposed to
10650-559: The experience to add color to his stories. 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 . Ship of the Line , an early novel in C. S. Forester 's stories about Horatio Hornblower ,
10792-662: The fabrication of cheap chromolithographs became more a business than the creation of art, in contrast with the high quality chromolithographs targeted primarily at art-oriented audiences. A famous lithographer and publisher who strongly supported the production of chromolithographs was Louis Prang . Prang was a German-born entrepreneur who printed the first American Christmas card . He felt that chromolithographs could look just as good as, if not better than, real paintings, and he published well-known chromolithographs based on popular paintings, including one by Eastman Johnson entitled The Barefoot Boy . The reason Prang decided to take on
10934-567: The film star Dorothy Lamour on the cover instead of the usual adventure-themed cover art. The title was changed to The New Argosy , though this change was reversed with the August issue. The publication frequency was changed to monthly starting in May. 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
11076-411: The fine old book it was", and that when they acquired Argosy it had "recently been degraded by wretched editing". In September 1943, 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." By
11218-402: 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. When Munsey began to write serialized novels for
11360-629: The first specialized pulp magazine which featured railroad-related stories and articles. This was soon followed by a similar magazine, The Ocean , which featured sea stories and articles. The Ocean debuted with a March 1907 issue. After the January 1908 issue, The Ocean's title was changed to The Live Wire and its content became more general purpose. Other Munsey pulps and magazines included Puritan , Junior Munsey , All-Story Magazine , Scrap Book , Cavalier , Railroad and Current Mechanics . Once he became interested in newspapers, Munsey's visibility increased, both locally and nationally. Over
11502-416: The following decade. 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". The page count gradually dropped again as the serials were completed, from 224 after
11644-416: The following month. In 1896 he changed it to carry only fiction, and began printing it on cheap wood-pulp paper, making it the first pulp magazine. Circulation grew again, reaching 300,000 in 1902, and half a million in 1907. By 1895, circulation of Munsey's Magazine was over half a million copies per month, reaching 700,000 by 1897. In October 1906, Munsey began publishing Railroad Man's Magazine ,
11786-521: 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,
11928-410: The funds, but received no reply. He was forced to give up the idea of launching the magazine himself as he had only $ 40 in hand along with the manuscripts he had bought. He persuaded E. G. Rideout , a New York publisher, to take on the magazine, with Munsey as editor and manager. The first issue, titled The Golden Argosy , was dated December 9, 1882. Rideout went bankrupt in early 1883, but Munsey
12070-475: The genre, 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. Some more sophisticated science fiction also appeared, including "Finis", an end of the world story by Frank Lillie Pollock , in June 1906. George Griffith , an important early science fiction writer from the UK, published almost none of his work in
12212-410: The ground floor, where the grimy printing presses once rumbled and rolled, replaced later by the ornate brass and marble counters for customer service with wood and paneling framed, glass-partitioned offices of the banking empire, but the name remained. Ironically, by 2013, a modern branch office of M&T Bank , an out-of-town corporate bank which also put its name on the city's pro football stadium for
12354-498: The head of a new party. Munsey's encouragement and his offer of financial backing led to the formation of the Progressive Party , which acquired the nickname the " Bull Moose Party " (from TR's quote: "I'm as strong as a bull moose", when questioned about his age after previously becoming the youngest president upon McKinley's assassination, serving almost two terms as president) then nominated Roosevelt for president. Munsey
12496-494: The idea of them because of their perceived lack of authenticity. The new forms of art were sometimes tagged as "bad art" because of their deceptive qualities. Some also felt that it could not serve as a form of art at all since it was too mechanical, and that the true spirit of a painter could never be captured in a printed version of a work. Over time, many chromos came to be made so cheaply that they could no longer be confused with original paintings. Since production costs were low,
12638-426: The job of editor, at $ 10 ($ 300 in 2023) per week, in lieu of payment for the stories. Douglas accepted. 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. Munsey managed to maintain the regular weekly schedule but the financial pressure on him was enormous. Rideout had set up Munsey in an office on Barclay Street in what
12780-485: The loan. Fogler declined, and Munsey had to arrange for another loan at 18% interest to cover the repayment. In October 1893 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
12922-416: The lowest price then charged for similar publications. Munsey's publishing presented diverse genres, preferring fictional, action-adventure storytelling. His magazines were aimed at working-class readers who could neither afford, nor expect to read about people like themselves in, the 25-cent "slick" magazines of the time. Munsey's pulp magazine innovation spawned a new line of publishing, one in which he
13064-464: The magazine had been to make it a close copy of Golden Days , a weekly paper for children published in Philadelphia by James Elverson , and to include lithographed covers and internal illustrations. 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
13206-448: 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. Other early serials were boys' adventure tales, occasionally with science fiction ideas such as lost races . Multiple serials often ran simultaneously. Early contributors included Harry Castlemon , whose Don Gordon's Shooting-Box began serialization in
13348-400: 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 ...". The non-fiction material was mostly written in-house; in 1950 Argosy rejected over 99% of the unsolicited non-fiction manuscripts it received. After Argosy was acquired by Popular Publications, less science fiction appeared for
13490-440: The merger to 144 at the end of the year. In December 1925 Munsey had appendicitis, and never recovered; he died, aged 71, on December 22. The Frank A. Munsey Corporation, which continued as the publisher, was sold to William Dewart , who had been working for Munsey. 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
13632-512: The most popular series in the magazine, with all twenty stories appearing in Argosy into the mid-1930s. Under his own name and a pseudonym, Loring Brent, Worts contributed scores of other stories to Argosy over the same period. Johnston McCulley had launched his Zorro series in All-Story in 1919 and more episodes appeared in Argosy after the two magazines merged. Fred MacIsaac , one of Argosy 's most popular authors, first appeared in
13774-474: The next four decades. 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. 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
13916-417: The next two decades by authors such as Ray Cummings , Ralph Milne Farley , Otis Adelbert Kline , Victor Rousseau , Eando Binder , Donald Wandrei , Manly Wade Wellman , Jack Williamson , Arthur Leo Zagat , and Henry Kuttner . Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar , which was serialized in 1924, was voted Argosy 's most popular story in a reader poll in 1938. In 1940 and 1941 Frederick C. Painton published
14058-618: The numerous employees who worked for him. He bequeathed an annuity of $ 2000 to Annie Downs, a love interest of the young Munsey who "turned him down for marriage because she didn't think he was a good enough prospect for success." Munsey also contributed considerably to Bowdoin College , the Maine State Hospital at Portland, and Central Main General Hospital at Lewiston. All the remainder of his fortune he gave to
14200-429: The old "Basin"/ Inner Harbor piers), The Munsey Building, by then separated from the newspaper was later renovated into an elaborate bank headquarters and customer service lobby of marble, brass and bronze for his Munsey Trust Company . In the early 2000s, after a series of bank mergers and out-of-town take-overs, the building was transformed into apartments and condos with some commercial food and snack shops located on
14342-475: 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. Argosy 's Western fiction included Zane Grey 's Last of the Duanes , which appeared in
14484-482: The point where it no longer covered its own costs. 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." Fogler also discovered on that visit that Munsey had
14626-498: The previous year. Edgar Rice Burroughs 's Barsoom series had begun in All-Story Weekly , as had his Tarzan novels; when the two magazines merged in 1920 later episodes of each series appeared in the combined magazine, Argosy All-Story Weekly . Abraham Merritt 's The Metal Monster began serialization in the August 7 issue, the third one after the merger, and many more science fiction and fantasy stories followed in
14768-465: The price to 10 cents. 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. The Argosy 's circulation had dropped to 9,000 by March 1894, but jumped to 40,000 when Munsey converted it to monthly publication
14910-461: The printing press as many times as there are colours in the final print. In order that each colour is placed in the right position, each stone or plate must be precisely 'registered,' or lined up, on the paper using a system of register marks. Chromolithographs are considered to be reproductions that are smaller than double demi , and are of finer quality than lithographic drawings which are concerned with large posters. Autolithographs are prints where
15052-423: 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. 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. In 1890 circulation dropped to
15194-442: The process of lithography , and includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to reproduce photographs, the term photochrome is frequently used. Lithography is a method of printing on flat surfaces using a flat printing plate instead of raised relief or recessed intaglio techniques. Chromolithography became the most successful of several methods of colour printing developed in
15336-490: The production of chromolithographs, as aluminium production was limited before the invention of the Hall-Heroult process . After the image is drawn onto one of these surfaces, the image is gummed-up with a gum arabic solution and weak nitric acid to protect the remaining surface before inking up the image with oil based transfer or printing ink. Before final printing, the image is proof printed and any errors corrected. In
15478-468: 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
15620-586: 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. 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
15762-451: The show's host apologized, and asked the studio audience to chant " Argosy is a slick" on the air. Argosy's circulation remained over a million until at least 1973, and the advertising revenue this provided made the magazine an attractive acquisition target. Steeger sold Popular Publications to David Geller's Brookside Publications in 1972. In early January 1978 Geller sold the company to the Filipacchi Group . The last issue from Popular
15904-459: The southeast corner of North Calvert and East Fayette Streets in downtown Baltimore. Its located across from the central Battle Monument Square. The building was rebuilt in 1911 by architectural firms Baldwin & Pennington of Baltimore and McKim, Mead and White of New York City. Baltimore's Munsey Building had briefly been that city's tallest building. This rebuilt structure replaced the newspapers' previous headquarters which had been lost in
16046-518: The stories included had originally appeared in Argosy . 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 . There was a Canadian reprint edition; the first and last known issues were dated April 21, 1924, and July 1960. Frank Munsey Frank Andrew Munsey (August 21, 1854 – December 22, 1925)
16188-439: 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." Ed Hulse, a historian of pulp magazines, while generally praising
16330-575: The tallest structures in the Nation's Capital. The first national headquarters of the Girl Scouts of the USA was located in this building from 1913 to 1916. D.C.'s Munsey Trust Building was torn down in spite of a court case and extensive protests by historical preservationists. Thirty-five miles northeast of D.C., two additional buildings have carried Frank Munsey's surname. The Munsey Building sits at
16472-541: The time. Many artists themselves anticipated the lack of desire for original artwork since many became accustomed to chromolithographs. As a way to make more sales, some artists had a few paintings made into chromolithographs so that people in society would at least be familiar with the painter. Once people in society were familiar with the artist, they were more likely to want to pay for an original work. German chromolithographers, largely based in Bavaria , came to dominate
16614-520: The title to just The Argosy in 1888, and experimented with changing the page size and page count, but made no headway. In 1889 he launched a second magazine, Munsey's Weekly , and in 1891 he tried his hand at running a newspaper, taking over the Daily Continent , but giving it up after only four months. At the end of the year he converted the weekly to a monthly, titled Munsey's Magazine , priced at 20 cents, and in October 1893 he cut
16756-562: The trade with their low-cost high-volume productions. Of these printers, Lothar Meggendorfer garnered international fame for his children's educational books and games. Owing to political unrest in mid-19th century Germany, many Bavarian printers emigrated to the United Kingdom and the United States, and Germany's monopoly on chromolithographic printing dissipated. A. Hoen & Co. , led by German immigrant August Hoen, were
16898-473: The use of multiple lithographic stones, one for each colour, and was still extremely expensive when done for the best quality results. Depending on the number of colours present, a chromolithograph could take even very skilled workers months to produce. However much cheaper prints could be produced by simplifying the number of colours used, and reducing the detail in the image. Cheaper images, like advertisements, relied heavily on an initial black print (not always
17040-563: Was adapted for television as a 26-episode series by NBC . Many of the convictions were eventually overturned. 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." 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 . In
17182-482: Was a dizzy, dazzling, daring game, a game to live for, to die for, a royal glorious game". 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. When his employee went to the bank again that day, he was able to cash the payroll check. The fact that The Golden Argosy never missed an issue also helped Munsey persuade
17324-518: 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. 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. 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. His original plan for
17466-702: Was able to claim the magazine's title and subscription list in lieu of unpaid salary, and the magazine continued with Munsey as publisher. In 1884 Blaine was the Republican candidate for President, and Munsey proposed to start a magazine, Munsey's Illustrated Weekly , to carry campaign news. The magazine ceased publication after the election but its apparently official nature helped Munsey get credit for paper and other supplies. Munsey later 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
17608-653: 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. Munsey is credited with using new, high-speed printing presses , supplied with inexpensive, untrimmed, pulp paper, to mass-produce magazines at significantly reduced costs. Each issue could be priced as low as 10 cents; less than half
17750-478: Was dated December 9, 1882; it was eight pages long and cost five cents ($ 1.58 in 2023). Subscribers were offered a set of colored chromolithographs along with their subscription. 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
17892-418: Was dated November 1979. Between 1989 and 1994, six issues were produced by Richard Kyle, at irregular intervals. 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, edited by Matthew Moring. The first issue of The Golden Argosy included
18034-626: Was dated November/December 1978. 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. Argosy has been revived four times. Four monthly issues appeared starting in August 1979, published by Lifetime Wholesalers, Inc. The last issue
18176-491: Was devoted to science fiction; the stories in it were all reprinted from Popular's Super Science Stories , rather than from earlier issues of Argosy . In September 1948 Erle Stanley Gardner began a true-crime column in Argosy called "The Court of Last Resort". 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
18318-580: Was dropped in 1886, though the contents were still aimed at the same youthful readers as before. P. T. Barnum 's Dick Broadhead: a Story of Wild Animals and the Circus was serialized from May to August 1887. 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; another was William Murray Graydon's The River of Darkness; or, Under Africa (1890). "When
18460-575: Was located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island from 1832 to 1914. The Bliss company is best known for their highly sought after paper litho on wood dollhouses . They also made many other lithoed toys, including boats, trains, and building blocks. Established in Mulhouse in 1830 by Michael Hanhart who initially worked with Godefroy Engelmann in London. The firm, established at Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square,
18602-427: Was merged into Argosy in 1938. In 1939 Whipple resigned and George Post, who had been part of Whipple's editorial team, became editor. Argosy remained a weekly until the October 4, 1941 issue, then switched to an irregular schedule with two issues a month. Post left in early 1942, and was briefly replaced by Harry Gray and then for two issues by Burroughs Mitchell. In September 1942 Popular Publications ,
18744-659: Was named after his two sons Michael and Nicholas. Artists like Joseph Wolf, Joseph Smit, J G Keulemans and others worked for him to produce natural history illustrations that were used in the Ibis (1859–1874), Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1848–1900) and a range of books. The company wound up in 1902 after the death of Nicholas Hanhart and the rise of new printing techniques. Chromolithographs are mainly used today as fine art instead of advertisements, and they are hard to find because of poor preservation and
18886-515: 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
19028-657: Was one of its most ardent supporters and one of the largest contributors to its "third party" campaign expenses. The campaign pulled one of the largest votes ever in American history for a candidate not from one of the two dominant parties. In 1905, Munsey built the Munsey Trust Building in downtown Washington, D.C. , on 'F' Street, between 12th and 13th Streets next to the National Theatre , off Pennsylvania Avenue . Designed by McKim, Mead and White of New York City with 13 floors, it had ranked among
19170-403: Was printing 200,000 copies, and it soon became successful enough to guarantee his financial security. 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
19312-445: Was promoted to editor from executive editor. Lewis resigned in 1954, and was replaced for one issue (October 1954) by James O'Connell, who had been fiction editor of Argosy since 1948. Ken Purdy , the editor of Argosy 's main rival, True , was hired, but stayed less than a year. Steeger later said that hiring Purdy was the most expensive mistake he ever made; Argosy ran at a substantial loss under his editorship. Steeger then took
19454-450: Was re-organized in 1915 as The Equitable Trust Company with Munsey as chairman of the board, and became one of the city and state's dominant financial institutions into the late 20th century. It was purchased by Maryland National Bank in 1990. Munsey became directly involved in presidential politics when former president Theodore Roosevelt announced his candidacy to challenge his hand-picked successor President William Howard Taft for
19596-498: Was regarded as one of the most prestigious publications in the pulp market, along with Blue Book , Adventure and Short Stories . After the transition to slick format it continued to publish fiction, including science fiction by Robert Heinlein , Arthur Clarke , and Ray Bradbury . From 1948 to 1958 it published a series by Gardner called "The Court of Last Resort" which examined the cases of dozens of convicts who maintained their innocence, and succeeding in overturning many of
19738-532: Was serialized in Argosy in early 1938. 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. Mystery contributors included Cornell Woolrich , beginning with "Hot Water" in the December 28, 1935 issue, and Norbert Davis . In 1903 Street & Smith launched The Popular Magazine , an early pulp rival to The Argosy with color art on
19880-820: 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. With the October 1896 issue Munsey changed it to carry fiction only, targeted at adults rather than children. Starting with the December issue he began printing it on cheap wood-pulp paper, making The Argosy the first pulp magazine . The all-fiction format brought about another jump in circulation to 80,000. In 1898, with circulation still at around 80,000, Munsey bought Peterson's Magazine and merged it into The Argosy . 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
20022-403: Was to keep me going." An advertising campaign in 1887 put Munsey $ 95,000 in debt, but made The Golden Argosy profitable, and boosted circulation to 115,000 in May of that year. The improvement was temporary; Munsey later realized that magazines for children were uninteresting to advertisers as children had no buying power, and the subscriptions dropped as the children grew up. He shortened
20164-404: Was well positioned to profit, and from which he did become wealthy. If one of his magazine titles was no longer profitable, Munsey would stop his presses just long enough to typeset/promote one of many titles continuously being field-tested. New titles can expand revenue or replace what has been lost when demand for an older title is much reduced. Frank Munsey was born on August 21, 1854, on a farm
#382617