Argosy
Argosy was the first all-fiction magazine, beginning publication in 1896. Before then it had been a children's weekly titled The Golden Argosy. The "Golden" was dropped in 1888, and the publication changed from a weekly to a monthly in 1894.
Argosy was published by Frank A. Munsey, who converted it into a pulp magazine selling for 10 cents. The first pulp number, dated December, 1896, carried one SF story, "Citizen 504," an anti-utopian tale by C. H. Palmer.
SF became a regular feature, with stories by James Branch Cabell, William Wallace Cook, Francis Stevens, Austin Hall, and Murray Leinster, among others.
A companion magazine, The All-Story Magazine, was begun by Munsey in 1905, and the two mgazines were combined in July, 1920. During the 1920s-1930s, the Argosy All-Story Weekly (later The Argosy) continued to feature SF, with stories by Ralph Milne Farley, Otis Adelbert Kline, Harl Vincent, Robert Howard, Jack Williamson, Paul Ernst, Nelson S. Bond, and Henry Kuttner. In addition, there were SF stories from general fiction writers, such as Erle Stanley Gardner. SF was phased out of the magazine in the 1940s, when it was acquired by Popular Publications.
The July, 1943, issue is generally regarded as the last SF issue.
In addition to Munsey, editors included Matthew White, Albert J. Gibner, and Henry Steeger.
Argosy was briefly revived in 2004 by James A. Owen, who published it as a glossy magazine in a slipcase containing the magazine and a separately bound novella. The January/February 2004 issue contained the novella "The Rapture of the Nerds," by Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow, the May/June issue contained "The Mystery of the Texas Twister," by Michael Moorcock. Originally planned as quarterly, it quickly went on hiatus, returning for a third issue in 2006 before being cancelled. Lou Anders served as editor, but only took credit for the first two issues. Authors included in this incarnation of the magazine included Zoran Zivkovic, Steve Rasnic Tem, Charles Coleman Finlay, Mike Resnick, Jeff VanderMeer, Benjamin Rosenbaum, and John Grant.
| Publication | 1896—2006 |
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