Munsey's Magazine
![]() Munsey's Magazine May 1911 | |
Frequency | Monthly |
---|---|
Founder | Frank Munsey |
Year founded | 1889 |
Final issue | October 1929 |
Country | United States |
Based in | New York City |
Language | English |
Munsey's Weekly, later known as Munsey's Magazine, was a 36-page quarto American magazine founded by Frank A. Munsey in 1889 and edited by John Kendrick Bangs.[1] Frank Munsey aimed to publish "a magazine of the people and for the people, with pictures and art and good cheer and human interest throughout". Soon after its inception, the magazine was selling 40,000 copies a week. In 1891, Munsey's Weekly adopted a monthly schedule and was renamed Munsey's Magazine.
In October 1893, Munsey reduced the price of the magazine from 25 cents to 10 cents, which was greatly successful. By 1895, the magazine had a circulation of 500,000 a month. It included numerous illustrations (including many by the illustrator Charles Howard Johnson) and was attacked for its "half-dressed women and undressed statuary". Some outlets refused to stock the magazine as a result, but circulation continued to grow and by 1897 had reached 700,000 per month.
Circulation began to fall in 1906 and by the 1920s was down to 60,000. In October 1929, Munsey's was merged with Argosy. It immediately thereafter demerged with Argosy All-Story to form All-Story, which continued on a monthly schedule under a variety of similar titles until May 1955.[2]
Contributors[]
Charles M. Relyea was among the illustrators whose work appeared in Munsey's.[3]
Tod Robbins' short story "Spurs" was published by Munsey's in 1923. It was loosely adapted into the film Freaks (1932).[citation needed]
Mazo de la Roche, the author of the popular Jalna series, had her first story published in 1902 in Munsey's Magazine.[citation needed]
Robert William Service published the poem "Unforgotten" (also called "Apart and yet Together") in December 1903.[4]
Eldred Kurtz Means's story "At the End of the Rope" contains the earliest known usage of the saying: If it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all.[5][6][7]
Editors[]
- John Kendrick Bangs (January–June, 1889)
- Richard H. Titherington (Jul 1889 – ?)[citation needed]
- Robert H. Davis (fiction editor 1904–1905)[8]
- Isaac Frederick Marcosson (1910–1913)[citation needed]
- William Marcus MacMahon, Editor-in-Chief (??? - ???)[citation needed]
- Richard H. Titherington (1921)[9]
- Robert H. Davis (1922–1925)[10][8]
- Richard H. Titherington (1925-1926)[11]
- William Marcus MacMahon (1927-1929)[12]
Front-cover Title Variations[]
Title | Start | End |
---|---|---|
Munsey's Weekly | 02/02/1889 | 08/18/1891 |
Munsey's Magazine | 10/1891 | 11/1894 |
Munsey | 12/1894 | 03/1897 |
Munsey's Magazine | 04/1897 | 04/1898 |
The Munsey | 05/1898 | 05/1907 |
The Munsey Magazine | 06/1907 | 05/1909 |
The Munsey | 06/1909 | 06/1911 |
unknown | 07/1911 | - |
Munsey | 08/1911 | 07/1913 |
The Munsey | 08/1913 | - |
Munsey | 09/1913 | 03/1925 |
The Munsey Magazine | 04/1925 | 05/1926 |
Munsey | 06/1926 | 10/1929 |
Back issues[]
Full-text on-line versions available via Google Books (last accessed 2012-01-02):
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See also[]
- The Bookman
- Harper's Magazine
- McClure's
- The Outlook
- The Review of Reviews
- World's Work
- Pulp magazine
References[]
- ^ Tassin, Algernon (December 1915). "The Magazine In America, Part X: The End Of The Century". The Bookman: an Illustrated Magazine of Literature and Life. XLII (4): 396–412. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
- ^ "The Argosy & related magazines". Philsp.com.
- ^ Walt Reed (2001). The illustrator in America, 1860-2000 (third ed.). pp. 114–115. ISBN 9780823025237.
- ^ "Biographie". Robert Service.
- ^ "E. K. Means – Quote Investigator".
The following passage employed nonstandard spelling. ... : “It wus a bad time for me when I come to Tickfall. I’m shore had bad luck; but ef dar warn’t no bad luck, I wouldn’t hab no luck at all.”
- ^ See 1927 January, Munsey’s Magazine, Volume 89, Number 4, At the End of the Rope by E. K. Means, Short Story Series: Tickfall, Start Page 645, Quote Page 649, New York: .
- ^ See 1928 December, Munsey’s Magazine, Volume 95, Number 3, One Kind Deed by E. K. Means, Short Story Series: Tickfall, Start Page 382, Quote Page 384, Column 1, New York: The Frank A. Munsey Company.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "The Press: Recalling Bob Davis". Time. 1930-06-16. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
- ^ Arthur Leeds, "Midsummer Photoplay and Fiction Market," Writer's Digest, August 1921.
- ^ Various editorial notes in The Student Writer and its successor The Author & Journalist.
- ^ Various editorial notes in The Author & Journalist.
- ^ Various editorial notes in The Author & Journalist.
Sources[]
- Munsey, Frank A. (December 1907). The Founding of the Munsey Publishing-House. De Vinne Press. Subtitles: Quarter of a Century Old : The Story of The Argosy, Our First Publication, and Incidentally the Story of Munsey's Magazine
Further reading[]
- "USA Munsey's". Spartacus Educational.
External links[]
Media related to Munsey's Magazine at Wikimedia Commons
- Munsey's Magazine at the HathiTrust
- Defunct political magazines published in the United States
- Monthly magazines published in the United States
- Defunct literary magazines published in the United States
- Magazines established in 1889
- Magazines disestablished in 1929
- Magazines published in New York City