Aaron's Magazine of the Week :: August 2, 1930 issue of Argosy

The Magazine of the Week is the August 2, 1930 issue of Argosy magazine. The cover story of this magazine (cover art by Robert A. Graef) is part one of Otis Adelbert Kline's science fiction novel The Prince of Peril, a planetary adventure set on Venus. At the time, Kline was one of the two leading authors of adventure stories on other planets, along with Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the John Carter of Mars series. Unlike Burroughs, who was even more famous for his African adventures starring a fellow named Tarzan of the Apes, Kline was exclusively known for his science fiction.

The April 2, 1930 Argosy is thus an example of the first phase of how pulp magazines caused the market for fiction to be divided into different genres. General pulps like Argosy exposed readers to different kinds of stories and allowed authors to develop a following writing specific types of fiction. The second phase came when new pulp magazines were created to cater to readers who preferred particular types of stories. Publishers began to create a huge number of pulp titles specializing in mysteries, westerns, romance, horror, sports stories, war stories, adventure fiction, hero pulps (such as The Shadow), and so on. Some of these pulp magazines were absurdly specialized, with titles like Railroad Stories and North-West Romances (both very successful), Speakeasy Stories and Zeppelin Stories (not so much).

Next week's Magazine of the Week will be an early issue of the very first magazine to specialize in science fiction.

Aaron's Magazine of the Week :: December 17, 1932 issue of Argosy

The Magazine of the Week is the December 17, 1932 issue of Argosy magazine.

When pulp magazines first came to dominate the market for fiction, most of the major pulps were general interest magazines such as Argosy, All-Story, and Blue Book. These magazines combined stories of many different types, including mysteries, westerns, war stories, adventure fiction, and science fiction and fantasy. Note the heading of the Magazine of the Week: "Action Stories of All Kinds." The magazines' authors were not limited to a particular genre, but often jumped between different kinds of stories.

The cover story of the December 17, 1932 Argosy (cover art by Paul Stahr) is "New Worlds," a science fiction story in which New York City is struck by a massive flood (which the author attributes to a reversal in the earth's magnetic field rather than global warming). "New Worlds" was written by Erle Stanley Gardner, who is much better remembered today for his mysteries and courtroom dramas, and especially for his creation of the character Perry Mason. For some reason, during the pulp era there was particular overlap between the mystery and science fiction genres. In future Book of the Week entries, you will see science fiction from mystery writers like Raymond Chandler and John D. MacDonald and mysteries from science fiction luminaries such as Isaac Asimov and Theodore Sturgeon. (The overlap continues, to a lesser degree, to this day - for example, Walter Mosley's new book is a science fiction novel.)

By exposing a large number of readers to different kinds of fiction, Argosy and the other general interest pulps allowed readers to discover which genres appealed to them, and gave authors the chance to develop a reputation writing particular types of stories. Erle Stanley Gardner ultimately won his fame as a mystery writer; next week's Magazine of the Week will feature an early pulp writer who developed a following writing science fiction.

Aaron's Magazine of the Week - February 26, 1938 issue of Argosy

Thanks to Quentin Tarantino, the phrase "pulp fiction" has come back into use, but many have forgotten its origin. For the first half of the Twentieth Century, the popular market for fiction was dominated by "pulp" magazines. The Magazine of the Week is the February 26, 1938 issue of Argosy, arguably the most successful of the pulp magazines.

"Pulp magazines" are so named for the pressed wood pulp on which they were printed. Publishers used cheap wood pulp in lieu of ordinary paper both to keep costs down in a highly competitive market and due to paper shortages during the wars. Because they were printed on such poor quality wood pulp, most pulp magazines have disintegrated over time, and any copy that has survived in good condition is now a collector's item.

Pulp magazines tended to garish covers and sensationalistic stories -- the term "pulp fiction" refers to this exuberant but unpolished style -- but the pulps also printed a great deal of excellent fiction. Between the late 1890's and the early 1950's, many important American authors such as Jack London and Tennessee Williams got their starts in the pulps, and it is difficult to name a significant early writer of mystery, romance, science fiction and fantasy, horror, or westerns who did not write for the pulps. Indeed, the very concept of dividing fiction into these different genres originated with the pulps.

The February 26, 1938 issue of Argosy is a typical example of pulp fiction. It contains some short fiction best left forgotten, but also the first appearance of Ship of the Line, a Horatio Hornblower novel by C.S. Forester, whose outstanding sea adventures remain widely read to this day, as well as the conclusion of a novel by Luke Short, a successful author of westerns. (Argosy and other pulps often printed novel-length works by serializing them over several issues.) Incidentally, the apparent holes in the cover of this magazine are with one exception a deliberate part of the cover art -- Hornblower's ship HMS Sutherland and her French adversary are giving each other a pounding.

Argosy was the first of the all-fiction pulps, switched to that format by publisher Frank Munsey in 1896. Before the pulps came along, however, there was yet an earlier option for fiction readers who did not wish to pay for hardcover books. You will see an example of that format next week.