Pulp Magazines: A Cultural History – Timeline

The history of magazine publishing is complex. There is a great deal of variance in records, definitions, and resources due to the size and scope of this history. I am in the process of assembling a timeline to use in my personal research, as well as to share in the course that I will teach. Much of what is listed here needs further explanation. Like any timeline, however, it will serve as an adequate starting point. 

1663 – world’s first magazine – Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen (tr. “Edifying Monthly Discussions”)

1704 – first English language magazine in London – Review – publisher was Daniel DeFoe  

1731 – The Gentleman’s Magazine published by Edward Cave in England. 1st use of “magazine” 

1739 – The Scots Magazine begins – today remains the oldest consumer magazine in print.

1741 – American Magazine – first U.S. magazine 

1741 – Ben Franklin’s General Magazine – 3 days after rival Bradford’s American Magazine

1770 – The Lady’s Magazine – 1^st  women’s magazine starts –  literary & fashion content

1796 –Alois Senefelder develops lithography to produce high-quality printed images (Germany).

1821 – The Saturday Evening Post – 1^st successful magazine in America was founded

1825 – fewer than 100 magazines in the U.S. –  more than 600 by 1850 –  established as mass medium

1840 – Graham’s Magazine – a nineteenth-century periodical based in Philadelphia established

1841 – Edgar Allan Poe became the editor of Graham's

1841 – Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in Graham's – recognized as the first detective story

1843 – wood-grinding machine invented to create ground wood pulp that can be used to make paper

1843 – The Economist begins examining news, politics, business, science, and the arts.

1850 – Harper’s Magazine made its – oldest general-interest monthly in America

1850 – Number of magazines published in the U. S. reaches 685.

1854 – chemical treatment to make wood pulp for paper making patented

1855 – Street & Smith founded

1857 – The Atlantic Monthly – founders include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes

1863 – postage rates created for first-, second-, and third-class mail

1864 – American News Company began – magazine, newspaper, book, (and comic book) distribution

1867 – Federal Department of Education began

1870 – Scribner's Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine for the People – American literary periodical

1879 – 3 classes of mail reorganized – magazines now have same low postage cost as newspapers.

1882 – Frank A. Munsey moves to NY from Maine – 1^st  issue of Golden Argosy published less than 3 months later. 

1883 – Life – American magazine similar to Puck – 1883-1936 published as humor & general interest

1885 – The Engraver and Printer – a house journal for the Boston Photogravure Company.

1886 – Cosmopolitan launched in U. S. as family magazine – later literary & eventually women's magazine in the late 1960s.

1887 – Sherlock Holmes makes first appearance in Beeton’s Christmas Annual with “A Study in Scarlet”

1888 – National Geographic Magazine – 9 months after start of National Geographic Society

1890 – 4,400 magazines with 18 million circulation in the U. S.

1890 – Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray published in Lippincott’s Magazine (book a year later)

1890 – Short Stories was an American fiction magazine that existed between 1890 and 1959.

1891 – The Strand magazine – a monthly in UK & US begins – 1^st publishes Sherlock Holmes, “A Scandal in Bohemia” in July, 1891.

1892 – Four color rotary press

1893 – 20,000 readers cancel their subscriptions to Strand Magazine when Sherlock Holmes is killed off in “The Final Problem.” Conan Doyle relented in 1902 bringing back the detective hero in “The Adventure of the Empty House.”

1893 – Frank Munsey cuts price of Munsey’s Magazine to 10¢ and the cost of subscriptions to $1.00 to boost sales and seek profits from advertising revenue rather than copy sales.

1893 – The Engraver and Printer publishes color halftone.

1895 – Collier’s weekly magazine starts and is published until 1957.

1896 – First “pulp” magazine published by Munsey – The Argosy. Prior to WWI, The Argosy had several notable writers, including Upton Sinclair and Zane Grey

1898 – New York State passes law against misleading advertising

1898 – Ladies’ Home Journal owner Cyrus H. Curtis buys Saturday Evening Post and relaunches it as an illustrated journal

1900 – more than 5,000 magazines now in the U.S.

1900 – Price of “chemical” wood pulp $36/ton – down from $344/ton in 1866

1903 – Street & Smith had started a boys' periodical, The Popular Magazine, but seeing it was not reaching its market they revamped its content, doubled its page count, and converted it to an all-adventure pulp from Feb. 1904, making it the first direct rival to The Argosy.

1905 – post office refined the rules that defined which publications would be recognized as magazines to eliminate such abuses as passing off one-time advertising circulars or books as magazines and qualifying for reduced rates. Magazines must now have a known office address, consecutive numbering, a date of issue, an editorial focus such as literature, science, etc., and be assembled from printed sheets without heavy covers or binding. 

1905 – All-Story Magazine started by Munsey (Jan. 1905). Edgar Rice Burroughs was first published in All-Story. Other All-Story writers Rex Stout, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Max Brand.

1905 – The Monthly Story Magazine started by Story-Press Corporation (May 1905).

1906 – The Monthly Story Magazine becomes The Monthly Story Blue Book Magazine. For the next 45 years (May 1907 to January 1952), it was known as The Blue Book Magazine, Blue Book Magazine, Blue Book, and Blue Book of Fiction and Adventure.

1908 – The Cavalier was published by the Frank Munsey Co. between 1908 and 1914.

1910 – Adventure magazine – an American pulp magazine that was first published in November 1910 by the Ridgway company, an offshoot of the Butterick Publishing Company.

1912 – Photoplay – first magazine for movie fans

1914 – The Gentleman’s Magazine ceases publication

1919 – Under editor George Horace Lorimer, The Saturday Evening Post publishes a 200-page issue with 111 pages of advertising. The publication was selling more than a million copies a week with high-profile authors and Norman Rockwell’s covers.

1919 – Western Story Magazine was a pulp magazine published by Street & Smith, which ran from 1919 to 1949.  It was the first of numerous pulp magazines devoted to Western fiction. In its heyday Western Story Magazine was one of the most successful pulp magazines; in 1921 the magazine was selling over half a million copies each issue.

1920 – Black Mask Magazine –a pulp magazine launched in 1920 by journalist H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan

1921 – Love Story Magazine, the first romantic fiction pulp, began in May of 1921 and soon became the best selling pulp magazine for Street & Smith publishers.

1922 – Reader’s Digest begins publishing. 

1923 – Time – first U.S. news magazine started by Henry Luce

1923 – Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published

1926 – Amazing Stories launched by Luxembourg-born Hugo Gernsback, one of the pioneers of science fiction in the U.S. His name lives on in the annual Hugo Awards. 

1926 – Street & Smith changed their distribution from the American News Company to the Chelsea News Company (a collection of independent distributors organized by Street & Smith and organized as a subsidiary) – note: the exact date is uncertain and may have been as late as 1930.

1927 – Final Sherlock Holmes story, “Shoscombe Old Place,” published in the April issue of the Strand Magazine.

1928 – Daisy Bacon becomes editor of Street & Smith’s Love Story Magazine (January, 1928) and remained in the position for 22 years.

1928 – Flying Aces – one of so-called "flying pulp" magazines, popular during the 1920s &  1930s

1929 – Wonder Stories –  early US science fiction magazine published under several titles (1929- 1955)

1930 – The Times (London) carries its first crossword puzzle.

1930 – Oriental Stories, later The Magic Carpet Magazine, pulp 1930-34, offshoot of Weird Tales.

1931 – Dime Detective – most popular of Popular Publication's line of detective pulps and one of the company's longest surviving titles.

1933 – Newsweek begins publication

1933 – Esquire is the first men’s magazine

1934 – Spicy Detective – Published by Culture Publications.

1935 – Horror Stories – US pulp magazine –  published tales of the supernatural, horror, & macabre.

1936 – Life magazine – Time founder Henry Luce bought in 1936 solely for its name

1937 – The Saturday Evening Post – 3 million circulation – the largest in the U.S.

1937 – Look – bi-weekly, general interest and photojournalism magazine starts and continues to 1971

1939 – Planet Stories – US pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House (1939-1955)

1939 – Startling Stories – US pulp science fiction magazine, Ned Pines' Standard Magazines (1939-1955)

1939 – Unknown (also known as Unknown Worlds) -- US pulp fantasy fiction magazine,  S&S ’39-‘43

1944 – Seventeen – first magazine devoted to adolescents

1946 – More than 200 mass-oriented magazine launched in U.S.

1949 – “The Day the Pulps Died” – April 8, 1949 – S&Smith announced it would stop publishing its pulps

1950 – Strand Magazine, famous for first publishing most of the Sherlock Holmes stories closed.

1953 – TV Guide begins publication with distribution in 10 cities with a circulation of 1,560,000

1953 – Playboy – Monroe on the cover and famous nude calendar shot inside.

1954 – Sports Illustrated launched by Time-Life.