Born as a struggling weekly for adolescents in 1882, Argosy became the first adult magazine to rely exclusively on fiction for its content and the first to be printed on rough, pulpwood paper. "The story is worth more than the paper it is printed on," it was once said of Argosy, and thus was born the "pulp magazine." Between 1896 and its demise in 1979, Argosy introduced or helped inspire pulp fiction writers such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack London, Dashiell Hammett, H. P. Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Mickey Spillane, Earl Stanley Gardner, Zane Grey, and Elmore Leonard, and helped familiarize millions of readers with the detective, science fiction, and western writing genres.

Publisher Frank Munsey arrived in New York from Maine in 1882 with $40 in his pocket. Ten months later, he helped found Golden Argosy: Freighted with Treasures for Boys and Girls. Among the publication's early offerings were...