Revision [285]
This is an old revision of PulpMagazines made by TpnEditor on 2006-04-24 23:38:03.
Pulp magazines
Pulp magazines, or pulps, were inexpensive fiction magazines printed on paper made of wood pulp and sold to a mass market from the 1890s through the 1950s. A typical pulp magazine measured about 6 by 9 inches and totaled just over 120 pages, and sold for between 10 and 25 cents.
Background
An issue of ArgosyThe The Argosy from 1890s.The October 1896 issue of ArgosyThe The Argosy is commonly considered the first pulp magazine. Published by the MunseyFrankA Frank A. Munsey Co., ArgosyThe The Argosy was a reworked version of a general information magazine titled Golden Argosy. Munsey is remembered for considering the story more important than the paper it is printed on, which led to his decision to switch ArgosyThe Argosy to an all-fiction format and print it on low-quality pulpwood paper.
MunseyFrankA Munseyís ArgosyThe Argosy was a natural evolution of the dime novel, a tabloid-size story papers full of melodramatic and inspirational fiction.
Other publishers followed MunseyFrankA Munseyís lead, and within 20 years, numerous publishers, such as StreetandSmith Street and Smith were selling pulp magazines.
A typical pulp would include several short stories and serialized novels. With the advent of the HeroPulpGenre single-character pulps in the 1930s, the magazines began to include a complete lead novel in each issue.
Pulp magazines were usually around 6 by 9 inches in dimension, though BedsheetSize bedsheet varieties were around 8-1/2 by 11 inches, and DigestSize digest-size pulps were about 5-1/2 by 8-1/4 inches.
The pulps reached their zenith in the 1930s. Paper shortages during World War II spelled the beginning of the end for the magazines. By 1949, StreetandSmith Street and Smith had folded its pulp magazine because of declining circulation.
Changing tastes after the war and competition from radio, television and inexpensive paperback books took their toll on the popular fiction magazines. By the end of the 1950s, pulps, for the most part, were history.
A few magazines lingered as DigestSize digests, such as AstoundingMagazine Astounding (later renamed AstoundingMagazine Analog), or evolved into MensMagazines menís magazines, such as ArgosyThe Argosy.
Pulps vs. ëpulpí fiction
Pulp magazines are a specific category of magazine featuring light fiction that was fast-paced, sometimes lurid, sometimes sensational, but always written for entertainment.As PulpFictioneer fictioneer BedfordJonesH H. Bedford-Jones once said, ìThe fiction that is published in our popular magazines and in the standard novels commonly termed ëtrash,í is turned out for the people at large. It is written for the average man in the street. It is democratic, carelessly so. It may be poor in art, in grammar and in technique ó but it has to tell a story, and a good story, or it wwould not be published. Its aim is to entertain, not to point a moral.î
This description of light, lurid fiction as ìpulpî has been carried over to the inexpensive paperback books that appeared in the 1940s and 1950s, and, even today, with movies such as Pulp Fiction. In truth, none of these fall into the ìpulpî category as covered by PulpWiki or ThePulp.Net.
Pulp magazine category
The following 29 page(s) belong to PulpMagazines| Aces [Aces] |
| AvengerThe [AvengerThe] |
| CaptainFuture [Captain Future] |
| CaptainHazzard [Capt. Hazzard] |
| DetectiveStoryMagazine [DetectiveStoryMagazine] |
| DimeDetective [DimeDetective] |
| DimeMystery [DimeMystery] |
| DocSavage [DocSavage] |
| DustyAyres [DustyAyres] |
| FantasyGenre [FantasyGenre] |
| FaustFrederick [FaustFrederick] |
| FireFighters [Fire Fighters] |
| G8andHisBattleAces [G-8 and His Battle Aces] |
| GibsonWalter [GibsonWalter] |
| MerrittA [A. Merritt] |
| NewPulp [New Pulp] |
| Operator5 [Operator5] |
| PhantomDetectiveThe [The Phantom Detective] |
| PulpGenres [Pulp genres] |
| PulpMagazineRights [Pulp magazines rights] |
| PulpsterThe [The Pulpster] |
| PulpTerms [PulpTerms] |
| ShadowThe [ShadowThe] |
| SoldiersOfFortune [SoldiersOfFortune] |
| SpiderThe [SpiderThe] |
| StrangeStories [Strange Stories] |
| StreetandSmith [Street and Smith Publications Inc.] |
| Unknown [Unknown] |
| WesternStoryMagazine [WesternStoryMagazine] |
