Impact of Pulp Magazines on American Culture Essay

Impact of Pulp Magazines on American Culture â€Å"The story is worth more than the paper it is printed on.† Frank Munsey’s words symbolized the history of the pulp magazine. Frank Munsey started the pulp magazine craze with his first magazine, the Argosy, in 1896. The Argosy was a revamping of his children’s magazine, the Golden Argosy, shifting its focus from children to adults. The Argosy offered large amounts of fiction for a low price, because these stories would be printed on cheap pulpwood scraps, thus gaining the name ‘pulp magazine’. The pulp magazine has been a part of American history for well over a hundred years. During the late 1890’s, there was a period of high immigration. These immigrants and other working poor had no†¦show more content†¦Pulp magazines mainly dealt with racy love stories, detective cases, western and war fiction, thus they had gained a notorious reputation for quality. While this was true, it was not always the case. Pulp magazines have had con tributions from many different, famous authors. These authors include: H.P. Lovecraft (author of the Cthulhu Mythos), Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey), Ray Bradbury (author of the Martian Chronicles), Edgar Rice Burroughs (author of the Tarzan, Mars, and Pellicidar series), Lester Dent (author of the Doc Savage series), Walter Gibson (author of the Shadow series), Erle Stanley Gardner (author of the Perry Mason novels), Robert Heinlein (author of Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land), Robert E. Howard (author of the Conan stories), Robert Heinlein, Daishell Hammett (author of the Maltese Falcon and the Thin Man), Steven Crane, and Tennessee Williams. Such famous authors of great American literature took their roots from these supposedly tawdry magazines. Pulp magazines faded for a combination of reasons. The first reason was the development of comic books as an alternative to the pulp magazines, drawing away the juvenile group from the pulps. World War II paper shortages almost halted the printing of the pulps. The development of the paperback book offered the population high quality writing at a cheap price. Because of these reasons, eventually all the pulpsShow MoreRelated Criteria for Evaluating Media Violence Essay1530 Words   |  7 Pagescombination with the rest of the monetary intake of the other 130 major studio releases, represent a huge portion of the Gross National Product. By the end of 1997, the same ten films amassed $1,444,000,000 in foreign markets, making the products of the American film industry account for a large portion of money made through exportation. Those of these films released on video by the end of 1997 accounted for another $640,200,000 in the video market. 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