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Munsey, Frank Andrew (1854-1925), American
newspaper and magazine publisher, born in Mercer, Maine. He began as general
store owner in Maine at which he failed then became the manager of the Western
Union Telegraph office in Augusta, Maine. In 1882 he moved to New York City
& became the editor and publisher of The Golden Argosy in 1883, first as a
magazine for juveniles then as a weekly adventure fiction magazine for adults.
In February 1889 he began publishing Munsey's Weekly which was the first
ten-cent periodical. In 1891 it became Munsey's Magazine.
He went on to publish the All Story Magazine
which published the first works of Edgar Rice Burroughs beginning in 1912, plus
an assortment of other pulp titles.
He went into newspaper publishing
establishing or buying several newspapers He owned the New York Sun, the Globe,
the Herald (later the Hearld-Tribune) the New York Mail & the Telegram as
well as the Washington Times & the Baltimore News. He was also a prolific
author, writing such popular novels as Afloat in a Great City (1887), The Boy
Broker (1888), A Tragedy of Errors (1889), Under Fire (1890), and Derringforth
(1894).
His estate was willed to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York City.
He died in 1925 but his publishing empire
continued until 1942 with such classic titles as Famous Fantastic Mysteries,
Argosy, Red Star Detective, Red Star Mystery, Fantastic Novels & others. In
1942 the company was taken over by Popular Publications.
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