Fifty years ago a young man from Maine came to New York with $40, a grip full of manuscripts, and the undying determination to start a magazine. Frank A. Munsey had too much spirit and ability to be content as a clerk, a telegrapher, or even as manager of Augusta's Western Union office. He had no magazine experience and no backing -- the backer who was to put up $2,500 in cash backed out after Mr. Munsey reached New York. His chief assets were the ambition and hard-working energy of an Alger boy hero. So it was deeply fitting that his magazine, The Golden Argosy, opened with "Do and Dare, or Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune," a serial by that greatest of boys' writers, Horatio Alger, Jr.
That first Golden Argosy, dated December 9, 1882, bore the subtitle, "Freighted with Treasures for Boys and Girls." The treasures included a second serial, "Nick and Nellie, or God Helps Them That Help Themselves," by Edward S. Ellis; "Brave Bessie, or the Queen's Ambassador," by Fred M. Harrison; "The Dogs of St. Bernard," by W. H. W. Campbell; a puzzle department, exchanges, a department devoted to amateur journalism, and brief fact items. It was an eight-page newspaper-shaped weekly of the size and appearance of the late Youth's Companion.
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Posted by ds at February 12, 2003 03:45 PM
