In 1920, All-Story Weekly was merged into The Argosy, resulting in a new title, Argosy All-Story Weekly, which published works in a number of literary genres, including science fiction and Westerns. Edgar Rice Burroughs published some of his Tarzan and John Carter of Mars stories in the magazine; other science fiction writers included Ralph Milne Farley, Ray Cummings, Otis Adelbert Kline and A. Merritt.
Argosy published a number of adventure stories by Johnston McCulley (including the Zorro stories), C. S. Forester (adventures at sea), Theodore Roscoe (French Foreign Legion stories), L. Patrick Greene, (who specialized in narratives about Africa), and George F. Worts' tales about Peter the Brazen, an American radio operator who has adventures in China. H. Bedford-Jones wrote a series of historical swashbuckler stories for Argosy about an Irish soldier, Denis Burke. Borden Chase appeared in Argosy with crime fiction. Two humorous mystery-adventure serials by Lester Dent appeared in Argosy's pages. More serious mystery stories were represented by Cornell Woolrich, Norbert Davies and Fred MacIsaac.
Max Brand, Clarence E. Mulford, Walt Coburn, Charles Alden Seltzer and Tom Curry wrote Western fiction for the magazine. Other authors who appeared in the original run included Ellis Parker Butler, Hugh Pendexter, Robert E. Howard, Gordon MacCreagh and Harry Stephen Keeler. Brand's famous character Dr. Kildare first appeared in 1938.
Argosy's covers were drawn by several noted magazine illustrators, including Edgar Franklin Wittmack, Modest Stein and Robert A. Graef.
In November 1941 the magazine switched to biweekly publication, then monthly publication in July 1942. The most significant change occurred in September 1943 when the magazine not only changed from pulp to slick paper but began to shift away from its all-fiction content. Over the next few years the fiction content grew smaller (though still with the occasional short-story writer of stature, such as P. G. Wodehouse), and the "men's magazine" material expanded. Towards the end, it became associated with the men's adventure pulp genre of "true" stories of conflict with wild animals or wartime combat, Erle Stanley Gardner's articles on "The Court of Last Resort," and later it was considered a softcore men's magazine. The final issue of the original magazine was published in November 1978.
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