Street & Smith
Encyclopedia
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
and dime novels. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among their many titles was the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
Astounding Stories, acquired from Clayton Magazines in 1933, and retained until 1961. Street & Smith was founded in 1855, and was bought out in 1959. The Street & Smith headquarters was at 79 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
; it was designed by Henry F. Kilburn.
Founding
Francis Scott StreetFrancis Scott Street
Francis Scott Street , with partner Francis Shubael Smith were the owners of Street & Smith publishing company in New York City.-New York Dispatch:...
and Francis Shubael Smith
Francis Shubael Smith
Francis Shubael Smith I partnered with Francis Scott Street and started the publishing firm of Street & Smith.-Biography:...
began their publishing partnership in 1855 when they took over a broken-down fiction magazine. They then bought the existing New York Weekly Dispatch in 1858. Francis Smith was the company president from 1855 until his 1887 retirement; his son Ormond Gerald Smith
Ormond Gerald Smith
Ormond Gerald Smith was the president of Street & Smith.-Biography:He was the youngest son of Mary Jellett Duff and Francis Shubael Smith I . Francis partnered with Francis Scott Street and started the publishing firm of Street & Smith. Ormond had the following siblings: Francis Shubael Smith II...
taking over his role. Francis Street died in 1883. Francis Smith died on February 1, 1887. The company became a publisher of inexpensive novels and weekly magazines starting in the 1880s and continuing into 1959. In the early decades of the 20th century, Ormond V. Gould was the company secretary. Ormond Smith remained company president until his death in 1933.
In 1933, Street & Smith bought titles from Clayton Magazines, including Astounding Stories. In 1937, Street & Smith discontinued a number of their pulp titles, including Top-Notch
Top-Notch Magazine
Top-Notch Magazine was an American pulp magazine of adventure fiction that existed between 1910 and 1937. It was published by Street & Smith....
and Complete Stories, the start of a long-term shrinking of their pulp line. In 1938, Allen L. Grammer became president. He had spent more than twenty years as an efficiency expert
Efficiency expert
Efficiency expert may refer to:*Ergonomics expert*Business efficiency expert; see also, Layoffs*The Efficiency Expert, a 1921 novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs-See also:...
for Curtis Publishing Company
Curtis Publishing Company
The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, The American Home,...
, and made a small fortune inventing a new printing process. He moved the offices into a skyscraper.
Street & Smith published comic books from 1940–1949, their most notable titles being The Shadow
The Shadow
The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante in the pulps, which carried over to the airwaves as a "wealthy, young man about town"...
,from their pulp magazine line Super-Magician Comics, Supersnipe Comics, True Sport Picture Stories, Bill Barnes/Air Ace and Doc Savage Comics,also from pulp magazine line.
Demise
Street & Smith stopped publishing all their pulps and comics in 1949, selling off several of their titles to Popular PublicationsPopular Publications
Popular Publications was one of the largest publishers of pulp magazines during its existence, at one point publishing 42 different titles per month. Company titles included detective, adventure, romance, and Western fiction. They were also known for the several 'weird menace' titles...
. Sales had declined with the advent of television.
Condé Nast Publications
Condé Nast Publications
Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications, is a magazine publisher. In the U.S., it produces 18 consumer magazines, including Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, GQ, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, as well as four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps...
bought the company for more than $3.5 million in 1959. The company's name continued to be used on the sports pre-season preview magazines until 2007 when Advance division American City Business Journals
American City Business Journals
American City Business Journals is an American newspaper chain based in Charlotte, North Carolina owned by Advance Publications. It has a range of media including 41 primary metropolitan weekly publications, which reach 4 million readers with business community related news, and Bizjournals, the...
acquired the Sporting News and merged Street & Smith's annuals into TSN
The Street & Smith name survives as the named publisher of Sports Business Journal, a Condé Nast periodical.
Authors
- Horatio Alger
- Isaac AsimovIsaac AsimovIsaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
- Weldon J. CobbWeldon J. CobbWeldon J. Cobb was a Chicago author, reporter, the city editor for the newspaper. He wrote novels for boys for Street and Smith.-References:...
- Lester DentLester DentLester Dent was a prolific pulp fiction author, best known as the creator and main author of the series of novels about the superhuman scientist and adventurer, Doc Savage. The 159 novels written over 16 years were credited to the house name Kenneth Robeson.-Early years:Dent was born in 1904 in...
- Theodore DreiserTheodore DreiserTheodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
- J. Allan DunnJ. Allan DunnJoseph Allan Dunn , best known as J. Allan Dunn, was one of the high-producing writers of the American pulp magazines. He published well over a thousand stories, novels, and serials from 1914–41. He first made a name for himself in Adventure...
- Walter B. GibsonWalter B. GibsonWalter Brown Gibson was an American author and professional magician, best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow...
- Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
- Carl Richard JacobiCarl Richard JacobiCarl Richard Jacobi was an American author. He wrote short stories in the horror, fantasy, science fiction and crime genres for the pulp magazine market.-Biography:...
- Jack LondonJack LondonJohn Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
- Clifford D. SimakClifford D. SimakClifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1977.-Biography:Clifford Donald Simak was born in...
- Upton SinclairUpton SinclairUpton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
Illustrators
- Walter M. BaumhoferWalter M. BaumhoferWalter Martin Baumhofer was an American illustrator notable for his cover paintings seen on the pulp magazines of Street & Smith and other publishers....
- Earle K. BergeyEarle K. BergeyEarle K. Bergey was an American illustrator who painted cover art for a wide diversity of magazines and paperback books...
- Emery Clarke
- Dean CornwellDean CornwellDean Cornwell was an American illustrator and muralist. His oil paintings were frequently featured in popular magazines and books as literary illustrations, advertisements, and posters promoting the war effort. Throughout the first half of the 20th century he was a dominant presence in American...
- Harvey DunnHarvey DunnHarvey Thomas Dunn was an American painter. He is best known for his prairie-intimate masterpiece, The Prairie is My Garden. In this painting, a mother and her son and daughter are out gathering flowers from the quintessential prairie of the Great Plains.-Early life:Dunn was born on a homestead...
- Anton Otto Fisher
- Frank KramerFrank Kramer (artist)Frank Kramer was an American artist known chiefly for his illustrations forJack Snow's two Oz books, The Magical Mimics in Oz and The Shaggy Man of Oz, founded on and continuing the famous Oz stories by L. Frank Baum. He also illustrated Robert A...
- J. C. LeyendeckerJ. C. LeyendeckerJoseph Christian Leyendecker was one of the pre-eminent American illustrators of the early 20th century. He is best known for his poster, book and advertising illustrations, the trade character known as The Arrow Collar Man, and his numerous covers for The Saturday Evening Post. Between 1896 and...
- Tom Lovell
- Winfield Scott
- Amos Sewell
- Modest Stein
- N.C. Wyeth
Archive
- Syracuse UniversitySyracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
has:- Dime Novels with cover image files
- Yellow Kid image gallery
- Street & Smith editorial records
- Bowling Green State UniversityBowling Green State UniversityBowling Green State University, often referred to as Bowling Green or BGSU, is a public, coeducational research university located in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. The institution was granted a charter in 1910 by the State of Ohio as part of the Lowry Bill, which also established Kent State...
has:- Dime novels in PDF format and cover images
External links
- Street and Smith Digital Collection
- Street and Smith Corporate Records at Syracuse University