Munsey's Magazine, August 1923

Munsey's Magazine, founded in 1889, pioneered the pulp format by printing on cheap wood-pulp paper and selling for a dime. This August 1923 issue features "Scarlet Hours," a complete novel by Ellis Parker Butler about Roger Haddard, a literary genius in Lewisville, Iowa. The cover announces the story in bold typography against a plain background—a design choice typical of the era's text-heavy periodicals. Munsey's helped establish the commercial infrastructure for serialized fiction that would influence comic books, introducing readers to adventure narratives and genre storytelling at mass-market prices and scale.