Street and Smith Publications

Street & Smith, or Street & Smith Publications, Inc., was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks, magazines, and comic books. Founded in 1855 by Francis Scott Street and Francis Shubael Smith, most of their publications were of the type known as "pulp fiction" and "dime novels."

Among its pulp fiction periodicals, Street & Smith published adventure and sea stories ( Air Trails, Do and Dare Weekly, Red Raven Library, Sea Stories Magazine, Tiptop Weekly ); detective and mystery stories ( Clues, Doc Savage, Mystery Story Magazine, Nick Carter Weekly, Old Broadbrim Weekly, The Shadow ); romances ( Love Story Magazine, Romance Range ); science fiction ( Astounding Stories, Unknown ); sports stories ( All-Sports Library, Athlete ); westerns ( Buffalo Bill Stories, True Western Stories, Pete Rice Magazine, Western Story Magazine, Wild West Weekly ); and young adult fiction ( The Boys of the World, Bowery Boy Weekly, Live Girl Stories, My Queen ). Many of the authors from Street & Smith's periodicals found their way onto the pages of the publisher's dime novels, which were issued in various series, including the Arrow, Bertha Clay, Eagle, Magnet, Medal, and Merriwell libraries. But perhaps the most successful of the dime novels were those issued in the Alger Series, the volumes of which promoted the comforting notion that virtue is invariably rewarded by wealth. (These rags-to-riches tales became so embedded in American popular culture that reference to a "Horatio Alger story" became synonymous with the realization of the American dream.) Street & Smith comic adventurers included Bill Barnes, Buffalo Bill, Doc Savage, the Red Dragon, and artist R.F. Outcault's Yellow Kid, whose first appearance in the New York World in 1895 marked the birth of American comics. Although Street & Smith specialized in pulp fiction periodicals and dime novels, it also published non-fiction periodicals for hobbyists ( Air Progress, Air Trails Pictorial, American Modeler, Science World ); movie-goers ( Picture-Play Weekly ); sports enthusiasts ( Pic, Sport Pictorial, and Baseball, Basketball and Football Yearbooks); and women ( Mademoiselle, You )

In 1937 Street & Smith began shrinking their line of pulp titles, ending that genre completely in 1949. In 1957 Street & Smith sold their remaining magazine titles to Conde Nast, which acquired the rest of their copyright in 2007.

From the guide to the Street and Smith Records, 1855-1960, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)