Ainslee's Magazine

AINSLEE'S MAGAZINE was best known as an all-fiction magazine aimed at women. While it was a precursor of the love-story pulps of the twenties and beyond, it carried a wider range of stories. Its publication history is complex.

Published as by Ainslee, part of Street & Smith, it was begun in March 1897 as THE YELLOW KID, a humor weekly, coat-tailing on the popularity of the YELLOW KID newspaper cartoons. In July 1897 it became a monthly as YELLOW BOOK. As the YELLOW KID boom faded, it changed format and was renamed AINSLEE'S in February 1898. At first it was a general-interest magazine, with articles and stories, but in 1902 it changed to an all-fiction format. AINSLEE'S lasted until December 1926, after which it was merged into FAR WEST ILLUSTRATED (originally begun as TRUE WESTERN STORIES). By 1931 this had become STREET & SMITH'S FAR WEST ROMANCES, before folding with the July, 1932 issue. The story was not over: it was revived in 1934 as AINSLEE'S, name changed in 1935 to AINSLEE'S SMART LOVE STORIES, and continued monthly from 1936 to 1938 as SMART LOVE STORIES before biting the dust for the final time. See the sample issues under various titles; there will be a test on this next week. [Thanks to Denny Lien and to Phil S-P's Magazine Data File (aka the BigList) for this information!] And see the AINSLEE'S data pages for more information.