History of Mercer, (Somerset County) Maine United States of America

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Frank Andrew Munsey, publisher, was born in Mercer, Maine, Aug. 21, 1854; son of Andrew C. and Mary J. (Hopkins) Munsey. After attending the district school he became a clerk in a country store; learned telegraphy, and became the manager of the Western Union office in Augusta, Maine. In 1882 he established the Golden Argosy, a boys' paper in New York city and issued it weekly, changing to the monthly Argosy, and in 1898 purchasing Peterson's Magazine established in 1842 and combining it with the Argosy. He established Munsey's Weekly in February, 1889, connected it with Munsey's Magazine in October, 1891, reduced the price in October, 1893, to ten cents and was obliged to organize his own news company to distribute it, which be did so successfully that it became the largest circulating magazine in the United States. He established the Puritan, January, 1897, and in October, 1898, merged with it Godey's Magazine founded in 1830. He established The Quaker in November, 1897, and changed the name to The Junior Munsey in April, 1900, merging with it the Puritan, in April, 1901. He purchased the Washington Times and the New York Daily News in 1901 as the foundation of a proposed chain of daily newspapers to cover the large cities of the United States. He is the author of: Afloat in the Great City (1887); The Boy Broker (1888); A Tragedy of Errors (1889); Under Fire (1890), and Derring-forth (1894).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Mercer, (Somerset County) Maine

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