Reading Matters

So, these are my latest acquisitions via eBay - five issues of the long defunct British short story magazine Argosy.  Now, this isn't to be confused with the US pulp magazine Argosy, of which this isn't a UK edition.  It is an entirely different entity, although both magazines had a similar focus of publishing popular short fiction.  Like its US namesake, this Argosy didn't specialise in any specific genre - the average issue could include anything from crime to science fiction, espionage to romance.  The main difference was that the US magazine focused more on the sensational even, in its later years, trying to get into the then popular UFO scene.  Both publications were long lived, both finally expiring in the early 1970s.

I must admit that I bought these on something of a whim - I'd missed out on a number of model railway related items on eBay auctions (the prices went ridiculously high) and hadn't been quick enough on a couple of 'Buy it now' listings.  But I still had that acquisitive urge.  You know how it is - you are so keyed up to buy something that, even when it falls through, the itch is still there and has to be scratched.  So I decided to look at other stuff I was interested in, but that I knew would be cheaper and there would be less competition over.  The fact is that many British magazines from the sixties and seventies can be obtained at pretty reasonable prices - they simply aren't considered 'collectible' yet.  (Pre war and forties and fifties magazines tend to be a bit pricier, but still generally affordable).  These five cost me well under  a tenner (including postage). 

Four of them date from 1967 and the other from 1964 and contain an eclectic collection of stories across various genres.  All are reprints and the authors range from established literary figures such as William Saroyan and Agatha Christie, to writers whose names have long since faded into obscurity.  I'm looking forward to reading these, which should provide me with some decent reading matter for the next few weeks.  I'm actually looking another one, from 1970, the auction for which is ending soon.