A Weird Bit of History

Here's a little weird history.

I discovered Stephen King's "The Raft" last year while on a trip back to Ohio. It was in this super cool booklet format. I've read a few of King's books, but I'm not well-versed in his works. I enjoyed the short story.

After I finished it, I did a little research and learned it was first published by men's magazine, Gallery, in November 1982! 😲 Wow! I thought. A nudie magazine published this super cool booklet.

My surprise didn't end there. King also published "The Monkey," "The Man Who Loved Flowers," and "The Crate" in Gallery. He had other short stories published in additional men's magazines like Playboy, Penthouse, and Omni. To be fair, he also had stories published in Ladies' Home Journal and Redbook, but my surprise is more at the quality of fiction finding its way into men's magazine.

Call me dense, but I didn't realize men actually read those magazines for the articles. 🤪

Going further down the rabbit trail...

Famed science-fiction author Isaac Asimov published 22 mysteries in Gallery from 1980 through 1983. They were later collected into his Union Club Mysteries book.

Those two big names published stories in men's magazines in the 70s and 80s. It blew my mind. I drew a blank on finding others who did the same, but I have to imagine there were many others. I didn't spend a lot of time checking because I had work to do. My stories won't write themselves, regardless of what those AI pundits want us to believe.

Regardless, the number of big-name authors writing in men's magazines had to be prolific. Don't you think?

What a different time!