Historic Munsey Park

Frank Munsey is credited with the idea of using new high-speed printing presses to print on inexpensive, untrimmed, pulp paper to mass produce affordable (typically ten cent) magazines, chiefly filled with various genres of action and adventure fiction and aimed at working-class readers who could not afford and were not interested in the content of the 25-cent slick magazines of the time. This innovation, known as Pulp Magazine, became an entire industry unto itself and made him quite wealthy. Munsey often closed down or changed the content of magazines when they became unprofitable, quickly starting new ones in their place.

Munsey died in New York City December 22, 1925 of a burst appendix at age 71. In his will he left a huge part of his fortune to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The village of Munsey Park, New York was founded on land owned by Munsey in 1922. At the time of his death his fortune was estimated to be $20 million to $40 million. Today with the rate of inflation it would be valued at $250 million to $500 million.