AMERICAN MAGAZINE was founded in 1906 when a group of the regulars at McCLURE'S split off, purchased the moribund FRANK LESLIE'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE, and refocused it as a muckraking journal. By 1912 they were out of money and sold the magazine to the Crowell Publishing Co., which refocused it to compete with COLLIER'S and the WOMAN'S HOME COMPANION. While their cover designs kept up with current trends, the overall layout was very stable and an issue from 1916 is instantly recognizable as the same magazine as the 1956 AMERICAN in its last issue.