History of science fiction and fantasy magazines to 1950

Science fiction and fantasy pulp magazines were published from 1926 to the mid 1950s.

Early magazines

By the end of the 19th century, stories with recognizably science fictional content were appearing regularly in American and British magazines.[1][note 1] These magazines typically did not print fiction to the exclusion of other content; they would include non-fiction articles and poetry as well. In October 1896, the Frank A. Munsey company's Argosy magazine was the first to switch to printing only fiction, and in December of that year it switched to using cheap wood-pulp paper. This is now regarded by magazine historians as having been the start of the pulp magazine era.[3][note 2] For twenty years the pulps were successful without restricting their fiction content to any specific genre, but in 1915 the influential magazine publisher Street & Smith began to issue titles that focused on a particular niche, such as Detective Story Magazine and Western Story Magazine, thus pioneering the specialized and single-genre pulps.[3][6]

As the pulps proliferated, they continued to carry science fiction (sf), both in the general fiction magazines and in the more specialized titles such as sports, detective fiction, and (especially) the hero pulps.[7] In 1919, Street & Smith launched The Thrill Book, a magazine that was intended to publish "different" stories: "different" meant stories that were unusual or unclassifiable in some way, which in most cases meant that they included either fantasy or science fiction elements.[6][8][note 3][note 4] The Thrill Book ceased publication in October 1919, having lasted for only sixteen issues; it carried some sf, particularly towards the end of its short run, but is not generally regarded as a science fiction or fantasy pulp.[9]

Science fiction did not appear only in pulp magazines. Hugo Gernsback, who had begun his career as an editor and publisher in 1908 with a radio hobbyist magazine called Modern Electrics, soon began including articles speculating about future uses of science, such as "Wireless on Saturn", which appeared in the December 1908 issue. The article was written with enough humour to make it clear to his readers that it was simply an imaginative exercise, but in 1911 Modern Electrics began serializing Ralph 124C41+, a novel set in the year 2660. In 1913 Gernsback launched another magazine, The Electrical Experimenter (retitled Science and Invention in 1920), which frequently ran science fictional tales, written both by Gernsback and others.[11] In 1921 Gernsback launched yet another magazine, this time titled Practical Electrics, and in 1924 he sent a letter to its subscribers suggesting a magazine that would publish only scientific fiction. The response was weak, and Gernsback shelved the project.[12]

Weird Tales & Amazing Stories

Gernsback's interests lay strictly at the scientific end of the fantasy and science fiction spectrum,[13] but while he was still making his plans, the first magazine to be primarily associated with fantasy and science fiction appeared, focusing on fantasy and weird fiction. The magazine was Weird Tales, and its first issue appeared in March 1923, edited by Edwin Baird, and published by Rural Publications, a company owned by Jacob Clark Henneberger and J.M. Lansinger. Rural also launched a companion magazine, Real Detective and Mystery Stories. Weird Tales was intended to provide a market for material that could not be sold to the existing pulp magazines, but the authors Henneberger had hoped to publish, such as Ben Hecht and Emerson Hough, did not respond. The planned monthly schedule soon began to slip, missing August and December, and several issues in mid-1924. After thirteen undistinguished and unprofitable issues, Henneberger and Lansinger split the company, each taking one of the magazines; Henneberger kept control of Weird Tales and installed Farnsworth Wright as editor. The magazine quickly began to improve, both in appearance and quality, as Wright nurtured some talented fantasy writers, including Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft.[14]

Wright frequently published science fiction, including Edmond Hamilton's first story, which appeared in August 1926, and work by J. Schlossel and Otis Adelbert Kline,[15][16] but Weird Tales carried weird and occult fiction as well.[17] The first magazine devoted entirely to science fiction joined Weird Tales on the newsstands on 10 March 1926, titled Amazing Stories and dated April. Gernsback had delayed for a couple of years after his subscriber survey had shown only limited interest in an sf magazine, but he finally decided to take the plunge. He ceased publication of Practical Electrics (which by now had changed its title to The Experimenter), but retained the editor, T. O'Conor Sloane, to edit the new magazine, though Gernsback retained final say over the fiction content The first issue of Amazing consisted entirely of reprinted material, but new fiction quickly appeared, and the magazine was very successful, reaching a circulation of 100,000 within a couple of years.[18]

Two fantasy magazines appeared in the late 1920s: one, Tales of Magic and Mystery appeared in 1927 and lasted only five issues; it specialized in stories about magic, including a series on Houdini. It was a financial failure, and is now remembered mainly for having published "Cool Air", a story by Lovecraft. The other was Ghost Stories, which was launched in mid-1926 by Bernarr Macfadden, who also published confessional magazines such as True Story. Much of the material in Ghost Stories was written in a similar confessional style, with tales of encounters with ghosts presented as true events. After some initial success sales began to decline, and in 1930 the magazine was sold to Harold Hersey, who had edited The Thrill Book for its first eight issues. Hersey was unable to revive the magazine's fortunes, and it ceased publication at the start of 1932.[19][20][21]

Neither Tales of Magic and Mystery nor Ghost Stories carried any significant science fiction, and as a result Gernsback initially had little competition.[19] In June 1927 he published Amazing Stories Annual, twice the size (and twice the price) of the regular Amazing Stories. It carried a new Mars novel, The Mastermind of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and rapidly sold out despite the high price. This was followed in 1928 by the first issue of Amazing Stories Quarterly.[22] Gernsback's declared goals for Amazing were both to educate and to entertain.[23] In the editorial for the first issue of Amazing Stories he asserted that "Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading – they are also always instructive". They supply knowledge that we might not otherwise obtain – and they supply it in a very palatable form. For the best of these modern writers of scientifiction have the knack of imparting knowledge and even inspiration without once making us aware that we are being taught".[24] However, it was difficult for Gernsback to find high-quality new material that was both entertaining and met his declared goal of providing scientific information, and the early issues of Amazing contained a high proportion of reprints. He also began to publish material such as A. Merritt's "The Moon Pool", which appeared in the May 1927 issue of Amazing; Merritt was extremely popular but the story was completely unscientific. Gernsback's introduction to the story claimed that Merritt was introducing a new science, but Mike Ashley, a historian of sf magazines, comments that Gernsback was simply "looking for an excuse for including such fantastic fiction in the magazine when it did not fit in with his basic creed".[25]

Early 1930s

In early 1929 Gernsback went bankrupt, and his magazines were sold. Both Amazing Stories and Amazing Stories Quarterly continued publication under their new ownership, edited by Sloane. Within two months Gernsback had launched two new magazines, Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories, with David Lasser as the editor for both. Gernsback still believed in the educational value of science fiction, and contrasted his goals for Air Wonder Stories with the fiction appearing in aviation pulps such as Sky Birds and Flying Aces, which were "purely 'Wild-West'-world war adenture-sky busting" stories, in his words. He planned to fill Air Wonder with "flying stories of the future, strictly along scientific-mechanical-technical lines, full of adventure, exploration and achievement".[26] In January 1930 Gernsback brought out another, even more specialized title: Scientific Detective Monthly was intended to be a cross between science fiction and detective stories. In the summer Gernsback merged Air Wonder with Science Wonder Stories, titling the combined magazine Wonder Stories. A quarterly, Science Wonder Quarterly, that had begun at the end of 1929, was retitled Wonder Stories Quarterly. Lasser stayed as editor for both magazines, and was generally successful, making Wonder Stories the leading science fiction magazine for several years.

Shortly before the merger of Science Wonder and Air Wonder, a new magazine appeared titled Astounding Stories of Super-Science, dated January 1930. The publisher, Clayton Magazines, was a major player in the pulp magazine field, and Astounding represented the first serious threat to Gernsback's dominance of the new genre. Astounding's editor, Harry Bates, was able t pay much higher rates than his competition, but he was uninterested in the educational goals that motivated Gernsback; he filled Astounding with adventure stories with minimal scientific content. The stories are generally considered to have been poor quality; Mike Ashley, a science fiction historian, considers Bates to have been "destroying the ideals of science fiction" with formulaic plots. Astounding flourished for a couple of years, and the following year Clayton launched a fantasy stablemate titled Strange Tales, also edited by Bates. Like its competitor, Weird Tales, it frequently published science fiction as well as fantasy. A competitor, Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories, appeared in mid-1931, edited by Harold Hersey, but the fiction was very poor quality and the magazine folded after only two issues.

By late 1932, Clayton was in financial difficulties, and Astounding switched to a bimonthly schedule; Strange Tales, which was already bimonthly, also reduced its publication frequency. To avoid being acquired by the printer, to whom the bulk of Clayton's debts were owed, Clayton attempted to buy the printer, but this proved a disastrous move. He lacked funds to complete the transaction, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. The January 1933 issue of both magazines was intended to be the last, but enough stories remained in inventory to produce one more issue of Astounding, which appeared in March 1933. Street & Smith acquired Astounding from the sale of Clayton's assets, and relaunched it in October of the same year, but Strange Tales did not find a buyer.

Street & Smith were a well-established pulp publisher, with an excellent distribution network, and the revived magazine was quickly competitive. It was edited by F. Orlin Tremaine, with assistance from Desmond Hall; both had come to Street & Smith from the wreckage of Clayton. Tremaine was an experienced pulp editor, and Street & Smith gave him a budget of one cent per word, which was better than the competing magazines (Wonder Stories and Amazing Stories) could pay. Within a year Astounding's circulation was estimated at 50,000, about twice that of the competition. In December 1933 Tremaine wrote an editorial called for "thought variant" stories which contained original ideas and did not simply reproduce adventure themes in a science-fiction context. The early stories identified by Tremaine as "thought variants" were not always particularly original, but it soon became apparent that Tremaine was willing to take risks by publishing stories that would have fallen foul of editorial taboos at other magazines. By the end of 1934, Astounding was clearly the leading science fiction magazine; important stories published that year include Murray Leinster's "Sidewise in Time", the first genre sf story to use the idea of alternate history; The Legion of Space, by Jack Williamson; and "Twilight", by John W. Campbell, writing as Don A. Stuart.

Amazing Stories, which had been edited by T. O'Conor Sloane since Gernsback lost control of it in 1929, published little of note during the early 1930s, though it did print the first story by several writers later to become well-known, including Jack Williamson, John W. Campbell, Clifford D. Simak, and E.E. Smith. Weird Tales had survived a bank failure in 1930 which froze most of the magazine's cash, and was continuing to publish well-received material—mostly fantasy and horror, but still including some science fiction. H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard both became regular contributors, and Margaret Brundage, perhaps the best-known artist to work for the magazine, became almost the only cover artist for the magazine, with almost all her covers including a nude figure. Virgil Finlay began contributing interior artwork in the mid-1930s and soon became popular.

Meanwhile Wonder Stories' editor David Lasser, who was given a good deal of editorial freedom by Gernsback, was working hard to improve his magazine. He corresponded with his authors to try to improve both the level of scientific literacy and the quality of the writing, and tried to avoid printing space operas, instead publishing stories dealing with topics such as the relationship between the sexes. Some stories from Wonder in the early 1930s were markedly more realistic than the fiction appearing in the other magazines of the day; Mike Ashley singles out Edmond Hamilton's "A Conquest of Space", which tells a much grittier tale than usual for the day, as an example. Lasser was let go by Gernsback in 1933, reportedly because he was active in promoting workers' rights, though Gernsback may also have been trying to cut costs as Lasser was well-paid. He was replaced by Charles Hornig, a 17-year-old fan, at less than a third of Lasser's salary, starting with the November 1933 issue. Gernsback experimented with some companion fiction titles in other genres in 1934, but was successful, and Wonder Stories' decline proved irreversible. After a failed attempt to persuade his readers to support a subscription-only model, he gave up and sold the magazine to Ned Pines of Beacon Magazines in February 1936. It was retitled Thrilling Wonder Stories to fit in with Pines' other titles such as Thrilling Detective, and given Mort Weisinger to edit.

Two more science fiction and fantasy magazines were launched in 1936, but neither lasted beyond the end of the year. Hersey, who had tried the market in 1931 with Miracle, brought out Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine, in an attempt to market pulp magazines to comics fans. Everett Bleiler, a historian of science fiction, describes the stories as "moronic" and "third-rate"; the experiment was a failure, and only one issue appeared. The Witch's Tales, a fantasy and horror pulp with ties to a popular radio show of the same name, was slightly more successful, with two issues in November and December 1936. Ashley considers the fiction to be of reasonable quality, and the magazine's failure may be because Carwood, the publisher, was small and relatively inexperienced, and may have had weak financing and distribution.

British magazines

Some US magazines were imported into the UK, but there was no attempt at a domestic magazine until 1934, when a British publisher, Pearsons, launched a tabloid science fiction magazine titled Scoops. It failed within a year and left the impression that the UK could not support a domestic fantasy or science fiction title. However, in 1937 a British fan, Walter Gillings, persuaded publisher The World's Work to test the market with a single issue of Tales of Wonder; it was sold well enough that it became a regular quarterly magazine. Another publisher, Newnes, launched their own pulp title, Fantasy, once they saw the success of Tales of Wonder. Both these ventures were cut short by the Second World War: Fantasy's editor, T. Stanhope Sprigg, went into the RAF after only three issues, and although Gillings edited Tales of Wonder from his army camp after he signed up, eventually he was unable to continue, and the last issue appeared in early 1942.

The two magazines included a mixture of American reprints and new work by British authors. Domestic contributors included John Wyndham, Eric Frank Russell, and William F. Temple; and reprints by Murray Leinster and Jack Williamson appeared. The most significant new author introduced in either magazine was undoubtedly Arthur C. Clarke, who sold non-fiction articles to Tales of Wonder in 1938 and 1939. Ashley comments that the fiction in both magazines was of reasonably good quality, and describes Tales of Wonder as "a lively, entertaining and enjoyable magazine".

Start of the Golden Age

At the end of 1937, Tremaine was promoted at Street & Smith, and his place as editor of Astounding was taken by John W. Campbell, with Tremaine as editor-in-chief. A few months later Street & Smith let Tremaine go, and gave Campbell a freer hand with the magazine. Campbell immediately changed the title from Astounding Stories to Astounding Science-Fiction; his editorial policy was targeted at the more mature readers of science fiction, and he felt that "Astounding Stories" did not convey the right image. He also asked his cover artists to produce more sober and less sensational artwork than had been the case under Tremaine. His most important change was in the expectations he placed on his writers: he asked them to write stories that felt as though they could have been published as non-science-fiction stories in a magazine of the future. A reader of the future would not need long explanations for the gadgets in their lives, so Campbell asked his writers to find ways of naturally introducing technology to their stories.

Over the next year, numerous authors who would go on to success in the field began to publish in Astounding. 1938 saw the first sales by Lester del Rey and L. Sprague de Camp, and in 1939 A.E. van Vogt, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Theodore Sturgeon all appeared in Astounding for the first time; all six writers, along with Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore, E.E. Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, Clifford D. Simak, and Fritz Leiber, became regular contributors to what became known as the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Heinlein rapidly became one of the most prolific contributors to Astounding, with three novels published in the next two years: If This Goes On—, Sixth Column, and Methuselah's Children, and half a dozen short stories. In September 1940, van Vogt's first novel, Slan, began serialization; the book was partly inspired by a challenge Campbell laid down to van Vogt that it was impossible to tell a superman story from the point of view of the superman. It proved to be one of the most popular stories Campbell published, and is an example of the way Campbell worked with his writers to feed them ideas and generate the material he wanted to buy. Isaac Asimov's "Robot" series began to take shape in 1941, with "Reason" and "Liar!" appearing in the April and May issues; as with "Slan", these stories were partly inspired by conversations with Campbell. The September 1941 issue included Asimov's short story "Nightfall", probably the most famous U.S. science-fiction story ever written, and in November, Second Stage Lensman, the next novel in Smith's Lensman series, began serialization. The following year had the beginning of Asimov's "Foundation" stories, with "Foundation" appearing in May and "Bridle and Saddle" in June. Van Vogt's "Recruiting Station", in the March issue, was the first story in his "Weapon Shop" series, described by critic John Clute as the most compelling of all van Vogt's work.

The late 1930s saw the first major boom in science fiction magazine publishing. In 1938 Marvel Science Stories appeared; this was something of an outlier in the field. It was an attempt by publishers Martin and Abraham Goodman to expand their existing "weird menace" list of titles into science fiction and fantasy. The "weird menace" genre of magazines were known for incorporating "sex and sadism", with story lines that placed women in danger, usually because of a threat that appeared to be supernatural but was ultimately revealed to be the work of a human villain. The Goodmans asked their authors to include more sex in their stories than was usual in the science fiction field; reader reaction was strongly negative to the spicier stories, but the Goodmans kept the magazine going until early 1941, and eventually revived it in 1950 for a few more issues when another sf magazine boom began.

Of much more importance to the science fiction genre were several other magazines that debuted in 1939. The first to appear were Startling Stories and Strange Stories, launched in January and February respectively as companions to Thrilling Wonder Stories; Mort Weisinger edited all three. Both Startling and Thrilling Wonder were action-oriented magazines, with covers depicting bizarre aliens and damsels in distress. In 1941 Weisinger left and Oscar J. Friend took over both editorial positions; under Friend the magazines became more juvenile, with features such as a letter column with letters answered by "Sergeant Saturn". The covers, often by Earle K. Bergery, frequently included women in implausibly revealing spacesuits or wearing Bergey's trademark "brass brassières". Strange Stories was focused on fantasy and occult fiction, and though it failed to attract much memorable fiction it lasted for two years, finally being cancelled in early 1941 when Weisinger departed.

February 1939 also saw the launch of Dynamic Science Stories, published by the Goodmans and intended to be a companion to Marvel Science Stories that would carry longer fiction. It lasted only for two issues. The following month saw the debut of Unknown, a companion to Astounding Science-Fiction, also edited by Campbell. The announcement for Unknown in the February 1939 Astounding argued that ""it has been the quality of the fantasy that you have read in the past that has made the very word anathema ... [Unknown] will offer fantasy of a quality so far different from that which has appeared in the past as to change your entire understanding of the term". Unknown quickly acquired a stable of regular writers, many of whom were also appearing in Astounding, all of whom were comfortable with the logical rigor that Campbell demanded even of a fantasy plot. Frequent contributors included L. Ron Hubbard, Theodore Sturgeon, and L. Sprague de Camp, who, in collaboration with Fletcher Pratt, contributed three stories about a world where magic operates by rigorous rules. The stories were later collected as part of Pratt and de Camp's "Incompleat Enchanter" series; sf critic John Clute has commented that the title of one of them, "The Mathematics of Magic", is "perfectly expressive of the terms under which magic found easy mention in Unknown".

Unknown was the first serious threat to Weird Tales' dominance of the weird and occult fantasy genre, and it arrived just as changes were underway at Weird Tales. In 1938 thte title had been sold to William Delaney, publisher of Short Stories, and by early 1940 the editor, Farnsworth Wright, was replaced by Dorothy McIlwraith, who also edited Short Stories. McIlwraith had no particular expertise in the horror field, and although she was a competent editor, the Wright era is generally considered to have been Weird Tales heyday. Unknown was quickly the leading magazine in its small field.

Also in March came the launch of Science Fiction, published by Louis Silberkleit, who had once worked for Gernsback. The magazine's appearance stymied John Campbell's plans to drop "Astounding" from the title of Astounding Science-Fiction, as he had long wanted to do; it would take over twenty more years before Campbell was finally able to get rid of the adjective. Silberkleit hired Charles Hornig, who had lost his job as editor of Wonder Stories when Gernsback sold the magazine to Ned Pines in 1936. Silberkleit soon decided to spread his costs over additional magazines, and a second title, Future Fiction, appeared in November, also edited by Hornig. The fiction budget was too low for Hornig to acquire much good material, and slow payment also discouraged some authors from submitting stories.

In 1938 Amazing Stories was acquired by Ziff-Davis, who gave it to Ray Palmer to edit. Palmer quickly improved the circulation, and in May 1939, Ziff-Davis launched Fantastic Adventures as a companion magazine, also edited by Palmer. Fantastic Adventures printed a mixture of science fiction and fantasy; it was initially unsuccessful, but the October 1940 issue, with a dramatic cover by J. Allen St. John, sold very well, and convinced Ziff-Davis to continue with the magazine. Then in September, the first issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries appeared on newsstands, published by Munsey, who had begun the pulp revolution decades earlier. Munsey had no dedicated science fiction or fantasy magazine, but their extensive backfile included many stories from both genres which had appeared in magazines such as Argosy, and Famous Fantastic Mysteries was created as a reprint vehicle. There was a strong demand for reprints of old favorite stories, and the magazine was soon successful enough to switch from bimonthly to monthly.

The last sf magazine to be launched in 1939 was Planet Stories, which appeared in December. The publisher was Fiction House, who also published Jungle Stories, a pulp with occasional sf storylines; two comics were launched at the same time: Jungle Comics and Planet Comics. The target audience was young, and the plots were straightforward melodramatic tales of space opera and what became known later as planetary romances—melodramatic tales of action and adventure on alien planets and in interplanetary space.

War years

The boom in sf magazine publishing continued into 1940, with Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories, two new titles from Popular Publications, a well-established pulp magazine publisher. Both were edited by Frederik Pohl, who was only nineteen; he had a very limited budget, but his contacts with other budding sf writers such as Cyril Kornbluth and James Blish meant he was able to find surprisingly good material. Both magazines were bimonthly, with Astonishing first issue dated February 1940, and Super Science Stories appearing the following month. Captain Future, a hero pulp launched by Better Publications, also appeared on the newstands for the first time in early 1940. Better Publications was part of the Standard Publications group, and Captain Future joined an existing stable of several sf and fantasy titles: Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Strange Stories, all edited by Mort Weisinger. Captain Future was perhaps the most juvenile of all the sf pulps, with simple space opera plots in which Captain Future and his friends saved the solar system or the entire universe from a villain.

In the summer Louis Silberkleit, who already had two titles on the market (Science Fiction and Future Fiction), added a third, titled Science Fiction Quarterly, with the intention of including a full-length novel in every issue. This was initially edited by Charles Hornig, but by the end of the year Hornig had moved to California and all three titles were given to Robert W. Lowndes to edit. That summer also saw the launch of Fantastic Novels, a companion to Famous Fantastic Mysteries, which, like Science Fiction Quarterly, was planned as a vehicle for novel length works, though in this case the novels were to be reprints from Munsey's backlog.

At the end of the year two more magazines appeared. Uncanny Tales was Canadian, a rarity in the pulp field, where most titles in Canada were reprint editions of the US titles. It was edited by Melvin R. Colby, and carried stories by Canadian writers at first, but soon started to publish work by Donald Wollheim and Sam Moskowitz and their respective circles of writer friends. The first issue was dated November 1940, and it was followed in December by the first issue of Comet, which saw the return to the field of F. Orlin Tremaine, who had been influential in the mid-1930s when he edited Astounding. The publisher, H-K Publications, was owned by Harold Hersey, who had previously been involved with several failed magazines—The Thrill Book, Ghost Stories, Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories, and Flash Gordon Strange Adventures. Tremaine had a relatively high budget for fiction compared to many of the new magazines, but this may have put the magazine under additional financial pressure, and it only survived for five issues, ceasing publication with the July 1941 issue.

Meanwhile two more magazines appeared that spring, titled Stirring Science Stories and Cosmic Stories. These were published by a father and son operating under the name of Albing Publications; they had almost no capital, but they persuaded Donald Wollheim to edit the magazine for no salary at all, and gave him no budget for fiction. The plan was to start paying contributors once the magazine was profitable. Wollheim knew several beginning writers who were willing to donate stories, and managed to acquire some surprisingly good material. In the event only six issues appeared in 1941, though Wollheim was able to find a publisher for one more issue of Stirring in March 1942. The final magazine to launch during World War II was Uncanny Tales, published by the Goodman brothers. Marvel Science Stories ceased publication in 1941, and Uncanny Tales was probably created to use up some remaining stories in their inventory. It was dated the same month as the last issue of Marvel: April 1941.

List of magazines

The following table of magazines gives the following information:[27]

Title First issue Last issue Publisher # issues New or reprint? Notes
The Thrill Book 1919 1919 Street & Smith 16 New The first eight issues were in dime novel format.
Weird Tales 1923 2014 Rural, Popular Fiction, Weird Tales (Short Stories) 256 New 23 more issues appeared between 1951 and 1954, and 83 further issues between 1973 and 2014. Popular Fiction should not be confused with Popular Publications.
Amazing Stories 1926 2014 Experimenter (Gernsback), Radio-Science, Teck, Ziff-Davis 257 New Also 355 issues between 1951 and 2014.
Amazing Stories Annual 1927 1927 Experimenter (Gernsback) 1 New
Tales of Magic and Mystery 1927 1928 Personal Arts 5 New
Ghost Stories 1928 1932 Constructive, Good Story (Hersey) 65 New
Amazing Stories Quarterly 1928 1934 Experimenter (Gernsback), Irving Trust, Radio-Science, Teck 22 New An additional 27 issues from 1940-1949 were not a separate magazine; they were rebound copies of Amazing Stories.
Air Wonder Stories 1929 1930 Stellar (Gernsback) 11 New
Science Wonder Stories 1929 1930 Stellar (Gernsback) 12 New
Wonder Stories Quarterly 1929 1933 Stellar (Gernsback) 14 Reprint
Astounding Stories 1930 Clayton, Street & Smith, Condé Nast, Davis, Dell, Crosstown 241 New 775 subsequent issues as of November 2016. In digest format from the November 1943 issue onwards.
Scientific Detective Monthly 1930 1931 Techni-Craft (Gernsback), Fiction Publishers 15 New Fiction Publishers should not be confused with Fiction House.
Wonder Stories 1930 1936 Stellar, Continental (both Gernsback) 66 New
Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories 1931 1931 Good Story (Hersey) 2 New
Strange Tales 1931 2007 Clayton 7 New Also three issues 2003-2007.
Scoops 1934 1934 Pearsons 34 New Tabloid format
Thrilling Wonder Stories 1936 1954 Beacon, Better, Standard (all Standard) 111 New
The Witch's Tales 1936 1936 Carwood 2 Reprint
Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine 1936 1936 C.J.H. (Hersey) 1 New
Tales of Wonder 1937 1942 The World's Work 16 New
Fantasy 1938 1939 Newnes 3 New
Marvel Science Stories 1938 1952 Postal, Western (both Goodman) 10 New Two runs, 1938–41 and 1950–52; five of the latter issues appeared after 1950.
Startling Stories 1939 1955 Better (Standard), Standard 65 New Also 34 issues between 1951 and 1955.
Dynamic Science Stories 1939 1939 Western (Goodman) 2 New
Strange Stories 1939 1941 Better (Standard) 13 New
Unknown 1939 1943 Street & Smith 39 New
Science Fiction Stories 1939 1941 Blue Ribbon, Double Action, Columbia (all Silberkleit) 12 New Also 38 issues 1953-1960.
Fantastic Adventures 1939 1953 Ziff-Davis 101 New Also 27 issues 1951-1953.
Famous Fantastic Mysteries 1939 1953 Munsey, Popular Publications 66 Reprint Also 15 issues 1951-1953.
Future Science Fiction 1939 1954 Blue Ribbon, Double Action, Columbia (all Silberkleit) 21 New Two runs, 1939–43 and 1950-54; 44 of the latter issues appeared after 1950.
Planet Stories 1939 1955 Love Romances (Fiction House) 45 New Also 26 issues 1951-1955.
Captain Future 1940 1944 Standard 17 New
Astonishing Stories 1940 1943 Fictioneers (Popular Publications) 16 New
Super Science Stories 1940 1951 Fictioneers (Popular Publications), Popular Publications 27 New Two runs, 1940–43 and 1949-51; four of the latter issues appeared after 1950.
Science Fiction Quarterly 1940 1958 Double Action, Columbia (both Silberkleit) 10 New Two runs, 1940–43 and 28 issues between 1951 and 1958.
Fantastic Novels 1940 1951 Munsey, Popular Publications 25 Reprint Two runs, 1940–41 and 1948–51; three of the latter issues appeared after 1950.
Uncanny Tales 1940 1943 Adam, Norman 21 New
Comet 1940 1941 H-K (Hersey) 5 New
Stirring Science Stories 1941 1942 Albing, Manhattan Fiction 4 New
Cosmic Stories 1941 1941 Albing 3 New
Uncanny Stories 1941 1941 Manvis (Goodman) 1 New
New Worlds 1946 1947 Pendulum 3 New Over 200 subsequent issues in a variety of formats, 1949-1997.
Fantasy 1946 1947 Temple Bar 3 New Digest format.
A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine 1949 1950 Popular Publications 5 Reprint
Fantastic Story Quarterly 1950 1955 Best (Standard) 3 Reprint 20 issues appeared after 1950.
Out of This World Adventures 1950 1950 Avon 2 New
Wonder Story Annual 1950 1953 Better, Best (both Standard) 4 Reprint Three issues appeared after 1950.

Notes

  1. ↑ The term "science fiction" would not be coined until 1929, but there were other terms used: "scientific romance" and "scientific fiction", for example.[2]
  2. ↑ A pulp magazine was usually 10 x 7 inches, but magazines are often regarded as pulps even if they printed most or all of their run in other sizes -- 11.75 x 8 inches is known as large pulp, and sometimes as bedsheet, though this latter term is confusing because "bedsheet" format can also refer to a different, significantly larger, magazine format.[4][5]
  3. ↑ The Thrill Book was initially released in dime-novel format, but switched to pulp format with its ninth issue.[9] The typical dime-novel format was saddle-stapled, and either 5 x 7 inches or 8.5 x 11 inches; The Thrill Book was 8 x 10.75 inches.[10]
  4. ↑ The term "different" for this sort of story had been coined by Robert A. Davis, one of the editors at Munsey.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Stableford (2009), p. 29.
  2. ↑ Nevins (2014), p. 94.
  3. 1 2 Nicholls, Peter; Ashley, Mike (July 18, 2012). "Pulp". SF Encyclopedia. Gollancz. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
  4. ↑ Nicholls, Peter; Ashley, Michael. "Culture : Pulp : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia". sf-encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  5. ↑ Ashley, Mike. "Culture : Bedsheet : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia". sf-encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  6. 1 2 3 Murray (2011), p. 11.
  7. ↑ Nevins (2014), pp. 94–95.
  8. ↑ Bleiler (1991), pp. 4−5.
  9. 1 2 Ashley (1985b), pp. 661−664.
  10. ↑ Bleiler, Everett F. "Themes : Dime-Novel SF : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia". sf-encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  11. ↑ Ashley (2000), pp. 28–35.
  12. ↑ Ashley (2000), pp.47–49.
  13. ↑ Westfahl, Gary. "Authors : Gernsback, Hugo : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia". sf-encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
  14. ↑ Weinberg (1985), pp. 727–728.
  15. ↑ Ashley (2000), pp. 43–44.
  16. ↑ Weinberg (1985), p. 728.
  17. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 41.
  18. ↑ Ashley (2000), pp. 48–51.
  19. 1 2 Ashley (2000), pp. 62–63.
  20. ↑ Ashley (1985a), pp. 315–317.
  21. ↑ Ashley (1985c), pp. 644–647.
  22. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 54–55.
  23. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 50.
  24. ↑ Quoted in Ashley (2000), p. 50).
  25. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 54.
  26. ↑ Gernsback, editorial in Air Wonder Stories, July 1929, p. 5, quoted in & Bleiler & Bleiler (1998), p. 542.
  27. ↑ Ashley (2000); Tymn & Ashley (1985).

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.