Startling Stories

Last updated

The robot on the cover of the January 1950 Startling Stories, painted by Earle K. Bergey, has "an engaging art deco stylishness to it" in the words of science fiction art historian Vincent Di Fate. This iconic image, Bergey's 43rd cover for Startling Stories, connects to Princess Leia's metal bikini and slave-girl attire as intermedial visual influence. Startling Stories 1950 Jan cover.jpg
The robot on the cover of the January 1950 Startling Stories, painted by Earle K. Bergey, has "an engaging art deco stylishness to it" in the words of science fiction art historian Vincent Di Fate. This iconic image, Bergey's 43rd cover for Startling Stories, connects to Princess Leia's metal bikini and slave-girl attire as intermedial visual influence.

Startling Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by publisher Ned Pines' Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories , Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue; the first was The Black Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum. When Standard Magazines acquired Thrilling Wonder in 1936, it also gained the rights to stories published in that magazine's predecessor, Wonder Stories, and selections from this early material were reprinted in Startling as "Hall of Fame" stories. Under Weisinger the magazine focused on younger readers and, when Weisinger was replaced by Oscar J. Friend in 1941, the magazine became even more juvenile in focus, with clichéd cover art and letters answered by a "Sergeant Saturn". Friend was replaced by Sam Merwin Jr. in 1945, and Merwin was able to improve the quality of the fiction substantially, publishing Arthur C. Clarke's Against the Fall of Night , and several other well-received stories.

Contents

Much of Startling's cover art was painted by Earle K. Bergey, who became strongly associated with the magazine, painting almost every cover between 1940 and 1952. He was known for equipping his heroines with brass bras and implausible costumes, and the public image of science fiction in his day was partly created by his work for Startling and other magazines. Merwin left in 1951, and Samuel Mines took over; the standard remained fairly high but competition from new and better-paying markets such as Galaxy Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction impaired Mines' ability to acquire quality material. In mid-1952, Standard attempted to change Startling's image by adopting a more sober title typeface and reducing the sensationalism of the covers, but by 1955 the pulp magazine market was collapsing. Startling absorbed its two companion magazines, Thrilling Wonder and Fantastic Story Magazine , in early 1955, but by the end of that year it too ceased publication.

Ron Hanna of Wild Cat Books revived Startling Stories in 2007. [3] Wild Cat Books folded in 2013. A statement of the closure is still posted on the Facebook page All Pulp dated March 12, 2013 (as of January 29, 2019). The magazine was again revived by John Gregory Betancourt's Wildside Press in February 2021, with Douglas Draa as editor. [4]

Publication history

Although science fiction had been published before the 1920s, it did not begin to coalesce into a separately marketed genre until the appearance in 1926 of Amazing Stories , a pulp magazine published by Hugo Gernsback. By the end of the 1930s the field was booming. [5] Standard Magazines, a pulp publishing company owned by Ned Pines, acquired its first science fiction magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories , from Gernsback in 1936. [6] Mort Weisinger, the editor of Thrilling Wonder, printed an editorial in February 1938 asking readers for suggestions for a companion magazine. Response was positive, and the new magazine, titled Startling Stories, was duly launched, with a first issue (pulp-sized, rather than bedsheet-sized, as many readers had requested), dated January 1939. [7] Initial pay rates were half a cent per word, lower than the leading magazines of the day. [8] [9]

Startling was launched on a bimonthly schedule, alternating months with Thrilling Wonder Stories, though in 1940 Thrilling moved to a monthly schedule that lasted for over a year. [10] [11] The first editor was Mort Weisinger, who had been an active fan in the early 1930s and had joined Standard Magazines in 1935, editing Thrilling Wonder from 1936. [12] Weisinger left in 1941 to take a new post as editor of Superman , and was replaced by Oscar J. Friend, who was an established writer of pulp fiction, though his experience was in western fiction rather than sf. [13] [14] [15] During Friend's tenure Startling slipped from bimonthly to quarterly publication. Friend lasted for a little over two years, and was replaced by Sam Merwin Jr., as of the Winter 1945 issue. [16]

Merwin succeeded in making Startling popular and successful, and the bimonthly schedule was resumed in 1947. [16] [17] At the start of 1952 Startling switched to a monthly schedule; this was unusual in that Startling was notionally junior to Thrilling Wonder, its sister magazine, which remained bimonthly. [18] [note 1] Merwin left shortly before this switch, in order to spend more time on his own writing. He was replaced by Samuel Mines, who had worked with Standard's Western magazines, though he was a science fiction aficionado. [19]

Street & Smith, one of the longest established and most respected publishers, shut down all of their pulp magazines in the summer of 1949. The pulps were dying, partially as a result of the success of paperbacks. Standard continued with Startling and Thrilling, but the end came only a few years later. [20] In 1954, Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent , a book in which he asserted that comics were inciting children to violence. A subsequent Senate subcommittee hearing led to a backlash against comics, and the publishers dropped titles in response. The financial impact spread to pulp magazines, since often a publisher would publish both. A 1955 strike by American News Corporation, the main distributor in the U.S., meant that magazines remained in warehouses and never made it to the newsstands; the unsold copies represented a significant financial blow and contributed to publishers' decisions to cancel magazines. Startling was one of the casualties. The schedule had already returned from monthly to bimonthly in 1953, and it became a quarterly in early 1954. Thrilling Wonder published its last issue in early 1955, and was then merged with Startling, as was Fantastic Story Magazine , another companion publication, but the combined magazine lasted only three more issues. [10] [17] [21] Mines left the magazine at the end of 1954; he was succeeded for two issues by Theron Raines, who was followed by Herbert D. Kastle for the last two. The final issue was dated Fall 1955. [17] [note 2]

Contents and reception

War years

From the beginning, every issue of Startling contained a complete novel, along with one or two short stories; long stories did not appear since the publisher's policy was to avoid serials. [7] [23] When Standard Magazines had bought Wonder Stories in 1936, they had also acquired rights to reprint the stories that had appeared in it and in its predecessor magazines, Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories, and so Startling also included a "Hall of Fame" reprint from one of these magazines in every issue. [10] The first lead novel was The Black Flame , a revised version of "Dawn of Flame", a story by Stanley Weinbaum that had previously appeared only in an edition limited to 250 copies. There was also a tribute to Weinbaum, written by Otto Binder; Weinbaum had died in 1935 and was well regarded, so even though the story was not one of his best, it was excellent publicity for the magazine. Otto and his brother, Earl, also contributed a story, "Science Island", under their joint pseudonym Eando Binder. The "Hall of Fame" reprint was D.D. Sharp's "The Eternal Man", from 1929. Other features included a pictorial article on Albert Einstein, and a set of biographical sketches of scientists, titled "Thrills in Science". [7] The letter column was called "The Ether Vibrates", and there was a regular fanzine review column, providing contact information so that readers could obtain the fanzines directly. [18] Initially the stories for the "Hall of Fame" were chosen by the editor, but soon Weisinger recruited well-known science fiction fans to make the choices. [18]

Startling was popular, and soon "became one of the core science fiction magazines", according to science fiction historian Mike Ashley. The target audience was younger readers, and the lead novels were often space operas by well-known pulp writers such as Edmond Hamilton and Manly Wade Wellman. In addition to space opera, some more fantastical fiction began to appear, contributed by writers such as Henry Kuttner. These early science fantasy stories were popular with the readers, and contrasted with the hard science fiction that John W. Campbell was pioneering at Astounding . [7]

Weisinger set out to please the younger readers, and when Friend became editor in 1941, he went further in this direction, giving the magazine a strongly juvenile flavor. For example, Friend introduced "Sergeant Saturn", a character (originally from Thrilling Wonder Stories) who answered readers' letters and appeared in other features in the magazine. Many subscribers found the approach irritating. [10] [18] [24]

The interior artwork was initially done by Hans Wessolowski (more usually known as "Wesso"), Mark Marchioni and Alex Schomburg, and occasionally Virgil Finlay. [18] The initial cover art was mostly painted by Howard Brown, [18] but when Earle K. Bergey began to paint covers for Startling in 1940, soon after its launch, Bergey quickly became identified with the magazine; between 1940 and 1952 (the year of Bergey's death) he painted the great majority of covers. Bergey's covers were visually striking: in the words of science fiction editor and critic Malcolm Edwards, they typically featured "a rugged hero, a desperate heroine (in either a metallic bikini or a dangerous state of déshabillé) and a hideous alien menace". [10] [15] The brass bra motif came to be associated with Bergey, and his covers did much to create the image of science fiction as it was perceived by the general public. [25]

Startling Stories 1944 Fall cover.jpg
Startling Stories 1946 Winter cover.jpg
Startling Stories 1950 Mar cover.jpg
Startling Stories 1950 Jul cover.jpg
Four covers from 1944 to 1950 that demonstrate the clichés of science fiction art of that time. From left to right, a brass bra; a ludicrously unrealistic spacesuit; an implausibly revealing costume; and a gravity-defying woman's costume. All four of the covers are the work of Earle K. Bergey.

Merwin and after

The May 1953 cover, by Walter Popp, demonstrates the sober look the magazine acquired later in its life, with a staid title typeface and slightly more realistic cover art Startling Stories 1953 May cover.jpg
The May 1953 cover, by Walter Popp, demonstrates the sober look the magazine acquired later in its life, with a staid title typeface and slightly more realistic cover art

When Merwin became editor in 1945 he brought changes, but artist Earle K. Bergey retained the creative freedom he had come to expect given his relationship with Standard. Some argue that Bergey's covers became more realistic, [10] [24] and Merwin managed to improve the interiors of Startling to the point of being a serious rival to Astounding, acknowledged leader of the field. Critics' opinions vary on the relative quality of the magazines of this era; Malcolm Edwards regards Startling as second only to Astounding, but Ashley considers Thrilling Wonder to be Astounding's closest challenger in the late 1940s. [10] [26] Merwin's discoveries included Jack Vance, whose first story, "The World Thinker", appeared in the Summer 1945 issue. [24] He also regularly published work by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, who wrote both under Kuttner's name and as "Keith Hammond": in a four-year period from 1946 to 1949 the writing team of Kuttner and Moore had seven novels published in Startling, mostly science fantasy, a subgenre not common at that time. [18] Notable novels that appeared in the late 1940s include Fredric Brown's What Mad Universe and Charles L. Harness's Flight Into Yesterday, later published in book form as The Paradox Men. Arthur C. Clarke's novel The City and the Stars first saw print in Startling in abbreviated form, in the November 1948 issue, under the title Against the Fall of Night. [10]

One novel that did not appear in Startling was Isaac Asimov's Pebble in the Sky , which Merwin had commissioned from Asimov in the early summer of 1947. After the unusual step of allowing the editor to twice read the work-in-progress and receiving nothing but approval, Asimov delivered a completed draft in September. This time, Merwin asked for revisions: Leo Margulies, Merwin's boss, had decided that Startling needed to focus more on action and adventure in the style of Amazing, and less on cerebral stories in the style of Astounding. Asimov, "for the first and only time of [his] life...openly lost [his] temper with an editor", stalked out of the room with his manuscript and never submitted anything to Merwin again, though he later expressed a softening of feeling and admitted Merwin had been within his rights. [27]

Another title in the Standard Magazines stable was Captain Future , which had been launched a year after Startling, and featured the adventures of the superhero after whom the magazine was named. When it folded with its Spring 1944 issue, the series of novels was continued for some time in the pages of Startling; over the next six years ten more "Captain Future" novels appeared, with the last one, Birthplace of Creation, printed in the May 1951 issue. [18] [28] [29]

Merwin's successor, Mines, also published some excellent work, though increased competition in the early 1950s from Galaxy and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction did lead to some dilution of quality, [10] and Startling's rates—one to two cents per word—could not compete with the leading magazines. [30] However, Startling's editorial policy was more eclectic: it did not limit itself to one kind of story, but printed everything from melodramatic space opera to sociological sf, [18] and Mines had a reputation as having "the most catholic tastes and the fewest inhibitions" of any of the science fiction magazine editors. [30] In late 1952, Mines published Philip José Farmer's "The Lovers", a taboo-breaking story about aliens who can reproduce only by mating with humans. Illustrated with an eye-popping cover by Bergey, Farmer's ground-breaking story integrated sex into the plot without being prurient, and was widely praised. Farmer, partly as a consequence, went on to win a Hugo Award as "Most Promising New Writer". New authors first published by Mines include Frank Herbert, who debuted with "Looking for Something?" in April 1952, and Robert F. Young, whose first story, "The Black Deep Thou Wingest", appeared in June 1953. [10] [18] [19] [24] The artwork was also high quality; Virgil Finlay's interior illustrations were "unparalleled", according to science fiction historian Robert Ewald. Other well-known artists who contributed interior work included Alex Schomburg and Kelly Freas. [18]

Startling's instantly recognizable title logo was redolent of the magazine's pulp roots, and in early 1952 Mines decided to replace it with a more staid typeface. [10] The covers became more sober, with spaceships replacing the women in brass bras. [18] With the Spring 1955 issue, at the start of its final year, Startling dropped its long-standing policy of printing a novel in every issue, but only three issues later it ceased publication. [18]

Bibliographic details

SpringSummerFallWinter
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
19391/11/21/32/12/22/3
19403/13/23/34/14/24/3
19415/15/25/36/16/26/3
19427/17/27/38/18/28/3
19439/19/29/310/1
194410/210/311/111/2
194511/312/112/212/3
194613/113/213/314/114/2
194714/315/115/215/316/116/2
194816/317/117/217/318/118/2
194918/319/119/219/320/120/2
195020/321/121/221/322/122/2
195122/323/123/223/324/124/2
195224/325/125/225/326/126/226/327/127/227/328/128/2
195328/329/129/229/330/130/230/331/1
195431/231/332/132/2
195532/333/133/233/3
Issues of Startling Stories, showing volume/issue number, and color-coded to
show who was editor for each issue. The editors, in sequence, were Mort
Weisinger, Oscar J. Friend, Sam Merwin Jr., Samuel Mines, Theron Raines, and
Herbert D. Kastle, though different references disagree on who was editor
during 1955. [17] Underlining indicates that an issue was titled as a quarterly (e.g.
"Fall 1949") rather than as a monthly.

The editorial succession at Startling was as follows: [16] [17] [note 2]

Startling was a pulp-sized magazine for all of its 99 issues. It initially was 132 pages, and was priced at 15 cents. The page count was reduced to 116 pages with the Summer 1944 issue and then increased to 148 pages with the March 1948 issue, at which time the price went up to 20 cents. The price increased again, to 25 cents, in November 1948, and the page count increased again to 180 pages. This higher page count did not last; it was reduced to 164 in March 1949 and then again to 148 pages in July 1951. The October 1953 issue saw the page count drop again, to 132, and a year later the Fall 1954 issue cut the page count to 116. The magazine remained at 116 pages and a price of 25 cents for the rest of its existence. [15]

The original bimonthly schedule continued until the March 1943 issue, which was followed by June 1943 and then Fall 1943. This inaugurated a quarterly schedule that ran until Fall 1946, except that an additional issue, dated March, was inserted between the Winter 1946 and Spring 1946 issues. The next issue, January 1947, began another bimonthly sequence, which ran without interruption until November 1951. With the following issue, January 1952, Startling switched to a monthly schedule, which lasted until the June 1953 issue which was followed by August and October 1953 and then January 1954. The next issue was Spring 1954, and the magazine stayed on a quarterly schedule from then until the last issue, Fall 1955. [15]

There was a British reprint edition from Pembertons between 1949 and 1954. These were heavily cut, with sometimes only one or two stories and usually only 64 pages, though the October and December 1952 issues both had 80 pages. It was published irregularly; initially once or twice a year, and then more or less bimonthly beginning in mid-1952. The issues were numbered from 1 to 18. Three different Canadian reprint editions also appeared for a total of 21 or 22 issues (sources differ on the correct number). [note 3] Six quarterly issues appeared from Summer 1945 through Fall 1946 from Publication Enterprises, Ltd.; then another three bimonthly issues appeared, from May to September 1948, from Pines Publications. Finally 12 more bimonthly issues appeared from March 1949 to January 1951, from Better Publications of Canada. All these issues were almost identical to the American versions, although they are 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) taller. [10] [15] [22] A Mexican magazine, Enigmas, ran for 16 issues from August 1955 to May 1958; it included many reprints, primarily from Startling and from Fantastic Story Magazine. [31]

Derivative anthologies

Two anthologies of stories from Startling have been published. In 1949 Merlin Press brought out From Off This World, edited by Leo Margulies and Oscar Friend, which included stories that had appeared in the "Hall of Fame" reprint section of the magazine. Then in 1954 Samuel Mines edited The Best from Startling Stories, published by Henry Holt; [10] despite the title, the stories were reprinted from both Startling and its sister magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories. [22] The anthology was reprinted twice in the UK under different titles; as Startling Stories in 1954, published by Cassell, and then in 1956 as a Science Fiction Book Club edition titled Moment in Time. [32] P. Schuyler Miller praised it as "an excellent collection by anyone's standards." [33]

Notes

  1. ↑ According to science fiction historian Robert Ewald, this is the only time the junior science fiction magazine at a publisher has become the more successful publication. [18]
  2. 1 2 Unusually, science fiction magazine references give multiple versions of the editorship for the last year. The Tymn & Ashley Encyclopedia says that Alexander Samalman and Herbert D. Kastle edited the last four issues together, while Donald Tuck, in his Encyclopedia, gives Samalman as the editor of the last four issues. Both Malcolm Edwards and Mike Ashley (in the latest (online) edition of the Nicholls & Clute Encyclopedia) and Ashley's Transformations agree, however, and as these are the latest sources their version is given here. [3] [18] [22]
  3. ↑ Tuck says that there were 22 but then enumerates them and only lists 21. Malcolm Edwards gives the figure as 22 but does not list them. [10] [22]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</i> American magazine

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. The first issue was titled The Magazine of Fantasy, but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. F&SF was quite different in presentation from the existing science fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single-column format, which in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley "set F&SF apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine".

<i>Unknown</i> (magazine) American pulp fantasy fiction magazine

Unknown was an American pulp fantasy fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1943 by Street & Smith, and edited by John W. Campbell. Unknown was a companion to Street & Smith's science fiction pulp, Astounding Science Fiction, which was also edited by Campbell at the time; many authors and illustrators contributed to both magazines. The leading fantasy magazine in the 1930s was Weird Tales, which focused on shock and horror. Campbell wanted to publish a fantasy magazine with more finesse and humor than Weird Tales, and put his plans into action when Eric Frank Russell sent him the manuscript of his novel Sinister Barrier, about aliens who own the human race. Unknown's first issue appeared in March 1939; in addition to Sinister Barrier, it included H. L. Gold's "Trouble With Water", a humorous fantasy about a New Yorker who meets a water gnome. Gold's story was the first of many in Unknown to combine commonplace reality with the fantastic.

<i>Planet Stories</i> 20th-century American pulp science fiction magazine

Planet Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on some other planets, and was initially focused on a young readership. Malcolm Reiss was editor or editor-in-chief for all of its 71 issues. Planet Stories was launched at the same time as Planet Comics, the success of which probably helped to fund the early issues of Planet Stories. Planet Stories did not pay well enough to regularly attract the leading science fiction writers of the day, but occasionally obtained work from well-known authors, including Isaac Asimov and Clifford D. Simak. In 1952 Planet Stories published Philip K. Dick's first sale, and printed four more of his stories over the next three years.

<i>Wonder Stories</i> American science fiction magazine

Wonder Stories was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, when his media company Experimenter Publishing went bankrupt. Within a few months of the bankruptcy, Gernsback launched three new magazines: Air Wonder Stories, Science Wonder Stories, and Science Wonder Quarterly.

<i>Infinity Science Fiction</i> 1950s US science fiction magazine

Infinity Science Fiction was an American science fiction magazine, edited by Larry T. Shaw, and published by Royal Publications. The first issue, which appeared in November 1955, included Arthur C. Clarke's "The Star", a story about a planet destroyed by a nova that turns out to have been the Star of Bethlehem; it won the Hugo Award for that year. Shaw obtained stories from some of the leading writers of the day, including Brian Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Sheckley, but the material was of variable quality. In 1958 Irwin Stein, the owner of Royal Publications, decided to shut down Infinity; the last issue was dated November 1958.

<i>Beyond Fantasy Fiction</i> US fantasy fiction magazine (1953–1955))

Beyond Fantasy Fiction was a US fantasy fiction magazine edited by H. L. Gold, with only ten issues published from 1953 to 1955. The last two issues carried the cover title of Beyond Fiction, but the publication's name for copyright purposes remained as before.

<i>Fantastic Universe</i> U.S. science fiction magazine, 1953–1960

Fantastic Universe was a U.S. science fiction magazine which began publishing in the 1950s. It ran for 69 issues, from June 1953 to March 1960, under two different publishers. It was part of the explosion of science fiction magazine publishing in the 1950s in the United States, and was moderately successful, outlasting almost all of its competitors. The main editors were Leo Margulies (1954–1956) and Hans Stefan Santesson (1956–1960).

<i>Science Fiction Quarterly</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Science Fiction Quarterly was an American pulp science fiction magazine that was published from 1940 to 1943 and again from 1951 to 1958. Charles Hornig served as editor for the first two issues; Robert A. W. Lowndes edited the remainder. Science Fiction Quarterly was launched by publisher Louis Silberkleit during a boom in science fiction magazines at the end of the 1930s. Silberkleit launched two other science fiction titles at about the same time: all three ceased publication before the end of World War II, falling prey to slow sales and paper shortages. In 1950 and 1951, as the market improved, Silberkleit relaunched Future Fiction and Science Fiction Quarterly. By the time Science Fiction Quarterly ceased publication in 1958, it was the last surviving science fiction pulp magazine, all other survivors having changed to different formats.

<i>Analog Science Fiction and Fact</i> US science fiction magazine

Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled Astounding Stories of Super-Science, the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton, and edited by Harry Bates. Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and the magazine was sold to Street & Smith. The new editor was F. Orlin Tremaine, who soon made Astounding the leading magazine in the nascent pulp science fiction field, publishing well-regarded stories such as Jack Williamson's Legion of Space and John W. Campbell's "Twilight". At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaine's supervision, and the following year Tremaine was let go, giving Campbell more independence. Over the next few years Campbell published many stories that became classics in the field, including Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, A. E. van Vogt's Slan, and several novels and stories by Robert A. Heinlein. The period beginning with Campbell's editorship is often referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

<i>Fantastic Story Quarterly</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Fantastic Story Quarterlywas a pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1955 by Best Books, a subsidiary imprint of Standard Magazines, based in Kokomo, Indiana. The name was changed with the Summer 1951 issue to Fantastic Story Magazine. It was launched to reprint stories from the early years of the science fiction pulp magazines, and was initially intended to carry no new fiction, though in the end every issue contained at least one new story. It was sufficiently successful for Standard to launch Wonder Story Annual as a vehicle for more science fiction reprints, but the success did not last. In 1955 it was merged with Standard's Startling Stories. Original fiction in Fantastic Story included Gordon R. Dickson's first sale, "Trespass", and stories by Walter M. Miller and Richard Matheson.

<i>Famous Fantastic Mysteries</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Famous Fantastic Mysteries was an American science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine published from 1939 to 1953. The editor was Mary Gnaedinger. It was launched by the Munsey Company as a way to reprint the many science fiction and fantasy stories which had appeared over the preceding decades in Munsey magazines such as Argosy. From its first issue, dated September/October 1939, Famous Fantastic Mysteries was an immediate success. Less than a year later, a companion magazine, Fantastic Novels, was launched.

<i>Satellite Science Fiction</i> American science fiction magazine, published from 1956 to 1959

Satellite Science Fiction was an American science-fiction magazine published from October 1956 to April 1959 by Leo Margulies' Renown Publications. Initially, Satellite was digest-sized and ran a full-length novel in each issue with a handful of short stories accompanying it. The policy was intended to help it compete against paperbacks, which were taking a growing share of the market. Sam Merwin edited the first two issues; Margulies took over when Merwin left, and then hired Frank Belknap Long for the February 1959 issue. That issue saw the format change to letter size, in the hope that the magazine would be more prominent on newsstands. The experiment was a failure and Margulies closed the magazine when the sales figures came in.

<i>Future Science Fiction</i> and <i>Science Fiction Stories</i> Two related US pulp science fiction magazines

Future Science Fiction and Science Fiction Stories were two American science fiction magazines that were published under various names between 1939 and 1943 and again from 1950 to 1960. Both publications were edited by Charles Hornig for the first few issues; Robert W. Lowndes took over in late 1941 and remained editor until the end. The initial launch of the magazines came as part of a boom in science fiction pulp magazine publishing at the end of the 1930s. In 1941 the two magazines were combined into one, titled Future Fiction combined with Science Fiction, but in 1943 wartime paper shortages ended the magazine's run, as Louis Silberkleit, the publisher, decided to focus his resources on his mystery and western magazine titles. In 1950, with the market improving again, Silberkleit relaunched Future Fiction, still in the pulp format. In the mid-1950s he also relaunched Science Fiction, this time under the title Science Fiction Stories. Silberkleit kept both magazines on very slim budgets throughout the 1950s. In 1960 both titles ceased publication when their distributor suddenly dropped all of Silberkleit's titles.

<i>Fantastic Novels</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Fantastic Novels was an American science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine published by the Munsey Company of New York from 1940 to 1941, and again by Popular Publications, also of New York, from 1948 to 1951. It was a companion to Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Like that magazine, it mostly reprinted science fiction and fantasy classics from earlier decades, such as novels by A. Merritt, George Allan England, and Victor Rousseau, though it occasionally published reprints of more recent work, such as Earth's Last Citadel, by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore.

<i>Space Stories</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Space Stories was a pulp magazine which published five issues from October 1952 to June 1953. It was published by Standard Magazines, and edited by Samuel Mines. Mines' editorial policy for Space Stories was to publish straightforward science fiction adventure stories. Among the better-known contributors were Jack Vance, Gordon R. Dickson and Leigh Brackett, whose novel The Big Jump appeared in the February 1953 issue.

<i>Strange Stories</i> (magazine) US pulp fantasy magazine (1939–1941)

Strange Stories was a pulp magazine which ran for thirteen issues from 1939 to 1941. It was edited by Mort Weisinger, who was not credited. Contributors included Robert Bloch, Eric Frank Russell, C. L. Moore, August Derleth, and Henry Kuttner. Strange Stories was a competitor to the established leader in weird fiction, Weird Tales. With the launch, also in 1939, of the well-received Unknown, Strange Stories was unable to compete. It ceased publication in 1941 when Weisinger left to edit Superman comic books.

<i>Two Complete Science-Adventure Books</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Two Complete Science-Adventure Books was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House, which lasted for eleven issues between 1950 and 1954 as a companion to Planet Stories. Each issue carried two novels or long novellas. It was initially intended to carry only reprints, but soon began to publish original stories. Contributors included Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Poul Anderson, John Brunner, and James Blish. The magazine folded in 1954, almost at the end of the pulp era.

<i>Captain Future</i> (magazine) US pulp science fiction magazine

Captain Future was a science fiction pulp magazine launched in 1940 by Better Publications, and edited initially by Mort Weisinger. It featured the adventures of Captain Future, a super-scientist whose real name was Curt Newton, in every issue. All but two of the novels in the magazine were written by Edmond Hamilton; the other two were by Joseph Samachson. The magazine also published other stories that had nothing to do with the title character, including Fredric Brown's first science fiction sale, "Not Yet the End". Captain Future published unabashed space opera, and was, in the words of science fiction historian Mike Ashley, "perhaps the most juvenile" of the science fiction pulps to appear in the early years of World War II. Wartime paper shortages eventually led to the magazine's cancellation: the last issue was dated Spring 1944.

<i>Wonder Story Annual</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Wonder Story Annual was a science fiction pulp magazine which was launched in 1950 by Standard Magazines. It was created as a vehicle to reprint stories from early issues of Wonder Stories, Startling Stories, and Wonder Stories Quarterly, which were owned by the same publisher. It lasted for four issues, succumbing in 1953 to competition from the growing market for paperback science fiction. Reprinted stories included Twice in Time, by Manly Wade Wellman, and "The Brain-Stealers of Mars", by John W. Campbell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of US science fiction and fantasy magazines to 1950</span> Science-fiction and fantasy magazine history

Science-fiction and fantasy magazines began to be published in the United States in the 1920s. Stories with science-fiction themes had been appearing for decades in pulp magazines such as Argosy, but there were no magazines that specialized in a single genre until 1915, when Street & Smith, one of the major pulp publishers, brought out Detective Story Magazine. The first magazine to focus solely on fantasy and horror was Weird Tales, which was launched in 1923, and established itself as the leading weird fiction magazine over the next two decades; writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard became regular contributors. In 1926 Weird Tales was joined by Amazing Stories, published by Hugo Gernsback; Amazing printed only science fiction, and no fantasy. Gernsback included a letter column in Amazing Stories, and this led to the creation of organized science-fiction fandom, as fans contacted each other using the addresses published with the letters. Gernsback wanted the fiction he printed to be scientifically accurate, and educational, as well as entertaining, but found it difficult to obtain stories that met his goals; he printed "The Moon Pool" by Abraham Merritt in 1927, despite it being completely unscientific. Gernsback lost control of Amazing Stories in 1929, but quickly started several new magazines. Wonder Stories, one of Gernsback's titles, was edited by David Lasser, who worked to improve the quality of the fiction he received. Another early competitor was Astounding Stories of Super-Science, which appeared in 1930, edited by Harry Bates, but Bates printed only the most basic adventure stories with minimal scientific content, and little of the material from his era is now remembered.

References

  1. ↑ di Fate (1997), p. 35.
  2. ↑ Rikke Schubart, Super bitches and action babes: the female hero in popular cinema, 1970-2006, page 225, McFarland & Co., 2007, ISBN   0-7864-2924-0
  3. 1 2 Edwards, Malcolm & Ashley, Mike. "Culture: Startling Stories: SFE: Science Fiction Encyclopedia". Science Fiction Encyclopedia. Gollancz. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  4. ↑ ONeill, John. "Startling Stories Returns." Article on blackgate.com, February 4, 2021.
  5. ↑ Edwards & Nicholls (1993), pp. 1066–1068.
  6. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 91.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Ashley (2000), pp. 136–139.
  8. ↑ Williamson (1984), p. 116.
  9. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 107.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Edwards (1993b), p. 1156.
  11. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 254.
  12. ↑ Edwards (1993c), p. 1311.
  13. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 123.
  14. ↑ Ashley (2000), pp. 187–188.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 See the individual issues. For convenience, an online index is available at "Magazine:Startling Stories — ISFDB". Al von Ruff . Retrieved July 4, 2008. An index to the Canadian and British reprints is at "Visco navigation". Terry Gibbons. Archived from the original on 9 July 2008. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
  16. 1 2 3 Ashley (2000), p. 250.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Ashley, Transformations, p. 343.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Ewald (1985), pp. 611–617.
  19. 1 2 Ashley (2005), p. 12–16.
  20. ↑ Ashley (2000), pp. 220–225.
  21. ↑ Ashley (2005), pp. 69–73.
  22. 1 2 3 4 "Startling Stories", in Tuck, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Vol. 3, pp. 594–595.
  23. ↑ del Rey (1979), p. 120.
  24. 1 2 3 4 Ashley (2000), pp. 187–190.
  25. ↑ Ashley (1976), opposite p. 153.
  26. ↑ Ashley (2000), pp. 188–190.
  27. ↑ Asimov (1979), pp. 498–499, 507–508.
  28. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 253.
  29. ↑ For convenience, an online index of the Captain Future series is available at "Captain Future – Series Bibliography". Al von Ruff . Retrieved January 9, 2011.
  30. 1 2 de Camp (1953), pp. 118–119.
  31. ↑ Pessina (1985), p. 887.
  32. ↑ "Mines, Samuel", in Tuck, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Vol. 2, p. 314.
  33. ↑ "The Reference Library", Astounding Science Fiction , July 1954, pp.148–49

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.