Reading Around in Old SF Magazines

[Hugh]

Really informative. Many thanks!

 

[Bick]

Continuing my reading (1 story selected per month) through...

Astounding Stories, 1936

April 1936
The Chrysalis - P. Schuyler Miller
An amateur archeologist, Schuyler Miller (1912-1974) published several dozen short stories from 1930 through to about 1950, spanning the pre-golden age and the Campbell years. He may be best known to many readers for writing the "Reference Library" book review section of Astounding from 1951 until his death in 1974. This tale was really rather good, inspired by his great interest in archeology - it is an archeological SF story. A Mesolithic dig unearths cut logs beside a stream, and the site must be uncovered quickly before flood waters destroy unique evidence of a construction by very early man. But what they actually discover in the pit is a remarkably preserved, strangely mummified, woman. Events unfold in a terrific manner, in what is a slightly Lovecraftian tale.

May 1936
Red Storm on Jupiter - Frank Belknap Long
While the Miller story was somewhat timeless and terrific, this story by Frank Belknap Long is much more 'of its time'. Long (1901-1994) had a significant SF and horror writing career, publishing dozens of short stories from 1924 (The Desert Lich, in Weird Tales) through to the late '80s, and a couple of dozen novels (1957-1977). He was a skilled writer, and could doubtless direct his prose to suit the medium. In this tale, the stylistic approach is of 'daring-do' and pulp adventure. Long has set the tale in a mining colony on the 'surface' of Jupiter, and while this sounds a little daft, he does at least at least provide a semblance of sensible speculation by making the surface not quite solid, and requiring the workers to use intriguing technology that locally dampens the terrific winds. There is the usual a smattering of misogyny for the time , but it's not too bad, and although it's all pulp silliness at the end of the day, it was still more readable and enjoyable than a lot of modern short SF.

June 1936
At the Center of Gravity - Ross Rocklynne
Ross Rocklynne (1913-1988) started out as a SF fan, with numerous letters published in Amazing and Astounding from 1932 until he started publishing stories himself in 1935/36. While several authors who started writing under Tremaine's editorship didn't survive Campbell's transition to more science-based stories, Rocklynne continued to publish regularly for Campbell's Astounding throughout the 40's and 50's . This particular story manages to be simultaneously dreadful and really neat. The dreadful part is the prose, which is the epitome of hack pulp fiction. The neat bit is the concept, which is the kind of unusual physics speculation Hal Clement used to come up with. This is probably the first story in which a SF author imagines falling into a hollow planet, wherein the unlucky person initially 'falls' rapidly toward the center, but slows after half-way and then comes to a halt, stuck at the empty core, attracted by the shell's gravity in all directions. In the tale, a space policeman is chasing a criminal and they fall inside a small, hollow, tidally-locked dwarf planet (Vulcan) near our sun, and they then have to try and figure a way out.

 

[AE35Unit]

Eando Binder, the man who came up with the title for a story, I.Robot. years later Asimov wanted to give his collection of linked stories that title. His editor told him he can't because Eando Binder already used that title. To which Asimov replied, F*** Eando Binder

 

[Hugh]

Continuing my reading (1 story selected per month) through...

Astounding Stories, 1936

April 1936
The Chrysalis - P. Schuyler Miller
An amateur archeologist, Schuyler Miller (1912-1974) published several dozen short stories from 1930 through to about 1950, spanning the pre-golden age and the Campbell years. He may be best known to many readers for writing the "Reference Library" book review section of Astounding from 1951 until his death in 1974. This tale was really rather good, inspired by his great interest in archeology - it is an archeological SF story. A Mesolithic dig unearths cut logs beside a stream, and the site must be uncovered quickly before flood waters destroy unique evidence of a construction by very early man. But what they actually discover in the pit is a remarkably preserved, strangely mummified, woman. Events unfold in a terrific manner, in what is a slightly Lovecraftian tale.

May 1936
Red Storm on Jupiter - Frank Belknap Long
While the Miller story was somewhat timeless and terrific, this story by Frank Belknap Long is much more 'of its time'. Long (1901-1994) had a significant SF and horror writing career, publishing dozens of short stories from 1924 (The Desert Lich, in Weird Tales) through to the late '80s, and a couple of dozen novels (1957-1977). He was a skilled writer, and could doubtless direct his prose to suit the medium. In this tale, the stylistic approach is of 'daring-do' and pulp adventure. Long has set the tale in a mining colony on the 'surface' of Jupiter, and while this sounds a little daft, he does at least at least provide a semblance of sensible speculation by making the surface not quite solid, and requiring the workers to use intriguing technology that locally dampens the terrific winds. There is the usual a smattering of misogyny for the time , but it's not too bad, and although it's all pulp silliness at the end of the day, it was still more readable and enjoyable than a lot of modern short SF.

June 1936
At the Center of Gravity - Ross Rocklynne
Ross Rocklynne (1913-1988) started out as a SF fan, with numerous letters published in Amazing and Astounding from 1932 until he started publishing stories himself in 1935/36. While several authors who started writing under Tremaine's editorship didn't survive Campbell's transition to more science-based stories, Rocklynne continued to publish regularly for Campbell's Astounding throughout the 40's and 50's . This particular story manages to be simultaneously dreadful and really neat. The dreadful part is the prose, which is the epitome of hack pulp fiction. The neat bit is the concept, which is the kind of unusual physics speculation Hal Clement used to come up with. This is probably the first story in which a SF author imagines falling into a hollow planet, wherein the unlucky person initially 'falls' rapidly toward the center, but slows after half-way and then comes to a halt, stuck at the empty core, attracted by the shell's gravity in all directions. In the tale, a space policeman is chasing a criminal and they fall inside a small, hollow, tidally-locked dwarf planet (Vulcan) near our sun, and they then have to try and figure a way out.

Very interesting. Many thanks.

 

[hitmouse]

Eando Binder, the man who came up with the title for a story, I.Robot. years later Asimov wanted to give his collection of linked stories that title. His editor told him he can't because Eando Binder already used that title. To which Asimov replied, F*** Eando Binder

Eando Binder, the brothers who came up with the title for the story

 

[AE35Unit]

Eando Binder, the brothers who came up with the title for the story

Brothers? I don't remember Asimov mentioning that in his biography

 

[hitmouse]

Brothers? I don't remember Asimov mentioning that in his biography

Eando Binder - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Bick]

Hitmouse is quite right of course, but let's not go down a rabbit hole over sibling pseudonyms; can we please still to topic on this thread?
Thanks.

 

[JimC]

Earl and Otto - Eando

 

[JunkMonkey]

I'm currently reading a pile of Galaxie and Fiction magazines from the late 50s / early 60s. Galaxie was the French edition of Galaxy and Fiction that of F&SF. It's turning into a very odd experience. I keep bumping into stories I half remember reading 50 years ago. Rediscoveries like Theodore R Cogswell's 'The Cabbage Patch' which gave me the utter creeps as a child and more than one nightmare over the years before being filed away in the deep recesses of my memory and all but forgotten.

Reading them again in a second language I can *just* about understand them in is like reading them again for the first time. Back then my lack of understanding of general references and idioms - especially American ones (American language was a lot less common in British culture back then) - made the stories a lot more opaque and mysterious.

It's nice to have that experience again whilst simultaneously laying a few ghosts.

 

[beccabear67]

I used to have hundreds, maybe even a thousand, '50s-'70s SF/F digests and read most of every one of them. Obviously Analog (even back to Astounding) was a major favorite and accounted for the greatest number. Here I first got acquainted with James H. Schmitz, George R.R. Martin and of course John W. Campbell (up to 1971). Second place was The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction going back to the second issue ever, home of Richard Matheson and sometimes visited by Hannes Bok. Galaxy must have accounted for the third most and even had the very first one of it; Philip K. Dick (also in F&SF), Cordwainer Smith... early issues had Wally Wood art. There was even briefly a fantasy sister digest named Beyond and I had a few of those. If was another quality digest, eventually being published by Galaxy. Amazing and Fantastic were the longest lived before they were digests I think, but the quality was not always as good as the big three, or four including If. They did make it out of the '60s well into the '70s though! Science Fiction Adventures I enjoyed for good Robert Silverberg stories, not sure it made it out of the '50s however. Same with Super-Science Stories which i remember having some very colorful Kelly Freas covers (who also did great covers on Analog later). There were many short-lived digest magazines in the '50s, and a few in the '60s too: Satellite, Imagination, Other Worlds, New Worlds... I even had the last few of the last original Weird Tales which were digest sizedI can't believe I got rid of all of these save a few Galaxies with damaged spines a bookshop wouldn't take.

I'm lucky to have had and enjoyed them once at least. A great education of some sort. Of paperbacks I still have a number of those short Ace books from the '60s, and those Ballantine Adult Fantasy titles of the late '60s-early '70s. And I have been acquiring some of the sercon SF fanzines/magazines of the mid '70s onward as I find I enjoy them now. Somewere there are old stacks of fanzines I got from the '70s-'90s; just never thought anybody would want them ever so they stayed... even recycled many of the less meaningful ones.

 

[Bick]

I used to have hundreds, maybe even a thousand, '50s-'70s SF/F digests and read most of every one of them. Obviously Analog (even back to Astounding) was a major favorite and accounted for the greatest number. Here I first got acquainted with James H. Schmitz, George R.R. Martin and of course John W. Campbell (up to 1971). Second place was The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction going back to the second issue ever, home of Richard Matheson and sometimes visited by Hannes Bok. Galaxy must have accounted for the third most and even had the very first one of it; Philip K. Dick (also in F&SF), Cordwainer Smith... early issues had Wally Wood art. There was even briefly a fantasy sister digest named Beyond and I had a few of those. If was another quality digest, eventually being published by Galaxy. Amazing and Fantastic were the longest lived before they were digests I think, but the quality was not always as good as the big three, or four including If. They did make it out of the '60s well into the '70s though! Science Fiction Adventures I enjoyed for good Robert Silverberg stories, not sure it made it out of the '50s however. Same with Super-Science Stories which i remember having some very colorful Kelly Freas covers (who also did great covers on Analog later). There were many short-lived digest magazines in the '50s, and a few in the '60s too: Satellite, Imagination, Other Worlds, New Worlds... I even had the last few of the last original Weird Tales which were digest sizedI can't believe I got rid of all of these save a few Galaxies with damaged spines a bookshop wouldn't take.

I'm lucky to have had and enjoyed them once at least. A great education of some sort. Of paperbacks I still have a number of those short Ace books from the '60s, and those Ballantine Adult Fantasy titles of the late '60s-early '70s. And I have been acquiring some of the sercon SF fanzines/magazines of the mid '70s onward as I find I enjoy them now. Somewere there are old stacks of fanzines I got from the '70s-'90s; just never thought anybody would want them ever so they stayed... even recycled many of the less meaningful ones.

Great memories of the great ‘zines - thanks for sharing.

 

[beccabear67]

I guess I could round-up my personal experiences with SF/F magazines: in the early '80s I had some subscriptions. I got Analog and Asimov's for awhile, Omni even longer (it had some great fiction but I hated some of their wiggier articles about UFOs or downloading our brains onto hard drives and 'disposing' of the hard copy), and briefly Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine (one year was four issues).

Of the real old style pulps I only had a few, so few I could possibly remember each one specifically. There were two '30s Marvel Science Stories at the earliest end, a 1941 Thrilling-Wonder Stories, the first issue of Future Science Fiction and a 1942 issue with a Hannes Bok cover, a Famous Fantastic Mysteries from 1942 and one from 1947 with Virgil Finlay covers on both, two issues of Weird Tales circa 1947-48... then jumping ahead to the early '50s I had one Super-Science, and a couple Dynamic Science Fiction, the first one (space lady with a giant feather?) and one later one, and that was it I think. Enough to 'marvel' over the streamlined designs in some of the artwork, but not too many stories were memorable. There was one good aquatic one by Edmond Hamilton in a Weird Tales. They all had raggedy edges to the paper and were comic book sized, only much thicker. I have found some pdfs of issues I had. Often it's the non-fiction material as in letters and material about fan doings of the time that seems the most valuable now.

I once had a hardcover book with lots of color reproductions of the earliest Gernsback magazines, I think it was published in the '70s, and that gave me a basic rundown of the earliest days.

 

[dask]

 

[beccabear67]

View attachment 122561

Ha! There it is, one of more memorable covers!

 

[Orcadian]

I wonder whether anyone who is a pulp fiction magazine aficionado could help me to find the first science fiction I encountered, in the 1950s, aged between 5 and 6. This was before my first SF book the following year (having joined the library). My dad liked to trawl secondhand bookshops and he had brought home this magazine. I was transfixed by the cover, which I can still see in my mind's eye. It showed the interior of a spaceship, I think a corridor with hatches, possibly with a man peeping out of one. Across the cover was written a long word beginning with A, in big, 3D letters diminishing in size to create an impression of depth. I fancy it was Astounding, but it might have been Amazing, Astonishing, Analog, etc. With my mum's help I read one of the stories, I believe the one pictured on the cover. I remember stumbling over 'stowaway' and 'disguise', which I couldn't say or understand. Mum explained what they meant, though I cannot recall whether I then understood the storyline.

I would dearly love to know what this magazine and story were! AYCI I've looked, but in vain. Sorry if this is the wrong place but I've put it here in the hope that somebody posting in this thread will take up the gauntlet - er, space glove.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The way you describe the letters on the cover make me think this was an old issue of Amazing Stories. Take this cover, for example.

The 3-D effect lasted until about 1940, I believe.

Other than that, I can offer no hints as to the specific issue.

 

[Orcadian]

The way you describe the letters on the cover make me think this was an old issue of Amazing Stories. Take this cover, for example.

View attachment 122585

The 3-D effect lasted until about 1940, I believe.

It did indeed look like that, Victoria, though I fancy the writing took up a bigger part of the page. Was Amazing the only mag to use the 3D effect, or did some of the other 'A' mags use it too?

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

It did indeed look like that, Victoria, though I fancy the writing took up a bigger part of the page. Was Amazing the only mag to use the 3D effect, or did some of the other 'A' mags use it too?

Not quite so clearly 3-D, I think.

Early Astounding issues sort of have this effect, but not quite so much. I don't think Astonishing or Analog did. You can see below the effect is not anywhere near as pronounced as Amazing Stories, but it might be a possible suspect for what you are sseeking.

 

[Orcadian]

Yes, the Amazing letters looks much more like the image in my head. Perhaps they took up more of the space in certain months, depending on the cover art.

So it sounds like 'Amazing' mag may be a good starting point, for anyone who fancies this quest.