Famous Fantastic Mysteries is an American science fiction and fantasy magazine published from 1939 to 1953. The editor in chief was Mary Gnedinger. The Munsey Company created this magazine to republish science fiction stories and fantasy stories that have been published in previous decades in other Frank Mansi magazines such as Argosy . The first issue was released in September / October 1939. The magazine immediately became popular and successful, so less than a year later Mansi created another similar magazine, .
| Famous Fantastic Mysteries | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the first issue, September / October 1939 | |
| Specialization | science fiction and fantasy magazine |
| Periodicity | monthly / bi-monthly |
| Tongue | English |
| Chief Editor | Mary Gnedinger |
| A country |  USA |
| Edition History | from 1939 to 1953 |
| Established | |
The most published authors of the magazine were George England , Abraham Merritt and Austin Hall . Another important reason for the success of the new magazine was the collaboration with renowned artists such as Virgil Finlay and Lawrence Stevens. In 1942, one of the largest publishers of acquired the Famous Fantastic Mysteries, and reprinting of short stories from past magazines ceased. Larger works by authors such as Gilbert Chesterton , Herbert Wells and Henry Haggard were still published. New fantastic stories began to be published, for example, The Guardian Angel by Arthur Clark , who later became the first of the three parts of the science fiction novel End of Childhood . In 1951, publishers experimented with the format of the magazine, but quickly returned to the original. The magazine ceased to exist in 1953, with almost the end of the era of cheap mass magazines .
Content
Publication History
At the beginning of the 20th century, science fiction stories were often published in popular magazines [1] . The Munsey Company , a major publisher of low-cost mass magazines , has published many different science fiction books over the years [1] . However, it was only in 1926 that the world's first mass magazine appeared entirely devoted to science fiction. This magazine was The Amazing Stories by the Experimenter Publishing Company , owned by Hugo Gernsback [2] . During the 1930s, Mansi continued to publish science fiction in Argosy , including short stories like The War of the Purple Gas by Murray Leinster and Tomorrow by . At that time, the Munsey Company did not own a single journal specializing in science fiction [3] . By the end of the 1930s, the popularity of science fiction was growing, magazine sales also grew [2] , and in 1939 several new magazines appeared [4] . In the same year, taking advantage of the growing popularity of science fiction, Mansi created the Famous Fantastic Mysteries for the republishing of science fiction stories and fantasy, which were published over the past decades in his other magazines [5] .
The magazine was to be published once every two months. The first issue was released in September / October 1939. The editor in chief was Mary Gnedinger. The magazine immediately gained popularity and has been published monthly since November. The demand for reprinting old popular science fiction stories was so great that in July 1940, Mansi decided to create an additional magazine, [5] . Both magazines on schedule were published once every two months, so that each month one of them appeared in turn [2] . “Fantastic Novels” lasted until the beginning of 1941. Famous Fantastic Mysteries continued to be released once every two months until June 1942 [6] . In 1942, one of the largest publishers of acquired the Famous Fantastic Mysteries. The decision to sell was rather unexpected, since in December 1942 there was still discussion of the planned February issue, which was never released. The next issue of the magazine appeared only in March 1943. In total, only three issues took place in 1943; Since September 1943, the magazine switched to a regular quarterly schedule. Since 1946, the magazine again began to be published once every two months. This chart with slight deviations was maintained until its closure [3] .
In 1949, one of the largest US book and magazine publishers Street & Smith stopped printing pulp magazines . became the largest publisher, which for some time after that continued to issue pulp magazines . Famous Fantastic Mysteries ceased to exist in 1953, just a couple of years before the last pulp magazine closed [7] .
Content and Criticism
In the first four issues of the magazine, Mansi’s appeal was published regarding the creation of the publication: “The release of this magazine is a response to several thousand requests we have received in recent years, demanding the re-publication of the most popular science fiction stories that have become classics since the first publication. Our choice was dictated by your requests and our firm belief that these are the best representatives of fiction ” [3] . In the first issue, such popular stories by famous authors as “The Girl in the Golden Atom” by Raymond Cummings and “Moonlight” by Abraham Merrit were published [5] . The continuation of Merritt’s story, "Conquest of the Moonlight", appeared in the next issue with illustrations by Virgil Finlay . Finlay created many illustrations for the Famous Fantastic Mysteries and became one of the magazine's most popular artists. From the third issue, Rudolph Paul , one of the first illustrators specializing in science fiction, also entered the magazine's illustrators. Paul’s work is distinguished by careful graphics and increased attention to the image of equipment, structures and various devices. As an artist, he was inferior to Finlay, but was very popular among readers [5] . The first five covers contained simply the table of contents of the magazine, but from the sixth issue, published in March 1940, various images began to appear on the covers. The first cover of the magazine was created by Virgil Finlay [3] . The author of the three early covers in 1940 was Rudolf Paul , however, the authors of almost all subsequent covers from February 1941 to April 1950 were Virgil Finlay, Lawrence Stevens or his son Peter Stevens [8] [9] [10] [11] . The high quality of artistic illustrations helped make the magazine one of the most popular among similar publications of its time [12] . Thomas Clarson, a science fiction historian, suggested that the popularity of Virgil Finlay was brought about by the publication of his work in magazines such as Famous Fantastic Mysteries and Fantastic Novels [3] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Ashley. The Time Machines, 2000 , p. 16-23.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Malcolm Edwards & Peter Nicholls, SF Magazines, in Clute & Nicholls, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction , pp. 1066-1068.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Thomas D. Clareson, “Famous Fantastic Mysteries”, in Tymn & Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines , pp. 211-216.
- ↑ Ashley. The Time Machines, 2000 , p. 237-255.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Ashley. The Time Machines, 2000 , p. 150-151.
- ↑ Tuck, 1982 , p. 555–556.
- ↑ Ashley. The Time Machines, 2000 , p. 220-225.
- ↑ Day, 1952 , p. 169-170.
- ↑ Robert Weinberg, Lawrence Stern Stevens, in Weinberg, Biographical Dictionary , p. 260-262.
- ↑ Robert Weinberg, “Peter Stevens,” in Weinberg, Biographical Dictionary , p. 262-263
- ↑ Ashley. Transformations, 2005 , p. 386.
- ↑ Culture: Famous Fantastic Mysteries: SFE: Science Fiction Encyclopedia . Gollancz.
Literature
- Ashley, M. The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the beginning to 1950 .-- Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000 .-- ISBN 0-85323-865-0 .
- Ashley, M. Transformations: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970 .-- Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005 .-- ISBN 0-85323-779-4 .
- Clute, J. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. - New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc, 1997. - ISBN 0-312-15897-1 .
- Clute, J. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. - New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc, 1993. - ISBN 0-312-09618-6 .
- Day, DB Index to the Science-Fiction Magazines. - Portland OR: Perri Press, 1952.
- Knight, D. In Search of Wonder. - Chicago: Advent: Publishers, Inc, 1974. - ISBN 0-911682-15-5 .
- Tuck, DH The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume 3. - Chicago: Advent: Publishers, Inc, 1982. - ISBN 0-911682-26-0 .
- Tymn, MB Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines. - Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985 .-- ISBN 0-313-21221-X .
- Weinberg, R. A Biographical Dictionary of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. - Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985 .-- ISBN 0-313-21221-X .