Science Fiction Pulp:
A Primer

Forrest J. Ackerman coined the word "sci-fi".

Books about Kepler Max Caspar John Banville Arthur Koestler Bruce Stephenson

Kepler's Laws

Java Depiction of Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

Sci-Fi From Kepler: 400 years ago

Centuries before Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, and Jules Verne, Johannes Kepler unlocked the secrets of planetary motion but he also wrote a short work, The Somnium , a sixteenth century story about going to the moon. His mother's occult powers enabled travel to find life on the moon. The tale was published posthumously in 1634.
Consider Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, published in 1726, as science fiction, and even Voltaire dreamed of a voyage to the lunar surface in 1752 .(Micromegas) And who are Fitz-James O'Brien and H. Rider Haggard? And Karel Capek...

And now a history of pulp

Turn of the 20th Century...

Advances in printing provided papers and magazines an inexpensive, wide distribution. In February- August, 1897, Frank Munsey's The Argosy contained science fiction story: A. Laurie's " A Month in the Moon."
The science fiction genre truly accelerated in the mass marketed, twentieth century drugstore pulp magazines. Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories appeared in a 1911 magazine, The All-Story.

Enter the new generation of authors in the pulp magazines: Science and Invention, initiated by Hugo Gernsback in August 1923. J.C. Henneberger in 1923 published Weird Tales--The Unique Magazine. Old Jules Verne and H.G. Wells material was encapsulated in this magazine as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs's stories. In 1926 Gernsback called his Amazing Stories an example of scientification. Air Wonder Stories was also Gernsback's creations in 1929. Astounding Stories of Super-Science, founded in 1930 became Astounding Science Fiction in 1938 and editor John W. Campbell upgraded story content. A cult movement was afoot: fandom ... fanzines ...conventions ...

Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories, 1926		Wierd Tales March, 1923		Astounding in the 1930's

Dateline 1930's:
Science Wonder Stories
Hugo Gernsback, editor, coins the words:

Science Fiction:
fictional stories with scientific theories that explains known phenomenon or predicts new phenomenon.

The established writers shun the pulp arena. Welcome writers Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, Frank Kelly and Isaac Asimov, seventeen year old editor, Charlie Horning, and nineteen year old editor, Frederik Pohl.

November 1929: "Cities in the Air" by Edmond Hamilton Cover by Frank R. Paul		October, 1931: Gernsback's Stellar Publishing Corporation Cover by Frank R. Paul

Does the 86th floor of the Empire State Building mean anything to you? How about the HIDALGO TRADING COMPANY and the Flea Run? No, you say? Then join the wild adventure as Doc Savage stomps out evil doers! This is the 1930's and 40's! Harrison Ford where are you?

Mid 20th Century Pulp:

The pulp genre evolves; emphasizing human values with a ironic twist to stalwart science fiction and new ideas emerge.

Spring '44 The Monster Maker Ray Bradbury		November, 1952		January, 1940

October, 1950		October, 1951

Fantasy and Science Fiction featured Stephen King's Dark Tower and a billboard of other classics.

Fantasy and Science Fiction Contributors

Richard Matheson - "Born of Man & Woman" (1950)
Alfred Bester - "Fondly Fahrenheit" (1954)
Damon Knight - "The Country of the Kind" (1954)
Shirley Jackson - "One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts" (1955)
Walter M. Miller - "A Canticle for Leibowitz" (1955)
Robert Bloch - "That Hellbound Train" (1958; Hugo Award)
Daniel Keyes - "Flowers for Algernon" (1959; Hugo Award)
Robert A. Heinlein - "All You Zombies --" (1959)
Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Troopers (as "Starship Soldier") (1959; Hugo Award)

Analog continues in pulp and has an on-line edition.

Isaac Asimov penned more than 500 books. Did we really need an Asimov magazine in the late 1970's? Of course ... Asimov brought fresh ideas, poetry, illustrations, and cartoons into his monthly magazine. And authors: Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Silverberg, Nancy Kress, Bruce Sterling, Connie Willis, William Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Michael Swanwick, Joe Haldeman, Harry Turtledove, Lucius Shepard, Mary Rosenblum, Greg Egan, James Patrick Kelly, Brian W. Aldiss, Orson Scott Card, Karen Joy Fowler, Frederik Pohl, Kate Wilhelm, Harlan Ellison, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Brian Stableford, Gregory Benford, Janet Kagan, Isaac Asimov himself. Book reviews and critical essays by Norman Spinrad, Paul Di Filippo, and Peter Heck.

Digital Pulp... the 21st Century
The journey from Kepler continues into an electronic, ethereal universe of bits and bytes.

More Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Magazines

What will the future offer? I dare say in the world of science fiction and fantasy the next step will be as significant as the Internet leap. We will be reading, participating and perceiving in realms we cannot even imagine. Enjoy the ride.

PS: I don't want to leave Homer out of this......