If (magazine)

Last updated
If
If cover May 1955.jpg
May 1955 issue with cover art by Kenneth S. Fagg titled "Technocracy Versus the Humanities".
CategoriesScience fiction
First issueMarch 1952 (1952-03)
Final issueDecember 1974
CountryUnited States

If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn.

Contents

The magazine was moderately successful, though for most of its run it was not considered to be in the first tier of American science fiction magazines. It achieved its greatest success under editor Frederik Pohl, winning the Hugo Award for best professional magazine three years running from 1966 to 1968. If published many award-winning stories over its 22 years, including Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". The most prominent writer to make his first sale to If was Larry Niven, whose story "The Coldest Place" appeared in the December 1964 issue.

If was merged into Galaxy Science Fiction after the December 1974 issue, its 175th issue overall.

Publication history

Although science fiction had been published in the United States 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 undergoing its first boom, [1] but World War II and its attendant paper shortages led to the demise of several titles. By the late 1940s, the market began to recover. [2] From a low of eight active magazines in 1946, the field expanded to 20 in 1950, and a further 22 had commenced publication by 1954. [3] If was launched in the middle of this second publishing boom.

Origins and 1950s

If's origins can be traced to 1948 and 1949, when Raymond Palmer founded two magazines while working at Ziff-Davis in Chicago: Fate and Other Worlds . Fate published articles about occult and supernatural events, while Other Worlds was a science fiction magazine. The two were sufficiently successful to attract the notice of James L. Quinn, a New York publisher. When Ziff-Davis moved to New York City in late 1950, Paul W. Fairman, a prolific writer, went with them, and was soon in touch with Quinn, who decided to found a pair of magazines modelled after Palmer's. One was a nonfiction magazine entitled Strange; the other was If. [4]

The June 1954 issue of If, featuring a wraparound cover by Kenneth S. Fagg, titled "Lava Falls on Mercury" If cover June 1954.jpg
The June 1954 issue of If, featuring a wraparound cover by Kenneth S. Fagg, titled "Lava Falls on Mercury"

The first issue of If was dated March 1952, with Fairman as editor; it featured stories by Richard Shaver, Raymond Palmer, and Howard Browne, all writers who were regulars of the Ziff-Davis magazines. By the time the third issue reached the news stands, the disappointing sales figures for the first issue were in, and Quinn decided to let Fairman go. Quinn persevered with himself as editor. His first issue was dated July 1952, and he continued as editor on the masthead for some years. Quinn brought in Ed Valigursky as the art editor; he designed striking covers, including some wraparound artwork—an unusual feature—which helped improve circulation. Quinn began searching for a replacement editor: writer Lester del Rey turned down the job (a decision he is reported to have later regretted), but Quinn was able to engage Larry T. Shaw, an active science fiction fan who had sold a few stories. [4] [5] Shaw joined in May 1953 as associate editor and soon began writing editorials (beginning with the September 1953 issue) and assisting with story selection. The magazine's quality quickly improved and soon Quinn felt able to switch to a monthly schedule, instead of bimonthly. Shaw left after only a year, and Quinn resumed full editorial responsibilities. [4]

In late 1953, Quinn decided to run a competition for short fiction from new writers. The competition was only open to college students who had not sold a story before. The first prize was $1,000, the second prize $500, with five runner-up prizes of $100 each. Entries came in from writers who were later to become well known, including Harlan Ellison, Roger Zelazny, and Andrew J. Offutt, whose story "And Gone Tomorrow", about a man unexpectedly sent a hundred years into the future, won first prize and appeared in the December 1954 issue of If. The only other one of the seven announced winners who had a career as a science fiction writer was Leo P. Kelley. Quinn decided to move If to a monthly schedule with the March 1954 issue, perhaps because the competition had increased readership. [4] It reverted to a bimonthly schedule with the June 1956 issue, as circulation dropped again. [6]

In 1957, American News Company, by far the largest magazine distributor, was liquidated. [7] Almost all the science fiction magazines had to find a new distributor, and the smaller independent companies remaining in the market often demanded monthly publication and a larger format from the magazines they took on. Many of the magazines did not have the advertising revenue required to support these changes, and within two or three years, many of them had disappeared: [8] the number of science fiction magazines being published dropped from a high of 46 in 1953 to less than a dozen by the end of the decade. [9] For a while If was hard to find on the news stands, but it survived. Quinn did try the slick format (using glossy paper, unlike the cheaper paper used for pulps and digests) for a companion magazine, Space Age, which he launched in November 1958; the experiment was unsuccessful, however. In an attempt to improve If's circulation, Quinn hired writer Damon Knight, whose first issue was October 1958. Circulation failed to increase, though this was at least partly due to the problems with distribution, and by early 1959, Quinn decided to sell the magazine. Knight's last issue was his third, dated February 1959. [10]

Early 1960s

If's new owner was Robert Guinn, of Galaxy Publishing. The change of ownership was abrupt and led to a delay in publication, with the first issue under new editorship not appearing until July 1959. The editor was Horace Gold, who was also the editor of Galaxy Science Fiction ; Galaxy had gone from a monthly to a bimonthly schedule at the start of 1959, and If and Galaxy appeared in alternate months for the next few years. In a 1975 retrospective article, Gold commented that his policy with If was to experiment, using new writers who had not yet established themselves. In the judgement of science fiction historian Mike Ashley, the effect was that If became the weaker of the two magazines, printing stories that were of lower quality than those Gold selected for Galaxy. [11]

Annual circulation from 1960-1974 Annual circulation of If (magazine).gif
Annual circulation from 1960–1974

Frederik Pohl took over the editorship of both If and Galaxy in 1961. Gold had had a car accident with sufficiently severe health consequences to prevent him from being able to continue as editor. [12] Pohl, who had been intermittently helping Gold with editorial duties for some time prior to the car accident, is first listed as editor of If on the masthead of the November 1961 issue, and as editor of Galaxy for the December 1961 issue, but he had been acting as editor of both magazines since at least midyear. [12] [13] Pohl paid one cent per word for the stories he bought for If, whereas Galaxy paid three cents per word, and like Gold, he regarded Galaxy as the leading magazine of the two, whereas If was somewhere he could work with new writers, and try experiments and whims. This developed into a selling point when a letter from a reader, Clayton Hamlin, prompted Pohl to declare that he would publish a new writer in every single issue of the magazine, [14] [15] though he was also able to attract well-known writers. [16] When Pohl began his stint as editor, both magazines were operating at a loss; despite If's lower budget, Pohl found it more fun to edit, and commented that apparently the readers thought so, too; he was able to make If show a profit before Galaxy, adding, "What was fun for me seemed to be fun for them." [17]

In April 1963, Galaxy Publishing brought out the first issue of Worlds of Tomorrow , another science fiction magazine, also edited by Pohl. [18] The magazine published some well-received material and was profitable, but Guinn, the publisher and owner, decided in 1967 that it would be better to have Galaxy resume a monthly schedule; both Worlds of Tomorrow and Galaxy were bimonthly at that time, while If was monthly. With the August 1967 issue Worlds of Tomorrow was merged with If, though it was another year before Galaxy actually switched to a monthly schedule. [19] By this time, If had become monthly again, starting with the July 1964 issue (though the schedule had an initial hiccup, omitting September 1964). [16]

The circulation rose from 64,000 in 1965 to 67,000 in 1967; the modest 5% increase was exceeded only by Analog among the other science fiction magazines, and If won the Hugo Award for best professional SF magazine three years running during this period. However, in March 1969, Robert Guinn sold all four of his magazines, including Galaxy and If, to Arnold Abramson at Universal Publishing and Distribution Corporation (UPD). Pohl was in Rio de Janeiro when he heard the news, and decided to resign his position as editor rather than continue under the new management. He had been considering a return to a writing career for some time and the change in ownership precipitated his decision to leave. [20] [21]

Decline and merger with Galaxy

The new editor was Ejler Jakobsson, though Pohl continued to be listed as editor emeritus on the masthead until the July–August 1970 issue. [13] Much of the editorial work was actually done by Judy-Lynn Benjamin, who was hired by Pohl in 1969 as an editorial assistant. The new regime failed to impress readers, and circulation dropped from over 67,000 for the year ending October 1968 to under 45,000 the following year, a drop of over 30%. If went bimonthly in May 1970, as Abramson attempted to juggle the frequency of publication of several of his titles to maximize profits; the page count and price were also adjusted more than once over the next year, again increasing profitability. Abramson also began a British distribution of If, reprinted with a separate cover, priced in British currency. Circulation figures of the time show an increase of about 6,000 copies, but if this includes sales in the UK is not clear. [22]

In May 1973, Judy-Lynn Benjamin (Judy-Lynn del Rey since her 1971 marriage to Lester del Rey) resigned. She was briefly replaced by Albert Dytch, but within four months, Dytch in turn left, and in August 1973, James Baen joined UPD. He was made managing editor of If with effect from the January 1974 issue, and full editor one issue later; Jakobsson was listed as editor emeritus until the August 1974 issue. Baen had little opportunity to work with If, however, as financial problems at UPD combined with the increasing cost of paper (a consequence of the rising price of oil) led to a decision to combine If with Galaxy. Despite the fact that in 1974, If's circulation had exceeded Galaxy's for the first time, Galaxy was retained and If was merged with it beginning with the January 1975 issue. [23]

Relaunches of the magazine

In 1986, an attempt was made to revive If as a semiprofessional magazine. The only issue, dated September–October 1986, was edited by Clifford Hong. [24] [25] [26]

Worlds of IF was relaunched again in February 2024 by Starship Sloane Publishing, with Justin T. O'Conor Sloane as editor, and Robert Silverberg as a contributing editor. [27] The first issue included reprinted fiction by Silverberg and David Brin. [28]

Contents and reception

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
19521/11/21/31/41/5
19531/62/12/22/32/42/5
19542/63/13/23/33/43/53/64/14/24/34/4
19554/54/65/15/25/35/45/55/66/1
19566/26/36/46/56/67/1
19577/27/37/47/57/68/1
19588/28/38/48/58/69/1
19599/28/69/49/5
19609/610/110/210/310/410/5
196110/611/111/211/311/411/5
Issues of If from 1952 to 1961, showing volume/issue number. Editors were
Paul W. Fairman (yellow), James L. Quinn (blue), Larry T. Shaw (pink), Quinn
again (blue), Damon Knight (purple) and H. L. Gold (green).

The first issue of If, dated March 1952, went on sale on 7 January of that year. The lead story was Howard Browne's "Twelve Times Zero", a murder mystery with a science fictional resolution; other stories were from Ray Palmer, Richard Shaver, and Rog Phillips, all writers associated with the Ziff-Davis magazines. [13] [29] Browne was the editor of Ziff-Davis's Amazing Science Fiction , a leading magazine of the time, and had given Fairman his start in the field in the late 1940s. [29] Fairman was familiar with Ziff-Davis's stable of writers, and his preference for them was a reflection of his experience, though this did not necessarily serve the magazine well—he referred to the acquisition of Browne's story as "the scoop of the century" and spoke in glowing terms of him in an introductory note despite the fact that Browne was reputed to detest science fiction. [29] [30] [31] In addition to the fiction and the editorial by Fairman, it had a letter column, a profile of Wilson Tucker, a selection of science news, a guest editorial by Ken Slater, a well-known British fan, and an approving review of the TV show Tales of Tomorrow . [13]

After Quinn dismissed Fairman and engaged Larry Shaw, the magazine improved significantly, and published several well-received stories, including James Blish's "A Case of Conscience" in the September 1953 issue, later to become the first part of Blish's Hugo Award-winning novel of the same name, about a Jesuit priest on a planet of aliens who have no religion but appear free of sin. [13] [32] [33] The dominant science fiction magazines of the 1950s American market were Astounding , Galaxy , and Fantasy and Science Fiction , but If was in the next rank in terms of quality: [34] [35] SF historian Frank M. Robinson, for example, describes If as the "most major of the minors". [36] Well-known writers who appeared in If in the 1950s include Harlan Ellison and Arthur C. Clarke: the original short story version of Clarke's novel The Songs of Distant Earth appeared in the June 1958 issue. Isaac Asimov's widely reprinted story "The Feeling of Power" appeared in February 1958. [13]

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
196211/612/112/212/312/412/5
196312/613/113/213/313/413/5
196413/614/114/214/314/414/514/614/7
196515/115/215/315/415/515/615/715/815/915/1015/1115/12
196616/116/216/316/416/516/616/716/816/916/1016/1116/12
196717/117/217/317/417/517/617/717/817/917/1017/1117/12
196818/118/218/318/418/518/618/718/818/918/1018/1118/12
196919/119/219/319/419/519/619/719/819/919/10
197020/120/220/320/420/520/620/720/8
197120/920/1020/1120/1221/121/2
197221/321/421/521/621/721/8
197321/921/1021/1121/1222/122/2
197422/322/422/522/622/722/8
Issues of If from 1962 to 1974, showing volume/issue number. Editors were
Frederik Pohl (orange), Ejler Jakobsson (pink), and James L. Baen (gray).

The period under Pohl is regarded as the magazine's heyday; the three consecutive Hugo Awards won from 1966 to 1968 broke a long period in which the award had been monopolized by Analog (the name to which Astounding changed in 1960) and Fantasy and Science Fiction. [25] [37] Frank Robinson commented that "Pohl was the only one who was surprised when he won three Hugos in a row for editing IF. It had been fun, and the fun had showed." [38] Niven's "Neutron Star" appeared in October 1966, and Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" appeared in March 1967; both won Hugo Awards. Pohl also managed to secure a new Skylark novel, Skylark DuQuesne , from E.E. Smith; the series had been started in the 1920s and was still popular with readers. [39] Pohl also bought A.E. van Vogt's "The Expendables"; the story was van Vogt's first sale in 14 years and attracted long-time readers to the magazine. Another coup was the serialization of three novels by Robert A. Heinlein, including the award-winning The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress , which ran in five parts from December 1965 to April 1966. [16]

Pohl's policy of publishing a story by a new writer in every issue led to a series called "If-firsts"; the first one, Joseph L. Green's "Once Around Arcturus", about the courtship between a man and woman of different planets, appeared in the September 1962 issue. Several of the writers featured in the If-first series, which were published from 1962 through 1965, became well-known, including Alexei Panshin; the most prominent was Larry Niven, whose first story, "The Coldest Place", appeared in December 1964. [14] Niven later remarked that the story was immediately outdated; the plot relied on the discovery that the dark side of Mercury was the coldest place in the universe, but space probes had recently discovered that Mercury did in fact rotate asynchronously. [40] Gardner Dozois also made his first sale to If, with "The Empty Man", about a man possessed by an alien, in the September 1966 issue, and Gene Wolfe's "Mountains Like Mice", about an abandoned group of colonists on Mars, appeared in the May 1966 issue. Technically this was not Wolfe's first sale, as he had already had "The Dead Man" published in the October 1965 issue of Sir!, but "Mountains Like Mice" had been written earlier. [41] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes the late 1960s as If's "heyday": Galaxy was considered the senior magazine for most of the fifteen years the two magazines were stablemates. [42]

If's covers during the 1960s were typically action-oriented, showing monsters and aliens; and several of the stories Pohl published were directed at a younger audience. For example, Blish's Welcome to Mars, serialized under the title The Hour Before Earthrise in July to September 1966, was about a teenage genius whose antigravity device stranded him and his girlfriend on Mars. [13] [43] Ashley has suggested that If was attempting to acquire readership from the many new fans of science fiction who had been introduced to the genre through television, in particular via the popular 1960s shows Doctor Who and Star Trek . If also ran a friendly letter column, with more fan-oriented discussions than the other magazines, and between 1966 and 1968 a column by Lin Carter introduced readers to various aspects of science fiction fandom. These features are also likely to have appealed to a younger audience. [39]

Bibliographic details

Twelve issues of If, showing the major variations in cover design over the magazine's lifetime If cover variations.jpg
Twelve issues of If, showing the major variations in cover design over the magazine's lifetime

If was a digest-sized magazine throughout its life. It began at 164 pages and with only the fifth issue, November 1952, dropped to 124 pages. The page count increased again to 134 pages with the July 1959 issue, and to 164 pages with the September 1965 issue; it stayed at this length until the September–October 1970 issue. The page count was then increased to 180 with the June 1971 issue, and reduced to 164 for the last issue, December 1974. [13] [25] [44] It was priced at 35 cents to begin with, and increased to 40 cents with the March 1963 issue, to 50 cents with the December 1964 issue, to 60 cents with the August 1967 issue, and finally to 75 cents with the September–October 1970 issue. [13] [25] With the April 1972 issue, UPD began using card stock for the covers, rather than paper, and continued to do so until the magazine ceased publication. [13]

If was originally subtitled Worlds of Science Fiction, but in November 1961 the cover logo was changed to Worlds of If Science Fiction. [45] UPD formally changed the title to Worlds of If in the January/February 1972 issue [46] [47] and in September 1974, officially registered the title of the magazine as Worlds of If with the USPTO. [48]

The magazine was bimonthly until the March 1954 issue, which was followed by April 1954, inaugurating a monthly period that ran until June 1955. This was followed by August 1955, resuming a bimonthly schedule that ran until July 1964, with only one irregularity, when the February 1959 issue was followed by July 1959. After July 1964, If ran a monthly schedule until April 1970, with three omissions: there were no issues dated September 1964, June 1969, or August 1969. From May–June 1970, the issues were bimonthly and bore the names of two months. This bimonthly sequence ran through the last issue at the end of 1974. The date the magazine printed on the cover reverted to a single month with the June 1971 issue, though the contents page still used two months to identify the issue. The volume numbering began with six issues to a volume: there were three errors on the magazine contents page, with volume 8 number 1 incorrectly printed as volume 7 number 6; volume 9 number 3 printed as volume 8 number 6; and volume 10 number 1 printed as volume 10 number 6. Volume 14, which began in March 1964, ran through the end of the year, with seven numbers; the remaining volumes had 12 numbers each except for volume 19 which had 10 and volume 22 which had 8. [13] [25] [49]

Several British editions of If were produced. In 1953 and 1954, Strato Publications reprinted 15 issues, numbering them from 1 to 15; another 18 were reprinted between 1959 and 1962, with the issue numbers started at 1 again. Between January and November 1967 a UK edition appeared from Gold Star Publications; these were identical to the US edition dated ten months previously. Between 1972 and 1974, 15 of the UPD editions of If were imported, renumbered and repriced for UK distribution. The numbering, inexplicably, ran from 1 to 9, and then 11, 1, 13, 3, 4 and 5. [37]

The editorial succession at If is as follows: [13] [24]

Eight selections of stories from If have been published. Two were edited by Quinn: The First World of If (1957) and The Second World of If (1958); four by Pohl: The Best Science Fiction from If (1964), The If Reader of Science Fiction (1966), The Second If Reader of Science Fiction (1968), and Worlds of If (1986); and two by Jakobsson, both published as by "The Editors of If": The Best from If (1973) and The Best from If Vol II (1974). [25] [50] [51] [52] In addition, two anthologies drew all their contents from If without mentioning the magazine: The 6 Fingers of Time and 5 Other Science Fiction Novelets (1965) and The Frozen Planet and Other Stories (1966). Both were edited by Samuel H Post, who was not credited. [42]

Notes

    Related Research Articles

    <i>Galaxy Science Fiction</i> American science fiction magazine (1950–1980)

    Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L. Gold, who rapidly made Galaxy the leading science fiction magazine of its time, focusing on stories about social issues rather than technology.

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

    Amazing Stories is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances in other magazines, including some published by Gernsback, but Amazing helped define and launch a new genre of pulp fiction.

    <i>Science Fantasy</i> (magazine) British science fiction magazine (1950–1964)

    Science Fantasy, which also appeared under the titles Impulse and SF Impulse, was a British fantasy and science fiction magazine, launched in 1950 by Nova Publications as a companion to Nova's New Worlds. Walter Gillings was editor for the first two issues, and was then replaced by John Carnell, the editor of New Worlds, as a cost-saving measure. Carnell edited both magazines until Nova went out of business in early 1964. The titles were acquired by Roberts & Vinter, who hired Kyril Bonfiglioli to edit Science Fantasy; Bonfiglioli changed the title to Impulse in early 1966, but the new title led to confusion with the distributors and sales fell, though the magazine remained profitable. The title was changed again to SF Impulse for the last few issues. Science Fantasy ceased publication the following year, when Roberts & Vinter came under financial pressure after their printer went bankrupt.

    <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>New Worlds</i> (magazine) British science fiction and fantasy magazine

    New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine that began in 1936 as a fanzine called Novae Terrae. John Carnell, who became Novae Terrae's editor in 1939, renamed it New Worlds that year. He was instrumental in turning it into a professional publication in 1946 and was the first editor of the new incarnation. It became the leading UK science fiction magazine; the period to 1960 has been described by science fiction historian Mike Ashley as the magazine's "Golden Age".

    <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>Fantastic</i> (magazine) American fantasy and science fiction magazine, 1952–1980

    Fantastic was an American digest-size fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1952 to 1980. It was founded by the publishing company Ziff Davis as a fantasy companion to Amazing Stories. Early sales were good, and the company quickly decided to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest, and to cease publication of their other science fiction pulp, Fantastic Adventures. Within a few years sales fell, and Howard Browne, the editor, was forced to switch the focus to science fiction rather than fantasy. Browne lost interest in the magazine as a result and the magazine generally ran poor-quality fiction in the mid-1950s, under Browne and his successor, Paul W. Fairman.

    <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>Imagination</i> (magazine) American fantasy and science fiction magazine

    Imagination was an American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in October 1950 by Raymond Palmer's Clark Publishing Company. The magazine was sold almost immediately to Greenleaf Publishing Company, owned by William Hamling, who published and edited it from the third issue, February 1951, for the rest of the magazine's life. Hamling launched a sister magazine, Imaginative Tales, in 1954; both ceased publication at the end of 1958 in the aftermath of major changes in US magazine distribution due to the liquidation of American News Company.

    <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 Adventures</i> American pulp fantasy and science fiction magazine

    Fantastic Adventures was an American pulp fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1953 by Ziff-Davis. It was initially edited by Raymond A. Palmer, who was also the editor of Amazing Stories, Ziff-Davis's other science fiction title. The first nine issues were in bedsheet format, but in June 1940 the magazine switched to a standard pulp size. It was almost cancelled at the end of 1940, but the October 1940 issue enjoyed unexpectedly good sales, helped by a strong cover by J. Allen St. John for Robert Moore Williams' Jongor of Lost Land. By May 1941 the magazine was on a regular monthly schedule. Historians of science fiction consider that Palmer was unable to maintain a consistently high standard of fiction, but Fantastic Adventures soon developed a reputation for light-hearted and whimsical stories. Much of the material was written by a small group of writers under both their own names and house names. The cover art, like those of many other pulps of the era, focused on beautiful women in melodramatic action scenes. One regular cover artist was H.W. McCauley, whose glamorous "MacGirl" covers were popular with the readers, though the emphasis on depictions of attractive and often partly clothed women did draw some objections.

    <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); under Santesson's tenure the quality declined somewhat, and the magazine became known for printing much UFO-related material. A collection of stories from the magazine, edited by Santesson, appeared in 1960 from Prentice-Hall, titled The Fantastic Universe Omnibus.

    <i>Venture Science Fiction</i> Science fiction magazine

    Venture Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, first published from 1957 to 1958, and revived for a brief run in 1969 and 1970. Ten issues were published of the 1950s version, with another six in the second run. It was founded in both instances as a companion to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Robert P. Mills edited the 1950s version, and Edward L. Ferman was editor during the second run. A British edition appeared for 28 issues between 1963 and 1965; it reprinted material from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction as well as from the US edition of Venture. There was also an Australian edition, which was identical to the British version but dated two months later.

    <i>Space Science Fiction Magazine</i> American science fiction magazine

    Space Science Fiction Magazine was a US science fiction magazine published by Republic Features Syndicate, Inc. as part of a package of radio shows and related genre magazines. It was edited by Michael Avallone, though the masthead listed Lyle Kenyon Engel as editor instead. Two issues appeared, both in 1957. It published short stories by well-known writers, including Arthur C. Clarke and Jack Vance, but it was not successful, and the magazine ceased publication late in 1957.

    <i>Super Science Stories</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

    Super Science Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine published by Popular Publications from 1940 to 1943, and again from 1949 to 1951. Popular launched it under their Fictioneers imprint, which they used for magazines, paying writers less than one cent per word. Frederik Pohl was hired in late 1939, at 19 years old, to edit the magazine; he also edited Astonishing Stories, a companion science fiction publication. Pohl left in mid-1941 and Super Science Stories was given to Alden H. Norton to edit; a few months later Norton rehired Pohl as an assistant. Popular gave Pohl a very low budget, so most manuscripts submitted to Super Science Stories had already been rejected by the higher-paying magazines. This made it difficult to acquire good fiction, but Pohl was able to acquire stories for the early issues from the Futurians, a group of young science fiction fans and aspiring writers.

    <i>Authentic Science Fiction</i> British science fiction magazine (1951–1957)

    Authentic Science Fiction was a British science fiction magazine published in the 1950s that ran for 85 issues under three editors: Gordon Landsborough, H.J. Campbell, and E.C. Tubb. The magazine was published by Hamilton and Co. in London and began in 1951 as a series of novels appearing every two weeks; by the summer it became a monthly magazine, with readers' letters and an editorial page, though fiction content was still restricted to a single novel. In 1952 short fiction began to appear alongside the novels, and within two more years it completed the transformation into a science fiction magazine.

    <i>Science-Fiction Plus</i> American science fiction magazine

    Science-Fiction Plus was an American science fiction magazine published by Hugo Gernsback for seven issues in 1953. In 1926, Gernsback had launched Amazing Stories, the first science fiction magazine, but he had not been involved in the genre since 1936, when he sold Wonder Stories. Science-Fiction Plus was initially in slick format, meaning that it was large-size and printed on glossy paper. Gernsback had always believed in the educational power of science fiction, and he continued to advocate his views in the new magazine's editorials. The managing editor, Sam Moskowitz, had been a reader of the early pulp magazines, and published many writers who had been popular before World War II, such as Raymond Z. Gallun, Eando Binder, and Harry Bates. Combined with Gernsback's earnest editorials, the use of these early writers gave the magazine an anachronistic feel.

    <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.

    <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. ↑ Nicholls & Clute, "Genre SF"; Edwards & Nicholls, "Astounding Science-Fiction"; Stableford, "Amazing Stories"; Edwards & Nicholls, "SF Magazines", all in Nicholls & Clute, "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction".
    2. ↑ Edwards & Nicholls, "SF Magazines", in Nicholls & Clute, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 1068.
    3. ↑ Magazine publishing dates for the period are tabulated in Ashley, History of the Science Fiction Magazine Vol. 3, pp. 323–325.
    4. 1 2 3 4 Ashley, Transformations, pp. 45–48.
    5. ↑ Malcolm Edwards & John Clute, "Larry T. Shaw", in Nicholls & Clute, "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction".
    6. ↑ Ashley, History of SF Magazine Part 4, p. 33.
    7. ↑ Distributors move magazines from publishers to news stands, and are a critical part of the magazine publishing industry.
    8. ↑ Ashley, Transformations, p. 190.
    9. ↑ Robinson, SF of the 20th Century, p. 128.
    10. ↑ Ashley, Transformations, pp. 196–197.
    11. ↑ Ashley, Transformations, p. 197.
    12. 1 2 Pohl, Way the Future Was, pp. 190–194.
    13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 See the individual issues. For convenience, an online index is available at "Magazine:If — ISFDB". Texas A&M University. Retrieved 23 February 2008.
    14. 1 2 Ashley, Transformations, pp. 208–209.
    15. ↑ If vol. 12, no 4 (September 1962), p. 129.
    16. 1 2 3 Ashley, Transformations, p. 210.
    17. ↑ Pohl, Way the Future Was, p. 199.
    18. ↑ Ashley, Transformations, p. 207.
    19. ↑ Ashley, Transformations, p. 273.
    20. ↑ Ashley, Transformations, pp. 281–282.
    21. ↑ Ashley, Gateways to Forever, p. 34.
    22. ↑ Ashley, Gateways to Forever, pp. 53–56.
    23. ↑ Ashley, Gateways to Forever, pp. 56–62.
    24. 1 2 "Worlds of If Checklist". Stephen G. Miller and William T. Contento. Retrieved 23 February 2008.
    25. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tuck, "If", p. 569.
    26. ↑ "Contents List". Locus Press. Retrieved 23 February 2008.
    27. ↑ Stableford, Brian; Ashley, Mike; Nicholls, Peter; Langford, Dave (March 4, 2024). "SFE: If". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
    28. ↑ "Table of contents" (PDF). Worlds of If. 1 (1): 1. February 2024.
    29. 1 2 3 Ashley, Transformations, p. 45.
    30. ↑ The "scoop of the century" quote comes from an inset blurb on the first page of Browne's story; it is unsigned but appears to be by Fairman. If vol. 1, no 1 (March 1952), p. 6.
    31. ↑ Malcolm Edwards, "Howard Browne", in Nicholls & Clute, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 165.
    32. ↑ Peter Nicholls, "James Blish", in Nicholls & Clute, Encyclopedia of SF, p. 136.
    33. ↑ Ashley comments "It is noticeable how soon after Shaw's arrival, the quality of material in If began to rise". Ashley, Transformations, p. 47.
    34. ↑ Ashley, Transformations, p. 74.
    35. ↑ Ashley, Transformations, p. 127.
    36. ↑ Robinson, SF of the 20th Century, p. 126.
    37. 1 2 Brian Stableford & Peter Nicholls, "If", in Peter Nicholls and John Clute, eds, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
    38. ↑ Robinson, SF of the 20th Century, p. 129.
    39. 1 2 Ashley, Transformations, p. 274.
    40. ↑ Ashley, Transformations, pp. 209–210.
    41. ↑ Ashley, Transformations, p. 275.
    42. 1 2 Stableford, Brian; Ashley, Mike; Nicholls, Peter (February 18, 2021). "Culture : If : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia". Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
    43. ↑ "Publication Listing". Texas A&M University. Retrieved 25 February 2008.; "Publication Listing". Texas A&M University. Retrieved 25 February 2008.; and "Publication Listing". Texas A&M University. Retrieved 25 February 2008.
    44. ↑ The page count includes both the front and back covers; some references such as Tuck only count the pages between the covers. The magazine itself was inconsistent about this: for example the September 1969 issue treated the first page inside the cover as page 1, but July 1969 issue counted this as page 3, making the front cover page 1.
    45. ↑ "If". SFE: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. SFE Ltd. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
    46. ↑ "Full Note for Series: If / Worlds of If". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. ISFDB. Retrieved 2 April 2024. the original title of the magazine was If: Worlds of Science Fiction. The logo was arranged in such a way that it looked like the title was Worlds of If. In fact, there was some confusion over what the title of the magazine was in 1969 when it was sold to Universal Publishing; they had the name officially changed to Worlds of If in 1972.
    47. ↑ "Archives & Special Collections: If/Worlds of If: Historical Note". Georgia Tech Library. Georgia Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2 April 2024. Its original title was If: Worlds of Science Fiction, but the location of "Worlds of" above "If" on the magazine covers in the 1960s led many to believe the title was Worlds of If. The UPD Publishing Corp. formally changed the title to Worlds of If in the January/February 1972 issue.
    48. ↑ "Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR): US Serial, Registration, or Reference No.: 80992559: WORLDS OF IF". USPTO: United States Patent and Trademark Office. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved 19 March 2024. Registration Date: Sep. 03, 1974. The trademark application was registered, but subsequently it was cancelled or invalidated and removed from the registry. Date Cancelled: Feb. 17, 1981. Standard Character Claim: Yes. The mark consists of standard characters without claim to any particular font style, size, or color.
    49. ↑ Brian Stableford, "If", in Peter Nicholls, "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", p. 303.
    50. ↑ Brian Stableford, "Frederik Pohl", in Clute & Nicholls, eds., Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, pp. 942–944.
    51. ↑ Malcolm Edwards, "Ejler Jakobsson", in Clute & Nicholls, eds., Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 637.
    52. ↑ "Books, Listed by Author". Phil Stephenson-Payne. Archived from the original on 28 April 2009. Retrieved 1 March 2008.

    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.