The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the Beginning to 1950

by Mike Ashley

Overview

This is the first of three volumes that chart the history of the science fiction magazine from the earliest days to the present. This first volume looks at the exuberant years of the pulp magazines. It traces the growth and development of the science fiction magazines from when Hugo Gernsback launched the very first, Amazing Stories, in 1926 through to the birth of the atomic age and the death of the pulps in the early 1950s. These were the days of the youth of science fiction, when it was brash, raw and exciting: the days of the first great space operas by Edward Elmer Smith and Edmond Hamilton, through the cosmic thought variants by Murray Leinster, Jack Williamson and others to the early 1940s when John W. Campbell at Astounding did his best to nurture the infant genre into adulthood. Under him such major names as Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt and Theodore Sturgeon emerged who, along with other such new talents as Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke, helped create modern science

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780853238652
Publisher:	Liverpool University Press
Publication date:	01/02/2001
Series:	Liverpool Science Fiction Texts and Studies , #24
Edition description:	Collectors Ed/ /Eng-Fr-Sp-Sub ed.
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Mike Ashley has specialised in the history of science fiction and fantasy for over 30 years. He is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Before the Creation
2. An Amazing Experiment
3. Towards the Golden Age
4. The Golden Age
5. Unleashing the Atom
Epilogue
Appendix 1: Non-English-Language Science-Fiction Magazines
Appendix 2: Summary of Science-Fiction Magazines
Appendix 3: Directory of Magazine Editors and Publishers
Appendix 4: Directory of Magazine Cover Artists
Select Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

The first of three volumes, this history takes on the early days of the science-fiction pulp magazine, from its birth in the technophobic years after World War I through its decline in the atomic age. In their heyday, the magazines produced world-class writers including Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke and helped create science fiction as it exists today. Ashley, a writer who's specialized in the history of science fiction and fantasy for almost 30 years, includes four appendices that provide details about non-English language magazines; a summary of science-fiction magazines, with issue and editorial details; a directory of magazine editors and publishers through 1950; and a directory of magazine cover artists. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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