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| Actually, the second issue...w/expanded title... |
Meanwhile, I hope I shall be able to put my mind back together for next week's links, but it's currently blown by the ease with which I was able to find information on three or four books online which had been eluding me for years, when I cast about for substitutes for the book I intended to do this week, which I haven't had time to finish, much less think about even long enough for a slapdash entry. Managing to dig out information on such somewhat enigmatic and/or influential books on my young reading as Eric Berger's anthology For Boys Only or Emile Schurmacher's Strange Unsolved Mysteries (and further discovering that this journeyman writer had a diverse if obscure career, writing paperback originals, men's sweat magazine articles and, earlier, for Collier's, as well as for the tv series Coronado 9--and, apparently, his daughter became a sort of small-time newspaper magnate) or Nancy Faulkner's Witches Brew could've made for a decent entry...if any of these books but the Berger were actually good...and remarkable the paths this kind of engine-searching can take one down, so that coming across a Reader's Digest imitation called This Month led indirectly to Pacific, a literary magazine at Mills College, indexed by Dennis Lien at the FictionMags Index pages, that published such diversely influential people on my life as Charles Neider (he of the large Mark Twain collections from Doubleday that I plunged through when about 10), Woody Guthrie, George P. Elliott and a slew of major poets, and Iola Brubeck, already married to husband Dave who was just starting to catch fire in the SF Bay area as a jazz musician and composer.
But, for now, what I'm going to do is steal an excellent notion Evan has been engaging in at his blog, in showing early issue covers (in all their often off-point glory) of such important magazines as Weird Tales (a magazine that in its first year was only a very poor representative of how great and important it would become--not altogether unlike Black Mask in its first year), and run some of the covers from the subsequent first issues I have read...with some bare-bones comments I hope to augment later.
Thanks to Evan for the inspiration...and apologies for any encroachment!
F&SF began life with a slightly goofy-looking photo cover (stablemate EQMM's photo covers were a mixed bag as well), and an issue that featured Theodore Sturgeon's charming, funny sf story "The Hurkle is a Happy Beast" (so the immediate expansion of the title wasn't too taxing) and a slew of reprints...Perceval Landon's "Thurnley Abbey" being the one which resonated enough with Ramsey Campbell to make his Fine Frights rarities anthology...though I remember enjoying that story, I can't for the life of me remember details.The second issue includes Ray Bradbury's revised "The Exiles" and Damon Knight's first story he was proud to claim, "Not with a Bang," a solid, grim joke story in the mode of his "To Serve Man"...and a more distinctively F&SF cover, by the staff genius, George Salter. (And...the first Gavagan's Bar story...and a fine Robert Arthur...and...)
Contents of the first two issues, courtesy ISFDb:
Publisher: Mystery House, Inc. (The American Mercury, essentially, and EQMM and offshoots)
- 3 • Introduction (The Magazine of Fantasy, Fall 1949) • essay by Lawrence E. Spivak
- 6 • Bells on His Toes • short story by Cleve Cartmill
- 18 • Thurnley Abbey • (1908) • short story by Perceval Landon
- 32 • Private - Keep Out! • short story by Philip MacDonald
- 47 • The Lost Room • (1858) • short story by Fitz-James O'Brien
- 62 • The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast • short story by Theodore Sturgeon
- 70 • Review Copy • shortstory by Anthony Boucher [as by H. H. Holmes ]
- 80 • Men of Iron • (1940) • shortstory by Guy Endore
- 87 • A Bride for the Devil • shortstory by Stuart Palmer (1905-1968)
- 95 • Rooum • (1910) • shortstory by Oliver Onions
- 108 • Perseus Had a Helmet • [Captain McGrail] • (1938) • shortstory by Richard Sale
- 122 • Cartoon: "On the way home from school I noticed a small speck in the sky .. ". • (0000) • interior artwork by David Pascal
- 123 • In the Days of Our Fathers • shortstory by Winona McClintic
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Winter-Spring 1950
- 3 • The Gnurrs Come from the Voodvork Out • [Schimmelhorn] • shortstory by Reginald Bretnor [as by R. Bretnor ]
- 17 • The Return of the Gods • (1948) • shortstory by Robert M. Coates
- 29 • Every Work Into Judgment • shortstory by Kris Neville
- 36 • Time, Real and Imaginary • (1803) • poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- 37 • A Rope for Lucifer • shortstory by Walt Sheldon
- 50 • The Last Generation? • (1946) • shortstory by Miriam Allen deFord
- 61 • Postpaid to Paradise • [Murchison Morks] • (1940) • shortstory by Robert Arthur
- 74 • The Exiles • (1949) • shortstory by Ray Bradbury
- 89 • My Astral Body • (1895) • shortstory by Anthony Hope
- 95 • Gavagan's Bar • [Gavagan's Bar] • shortstory by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
- 105 • Recommended Reading (F&SF, Winter-Spring 1950) • [Recommended Reading] • essay by The Editors
- 105 • Review: What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown • review by The Editors
- 106 • Review: The World Below by S. Fowler Wright • review by The Editors
- 106 • Review: Without Sorcery by Theodore Sturgeon • review by The Editors
- 106 • Review: The Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1949 by T. E. Dikty and Everett F. Bleiler • review by The Editors
- 106 • Review: The Conquest of Space by Chesley Bonestell and Willy Ley • review by The Editors
- 106 • Review: Honey for the Ghost by Louis Golding • review by The Editors
- 107 • Review: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg • review by The Editors
- 107 • Review: The Ghostly Tales of Henry James by Henry James • review by The Editors
- 107 • Review: Gallery of Ghosts by James Reynolds • review by The Editors
- 108 • World of Arlesia • shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
- 115 • The Volcanic Valve • [Van Wagener] • (1897) • shortstory by W. L. Alden (variant of A Volcanic Valve)
- 123 • Not With a Bang • shortstory by Damon Knight
The first issue has the cover novel by Russell, and, perhaps even more brilliant, "Trouble with Water" by H. L. Gold and "Where Angels Fear..." by Manly Wade Wellman. Unz.org lets you read this issue.Feature Novel
Sinister Barrier by Eric Frank Russell, pp. 9-94 - PDF
Short Stories
Who Wants Power? by Mona Farnsworth, pp. 95-106 - PDF
Dark Vision by Frank Belknap Long, pp. 107-116 - PDF
Trouble With Water by H.L. Gold, pp. 117-130 - PDF
"Where Angels Fear---" by Manly Wade Wellman, pp. 131-136 - PDF
Closed Doors by A.B.L. Macfadyen, Jr., pp. 137-150 - PDF
Death Sentence by Robert Moore Williams, pp. 151-164 - PDF
Cover by H.W. Scott, - PDF
More to come, later today!
Strange Stories
