Science Fantasy (magazine)
Science Fantasy, which also appeared under the titles Impulse and SF Impulse, was a British
Gillings had an inventory of material that he had acquired while editing
Publication history
Gillings and Carnell
Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter | |||||||||
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Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
1950 | 1/1 | 1/2 | ||||||||||
1951 | 1/3 | |||||||||||
1952 | 2/4 | 2/5 | ||||||||||
1953 | 2/6 | |||||||||||
1954 | 7 (nd) | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |||||||
1955 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||||||
1956 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | ||||||||
1957 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | ||||||
1958 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | ||||||
1959 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | ||||||
Issues of Science Fantasy in the 1950s, showing volume/issue number, and color-coded to show who was editor for each issue. Walter Gillings was the editor for the first two issues; John Carnell took over for the remainder of the 1950s. Underlining indicates that the magazine was titled with the season (e.g. "Summer 1950") for that issue. Issue 7 was only dated with the year, 1954.[1][2] |
In early 1946, John Carnell launched a new science fiction magazine titled New Worlds, published by Pendulum Publications. The first issue appeared in July 1946 and failed to sell well. The second issue, that October, sold better, but Pendulum went out of business before the end of 1947 with only one more issue released. A group of sf fans, including Carnell and Frank Cooper, decided to restart the magazine under their own control, and formed Nova Publications Ltd. The fourth issue appeared in April 1949.[3]
At the same time that the first issue of New Worlds appeared, a separate British magazine called Fantasy was launched by Walter Gillings, a science fiction fan and a reporter by profession. Fantasy lasted for only three issues before closing in 1947, but Gillings had accumulated a substantial inventory of stories—enough to fill nine issues.[4] Gillings followed the demise of Fantasy by publishing a fanzine, titled Fantasy Review, beginning in March 1947.[1]
In 1950, with New Worlds on a stable quarterly schedule, Nova Publications decided to launch a companion, Science Fantasy.[3] They chose Gillings as the editor, and his fanzine, which had been retitled Science Fantasy Review in 1949, was incorporated in the new magazine as a department. The first issue was dated Summer 1950, but printing disputes meant that the second issue was delayed until winter. Paper rationing delayed the third issue to Winter 1951, but before it appeared, Nova decided that it could no longer afford to have separate editors for New Worlds and Science Fantasy, and Gillings was let go.[1] According to Carnell, there were also "fundamental differences of opinion" that led to the decision to replace him.[5][note 1]
After the Spring 1953 issue, Nova Publications decided to switch printers, in order to cut costs and bring the cover price down from 2/- (10 p) to 1/6 (7.5 p). The new printers, The Carlton Press, failed to keep to the agreed printing schedule, and produced poor quality work; there were also printers' strikes, and this disruption caused extended delays in the appearance of the seventh issue.[1][5] While the dispute with the printers was going on, Carnell and Maurice Goldsmith, a journalist acquaintance of Carnell's, put together a small conference of well-known science fiction authors, including Arthur C. Clarke and John Wyndham. Goldsmith covered the conference for Illustrated, a weekly magazine, and the article caught the attention of Maclaren & Sons Ltd, a technical trade publisher interested in launching a new sf magazine. Carnell turned down the offer because of his loyalty to Nova Publications, but subsequent discussions ultimately led to Maclaren taking control of Nova Publications, with a commitment to produce New Worlds on a monthly basis and Science Fantasy on a bimonthly schedule. Maclaren's legal department was helpful in resolving the dispute with The Carlton Press, and the seventh issue of Science Fantasy finally appeared with a cover date of March 1954.[7]
In 1958, Nova decided to launch a British reprint of the American magazine Science Fiction Adventures, under the same title. The British Science Fiction Adventures lasted until May 1963, when it was felled by declining sales.[1] New Worlds, Nova's flagship title, and Science Fantasy were also suffering from poor sales, with circulation estimated at about 5,000,[8] though a change from bimonthly to a monthly schedule was also considered that year for Science Fantasy.[1][note 2] In September Nova decided to close down both remaining titles,[1] and in preparation for the change Carnell signed a contract in December 1963 to edit an original anthology series, New Writings in SF, for publisher Dennis Dobson.[8] Readers' responses to news of the planned demise of the magazines included a letter from Michael Moorcock, published in the April 1964 New Worlds, asking how the British market would now be able to train writers to sell to the higher-paying US magazines.[1]
Roberts & Vinter
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
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1960 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | ||||||
1961 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | ||||||
1962 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | ||||||
1963 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | ||||||
1964 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | ||||||
1965 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | |
1966 | 80 | 81 | 1/1 | 1/2 | 1/3 | 1/4 | 1/5 | 1/6 | 1/7 | 1/8 | 1/9 | 1/10 |
1967 | 1/11 | 1/12 | ||||||||||
Issues of Science Fantasy in the 1960s, showing volume/issue number, and color-coded to show who was editor for each issue. John Carnell was the editor until April 1964, after which Kyril Bonfiglioli took over. The last five issues were edited by Keith Roberts and Harry Harrison. Issues 65 through 69 were titled with the name of two consecutive months—e.g. issue 66 was dated July–August 1964.[1][2] |
In early 1964, David Warburton of Roberts & Vinter, an established publisher, heard from the printer of Science Fantasy and New Worlds that the magazines were going to fold shortly. Warburton decided that having a respectable magazine would help him in getting good distribution for Roberts & Vinter's books: Science Fantasy and New Worlds both had distribution arrangements with the two main British newsagents of the time,
Bonfiglioli often bought material from writers without an established reputation; he did not make any special effort to acquire stories from well-known names. He was known for writing long and helpful rejection letters to newcomers, but he also had a reputation for laziness, and much of the day-to-day editorial work was done by assistants—first James Parkhill-Rathbone, and then Keith Roberts.[10]
Bonfiglioli disliked the title of the magazine, feeling that it "promised the worst of both worlds"; he proposed Caliban as the new title, but the publisher dissuaded him. He settled on Impulse instead, and the magazine appeared under the new title starting with the March 1966 issue.[1][11] The paperback format was unchanged, but the volume numeration was restarted at volume 1 number 1, to "sever all connections with Science Fantasy", in the words of sf historian Mike Ashley. The name change proved to be disastrous; there was already a magazine called Impulse, and this caused distribution problems. In addition, treating Impulse as a new magazine meant a fresh distribution contract was needed. Bonfiglioli attempted to repair the damage by changing the name to SF Impulse starting in August 1966, but the result was a dramatic drop in circulation.[11]
By late 1966 Bonfiglioli had made enough money from his antiques dealing to be able to retire to Jersey. J. G. Ballard was briefly involved with the magazine in an editorial role, but his aims for the magazine were too far from the publisher's goals and he was quickly replaced by Harry Harrison. Harrison almost immediately had to leave England and handed over much of the day-to-day management of the magazine to Keith Roberts.[11][12] Despite the setback from Bonfiglioli's title change, the magazine was still profitable, but in July 1966 Roberts & Vinter's distributor, Thorpe & Porter, went bankrupt while owing Roberts & Vinter a substantial sum. The resulting financial pressure led Roberts & Vinter to decide to focus on their more profitable magazines, and the February 1967 issue of SF Impulse was the last, though New Worlds, the sister magazine, survived via an Arts Council grant obtained by Brian Aldiss's efforts.[11][12] The title was merged with New Worlds with effect from the March 1967 issue, but nothing of SF Impulse's content was retained.[12]
Contents and reception
1950s
When Carnell took over, he planned to distinguish Science Fantasy from its sister magazine, New Worlds, by adding more fantasy, while printing nothing but sf in New Worlds,[5] though it took some time for the two magazines to develop separate personalities.[1] Carnell dropped the non-fiction features and instead published a series of guest editorials, starting with Gillings in the third issue and H.J. Campbell in the fourth issue.[5][15] The acquisition of Nova Publications by Maclaren gave Carnell access to the publishing facilities of a well-established company, and to established distribution channels, which freed him to focus on his editorial duties.[7] Carnell tended to put longer stories in Science Fantasy than in New Worlds, and Science Fantasy typically ran a long lead novelette with several short stories.[1][16] Stories that would not have suited New Worlds began to appear, such as William F. Temple's "Eternity" (February 1955), in which aliens mysteriously provide haloes to thousands of people, and Dal Stiven's "Free Will", which featured robot ghosts. Stories in the whimsical fantasy tradition that had been started by Unknown did not often appear in Science Fantasy.[1][16]
Many of the lead novelettes in the 1950s were provided by
In Carnell's opinion, the literary quality of Science Fantasy was "far higher" than that of New Worlds, but New Worlds was always the better-selling of the two magazines.
1960s
In the early 1960s,
When Kyril Bonfiglioli took over in 1964, he complained in his first editorial that he had "just read through a quarter of a million words of ms [manuscript] and half of it was so bad it made me blush".[23] He asked Brian Aldiss to help; the only unsold stories Aldiss had were from his early days, "written before I got the hang of things", but Bonfiglioli told Aldiss, "They can't possibly be worse than the rubbish that's being submitted".[note 4] Aldiss provided four stories for the first two issues, under his own name and two pseudonyms, "Jael Cracken" and "John Runciman". Bonfiglioli's third issue included Keith Roberts' first two stories: "Escapism", a time travel tale, and "Anita", the first in a series about a witch; Roberts became a frequent contributor both under his own name and as "Alistair Bevan", and also provided the artwork for several covers.[1][note 5] The Day of the Minotaur, another historical fantasy by Thomas Burnett Swann, began serialisation in the same issue under the title The Blue Monkeys. Swann's novel The Weirwoods was also serialised in the magazine, with no change of title. Other new writers who began to appear under Bonfiglioli's editorship included Josephine Saxton and Brian Stableford.[1] Bonfiglioli's focus on stories that he liked personally, rather than on a specific editorial policy, led author Christopher Priest to describe Science Fantasy under Bonfiglioli's editorship as "a literate and charmingly eccentric magazine, with an atmosphere all its own".[24]
At the
Bibliographic details
The editorial succession at Science Fantasy was as follows:[1][11]
- Walter Gillings: Summer 1950 – Winter 1950.
- John Carnell: Winter 1951–1952 – April 1964.
- Kyril Bonfiglioli: June–July 1964 – September 1966.
- Harry Harrison and Keith Roberts: October 1966 – February 1967.
The publisher was Nova Publications until April 1964, and Roberts & Vinter Ltd thereafter.[1][11]
Science Fantasy was digest-sized for its first two issues. The size increased to a large digest for the next four issues, but with issue seven it returned to a small digest again, and remained in that format until the June–July 1964 issue, which was issued in paperback format. The remaining issues, including all those under the Impulse title, were published as paperbacks. It initially was priced at 2/-; the price was cut to 1/6 for the third issue, but returned to 2/- with the seventh issue. With issue 11 (December 1954) the price returned to 2/-, and it rose to 2/6 with issue 46 and to 3/- with issue 61. When the format changed to paperback with issue 65 the price dropped again to 2/6, and remained there until the title change to Impulse. All the twelve Impulse issues were priced at 3/6. The page count began at 96, and rose to 128 with issue 7. Issues 36 through 63 were 112 pages, and the final digest-sized issue was 124 pages. The paperback issues were 128 pages under the Science Fantasy title, and 160 pages for the Impulse issues. Volume numbering began with two volumes of three issues, but the second volume began with volume 2, number 4 instead of restarting the issue number at 1 as would usually be done. From issue 7 the volume number was dropped completely.[1][11]
The schedule was initially quite irregular, with the first two issues, in Summer and Winter 1950, followed almost a year later by a Winter 1951–52 issue. Spring and Autumn 1952 were followed by Spring 1953 and then another long delay to the seventh issue which was dated 1954, without a month or season given. The schedule became more regular thereafter, with May 1954 inaugurating a bimonthly schedule that lasted till November 1955, except that September 1954 was followed by a December issue, and June 1955 was followed by September. After February, May and August 1955, the December 1956 issue began a regular bimonthly sequence that was marred only by the appearance of a November 1959 issue between the August and December issues. After the switch to paperback, the sequence ran as follows: June–July 1964, July–August 1964, September–October 1964, December 1964 – January 1965, January–February 1965, and then monthly from March 1965 to the end.[1][11]
There have been no anthologies drawn solely from the pages of Science Fantasy, but Weird Shadows From Beyond, edited by John Carnell, and published by
In 2013, a 371-page volume written by John Boston and curated by Damien Broderick, titled Strange Highways: Reading Science Fantasy, 1950–1967 was published by Borgo/Wildside in the US. It discusses, sometimes in detail, every issue, story, writer, cover, and even advertisement of the magazine.[25]
Notes
- ^ Gillings felt betrayed by the decision, and in combination with a family bereavement this led to him disappearing from the British science fiction world for twenty years.[6]
- ^ A plan to switch to a monthly schedule was announced in the editorial of the August 1963 issue; this was surprising in view of the low circulation as normally a monthly schedule would be undertaken only by a successful magazine.[1]
- ^ Warburton's partner, Godfrey Gold, published pin-up magazines, and was also interested in the magazines for the same reason.[8]
- ^ Quoted by Mike Ashley from private correspondence with Aldiss.[1]
- ^ In fact Carnell had been the first editor to buy from Roberts, but the stories he acquired for New Writings in SF did not appear until after Roberts appeared in Science Fantasy.[10]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Mike Ashley, "Science Fantasy (1950–1966)", in Tymn & Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 505–510.
- ^ a b "Science-Fantasy", in Tuck, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Vol. 3, pp. 586–587.
- ^ a b Mike Ashley, "New Worlds", in Tymn & Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 423–437.
- ^ Mike Ashley, "Fantasy (1946–1947)", in Tymn & Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 256–257.
- ^ a b c d Harbottle & Holland, Vultures of the Void, pp. 78–79.
- ^ Ashley, "Transformations", pp. 75–76.
- ^ a b c Harbottle & Holland, Vultures of the Void, pp. 100–103.
- ^ a b c d e f Ashley, Transformations, pp. 231–237.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, pp. 337–338.
- ^ a b Ashley, Transformations, pp. 243–246.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mike Ashley, "Impulse", in Tymn & Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 350–352.
- ^ a b c Ashley, Transformations, pp. 245–248.
- ^ a b Kyle, Pictorial History of Science Fiction, p. 119.
- ^ "Fantasies and Facts". Science Fantasy. I (1): 3. Summer 1950.
- ^ a b c d See the individual issues. For convenience, an online index is available at "Magazine: Science Fantasy – ISFDB". isfdb.org. Al von Ruff. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
- ^ a b c d Brian Stableford, "Science Fantasy", in Clute & Nicholls, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 1061.
- ^ a b Mike Ashley, "Science Fantasy", in Clute & Grant, Encyclopedia of Fantasy, p. 844.
- ^ "Editorial-In-Brief". New Worlds Science Fiction. 18 (53): 20. November 1956.
- ^ John Clute, "Thomas Burnett Swann", in Clute & Grant, Encyclopedia of Fantasy, pp. 912–913.
- ^ Science Fantasy. XIX (55): 71. October 1962.
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(help) - ^ David Langford, "Terry Pratchett", in Clute & Grant, Encyclopedia of Fantasy, p. 783.
- ^ Franson & DeVore, A History of the Hugo, Nebula, and International Fantasy Awards, pp. 22–25.
- ^ "Editorial". Science Fantasy. XXII (65): 2. June–July 1964.
- ^ Christopher Priest, "New Wave", in Holdstock, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 166.
- ^ "Title: Strange Highways: Reading Science Fantasy, 1950–1967". isfdb.org. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
Sources
- ISBN 0-85323-779-4.
- ISBN 0-312-15897-1.
- ISBN 0-312-09618-6.
- Franson, Donald; DeVore, Howard (1978). A History of the Hugo, Nebula and International Fantasy Awards. Dearborn, Michigan: Misfit Press.
- Harbottle, Philip; Holland, Stephen (1992). Vultures of the Void. San Bernardino, California: Borgo Press. ISBN 0-89370-415-6.
- ISBN 0-7064-0756-3.
- Kyle, David (1977). The Pictorial History of Science Fiction. London: Hamlyn. ISBN 0-600-38193-5.
- ISBN 0-911682-26-0.
- ISBN 0-313-21221-X.