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

Ashley, Mike

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0853238650 ISBN 13: 9780853238652

Publisher: Liverpool University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Originally conceived as a
trilogy, this is the first of five 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 fiction. For over forty years magazines were at the heart of science fiction and this book considers how the magazines, and their publishers, editors and authors influenced the growth and perception of this fascinating genre.

About this title

About the Author

Mike Ashley has specialised in the history of science fiction and fantasy for over fifty years. He is the author and editor of over 130 books that in total have sold more than a million copies worldwide. He received the Science Fiction Research Association's Pilgrim Award in 2002 for Lifetime Achievement in the field of science-fiction scholarship.

Edition details

• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0853238650
• ISBN 13: 9780853238652
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312