Chicago: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1959. December, 1959 issue, Vol.8, No. 12. 12mo, 130 pp. Illustrated wraps. Age toning to the pages, as always; some edge wear, a bit of soiling, short spine tear at top. A sturdy and handsome Very Good. Having by that time become a clearly-focused science-fiction periodical, Fantastic Science Fiction Stories was in December of 1959 edited by Cele Goldsmith. Magazine founder Howard Browne had established the periodical in 1952, naming it Fantasy-one of the small forest of pulp fiction-era periodicals whose magazine names were often so similar as to be confusing. This one itself bore a variety of names, from Fantastic to Fantastic Science Fiction, Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, Fantastic Stories of Imagination, Fantastic: Science Fiction - Fantasy and Fantastic Stories, all as part of the effort by Browne, in both title and content, to maximize the interested demographic. Not affiliated with this magazine were the similar pulp titles Fantastic Novels, Fantastic Science Fiction (an unrelated two-issue 1952 effort bearing a title identical name to one of the above Ziff-Davis titles], Fantastic Story Magazine, Fantastic Story Quarterly, Fantastic Universe, and the elder statesmen of pulps beginning with "Fantastic", Fantastic Adventures and Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Goldsmith's editorial predecessor Paul W. Fairman, less diffident about science fiction than Browne, gave the magazine a greater focus in that direction during his watch. By the time of Goldsmith's tenure, the semi-lurid symbols of female pulchritude which almost always bedecked the covers of pulp periodicals were gone, and, as with this issue, straight sci-fi illustrations had become the cover art of Fantastic Science Fiction Stories. Lead story in this issue is Poul Anderson's "A Message in Secret", and it occupies some sixty pages. A piece of pulp sci-fi history, in nice condition. L81. Seller Inventory # 000820

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Fantastic Science Fiction Stories - December...

Publisher: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, Chicago [New York]

Publication Date: 1959

Binding: Single Issue Magazine

Illustrator: Edward Valigursky (cover)

Condition: Very Good

Edition: First Edition

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