The Time Traveller: Science Fiction's Only Fan Magazine [later] The Time Traveller: Science Fiction's First Fan Magazine

Glasser, Allen; Mortimer Weisinger, Julius Schwartz, et al [Editors]

Published by Allen Glasser, New York, 1933

About this Item

Six of the nine issues of the first "true" science fiction fanzine. Volume I, Numbers 4 - 9, running from April-May 1932 to Winter 1933. Each of the first five issues consists of four to nine mimeographed sheets of typing paper printed both sides and bound with two staples. The sixth issue, printed on a single folded sheet, is subtitled "Science Fiction's First Fan Magazine" rather than "Only Fan Magazine" and announces the fanzine's imminent absorption by Science Fiction Digest. Near Fine with light wear, soiling, and toning; original staples have been replaced, leaving rust traces behind. Two soft subscription creases to each magazine, minimal waterstaining to upper edges, and paper reinforcement to final leaf of No. 4. Rare. The Time Traveller, named after the protagonist of H.G. Wells' famous novel The Time Machine, was a short-lived labor of love by twenty-three-year-old Allen Glasser with help from several teenaged members of the science fiction fan club "The Scienceers," which he had cofounded three years previously. The club produced six issues of a periodical called The Planet, which could justifiably be called the first science fiction fan magazine, but the crown is generally awarded to its successor The Time Traveller on the basis that the latter is entirely and not partly devoted to science fiction. The youthful contributing editors went on to careers in science fiction: Mortimer Weisinger and Julius Schwartz both became well-known editors at DC Comics, while Forrest J. Ackerman wrote and acted and served as a literary agent for authors like Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov. Whatever career Glasser might have had was cut short by plagiarism allegations, but he remained a science fiction fan and confounded the Lunarian fan club in the 1950s.

Seller Inventory # 140947956

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Time Traveller: Science Fiction's Only Fan Magazine [later] The Time Traveller: Science Fiction's First Fan Magazine
• Publisher: Allen Glasser, New York
• Publication Date: 1933
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science Fiction Fanzines
  • Magazines & Periodicals
  • Science Fiction