Paul - drew an extensive community of readers, many of whom became sf writers themselves. Gernsback’s magazine - with eye-popping cover illustrations by Frank R. Gernsback’s project involved developing a blueprint for the capitalist technocracies of the future, to be led by daring inventors such as his own Ralph. He cited as his forebears Poe, Verne, and Wells - and delineated a literary form aiming to instruct as well as entertain, to “impart knowledge … without once making us aware that we are being taught.” In fact, Gernsback was less influenced by scientific romance than by the “scientifiction” (such as his own Ralph 124C41+) that he’d already published in his other magazines. In the foreword to Amazing’s first number, Gernsback introduced his “New Sort of Magazine,” geared as he said to the “entirely new world” of the modern. For these reasons, many sf scholars date the “invention” of modern science fiction to 1926. Gernsback’s magazine would soon enough give a name to fiction treating the speculative and the otherworldly through the lens of systematic realism: “scientifiction.” As importantly, it established a forum for fans of the genre to debate and influence the future of its development. In March/April 1926, Hugo Gernsback, a Luxembourgian-American inventor and electrical enthusiast, published the inaugural issue of Amazing Stories, the first (and longest-running) English-language magazine dedicated to what was then not quite yet called “science fiction.” Amazing Stories - along with Astounding Stories of Super-Science (later changed to Astounding Science Fiction) and Fantastic Adventures - were to be the three major sf pulps of the 1930s.
Mike Ashley claims that 1926 kicks off phase 1 of a 25-year pulp magazine era.įor decades, as we’ve seen in this timeline series, tales of scientific gadgetry and romance had been filling periodical pages in England, France, and America. How might we characterize this sub-era? Something for me to think about. If we were to divide the Radium Age into quarters, 1926 would be the final year of its third quarter (1918-1926).
(The brackets, here, indicate “interregnum” years - i.e., periods of overlap between sf’s Radium Age and its Scientific Romance and so-called Golden Age eras.)
More information on Josh’s ongoing efforts here and here. These notes are very rough-and-ready, and not properly attributed in many cases. A series of notes towards a comprehensive account of the science fiction genre’s Radium Age (1900–1935).
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