Science-Fiction Plus
Encyclopedia
Edited by Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback , born Hugo Gernsbacher, was a Luxembourgian American inventor, writer, editor, and magazine publisher, best remembered for publications that included the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with H. G...
and Sam Moskowitz
Sam Moskowitz
Sam Moskowitz was an early fan and organizer of interest in science fiction and, later, a writer, critic, and historian of the field.-Biography:...
, the 68-page magazine sold for 35 cents and ran for eight issues, from November 1952 to December 1953. Not intended as a pulp magazine, it began as a slick printed on quality paper with glossy covers. However, in the course of the run, the paper switched from slick to "book paper".
Writers and illustrators
The lineup of writers included Robert BlochRobert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
, Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
, Murray Leinster
Murray Leinster
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history...
, Chad Oliver
Chad Oliver
Symmes Chadwick Oliver was an American science fiction and Western writer and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin...
. Clifford D. Simak
Clifford D. Simak
Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1977.-Biography:Clifford Donald Simak was born in...
and James H. Schmitz
James H. Schmitz
James Henry Schmitz was an American writer born in Hamburg, Germany of American parents.- Life :Aside from two years at business school in Chicago, Schmitz lived in Germany until 1938, leaving before World War II broke out in Europe in 1939.During World War II, Schmitz served as an aerial...
. It featured the first published story by Anne McCaffrey
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...
. Cover illustrations were by Frank R. Paul
Frank R. Paul
Frank Rudolph Paul was an illustrator of US pulp magazines in the science fiction field. He was born in Vienna, Austria and died at his home in Teaneck, New Jersey....
and Alex Schomburg
Alex Schomburg
Alex Schomburg was a prolific American commercial and comic book artist and painter whose career lasted over 70 years.-Biography:...
, with interior illustrations by Muneef Alwan, Seymour Augenbraun, Paul Cooper, Virgil Finlay
Virgil Finlay
Virgil Finlay was an American pulp fantasy, science fiction and horror illustrator. While he worked in a range of media, from gouache to oils, Finlay specialized in, and became famous for, detailed pen-and-ink drawings accomplished with abundant stippling, cross-hatching, and scratchboard techniques...
, Charles Hornstein, Jay Landau, Tom O'Reilly, Frank R. Paul and others.
The first issue had novelettes by Gernsback, Farmer and Donald Howard Menzel
Donald Howard Menzel
Donald Howard Menzel was one of the first theoretical astronomers and astrophysicists in the US. He discovered the physical properties of the solar chromosphere, the chemistry of stars, the atmosphere of Mars, and the nature of gaseous neblulae.-Biography:Born in Florence, Colorado in 1901 and...
, with short stories by John Scott Campbell, Gernsback (as Greno Gashbuck) and Otto Binder
Otto Binder
Otto Oscar Binder was an American author of science fiction and non-fiction books and stories, and comic books...
, book reviews by Moskowitz and a variety of essays.
In Transformations: The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970 (2005), historian Mike Ashley questioned the level of quality in Science-Fiction Plus as he outlined the magazine's essential problem:
- The emphasis was on the bigger names from science fiction's early years--Eando BinderEando BinderEando Binder is a pen-name used by two mid-20th-century science fiction authors, Earl Andrew Binder and his brother Otto Binder . The name is derived from their first initials ....
, John Scott Campbell, Richard Tooker, Raymond Z. GallunRaymond Z. GallunRaymond Zinke Gallun was an American science fiction writer.Gallun was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin...
and Harry BatesHarry Bates (author)Harry Bates was an American science fiction editor and writer. His 1940 short story "Farewell to the Master" was the basis of the well-known 1951 science fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.-Biography:Harry Bates was born Hiram Gilmore Bates III on October 9, 1900 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, most of whom had not contributed much to recent science fiction. This gave the magazine a feeling of archaism despite the glossy appearance... The fact was that the magazine did not appeal to the new generation of readers, and even the older generation found the stories pale against the material in other magazines. There were three worthy stories in Science-Fiction Plus. "Nightmare Planet" by Murray Leinster (June 1953) is an exciting conclusion to his early Argosy series, originally set in the future but transferred to portraying survival on a hostile planet. "Spacebred Generations" by Clifford D. Simak (August 1953) is a cleverly thought through generation starship story. "Strange Compulsion" by Philip José Farmer (October 1953) is another daring story exploring compulsive incest caused by a parasite. Other stories were variable in quality and some were embarrassingly dated."
The final issue (December 1953) featured stories by Corwin F. Stickney, Murray Leinster, Harry Bates, James H. Schmitz, Frank M. Robinson
Frank M. Robinson
Frank M. Robinson is an American science fiction and techno-thriller writer.-Biography:Robinson was born in Chicago, Illinois. The son of a check forger, Frank started out working as a copy boy for International Service in his teens and then became an office boy for Ziff-Davis...
and Eric Frank Russell
Eric Frank Russell
Eric Frank Russell was a British author best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales, and...
. Michael Fischer did the cover story, "Misfit," illustrated by Paul.