Startling Stories
Encyclopedia
Startling Stories was an American pulp
science fiction magazine
, published from 1939 to 1955 by Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories
, Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue; the first was The Black Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum
. When Standard Magazines acquired Thrilling Wonder in 1936, it also gained the rights to stories published in that magazine's predecessor, Wonder Stories, and selections from this early material were reprinted in Startling as "Hall of Fame" stories. Under Weisinger the magazine focused on younger readers, and when Weisinger was replaced by Oscar J. Friend in 1941 the magazine became even more juvenile in focus, with clichéd cover art and letters answered by a "Sergeant Saturn". Friend was replaced by Sam Merwin, Jr.
in 1945, and Merwin was able to improve the quality of the fiction substantially, publishing Arthur C. Clarke
's Against the Fall of Night
, and several other well-received stories.
Much of Startlings cover art was painted by Earle K. Bergey
, who became strongly associated with the magazine, painting almost every cover between 1942 and 1952. He was known for equipping his heroines with "brass bras" and implausible costumes, and the public image of science fiction in his day was partly created by his work for Startling and other magazines. Merwin left in 1951, and Samuel Mines took over; the standard remained fairly high but competition from new and better-paying markets such as Galaxy Science Fiction
and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
had an impact on Mines' ability to acquire quality material. In mid-1952 Standard attempted to change Startlings image by adopting a more sober title typeface and reducing the sensationalism of the covers, but by 1955 the pulp magazine market was collapsing. Startling absorbed its two companion magazines, Thrilling Wonder and Fantastic Story Magazine
, in early 1955, but by the end of that year it too ceased publication.
published by Hugo Gernsback
. By the end of the 1930s the field was booming. Standard Magazines, a pulp publishing company owned by Ned Pines
, acquired its first science fiction magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories
, from Gernsback in 1936. Mort Weisinger
, the editor of Thrilling Wonder, printed an editorial in February 1938 asking readers for suggestions for a companion magazine. Response was positive, and the new magazine, titled Startling Stories, was duly launched, with a first issue (pulp-sized, rather than bedsheet-sized
, as many readers had requested), dated January 1939.
Startling was launched on a bimonthly schedule, alternating months with Thrilling Wonder Stories, though in 1940 Thrilling moved to a monthly schedule that lasted for over a year. The first editor was Mort Weisinger
, who had been an active fan in the early 1930s and had joined Standard Magazines in 1935, editing Thrilling Wonder from 1936. Weisinger left in 1941 to take a new post as editor of Superman
, and was replaced by Oscar J. Friend, who was an established writer of pulp fiction, though his experience was in western fiction rather than sf. During Friend's tenure Startling slipped from bimonthly to quarterly publication. Friend lasted for a little over two years, and was replaced by Sam Merwin, Jr.
as of the Winter 1945 issue.
Merwin succeeded in making Startling popular and successful, and the bimonthly schedule was resumed in 1947. At the start of 1952 Startling switched to a monthly schedule; this was unusual in that Startling was notionally junior to Thrilling Wonder, its sister magazine, which remained bimonthly. Merwin left shortly before this switch, in order to spend more time on his own writing. He was replaced by Samuel Mines, who had worked with Standard's Western magazines, though he was a science fiction aficionado.
Street & Smith
, one of the longest established and most respected publishers, shut down all of their pulp magazines in the summer of 1949. The pulps were dying, partially as a result of the success of paperbacks. Standard continued with Startling and Thrilling, but the end came only a few years later. In 1954, Fredric Wertham
published Seduction of the Innocent
, a book in which he asserted that comics were inciting children to violence. A subsequent Senate
subcommittee hearing led to a backlash against comics, and the publishers dropped titles in response. The financial impact spread to pulp magazines, since often a publisher would publish both. A 1955 strike by American News Corporation, the main distributor in the U.S., meant that magazines remained in warehouses and never made it to the newsstands; the unsold copies represented a significant financial blow and contributed to publishers' decisions to cancel magazines. Startling was one of the casualties. The schedule had already returned from monthly to bimonthly in 1953, and it became a quarterly in early 1954. Thrilling Wonder published its last issue in early 1955, and was then merged with Startling, as was Fantastic Story Magazine
, another companion publication, but the combined magazine only lasted three more issues. Mines left the magazine at the end of 1954; he was succeeded for two issues by Theron Raines, who was followed by Herbert D. Kastle for the last two. The final issue was dated Fall 1955.
in 1936, they had also acquired rights to reprint the stories that had appeared in it and in its predecessor magazines, Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories, and so Startling also included a "Hall of Fame" reprint from one of these magazines in every issue. The first lead novel was The Black Flame, a revised version of "Dawn of Flame", a story by Stanley Weinbaum
that had previously appeared only in an edition limited to 250 copies. There was also a tribute to Weinbaum, written by Otto Binder
; Weinbaum had died in 1935 and was well regarded, so even though the story was not one of his best, it was excellent publicity for the magazine. Otto and his brother, Earl, also contributed a story, "Science Island", under their joint pseudonym Eando Binder
. The "Hall of Fame" reprint was D.D. Sharp's "The Eternal Man", from 1929. Other features included a pictorial article on Albert Einstein, and a set of biographical sketches of scientists, titled "Thrills in Science". The letter column was called "The Ether Vibrates", and there was a regular fanzine
review column, providing contact information so that readers could obtain the fanzines directly. Initially the stories for the "Hall of Fame" were chosen by the editor, but soon Weisinger recruited well-known science fiction fans to make the choices.
Startling was popular, and soon "became one of the core science fiction magazines", according to science fiction historian Mike Ashley
. The target audience was younger readers, and the lead novels were often space operas by well-known pulp writers such as Edmond Hamilton
and Manly Wade Wellman
. In addition to space opera, some more fantastical fiction began to appear, contributed by writers such as Henry Kuttner
. These early science fantasy
stories were popular with the readers, and contrasted with the hard science fiction
that John W. Campbell
was pioneering at Astounding
.
Weisinger set out to please the younger readers, and when Friend became editor in 1941, he went further in this direction, giving the magazine a strongly juvenile flavor. For example, Friend introduced "Sergeant Saturn", a character (originally from Thrilling Wonder Stories) who answered readers' letters and appeared in other features in the magazine. Many subscribers found the approach irritating.
The interior artwork was initially done by Hans Wessolowski
(more usually known as "Wesso"), Mark Marchioni and Alex Schomburg
, and occasionally Virgil Finlay
. Most of the cover art was by Rudolph Belarski and Howard Brown in the early years, but when Earle Bergey
began to paint covers for Startling in 1941, he quickly became identified with the magazine; between 1942 and 1952 (the year of Bergey's death) he painted almost every cover. Bergey's covers were visually striking: in the words of science fiction editor and critic Malcolm Edwards, they typically featured "a rugged hero, a desperate heroine (in either a metallic bikini or a dangerous state of déshabillé) and a hideous alien menace". The "brass bra" motif came to be associated with Bergey, and his covers did much to create the image of science fiction as it was perceived by the general public.
, whose first story, "The World Thinker", appeared in the Summer 1945 issue. He also regularly published work by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore
, who wrote both under Kuttner's name and as "Keith Hammond": in a four year period from 1946 to 1949 the writing team of Kuttner and Moore had seven novels published in Startling, mostly science fantasy
, a sub-genre not common at that time. Notable novels that appeared in the late 1940s include Fredric Brown
's What Mad Universe and Charles L. Harness
's Flight Into Yesterday, later published in book form as The Paradox Men. Arthur C. Clarke
's novel The City and the Stars
first saw print in Startling in abbreviated form, in the November 1948 issue, under the title Against the Fall of Night.
One novel that did not appear in Startling was Isaac Asimov
's Pebble in the Sky
, which Merwin had commissioned from Asimov in the early summer of 1947. Asimov delivered a draft in September, but after reading it Merwin asked for revisions: Leo Margulies
, Merwin's boss, had decided that Startling needed to focus more on action and adventure, and less on cerebral stories in the style of Astounding. Asimov was furious, refused to do the revisions, and never submitted anything to Merwin again.
Another title in the Standard Magazines stable was Captain Future
, which had been launched a year after Startling, and featured the adventures of the superhero after whom the magazine was named. When it folded with its Spring 1944 issue, the series of novels was continued for some time in the pages of Startling; over the next six years ten more "Captain Future" novels appeared, with the last one, Birthplace of Creation, printed in the May 1951 issue.
Merwin's successor, Mines, also published some excellent work, though increased competition in the early 1950s from Galaxy
and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
did lead to some dilution of quality, and Startlings rates—one to two cents per word—could not compete with the leading magazines. However, Startlings editorial policy was more eclectic: it did not limit itself to one kind of story, but printed everything from melodramatic space opera to sociological sf, and Mines had a reputation as having "the most catholic tastes and the fewest inhibitions" of any of the science fiction magazine editors. In late 1952, Mines published Philip José Farmer
's "The Lovers", a taboo-breaking story about aliens who can only reproduce by mating with humans. The story integrated sex into the plot without being prurient, and was widely praised. Farmer, partly as a consequence, went on to win a Hugo Award
as "Most Promising New Writer". New authors first published by Mines include Frank Herbert
, who debuted with "Looking for Something?" in April 1952, and Robert F. Young, whose first story, "The Black Deep Thou Wingest", appeared in June 1953. The artwork was also high quality; Virgil Finlay's interior illustrations were "unparalleled", according to science fiction historian Robert Ewald. Other well-known artists who contributed interior work included Alex Schomburg and Kelly Freas
.
Startlings instantly recognizable title logo was redolent of the magazine's pulp roots, and in early 1952 Mines decided to replace it with a more staid typeface. The covers became more sober, with spaceships replacing the women in brass bras. With the Spring 1955 issue, at the start of its final year, Startling dropped its long-standing policy of printing a novel in every issue, but only three issues later it ceased publication.
The editorial succession at Startling was as follows:
Startling was a pulp-sized magazine for all of its 99 issues. It initially was 132 pages, and was priced at 15 cents. The page count was reduced to 116 pages with the Summer 1944 issue and then increased to 148 pages with the March 1948 issue, at which time the price went up to 20 cents. The price increased again, to 25 cents, in November 1948, and the page count increased again to 180 pages. This higher page count did not last; it was reduced to 164 in March 1949 and then again to 148 pages in July 1951. The October 1953 issue saw the page count drop again, to 132, and a year later the Fall 1954 issue cut the page count to 116. The magazine remained at 116 pages and a price of 25 cents for the rest of its existence.
The original bimonthly schedule continued until the March 1943 issue, which was followed by June 1943 and then Fall 1943. This inaugurated a quarterly schedule that ran until Fall 1946, except that an additional issue, dated March, was inserted between the Winter 1946 and Spring 1946 issues. The next issue, January 1947, began another bimonthly sequence, which ran without interruption until November 1951. With the following issue, January 1952, Startling switched to a monthly schedule, which lasted until the June 1953 issue which was followed by August and October 1953 and then January 1954. The next issue was Spring 1954, and the magazine stayed on a quarterly schedule from then until the last issue, Fall 1955.
There was a British reprint edition from Pembertons between 1949 and 1954. These were heavily cut, with sometimes only one or two stories and usually only 64 pages, though the October and December 1952 issues both had 80 pages. It was published irregularly; initially once or twice a year, and then more or less bimonthly beginning in mid-1952. The issues were numbered from 1 to 18. Three different Canadian reprint editions also appeared for a total of 21 or 22 issues (sources differ on the correct number). Six quarterly issues appeared from Summer 1945 through Fall 1946 from Publication Enterprises, Ltd.; then another three bimonthly issues appeared, from May to September 1948, from Pines Publications
. Finally 12 more bimonthly issues appeared from March 1949 to January 1951, from Better Publications of Canada. All these issues were almost identical to the American versions, although they are half an inch taller. A Mexican magazine, Enigmas, ran for 16 issues from August 1955 to May 1958; it included many reprints, primarily from Startling and from Fantastic Story Magazine.
praised it as "an excellent collection by anyone's standards."
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
science fiction magazine
Science fiction magazine
A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard copy periodical format or on the Internet....
, published from 1939 to 1955 by Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories
Wonder Stories
Wonder Stories was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, when his media company Experimenter Publishing went...
, Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue; the first was The Black Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum
Stanley G. Weinbaum
Stanley Grauman Weinbaum was an American science fiction author. His career in science fiction was short but influential...
. When Standard Magazines acquired Thrilling Wonder in 1936, it also gained the rights to stories published in that magazine's predecessor, Wonder Stories, and selections from this early material were reprinted in Startling as "Hall of Fame" stories. Under Weisinger the magazine focused on younger readers, and when Weisinger was replaced by Oscar J. Friend in 1941 the magazine became even more juvenile in focus, with clichéd cover art and letters answered by a "Sergeant Saturn". Friend was replaced by Sam Merwin, Jr.
Sam Merwin, Jr.
Samuel Kimball Merwin, Jr. was an American mystery fiction writer, editor and science fiction author, who published fiction mostly as Sam Merwin, Jr. His pseudonyms included Elizabeth Deare Bennett, Matt Lee, Jacques Jean Ferrat and Carter Sprague.-Biography:He was born on April 28, 1910 in...
in 1945, and Merwin was able to improve the quality of the fiction substantially, publishing Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
's Against the Fall of Night
Against the Fall of Night
Against the Fall of Night is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. Originally appearing in the November, 1948 issue of the magazine Startling Stories, it was first published in book form in 1953 by Gnome Press. It was later expanded and revised as The City and the Stars...
, and several other well-received stories.
Much of Startlings cover art was painted by Earle K. Bergey
Earle K. Bergey
Earle K. Bergey was an American illustrator who painted cover art for a wide diversity of magazines and paperback books...
, who became strongly associated with the magazine, painting almost every cover between 1942 and 1952. He was known for equipping his heroines with "brass bras" and implausible costumes, and the public image of science fiction in his day was partly created by his work for Startling and other magazines. Merwin left in 1951, and Samuel Mines took over; the standard remained fairly high but competition from new and better-paying markets such as Galaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...
and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
had an impact on Mines' ability to acquire quality material. In mid-1952 Standard attempted to change Startlings image by adopting a more sober title typeface and reducing the sensationalism of the covers, but by 1955 the pulp magazine market was collapsing. Startling absorbed its two companion magazines, Thrilling Wonder and Fantastic Story Magazine
Fantastic Story Magazine
Fantastic Story Magazine was a 1950-55 science fiction pulp magazine which merged pulp reprints with new stories.It was published on a quarterly schedule by Best Books, a subsidiary imprint of Standard Magazines. Initially priced at 25 cents, the 160-page debut issue was titled Fantastic Story...
, in early 1955, but by the end of that year it too ceased publication.
Publication history
Although science fiction had been published before the 1920s, it did not begin to coalesce into a separately marketed genre until the appearance in 1926 of Amazing Stories, a pulp magazinePulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
published 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...
. By the end of the 1930s the field was booming. Standard Magazines, a pulp publishing company owned by Ned Pines
Ned Pines
Ned L. Pines was a New York publisher. He died in Paris, and lived in Paris, Manhattan and East Hampton NY. He was married to the former Maxine Firestone, has two daughters, two stepsons, and one granddaughter....
, acquired its first science fiction magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories
Wonder Stories
Wonder Stories was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, when his media company Experimenter Publishing went...
, from Gernsback in 1936. Mort Weisinger
Mort Weisinger
Mortimer Weisinger was an American magazine and comic book editor best known for editing DC Comics' Superman during the mid-1950s to 1960s, in the Silver Age of comic books...
, the editor of Thrilling Wonder, printed an editorial in February 1938 asking readers for suggestions for a companion magazine. Response was positive, and the new magazine, titled Startling Stories, was duly launched, with a first issue (pulp-sized, rather than bedsheet-sized
Bedsheet
The bedsheet format was the size of many magazines published in the United States in the first third of the 20th century. Magazines in bedsheet format were roughly the size of Life but with square spines...
, as many readers had requested), dated January 1939.
Startling was launched on a bimonthly schedule, alternating months with Thrilling Wonder Stories, though in 1940 Thrilling moved to a monthly schedule that lasted for over a year. The first editor was Mort Weisinger
Mort Weisinger
Mortimer Weisinger was an American magazine and comic book editor best known for editing DC Comics' Superman during the mid-1950s to 1960s, in the Silver Age of comic books...
, who had been an active fan in the early 1930s and had joined Standard Magazines in 1935, editing Thrilling Wonder from 1936. Weisinger left in 1941 to take a new post as editor of Superman
Superman (comic book)
Superman is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character Superman began as one of several anthology features in the National Periodical Publications comic book Action Comics #1 in June 1938...
, and was replaced by Oscar J. Friend, who was an established writer of pulp fiction, though his experience was in western fiction rather than sf. During Friend's tenure Startling slipped from bimonthly to quarterly publication. Friend lasted for a little over two years, and was replaced by Sam Merwin, Jr.
Sam Merwin, Jr.
Samuel Kimball Merwin, Jr. was an American mystery fiction writer, editor and science fiction author, who published fiction mostly as Sam Merwin, Jr. His pseudonyms included Elizabeth Deare Bennett, Matt Lee, Jacques Jean Ferrat and Carter Sprague.-Biography:He was born on April 28, 1910 in...
as of the Winter 1945 issue.
Merwin succeeded in making Startling popular and successful, and the bimonthly schedule was resumed in 1947. At the start of 1952 Startling switched to a monthly schedule; this was unusual in that Startling was notionally junior to Thrilling Wonder, its sister magazine, which remained bimonthly. Merwin left shortly before this switch, in order to spend more time on his own writing. He was replaced by Samuel Mines, who had worked with Standard's Western magazines, though he was a science fiction aficionado.
Street & Smith
Street & Smith
Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as pulp fiction and dime novels. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks...
, one of the longest established and most respected publishers, shut down all of their pulp magazines in the summer of 1949. The pulps were dying, partially as a result of the success of paperbacks. Standard continued with Startling and Thrilling, but the end came only a few years later. In 1954, Fredric Wertham
Fredric Wertham
Fredric Wertham was a Jewish German-American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of violent imagery in mass media and comic books on the development of children. His best-known book was Seduction of the Innocent , which purported that comic books are...
published Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent is a book by German-American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was a minor bestseller that created alarm in parents and galvanized...
, a book in which he asserted that comics were inciting children to violence. A subsequent Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
subcommittee hearing led to a backlash against comics, and the publishers dropped titles in response. The financial impact spread to pulp magazines, since often a publisher would publish both. A 1955 strike by American News Corporation, the main distributor in the U.S., meant that magazines remained in warehouses and never made it to the newsstands; the unsold copies represented a significant financial blow and contributed to publishers' decisions to cancel magazines. Startling was one of the casualties. The schedule had already returned from monthly to bimonthly in 1953, and it became a quarterly in early 1954. Thrilling Wonder published its last issue in early 1955, and was then merged with Startling, as was Fantastic Story Magazine
Fantastic Story Magazine
Fantastic Story Magazine was a 1950-55 science fiction pulp magazine which merged pulp reprints with new stories.It was published on a quarterly schedule by Best Books, a subsidiary imprint of Standard Magazines. Initially priced at 25 cents, the 160-page debut issue was titled Fantastic Story...
, another companion publication, but the combined magazine only lasted three more issues. Mines left the magazine at the end of 1954; he was succeeded for two issues by Theron Raines, who was followed by Herbert D. Kastle for the last two. The final issue was dated Fall 1955.
War years
From the beginning, every issue of Startling contained a complete novel, along with one or two short stories; long stories did not appear since the publisher's policy was to avoid serials. When Standard Magazines had bought Wonder StoriesWonder Stories
Wonder Stories was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, when his media company Experimenter Publishing went...
in 1936, they had also acquired rights to reprint the stories that had appeared in it and in its predecessor magazines, Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories, and so Startling also included a "Hall of Fame" reprint from one of these magazines in every issue. The first lead novel was The Black Flame, a revised version of "Dawn of Flame", a story by Stanley Weinbaum
Stanley G. Weinbaum
Stanley Grauman Weinbaum was an American science fiction author. His career in science fiction was short but influential...
that had previously appeared only in an edition limited to 250 copies. There was also a tribute to Weinbaum, written by Otto Binder
Otto Binder
Otto Oscar Binder was an American author of science fiction and non-fiction books and stories, and comic books...
; Weinbaum had died in 1935 and was well regarded, so even though the story was not one of his best, it was excellent publicity for the magazine. Otto and his brother, Earl, also contributed a story, "Science Island", under their joint pseudonym Eando Binder
Eando Binder
Eando 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 ....
. The "Hall of Fame" reprint was D.D. Sharp's "The Eternal Man", from 1929. Other features included a pictorial article on Albert Einstein, and a set of biographical sketches of scientists, titled "Thrills in Science". The letter column was called "The Ether Vibrates", and there was a regular fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
review column, providing contact information so that readers could obtain the fanzines directly. Initially the stories for the "Hall of Fame" were chosen by the editor, but soon Weisinger recruited well-known science fiction fans to make the choices.
Startling was popular, and soon "became one of the core science fiction magazines", according to science fiction historian Mike Ashley
Mike Ashley (writer)
Michael Ashley is a British bibliographer, author and editor of science fiction, mystery, and fantasy.He edits the long-running Mammoth Book series of short story anthologies, each arranged around a particular theme in mystery, fantasy, or science fiction...
. The target audience was younger readers, and the lead novels were often space operas by well-known pulp writers such as Edmond Hamilton
Edmond Hamilton
Edmond Moore Hamilton was an American author of science fiction stories and novels during the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania...
and Manly Wade Wellman
Manly Wade Wellman
Manly Wade Wellman was an American writer. He is best known for his fantasy and horror stories set in the Appalachian Mountains and for drawing on the native folklore of that region, but he wrote in a wide variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, detective...
. In addition to space opera, some more fantastical fiction began to appear, contributed by writers such as Henry Kuttner
Henry Kuttner
Henry Kuttner was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror.-Early life:Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915...
. These early science fantasy
Science fantasy
Science fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction drawing elements from both science fiction and fantasy. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the...
stories were popular with the readers, and contrasted with the hard science fiction
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
that John W. Campbell
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction , from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in...
was pioneering at Astounding
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
.
Weisinger set out to please the younger readers, and when Friend became editor in 1941, he went further in this direction, giving the magazine a strongly juvenile flavor. For example, Friend introduced "Sergeant Saturn", a character (originally from Thrilling Wonder Stories) who answered readers' letters and appeared in other features in the magazine. Many subscribers found the approach irritating.
The interior artwork was initially done by Hans Wessolowski
Hans Waldemar Wessolowski
Hans Waldemar Wessolowski was an artist best known for his many cover illustrations for early pulp magazines like Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories, and Clues...
(more usually known as "Wesso"), Mark Marchioni 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:...
, and occasionally 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...
. Most of the cover art was by Rudolph Belarski and Howard Brown in the early years, but when Earle Bergey
Earle K. Bergey
Earle K. Bergey was an American illustrator who painted cover art for a wide diversity of magazines and paperback books...
began to paint covers for Startling in 1941, he quickly became identified with the magazine; between 1942 and 1952 (the year of Bergey's death) he painted almost every cover. Bergey's covers were visually striking: in the words of science fiction editor and critic Malcolm Edwards, they typically featured "a rugged hero, a desperate heroine (in either a metallic bikini or a dangerous state of déshabillé) and a hideous alien menace". The "brass bra" motif came to be associated with Bergey, and his covers did much to create the image of science fiction as it was perceived by the general public.
Merwin and after
When Merwin became editor in 1945 he dropped the juvenilia, and asked Bergey to change his style somewhat. Under Merwin's influence Bergey's covers became more realistic, and Merwin managed to improve Startling to the point of being a serious rival to Astounding, the acknowledged leader of the field. Critics' opinions vary on the relative quality of the magazines of this era; Malcolm Edwards regards Startling as second only to Astounding, but Ashley considers Thrilling Wonder to be Astoundings closest challenger in the late 1940s. Merwin's discoveries included Jack VanceJack Vance
John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...
, whose first story, "The World Thinker", appeared in the Summer 1945 issue. He also regularly published work by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore
C. L. Moore
Catherine Lucille Moore was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, as C. L. Moore. She was one of the first women to write in the genre, and paved the way for many other female writers in speculative fiction....
, who wrote both under Kuttner's name and as "Keith Hammond": in a four year period from 1946 to 1949 the writing team of Kuttner and Moore had seven novels published in Startling, mostly science fantasy
Science fantasy
Science fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction drawing elements from both science fiction and fantasy. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the...
, a sub-genre not common at that time. Notable novels that appeared in the late 1940s include Fredric Brown
Fredric Brown
Fredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was born in Cincinnati.He had two sons: James Ross Brown and Linn Lewis Brown ....
's What Mad Universe and Charles L. Harness
Charles L. Harness
Charles Leonard Harness was an American science fiction writer. He was born in Colorado City, Texas and grew up just outside it, then later in Fort Worth. He earned degrees in chemistry and law, and worked as a patent attorney in Connecticut and Washington, DC from 1947 to 1981...
's Flight Into Yesterday, later published in book form as The Paradox Men. Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
's novel The City and the Stars
The City and the Stars
The City and the Stars is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It is a complete rewrite of his earlier novella, Against the Fall of Night.-Overview:...
first saw print in Startling in abbreviated form, in the November 1948 issue, under the title Against the Fall of Night.
One novel that did not appear in Startling was Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
's Pebble in the Sky
Pebble in the Sky
Pebble in the Sky is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1950. This work is his first novel — parts of the Foundation series had appeared from 1942 onwards, in magazines, but Foundation was not published in book form until 1951...
, which Merwin had commissioned from Asimov in the early summer of 1947. Asimov delivered a draft in September, but after reading it Merwin asked for revisions: Leo Margulies
Leo Margulies
Leo Margulies was an American editor and publisher of science fiction and fantasy pulp magazines.- Career :...
, Merwin's boss, had decided that Startling needed to focus more on action and adventure, and less on cerebral stories in the style of Astounding. Asimov was furious, refused to do the revisions, and never submitted anything to Merwin again.
Another title in the Standard Magazines stable was Captain Future
Captain Future
Captain Future is a science fictional hero pulp character originally published in self-titled American pulp magazines during the 1940s and early 50s.-Origins:...
, which had been launched a year after Startling, and featured the adventures of the superhero after whom the magazine was named. When it folded with its Spring 1944 issue, the series of novels was continued for some time in the pages of Startling; over the next six years ten more "Captain Future" novels appeared, with the last one, Birthplace of Creation, printed in the May 1951 issue.
Merwin's successor, Mines, also published some excellent work, though increased competition in the early 1950s from Galaxy
Galaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...
and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
did lead to some dilution of quality, and Startlings rates—one to two cents per word—could not compete with the leading magazines. However, Startlings editorial policy was more eclectic: it did not limit itself to one kind of story, but printed everything from melodramatic space opera to sociological sf, and Mines had a reputation as having "the most catholic tastes and the fewest inhibitions" of any of the science fiction magazine editors. In late 1952, Mines published 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....
's "The Lovers", a taboo-breaking story about aliens who can only reproduce by mating with humans. The story integrated sex into the plot without being prurient, and was widely praised. Farmer, partly as a consequence, went on to win a Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
as "Most Promising New Writer". New authors first published by Mines include Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
, who debuted with "Looking for Something?" in April 1952, and Robert F. Young, whose first story, "The Black Deep Thou Wingest", appeared in June 1953. The artwork was also high quality; Virgil Finlay's interior illustrations were "unparalleled", according to science fiction historian Robert Ewald. Other well-known artists who contributed interior work included Alex Schomburg and Kelly Freas
Frank Kelly Freas
Frank Kelly Freas , called the "Dean of Science Fiction Artists", was a science fiction and fantasy artist with a career spanning more than 50 years.-Early life, education, and personal life:...
.
Startlings instantly recognizable title logo was redolent of the magazine's pulp roots, and in early 1952 Mines decided to replace it with a more staid typeface. The covers became more sober, with spaceships replacing the women in brass bras. With the Spring 1955 issue, at the start of its final year, Startling dropped its long-standing policy of printing a novel in every issue, but only three issues later it ceased publication.
Bibliographic details
| Spring | Summer | Fall | Winter | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| 1939 | 1/1 | 1/2 | 1/3 | 2/1 | 2/2 | 2/3 | ||||||
| 1940 | 3/1 | 3/2 | 3/3 | 4/1 | 4/2 | 4/3 | ||||||
| 1941 | 5/1 | 5/2 | 5/3 | 6/1 | 6/2 | 6/3 | ||||||
| 1942 | 7/1 | 7/2 | 7/3 | 8/1 | 8/2 | 8/3 | ||||||
| 1943 | 9/1 | 9/2 | 9/3 | 10/1 | ||||||||
| 1944 | 10/2 | 10/3 | 11/1 | 11/2 | ||||||||
| 1945 | 11/3 | 12/1 | 12/2 | 12/3 | ||||||||
| 1946 | 13/1 | 13/2 | 13/3 | 14/1 | 14/2 | |||||||
| 1947 | 14/3 | 15/1 | 15/2 | 15/3 | 16/1 | 16/2 | ||||||
| 1948 | 16/3 | 17/1 | 17/2 | 17/3 | 18/1 | 18/2 | ||||||
| 1949 | 18/3 | 19/1 | 19/2 | 19/3 | 20/1 | 20/2 | ||||||
| 1950 | 20/3 | 21/1 | 21/2 | 21/3 | 22/1 | 22/2 | ||||||
| 1951 | 22/3 | 23/1 | 23/2 | 23/3 | 24/1 | 24/2 | ||||||
| 1952 | 24/3 | 25/1 | 25/2 | 25/3 | 26/1 | 26/2 | 26/3 | 27/1 | 27/2 | 27/3 | 28/1 | 28/2 |
| 1953 | 28/3 | 29/1 | 29/2 | 29/3 | 30/1 | 30/2 | 30/3 | 31/1 | ||||
| 1954 | 31/2 | 31/3 | 32/1 | 32/2 | ||||||||
| 1955 | 32/3 | 33/1 | 33/2 | 33/3 | ||||||||
| Issues of Startling Stories, showing volume/issue number, and color-coded to show who was editor for each issue. The editors, in sequence, were Mort Weisinger, Oscar J. Friend, Sam Merwin, Jr., Samuel Mines, Theron Raines, and Herbert D. Kastle, though different references disagree on who was editor during 1955. Underlining indicates that an issue was titled as a quarterly (e.g. "Fall 1949") rather than as a monthly. |
||||||||||||
- Mort WeisingerMort WeisingerMortimer Weisinger was an American magazine and comic book editor best known for editing DC Comics' Superman during the mid-1950s to 1960s, in the Silver Age of comic books...
: January 1939 – May 1941. - Oscar J. FriendOscar J. FriendOscar Jerome Friend began his career primarily as a pulp fiction author in various genres including horror, Westerns, science fiction, and detective fiction. As a pulp writer he worked with Wonder Stories, Startling Stories, Strange Stories, Captain Future and Thrilling Wonder Stories...
: July 1941 – Fall 1944. - Sam Merwin, Jr.Sam Merwin, Jr.Samuel Kimball Merwin, Jr. was an American mystery fiction writer, editor and science fiction author, who published fiction mostly as Sam Merwin, Jr. His pseudonyms included Elizabeth Deare Bennett, Matt Lee, Jacques Jean Ferrat and Carter Sprague.-Biography:He was born on April 28, 1910 in...
: Winter 1945 – September 1951. - Samuel Mines: November 1951 – Fall 1954.
- Theron Raines: Winter 1955 – Spring 1955.
- Herbert D. Kastle: Summer 1955 – Fall 1955.
Startling was a pulp-sized magazine for all of its 99 issues. It initially was 132 pages, and was priced at 15 cents. The page count was reduced to 116 pages with the Summer 1944 issue and then increased to 148 pages with the March 1948 issue, at which time the price went up to 20 cents. The price increased again, to 25 cents, in November 1948, and the page count increased again to 180 pages. This higher page count did not last; it was reduced to 164 in March 1949 and then again to 148 pages in July 1951. The October 1953 issue saw the page count drop again, to 132, and a year later the Fall 1954 issue cut the page count to 116. The magazine remained at 116 pages and a price of 25 cents for the rest of its existence.
The original bimonthly schedule continued until the March 1943 issue, which was followed by June 1943 and then Fall 1943. This inaugurated a quarterly schedule that ran until Fall 1946, except that an additional issue, dated March, was inserted between the Winter 1946 and Spring 1946 issues. The next issue, January 1947, began another bimonthly sequence, which ran without interruption until November 1951. With the following issue, January 1952, Startling switched to a monthly schedule, which lasted until the June 1953 issue which was followed by August and October 1953 and then January 1954. The next issue was Spring 1954, and the magazine stayed on a quarterly schedule from then until the last issue, Fall 1955.
There was a British reprint edition from Pembertons between 1949 and 1954. These were heavily cut, with sometimes only one or two stories and usually only 64 pages, though the October and December 1952 issues both had 80 pages. It was published irregularly; initially once or twice a year, and then more or less bimonthly beginning in mid-1952. The issues were numbered from 1 to 18. Three different Canadian reprint editions also appeared for a total of 21 or 22 issues (sources differ on the correct number). Six quarterly issues appeared from Summer 1945 through Fall 1946 from Publication Enterprises, Ltd.; then another three bimonthly issues appeared, from May to September 1948, from Pines Publications
Thrilling Publications
Thrilling Publications, aka Beacon Magazines , Better Publications and Standard Magazines , was a pulp magazine publisher run by Ned Pines, publishing such titles as Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories.A native of Malden, Massachusetts, Pines became the president of Pines Publications...
. Finally 12 more bimonthly issues appeared from March 1949 to January 1951, from Better Publications of Canada. All these issues were almost identical to the American versions, although they are half an inch taller. A Mexican magazine, Enigmas, ran for 16 issues from August 1955 to May 1958; it included many reprints, primarily from Startling and from Fantastic Story Magazine.
Derivative anthologies
Two anthologies of stories from Startling have been published. In 1949 Merlin Press brought out From Off This World, edited by Leo Margulies and Oscar Friend, which included stories that had appeared in the "Hall of Fame" reprint section of the magazine. Then in 1954 Samuel Mines edited The Best from Startling Stories, published by Henry Holt; despite the title, the stories were reprinted from both Startling and its sister magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories. The anthology was reprinted twice in the UK under different titles; as Startling Stories in 1954, published by Cassell, and then in 1956 as a Science Fiction Book Club edition titled Moment in Time. P. Schuyler MillerP. Schuyler Miller
Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...
praised it as "an excellent collection by anyone's standards."