The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
Encyclopedia
Digest size
Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately 5½ x 8¼ inches, but can also be 5⅜ x 8⅜ inches and 5½ x 7½ inches. These sizes have evolved from the printing press operation end...
American fantasy and 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....
first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak
Lawrence E. Spivak
Lawrence Edmund Spivak was an American publisher and journalist who was best known as the co-founder, producer and host of the prestigious public affairs program Meet the Press...
's Mercury Publications
Mercury Publications
Mercury Publications was a magazine publishing company, owned and operated by Lawrence E. Spivak, which mainly published genre fiction in digest-sized formats. The focus of Spivak's line was on detective and mystery stories and novels, but it also included magazines about humor, fantasy, and true...
, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc. has published the magazine since 2001. Since the April/May 2009 issue, it is published bimonthly with 256 pages per issue.
Name and periodicity of the magazine
It began as The Magazine of Fantasy (Fall 1949), with Anthony BoucherAnthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
and J. Francis McComas
J. Francis McComas
Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....
as editors. To encompass the full spectrum of speculative fiction, the title expanded into The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction with the second issue. The quarterly became a bimonthly with the fifth issue (December 1950). Switching to an ampersand, it became The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction with the sixth issue (February 1951), returning to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction when it went monthly with issue 17 (October 1952). The ampersand reappeared in May 1979, and the title was finally shortened to just Fantasy & Science Fiction with the October 1987 issue. With the April/May 2009 issue, it changed from monthly back to bimonthly publication.
1940s-1950s
In the mid-1940s, McComas was the co-editor, with Raymond J. Healy, of the pioneering anthology, Adventures in Time and SpaceAdventures in time and space
Adventures in Time and Space was an anthology of science fiction stories edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas and published in 1946. When it was re-released in 1975 by Ballantine Books, Analog book reviewer Lester del Rey referred to it as a book he often gave to people in order to...
(1946). The massive volume, a Modern Library Giant
Modern Library
The Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...
, introduced many readers to science fiction when it appeared on library shelves during the post-WWII years. Boucher was writing radio scripts in the late 1940s, but he left dramatic radio in 1948, as he explained to William F. Nolan
William F. Nolan
William Francis Nolan is an American author, who wrote stories in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. He is best known for coauthoring the novel Logan's Run, with George Clayton Johnson. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1976 horror film Burnt Offerings which starred Karen Black and...
, "mainly because I was putting in a lot of hours working with J. Francis McComas in creating what soon became The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. We got it off the ground in 1949 and saw it take hold solidly by 1950. This was a major creative challenge, and although I was involved in a lot of other projects, I stayed with F&SF into 1958."
In actuality, four years passed as Boucher and McComas attempted to launch their magazine of fantasy and supernatural stories. They initially proposed to Fred Dannay
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by...
the notion of a sister publication for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction...
. Dannay recommended them to Spivak. In January 1946, Boucher and McComas went to New York and met with Spivak, who suggested they assemble the contents for a test issue. Returning to California, they submitted their outline on March 11, 1946, resulting in a letter of agreement that August.
In September 1947, Joseph Ferman, the general manager of Mercury Publications, requested the complete material for the experimental issue to be titled Fantasy and Horror (subtitled A Magazine of Weird and Fantastic Stories). Boucher and McComas delivered this the following month. Studying sales figures of other digest-size magazines, Ferman postponed publication. A full year passed before he reactivated the project in February 1949, suggesting the addition of a science fiction story. Three months later, Ferman came up with the new title, The Magazine of Fantasy. On October 6, 1949, the magazine was introduced with a big splash during an invitational luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
with Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
as the master of ceremonies.
- For Anthony Boucher, who... in eighty-seven splendidly edited issues of Fantasy & Science Fiction, perfected the Grand Art of the Preface.
At the time of the magazine's debut, Spivak was well known as the moderator-producer of radio's American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
, in addition to publishing the unprofitable American Mercury
The American Mercury
The American Mercury was an American magazine published from 1924 to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured writing by some of the most important writers in the United States through the 1920s and 1930s...
magazine, 30 annual mystery reprints and the profitable Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction...
, which had a 200,000 circulation. The Magazine of Fantasy was launched with a print run of 70,000. Interviewed by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
about Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazines new companion, Boucher looked ahead to monthly publication and commented, "The detective story is getting into a blind alley of repetition. Science fiction may be the next big escape."
Boucher's Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
residence at 2643 Dana Street served as F&SFs office, and shortly after the magazine began, the Berkeley Post Office called to inform Boucher that it was creating a special mail sack for all the incoming correspondence, a constant flow that included some 80 to 120 manuscript submissions each week.
The Magazine of Fantasy was subtitled An Anthology of the Best Fantasy Stories, Old and New. That first issue offered a mix of new contributions and reprints. The new stories were by Cleve Cartmill
Cleve Cartmill
Cleve Cartmill was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy short stories. He is best remembered for what is sometimes referred to as "the Cleve Cartmill affair", when his 1944 story "Deadline" attracted the attention of the FBI by reason of its detailed description of a nuclear weapon...
, H.H. Holmes (pseudonym for Anthony Boucher), Philip MacDonald
Philip MacDonald
Philip MacDonald was an English author of thrillers.-Life and work:...
, Winona McClintic and Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
. The Sturgeon story, "The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast," later resurfaced in many anthologies. The reprints were Guy Endore
Guy Endore
Samuel Guy Endore , born Samuel Goldstein and also known as Harry Relis, was a novelist and screenwriter. During his career he produced a wide array of novels, screenplays, and pamphlets, both published and unpublished...
's "Men of Iron" (1940), Richard Sale
Richard Sale (director)
Richard Sale, was an American screenwriter and film director.He started his career writing for the pulps in the Thirties, appearing regularly in Detective Fiction Weekly , Argosy, Double Detective, and a number of other magazines...
's "Perseus Had a Helmet" (1938), Stuart Palmer
Stuart Palmer
Stuart Palmer was a popular mystery novel author and screenwriter, best known for his character Hildegarde Withers.Palmer was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin...
's "A Bride for the Devil" (1940), Perceval Landon
Perceval Landon
Perceval Landon was an English writer and journalist, now best remembered for his classic and much reprinted ghost story Thurnley Abbey.-Family:...
's 1908 "Thurnley Abbey," Oliver Onions
Oliver Onions
George Oliver Onions was a significant English novelist who published over forty novels and story collections. Originally trained as a commercial artist, he worked as a designer of posters and books, and as a magazine illustrator, before starting his career in writing...
' 1910 "Rooum" and Fitz-James O'Brien's "The Lost Room" (1858).
The second issue, as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, featured stories by W. L. Alden, Robert Arthur, Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
, Robert M. Coates, Miriam Allen DeFord, Anthony Hope
Anthony Hope
Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, better known as Anthony Hope , was an English novelist and playwright. Although he was a prolific writer, especially of adventure novels, he is remembered best for only two books: The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau...
, Damon Knight
Damon Knight
Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...
, Kris Neville, Walt Sheldon and Margaret St. Clair
Margaret St. Clair
Margaret St. Clair was an American science fiction writer, who also wrote under the pseudonyms Idris Seabright and Wilton Hazzard....
, plus a collaboration of L. Sprague de Camp
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...
and Fletcher Pratt
Fletcher Pratt
Murray Fletcher Pratt was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history, particularly noted for his works on naval history and on the American Civil War.- Life and work :...
. With "The Gnurrs Come from the Voodvork Out," that issue introduced Reginald Bretnor
Reginald Bretnor
Reginald Bretnor was a science fiction author who flourished between the 1950s and 1980s. Most of his fiction was in short story form, and usually featured a whimsical story line or ironic plot twist...
, who became the magazine's resident humorist for many issues to come, contributing such stories as "Bug-Getter."
The third issue introduced the 23-year-old Richard Matheson
Richard Matheson
Richard Burton Matheson is an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is perhaps best known as the author of What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return, A Stir of Echoes, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and I Am Legend, all of which have been...
, who made an indelible impression on readers with "Born of Man and Woman," his first published story.
Boucher and McComas began their "Recommended Reading" column in the second issue, with both editors handling the reviews. After the August, 1954 announcement that McComas was leaving the magazine to travel and write, Boucher took over as the sole book reviewer until his own departure in 1958.
When it began in 1949, the magazine was initially quarterly until the Fall 1950 issue. Frequency of publication increased to bimonthly in December 1950 and to monthly in 1952.
1990s
From 1991 to 2008 there were 11 issues per year (including an extended "anniversary double issue" every October).2000s
In January 2009, publisher and editor Gordon Van GelderGordon Van Gelder
Gordon Van Gelder is a Hugo Award-winning American science fiction editor. As of 2008, Van Gelder is both editor and publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, for which he has twice won the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form...
announced that as of April the magazine would reduce postage costs by switching to bimonthly publication of double issues, with a 10% net loss in content. "In the end, we make about the same money from an electronic subscription as from a print sub," wrote Van Gelder on March 7, 2009.
Circulation
- 2005 "Average paid circulation 12 months ending 9/30/2005: 26,600." 2011 reported demographics of readership: 61% male, 39% female, 52% age 26-45, 23% 46-55, 93% have attended college, 28% have post-graduate degrees.
Chronology of editors
- J. Francis McComasJ. Francis McComasJesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....
, Fall 1949 – August 1954 - Anthony BoucherAnthony BoucherAnthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
, Fall 1949 – August 1958 - Cyril M. KornbluthCyril M. KornbluthCyril M. Kornbluth was an American science fiction author and a notable member of the Futurians. He used a variety of pen-names, including Cecil Corwin, S. D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, Walter C. Davies, Simon Eisner and Jordan Park...
, 1958 - William TennWilliam TennWilliam Tenn was the pseudonym of Philip Klass , a British-born American science fiction author, notable for many stories with satirical elements.-Early life:...
, 1958 - Robert P. MillsRobert P. MillsRobert Park Mills was an American crime- and science fiction magazine editor and literary agent.Mills was the managing editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine beginning in 1948 and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from its inception in 1949; he took over as editor upon the resignation...
, September 1958 – March 1962 - Avram DavidsonAvram DavidsonAvram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche...
, April 1962 – November 1964 - Joseph W. FermanJoseph W. FermanJoseph Wolfe Ferman was a Lithuanian-American science fiction publisher.Ferman moved to the United States of America and began working on the magazine American Mercury, the primary publication of the Mercury Press, which added Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1941...
, December 1964 – December 1965 (supervising his son, Edward Ferman, who was the actual editor) - Edward L. FermanEdward L. FermanEdward Lewis Ferman was an American science fiction and fantasy fiction editor and magazine publisher.Ferman is the son of Joseph W...
, January 1966 – June 1991 - Kristine Kathryn RuschKristine Kathryn RuschKristine Kathryn Rusch is an American writer. She writes under various pseudonyms in multiple genres, including science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, and mainstream....
, July 1991 – May 1997 - Gordon Van GelderGordon Van GelderGordon Van Gelder is a Hugo Award-winning American science fiction editor. As of 2008, Van Gelder is both editor and publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, for which he has twice won the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form...
, June 1997–present
Columns and regular features
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...
wrote a notable series of essays on fandom
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
in the 1950s. Following McComas and Boucher were other book critics, including Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books...
, Damon Knight, Avram Davidson, Judith Merril
Judith Merril
Judith Josephine Grossman , who took the pen-name Judith Merril about 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist....
, James Blish
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
, Joanna Russ
Joanna Russ
Joanna Russ was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as How to Suppress Women's Writing, as well as a contemporary novel, On Strike Against God, and one children's book, Kittatinny...
, Algis Budrys
Algis Budrys
Algis Budrys was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names "Frank Mason", "Alger Rome", "John A. Sentry", "William Scarff", and "Paul Janvier."-Biography:...
, John Clute
John Clute
John Frederick Clute is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part of science fiction's history."...
, Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...
, Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint is a Canadian fantasy author and folk musician. He is also the chief book critic for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction....
, Elizabeth Hand and Michelle West. Charles Beaumont
Charles Beaumont
Charles Beaumont was a prolific American author of speculative fiction, including short stories in the horror and science fiction subgenres. He is remembered as a writer of classic Twilight Zone episodes, such as "The Howling Man", "Miniature", and "Printer's Devil", but also penned the...
, Baird Searles
Baird Searles
William Baird Searles was a science fiction author and critic. He was best known for his long running review columns for the magazines Asimov's , Amazing, and Fantasy & Science Fiction . He also did occasional reviews for other publications, including The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The...
, Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
, Kathi Maio and Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard is an American writer. Classified as a science fiction and fantasy writer, he often leans into other genres, such as magical realism. His work is infused with a political and historical sensibility and an awareness of literary antecedents...
have covered film and related media with, briefly, William Morrison
Joseph Samachson
Dr. Joseph "Joe" Samachson was a scientist and author, primarily of science fiction and comic books.-Biochemist:Joseph Samachson was born to David and Anna Samachson on October 13, 1906 in Trenton, New Jersey. A graduate of Rutgers University, he earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale at the age of...
reviewing live theater.
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...
wrote a science column for the magazine that ran for 399 monthly issues without a break, from November 1958 to February 1992, ending two months before his death, at which time he was in such poor health that he dictated
Dictation (exercise)
Dictation is the transcription of spoken text: one person who is "dictating" speaks and another who is "taking dictation" writes down the words as they are spoken.-La dictée:...
the final essay to his wife Janet Asimov. Theodore L. Thomas
Theodore L. Thomas
Theodore Lockard Thomas is an American chemical engineer and attorney who wrote more than 50 science fiction short stories, published between the early 1950s to the late 1970s...
, Gregory Benford
Gregory Benford
Gregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine...
and Pat Murphy have also contributed science columns. Charles Platt
Charles Platt (science-fiction author)
Charles Platt is an author, journalist and computer programmer. He relocated from England to the United States in 1970, is a naturalized U.S. citizen and has one daughter, Rose Fox...
contributed interviews and essays on speculative fiction. Various writers have highlighted literary oddities in the "Curiosities" column. The regular feature of humorous reader "Competitions" were collected by Ed Ferman in the anthology Oi, Robot. A series of shaggy dog stories known as "feghoot
Feghoot
A story pun is a humorous short story or vignette ending in an atrocious pun where the story contains sufficient context to recognize the punning humor...
s", written by Reginald Bretnor under his anagrammatic pseudonym Grendel Briarton, ran in the magazine from 1956 to 1973 with the series title, "Through Space and Time with Ferdinand Feghoot."
Cover illustrators
In 1950-51 the magazine's art director George Salter painted almost all the front covers using an imaginative, surrealistic approach that was remarkably appropriate to match the diverse interior contents. Two exceptions were astronomical paintings by Chesley BonestellChesley Bonestell
Chesley Bonestell was an American painter, designer and illustrator. His paintings were a major influence on science fiction art and illustration, and he helped inspire the American space program...
for the December 1950 and August 1951 issues. Salter and Bonestell were joined in 1952 by Ed Emshwiller
Ed Emshwiller
Ed Emshwiller was a visual artist notable for illustrations of many science fiction magazine covers and for his pioneering experimental films...
, who became, through three decades, the magazine's most prolific cover artist.
With a painting by George Gibbons on the August 1952 issue, F&SF introduced the wraparound cover, used most effectively by Hannes Bok
Hannes Bok
Hannes Bok, pseudonym for Wayne Francis Woodard , was an American artist and illustrator, as well as an amateur astrologer and writer of fantasy fiction and poetry. He painted nearly 150 covers for various science fiction, fantasy, and detective fiction magazines, as well as contributing hundreds...
for his illustration of Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...
's "A Rose for Ecclesiastes
A Rose for Ecclesiastes
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes" is a science fiction short story by American author Roger Zelazny, first published in the November 1963 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction with a special wraparound cover painting by Hannes Bok...
" (November 1963). Noted World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
military and maritime artist Jack Coggins
Jack Coggins
Jack Banham Coggins was an artist, author, and illustrator. He is known in the United States for his oil paintings, which focused predominantly on marine subjects. He is also known for his books on space travel, which were both authored and illustrated by Coggins...
, who illustrated four F&SF covers in 1953-54, also did cover paintings for 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 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...
during this same period.
F&SFs top ten cover illustrators ranked by number of paintings (up to April 2005): Ed Emshwiller (70), Ron Walotsky (60), David A. Hardy
David A. Hardy
David A. Hardy , is the longest-established living space artist, having illustrated his first book in 1954....
(56), Chesley Bonestell (42), Mel Hunter
Mel Hunter
Milford "Mel" Joseph Hunter 111 was a 20th century American illustrator. He enjoyed a successful career as a science fiction illustrator, producing illustrations for famous science fiction authors such as Isaac Asimov and Robert A...
(32), Barclay Shaw
Barclay Shaw
Barclay Shaw is an American professional artist best known for his fantasy and science fiction artwork. He has been nominated five times for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, and has earned a top ten ranking six times in the annual Locus Poll Award for Best Artist...
(24), Jill Bauman
Jill Bauman
Jill Bauman is best known as an artist. She has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award five times and nominated for the Chesley Award several times. Her art has been exhibited at the Delaware Art Museum, the Moore College of Art, Art Students League of New York, the NY Illustrators Society &...
(23), Jack Gaughan
Jack Gaughan
Jack Gaughan was an American science fiction artist and illustrator who won the Hugo Award several times. Working primarily with Donald A...
(21), Kent Bash (17) and Bryn Barnard (14).
Unlike F&SFs companion magazine, Venture Science Fiction Magazine
Venture Science Fiction Magazine
Venture Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, first published from 1957 to 1958, and revived for a brief run in 1969 and 1970. Ten issues were published of the 1950s version, with another six in the second run. It was founded in both instances as a companion to The...
, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction did not use interior illustrations of stories, except for 14 issues (April–October 1954, September–December 1956, September 1957 and April–May 1959). These interior illustrations were by Emshwiller
Ed Emshwiller
Ed Emshwiller was a visual artist notable for illustrations of many science fiction magazine covers and for his pioneering experimental films...
, Kelly Freas and others.
However, it did occasionally use cartoons as fillers on the last page of a story. Gahan Wilson
Gahan Wilson
Gahan Wilson is an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations...
contributed a cartoon to every issue for more than 15 years. Sidney Harris
Sidney Harris (cartoonist)
Sidney Harris, aka S. Harris, is a cartoonist, best known for his cartoons about science, mathematics and technology.He was born in Brooklyn, New York some time before World War II and has been drawing science-related cartoons at least since 1955...
was also a frequent cartoon contributor, prompting Budrys's comment, "Harris is different. Harris plays with science and technology... and he's funny."
Fantasy Records
Fantasy Records
Fantasy Records is a United States-based record label that was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record-pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label...
, began in 1949, and the jazz recording company's first subsidiary label, formed in 1951, was Galaxy Records. The two labels were named in honor of F&SF and 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...
. The Eureka Years, a history and anthology of fiction and correspondence from the first years of F&SF, makes the claim that George Salter's first logo for the magazine was imitated by the Circle Record Company for the logo of their Fantasy Records. However, the early Fantasy Records' logo actually bears little resemblance to Salter's calligraphy.
Notable authors and stories
- Thomas M. DischThomas M. DischThomas Michael Disch was an American science fiction author and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book – previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book" – in 1999, and he had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W...
's On Wings of SongOn Wings of SongOn Wings of Song is a 1979 science fiction novel by Thomas M. Disch. It was first published as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in three installments in February to April 1979....
was the first fantasy or sf magazine serial to be nominated for the American Book AwardAmerican Book AwardThe American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
. Disch's "The Brave Little ToasterThe Brave Little ToasterThe Brave Little Toaster is a novel by Thomas M. Disch intended for children or as put by Disch, A Bedtime Story for Small Appliances...
" became a Hyperion PicturesHyperion PicturesHyperion Pictures is an American film production company founded by Thomas L. Wilhite, who had previously been the head of motion picture and television produced for and owned by Walt Disney Productions, and writer/director Willard Carroll...
animated film in 1987. - "Jeffty is FiveJeffty Is Five"Jeffty Is Five" is a fantasy short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1977, then was included in his short story collection Shatterday three years later...
" and "The DeathbirdThe DeathbirdThe Deathbird is a well-known novelette by Harlan Ellison. It won the 1974 Hugo and Locus Poll awards for best novelette. It is written in a style which allows for much examination; it is nonlinear but gradually forms a picture of the situation...
" by Harlan EllisonHarlan EllisonHarlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
. He also contributed both a regular film column and many of his best stories to the magazine. - Howard FastHoward FastHoward Melvin Fast was an American novelist and television writer. Fast also wrote under the pen names E. V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson.-Early life:Fast was born in New York City...
's "The Martian Shop" - Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's Starship TroopersStarship TroopersStarship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and published hardcover in December, 1959.The first-person narrative is about a young soldier from the Philippines named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his...
, October, November 1959, serialized as "Starship Soldier". - Shirley JacksonShirley JacksonShirley Jackson was an American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years...
's "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts". - Daniel KeyesDaniel KeyesDaniel Keyes is an American author best known for his Hugo award-winning short story and Nebula award-winning novel Flowers for Algernon. Keyes was given the Author Emeritus honor by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2000.-Early life and career:Keyes was born in Brooklyn, New...
's Flowers for AlgernonFlowers for AlgernonFlowers for Algernon is a science fiction short story and subsequent novel written by Daniel Keyes. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960...
. A Hugo Award-winning novelet which led to many radio, TV, stage and films, notably CharlyCharlyCharly is a 1968 American film directed by Ralph Nelson. The drama stars Cliff Robertson , Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala, Leon Janney and Dick Van Patten and tells the story of a mentally retarded bakery worker who is the subject of an experiment to increase human intelligence...
(1968). - Stephen KingStephen KingStephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's The Dark TowerThe Dark Tower (series)The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King...
short stories which comprised the first volume, beginning with "The GunslingerThe Gunslinger (novella)"The Gunslinger" is a novella by Stephen King, originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in October 1978. In 1982, "The Gunslinger" was collected with four other stories King published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger...
" (October, 1978). - Fritz LeiberFritz LeiberFritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...
's "Ill Met in LankhmarIll Met in LankhmarIll Met in Lankhmar is a sword and sorcery novella by Fritz Leiber, recounting the meeting and teaming-up of his adventurous duo, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser....
" won the 1970 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 1971 Hugo Award for Best Novella (1970). - A Canticle for LeibowitzA Canticle for LeibowitzA Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer Walter M. Miller, Jr., first published in 1960. Set in a Roman Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as...
by Walter M. Miller, Jr.Walter M. Miller, Jr.Walter Michael Miller, Jr. was an American science fiction author. Today he is primarily known for A Canticle for Leibowitz, the only novel he published in his lifetime. Prior to its publication he was a prolific writer of short stories.- Biography :Miller was born in New Smyrna Beach, Florida...
. The novelets were incorporated into the novel and later adapted into NPR radio dramas. - Kurt VonnegutKurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
's "Harrison BergeronHarrison Bergeron"Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical, dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and first published in October 1961. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story was re-published in the author's collection Welcome to the Monkey House in...
"
Special author issues
F&SF assembled more than a dozen special issues devoted to a single author, beginning with a special issue on Theodore SturgeonTheodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
(September 1962), followed by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
(May 1963), 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...
(October 1966), Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...
(July 1969), Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
(April 1971), James Blish
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
(April 1972), Frederik Pohl
Frederik Pohl
Frederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years — from his first published work, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna" , to his most recent novel, All the Lives He Led .He won the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel Jem...
(September 1973), Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg is an American author, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple nominee of the Hugo Award and a winner of the Nebula Award.-Early years:...
(April 1974), Damon Knight
Damon Knight
Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...
(November 1976), Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
(July 1977), Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
(December 1990), Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard is an American writer. Classified as a science fiction and fantasy writer, he often leans into other genres, such as magical realism. His work is infused with a political and historical sensibility and an awareness of literary antecedents...
(March 2001), Kate Wilhelm
Kate Wilhelm
Kate Wilhelm is an American writer whose works include science fiction, mystery, and fantasy.- Career :Wilhelm was born in Toledo, Ohio....
(September 2001), Barry N. Malzberg
Barry N. Malzberg
Barry Nathaniel Malzberg is an American writer and editor, most often of science fiction and fantasy.-Overview:Initially in his post-graduate work Malzberg sought to establish himself as a playwright as well as a prose-fiction writer. His first two published novels were issed by Olympia Press...
(June 2003) and Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying into the religion. He is a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the...
(April 2007).
Anthologies
In 1952, Boucher and McComas began their annual hardcover anthologyAnthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
series, The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction. Initially published by Little Brown, the series moved to Doubleday in 1954. Ace published later paperback editions. After the first three in the series, McComas dropped out, leaving Boucher as the sole editor. Eventually, the series was not published annually but instead appeared irregularly. More recently, the books have been theme anthologies, edited by Gordon Van Gelder. Earlier, Ed Ferman co-edited The Best Horror Stories from Fantasy and Science Fiction with Anne Devereaux Jordan during his tenure as editor. In 2009, Van Gelder compiled The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology, including stories in F&SF issues ranging from 1951 (Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books...
's "Of Time and Third Avenue") to 2007 ("The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate is a fantasy novelette by Ted Chiang originally published in 2007 by Subterranean Press and reprinted in the September 2007 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction...
" by Ted Chiang
Ted Chiang
Ted Chiang is an American speculative fiction writer. His Chinese name is Chiang Feng-nan.He was born in Port Jefferson, New York and graduated from Brown University with a Computer Science degree. He currently works as a technical writer in the software industry and resides in Bellevue, near...
).
Current staff
- Gordon Van GelderGordon Van GelderGordon Van Gelder is a Hugo Award-winning American science fiction editor. As of 2008, Van Gelder is both editor and publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, for which he has twice won the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form...
, editor, June 1997 – present; publisher, 2001 – present - Barbara J. Norton, assistant publisher, 2001 – present
- Keith Kahla, assistant publisher, 2001 – present
- Robin O'Connor, assistant editor, 1990 – present
- John Joseph AdamsJohn Joseph AdamsJohn Joseph Adams is an American science fiction and fantasy editor and critic. He is the editor of the anthologies Federations , The Living Dead , The Living Dead 2 , Seeds of Change , Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse John Joseph Adams (born 1976) is an American science fiction and fantasy...
, assistant editor, 2001 – 2009 - Stephen Mazur, assistant editor, 2010 – present
- Harlan EllisonHarlan EllisonHarlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
, film editor, 1990 – present - Carol Pinchefsky, contests editor, 2004 – present
- John M. Cappello, newsstand circulation, 2004 – present
Sources
- Bradbury Chronicles Correspondence Database
- F&SF Fiction Index
- Indiana University: Lilly Library Manuscript Collections: Anthony Boucher/William Anthony Parker White Mss. (30,000 items spanning 1932-69)
- Locus: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Checklist
- San Francisco Public Library: McComas Collection of Fantasy and Science Fiction
External links
- Fantasy & Science Fiction Official website
- Fantasy & Science Fiction Czech edition
- Jack Coggins Gallery of Illustrations
- S. Harris Cartoon Gallery
- Visual Index of Science Fiction Cover Art (VISCO), includes F&SF cover archive (1949 – current)
- "Wonder World"; Time, October 10, 1949 (announcement of Magazine of Fantasy, its first issue published the previous week)
- Suvudu (Random House, Inc.) and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Join Forces