Jack L. Chalker
Jack Laurence Chalker was an American science fiction author. Chalker was a Baltimore City Schools history teacher in Maryland for 12 years, retiring during 1978 to write full-time, he was a member of the Washington Science Fiction Association and was involved in the founding of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. He was raised in Baltimore, Maryland; some of his books said that he was born in Norfolk, Virginia although he claimed, a mistake. Chalker earned a BA degree in English from Towson University in Towson, where he was a theater critic for the school newspaper, The Towerlight. During 2003, Towson University named Chalker their Liberal Arts Alumnus of the Year, he received a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Chalker intended to become a lawyer, he taught history and geography in the Baltimore City Public Schools from 1966 to 1978, most notably at Baltimore City College and the now defunct Southwest Senior High School. Chalker lectured on science fiction and technology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.
C. the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and numerous universities. Chalker was married in 1978 and had two children, David, a game designer, Steven, a computer security consultant. Chalker's hobbies included esoteric audio and working on science-fiction convention committees, he had a great interest in ferryboats. Chalker joined the Washington Science Fiction Association during 1958, during 1963 he and two friends founded the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Chalker attended every World Science Fiction Convention, except one, from 1965 until 2004, he published an amateur SF journal, from 1960 to 1971, producing ten issues. Another journal, was published 1968–1987 in association with the Fantasy Amateur Press Association. Chalker initiated a publishing house, Mirage Press, Ltd. for releasing nonfiction and bibliographic works concerning science fiction and fantasy. Chalker's awards included the Daedalus Award, The Gold Medal of the West Coast Review of Books, Skylark Award, the Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award.
He was a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award twice and for the Hugo Award twice. Chalker was posthumously awarded the Phoenix Award by the Southern Fandom Confederation on April 9, 2005. Chalker was a three-term treasurer of the Science Fantasy Writers of America. Chalker was the co-author of The Science Fantasy Publishers, published by Mirage Press, Ltd, a bibliographic guide to genre small press publishers, a Hugo Award nominee during 1992; the Maryland Young Writers Contest, sponsored by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, was renamed "'The Jack L. Chalker Young Writers Contest" effective April 8, 2006. Chalker is best known for his Well World series of novels, but he wrote many other novels, at least nine short stories. Many of Chalker's works involve some physical transformation of the main characters. For instance, in the Well World novels, immigrants to the Well World are transformed from their original form to become a member of one of the 1,560 sentient species that inhabit that artificial planet.
Another example would be that the Wonderland Gambit series resembles traditional Buddhist jataka-type reincarnation stories set in a science fiction environment. Steven Chalker announced that Wonderland Gambit might be made into a movie, but its close resemblance to The Matrix resulted in the project being canceled. At the time of his death, Chalker left Chameleon, he was planning to write another novel, after Chameleon. On September 18, 2003, during Hurricane Isabel, Chalker passed out and was rushed to the hospital with a diagnosis of a coronary occlusion, he was released, but was weakened. On December 6, 2004, he was again rushed to hospital with breathing problems and disorientation, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and a pneumothorax. Chalker was hospitalized in critical condition upgraded to stable condition on December 9, though he did not regain consciousness until December 15. After several more weeks in deteriorating condition and in a persistent vegetative state, with several transfers to different hospitals, Chalker died on February 11, 2005, of kidney failure and sepsis at Bon Secours Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
Some of Chalker's remains are interred in the family plot at Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore. The remainder were distributed off a ferry near Hong Kong, the ferry between Hainan Island and the Chinese mainland, a ferry in Vietnam, White's Ferry on the Potomac River in Virginia on Father's Day 2007, on author H. P. Lovecraft's grave in Providence, Rhode Island on December 17, 2005. Midnight at the Well of Souls, Del Rey, 1977 Exiles at the Well of Souls, Del Rey, 1978 Quest for the Well of Souls, Del Rey, 1978 The Return of Nathan Brazil, Del Rey, 1980 Twilight at the Well of Souls, Del Rey, 1980 The Sea is Full of Stars, December, 1999 Ghost of the Well of Souls, 2000 Echoes of the Well of Souls, Del Rey, trade paperback, May
Sandhurst, Berkshire
Sandhurst is a small town and civil parish in England of 7,966 homes and 20,803 inhabitants domiciliary in nature with a few light industries. It is in the south eastern corner of the ceremonial Royal County of Berkshire, within the Borough of Bracknell Forest, is situated 32 miles west-southwest of central London, 2.5 miles north west of Camberley and 5 miles south of Bracknell. Sandhurst is known worldwide as the location of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Despite its close proximity to Camberley, Sandhurst is home to a large and well-known out-of-town mercantile development; the site is named "The Meadows" and has a Tesco Extra hypermarket and a Marks and Spencer, two of the largest in the country. A large Next plc clothing and homeware store is open on the site of the old Homebase. Sandhurst is located at grid reference SU836618. Sandhurst is situated within the South East of England on the border of the Home Counties of Berkshire and Surrey; the town itself consists of four main districts, from west to east: Little Sandhurst and College Town, with Owlsmoor to the northeast.
North of the town are Edgbarrow Woods and a Site of Special Scientific Interest called Sandhurst to Owlsmoor Bogs and Heaths which includes the nature reserve of Wildmoor Heath. To the east is Broadmoor Bottom, an expanse of heathland together with fir tree plantations; this backs onto the high-security Broadmoor Hospital. Sandhurst is bordered, on the south, by the River Blackwater, several of the Yateley Lakes along its course are within the parish, notably Trilakes with its country park; this is the county boundary with Hampshire at Blackwater. The town of Crowthorne is to the north, the village of Finchampstead to the west, Camberley, across the Surrey county boundary, is on its southeastern side; this is the closest sizeable town, though Sandhurst is only 9.5 km south of the new town of Bracknell. The soil is sandy, with a subsoil of gravel. Sandhurst lies just off the A30, is close to junction 4 of the M3 motorway and within easy reach of the M4 via the Crowthorne bypass to Bracknell and the A329 towards Reading.
Sandhurst railway station is served by First Great Western, on the line between Gatwick and Reading. Sandhurst has representation through several tiers of government – town council, unitary authority, parliamentary, its Town Council is divided into four wards, Central Sandhurst, Little Sandhurst, College Town and Owlsmoor, all represented by twenty-four councillors. It is part of the Bracknell Forest District; the ancient parish of Sandhurst covered Crowthorne, until this became an ecclesiastical parish in its own right in 1874 and a civil parish in 1894. The current Mayor of Sandhurst is Councillor Philip Wallington; the name of the village is Anglo-Saxon and originates from the sandy soils and the hurst of the area. In early 14th century records, Sandhurst appears as part of township of Sonning, a large minster parish spreading over much of eastern Berkshire, which became a hundred when its villages obtained their own churches; these lands belonged to the Bishops of Salisbury. There were two manors in Sandhurst: ‘Hall’ in the grounds of what is now the Royal Military Academy and ‘Sandhurst’ on the site of Sandhurst Lodge.
Nothing remains of the original buildings. In the early modern era, Sandhurst parish was a small farming community on the edge of Windsor Forest, Sandhurst Walke being an important forest division subject to forest laws. Locals had the right to cut turf, bracken and wood, cultivated to feed the forest deer; these were hunted by Royal parties from a hunting lodge in the vicinity of Hart's Leap Road. A number of disputes are on record, showing how Sandhurst people sometimes took more resources than was allowed. Farming has always remained a major part of village life here and some defunct farms are still remembered in the names of housing estates, roads and a restaurant: Sandhurst Farm, Caves Farm, Ambarrow Farm, College Farm, Rectory Farm, Beech Farm and Rackstraws Farm. In the mid-16th century, Lord Sandys, the Lord Chancellor to King Henry VIII, owned a supposed manor called'Buckhurst' in the area between College Town and Central Sandhurst. Life changed little in Sandhurst until the 19th century when large sections of land were sold for the building of the Royal Military College, which moved from Marlow in 1812.
The railway arrived in 1849 and a number of large country residences were subsequently erected in the area: amongst them, Harts Leap, Forest End, St Helens Upland, The Warren, Longdown Lodge, Ryefield and Ambarrow Court. Sandhurst Lodge was erected in about 1858 by Robert Gibson and leased to John Walter, of the Times Newspaper, Sir William Farrer, solicitor to Queen Victoria and The Duke of Wellington. Perry Hill and The Ceders came later. Only a few remain today; the others have been demolished and land developed. Such large houses and institutions, including the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane and Wellington College in nearby Crowthorne, led to a great expansion of the local population as people moved into the area looking for work. Further residential housing was erected for these workers, as well as more schools for their children, more places of worship and other community resources. St. Michael's Parish Church, Little Sandhurst, dates from the 13th century, but was rebuilt in 1853.
The Baptist Church, Central Sandhurst, was built in 1884. The Wesleyan Methodist chapel, Central Sandhurst, followed in 1906; the Parish Church of St George's [
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction set in a fictional universe inspired by real world myth and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which became literature and drama. From the twentieth century it has expanded further into various media, including film, graphic novels and video games. Fantasy is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes though these genres overlap. In popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, fantasy consists of works by many writers, artists and musicians from ancient myths and legends to many recent and popular works. Most fantasy uses other supernatural elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these worlds. An identifying trait of fantasy is the author's reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent; this differs from realistic fiction in that realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, where fantasy does not.
An author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters and settings that are impossible in reality. Many fantasy authors use real-world mythology as inspiration. For instance, a narrative that takes place in an imagined town in the northeastern United States could be considered realistic fiction as long as the plot and characters are consistent with the history of a region and the natural characteristics that someone, to the northeastern United States expects. Fantasy has been compared to science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements. A science fiction narrative is unlikely, though possible through logical scientific or technological extrapolation, where fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. Authors have to rely on the readers' suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment, in order to write effective fantasies.
Despite both genres' heavy reliance on the supernatural and horror are distinguishable. Horror evokes fear through the protagonists' weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were a part of literature from its beginning. Fantasy elements occur throughout the ancient Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh; the ancient Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Eliš, in which the god Marduk slays the goddess Tiamat, contains the theme of a cosmic battle between good and evil, characteristic of the modern fantasy genre. Genres of romantic and fantasy literature existed in ancient Egypt; the Tales of the Court of King Khufu, preserved in the Westcar Papyrus and was written in the middle of the second half of the eighteenth century BC, preserves a mixture of stories with elements of historical fiction and satire. Egyptian funerary texts preserve mythological tales, the most significant of which are the myths of Osiris and his son Horus. Folk tales with fantastic elements intended for adults were a major genre of ancient Greek literature.
The comedies of Aristophanes are filled with fantastic elements his play The Birds, in which an Athenian man builds a city in the clouds with the birds and challenges Zeus's authority. Ovid's Metamorphoses and Apuleius's The Golden Ass are both works that influenced the development of the fantasy genre by taking mythic elements and weaving them into personal accounts. Both works involve complex narratives in which humans beings are transformed into animals or inanimate objects. Platonic teachings and early Christian theology are major influences on the modern fantasy genre. Plato used allegories to convey many of his teachings, early Christian writers interpreted both the Old and New Testaments as employing parables to relay spiritual truths; this ability to find meaning in a story, not true became the foundation that allowed the modern fantasy genre to develop. The most well known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, a compilation of many ancient and medieval folk tales.
Various characters from this epic have become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin and Ali Baba. Hindu mythology was an evolution of the earlier Vedic mythology and had many more fantastical stories and characters in the Indian epics; the Panchatantra, for example, used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate the central Indian principles of political science. Chinese traditions have been influential in the vein of fantasy known as Chinoiserie, including such writers as Ernest Bramah and Barry Hughart. Beowulf is among the best known of the Nordic tales in the English speaking world, has had deep influence on the fantasy genre. Norse mythology, as found in the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda, includes such figures as Odin and his fellow Aesir, dwarves, elves and giants; these elements have been directly imported into various fantasy works. The separate folklore of Ireland and Scotland has sometimes been us
World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Horror fiction
Horror is a genre of speculative fiction, intended to frighten, disgust, or startle its readers by inducing feelings of horror and terror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length... which shocks, or frightens the reader, or induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". It creates an frightening atmosphere. Horror is supernatural, though it can be non-supernatural; the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society. The horror genre has ancient origins with roots in folklore and religious traditions, focusing on death, the afterlife, the demonic and the principle of the thing embodied in the person; these were manifested in stories of beings such as witches, vampires and ghosts. European horror fiction became established through works by Ancient Romans; the well-known 19th century novel about Frankenstein was influenced by the story of Hippolytus, where Asclepius revives him from death.
Euripides wrote plays based on Hippolytos Kalyptomenos and Hippolytus. Plutarch's "The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Cimon describes the spirit of a murderer, who himself was murdered in a bathhouse in Chaeronea. Pliny the Younger tells the tale of Athenodorus Cananites. Athenodorus was cautious. While writing a book on philosophy, he was visited by a spectre bound in chains; the figure disappeared in the courtyard. The earliest recording of an official accusation of Satanism by the Church took place in Toulouse in AD 1022 against a couple of clerics. Werewolf stories were popular in medieval French literature. One of Marie de France's twelve lais is a werewolf story titled "Bisclavret"; the Countess Yolande commissioned a werewolf story titled "Guillaume de Palerme". Anonymous writers penned two werewolf stories, "Biclarel" and "Melion". Much horror fiction derives from the cruellest personages of the 15th century. Dracula can be traced to the Prince of Wallachia Vlad III whose alleged war crimes were published in German pamphlets.
A 1499 pamphlet published by Markus Ayrer is most notable for its woodcut imagery. The alleged serial killer spree of Giles de Rais have been seen as the inspiration for "Bluebeard"; the motif of the vampiress is most notably derived from the real life noblewoman and murderess, Elizabeth Bathory, helped usher in the emergence of horror fiction in the 18th century, such as through László Turóczi's 1729 book Tragica Historia. The 18th century saw the gradual development of the Gothic horror genre, it drew on the written and material heritage of the Late Middle Ages, finding its form with Horace Walpole's seminal and controversial 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. In fact, the first edition was published disguised as an actual medieval romance from Italy and republished by a fictitious translator. Once revealed as modern, many found it anachronistic, reactionary, or in poor taste — but it proved popular. Otranto inspired Vathek by William Beckford, A Sicilian Romance, The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian by Ann Radcliffe and The Monk by Matthew Lewis.
A significant amount of horror fiction of this era was written by women and marketed towards a female audience, a typical scenario being a resourceful female menaced in a gloomy castle. The Gothic tradition blossomed into the genre modern readers call horror literature in the 19th century. Influential works and characters that continue resonating in fiction and film today saw their genesis in the Brothers Grimm's "Hänsel und Gretel", Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Jane C. Loudon's "The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century", Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Thomas Peckett Prest's Varney the Vampire, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the works of Edgar Allan Poe, the works of Sheridan Le Fanu, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man, Bram Stoker's Dracula; each of these works created an enduring icon of horror seen in re-imaginings on the page and screen.
A proliferation of cheap periodicals around turn of the century led to a boom in horror writing. For example, Gaston Leroux serialized his Le Fantôme de l'Opéra before it was a novel in 1910. One writer who specialized in horror fiction for mainstream pulps such as All-Story Magazine was Tod Robbins, whose fiction deals with themes of madness and cruelty. Specialist publications emerged to give horror writers an outlet, prominent among them Weird Tales and Unknown Worlds. Influential horror writers of the early 20th century made inroads in these mediums; the venerated horror author H. P. Lovecraft, his enduring Cthulhu Mythos pioneered the genre of cosmic horror, M. R. James is credited with redefining the ghost story in that era; the serial murderer became a recurring theme. Yellow journalism and sensationalism of various murderers, such as Jack the Ripper, lesser so, Carl Panzram, Fritz Haarman, Albert Fish, all perpetuated this phenomenon; the trend continued in the postwar era renewed after the murders committed by Ed Gein.
In 1959, Robert Bloch, inspired by the murders, wrote Psycho. The crimes committed in 1969 by the Manson family influenced the slasher theme in horror fiction of the 1970s. In 1981, Thomas Harris wrote Red Dragon. In 1988, the sequel to tha
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Titled Astounding Stories of Super-Science, the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton, edited by Harry Bates. Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and the magazine was sold to Street & Smith; the new editor was F. Orlin Tremaine, who soon made Astounding the leading magazine in the nascent pulp science fiction field, publishing well-regarded stories such as Jack Williamson's Legion of Space and John W. Campbell's "Twilight". At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaine's supervision, the following year Tremaine was let go, giving Campbell more independence. Over the next few years Campbell published many stories that became classics in the field, including Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, A. E. van Vogt's Slan, several novels and stories by Robert A. Heinlein; the period beginning with Campbell's editorship is referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
By 1950, new competition had appeared from Galaxy Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Campbell's interest in some pseudo-science topics, such as dianetics, alienated some of his regular writers, Astounding was no longer regarded as the leader of the field, though it did continue to publish popular and influential stories: Hal Clement's novel Mission of Gravity appeared in 1953, Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" appeared the following year. In 1960, Campbell changed the title of the magazine to Analog Science Fact. At about the same time Street & Smith sold the magazine to Condé Nast. Campbell remained as editor until his death in 1971. Ben Bova took over from 1972 to 1978, the character of the magazine changed noticeably, since Bova was willing to publish fiction that included sexual content and profanity. Bova published stories such as Frederik Pohl's "The Gold at the Starbow's End", nominated for both a Hugo and Nebula Award, Joe Haldeman's "Hero", the first story in the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning "Forever War" sequence.
Bova won five consecutive Hugo Awards for his editing of Analog. Bova was followed by Stanley Schmidt, who continued to publish many of the same authors, contributing for years; the title was sold to Davis Publications in 1980 to Dell Magazines in 1992. Crosstown Publications remains the publisher. Schmidt continued to edit the magazine until 2012. In 1926, Hugo Gernsback launched the first science fiction magazine. Gernsback had been printing scientific fiction stories for some time in his hobbyist magazines, such as Modern Electrics and Electrical Experimenter, but decided that interest in the genre was sufficient to justify a monthly magazine. Amazing was successful reaching a circulation over 100,000. William Clayton, a successful and well-respected publisher of several pulp magazines, considered starting a competitive title in 1928. Clayton was unconvinced, but the following year decided to launch a new magazine because the sheet on which the color covers of his magazines were printed had a space for one more cover.
He suggested to Harry Bates, a newly hired editor, that they start a magazine of historical adventure stories. Bates proposed instead a science fiction pulp, to be titled Astounding Stories of Super Science, Clayton agreed. Astounding was published by Publisher's Fiscal Corporation, a subsidiary of Clayton Magazines; the first issue appeared with Bates as editor. Bates aimed for straightforward action-adventure stories, with scientific elements only present to provide minimal plausibility. Clayton paid much better rates than Amazing and Wonder Stories—two cents a word on acceptance, rather than half a cent a word, on publication —and Astounding attracted some of the better-known pulp writers, such as Murray Leinster, Victor Rousseau, Jack Williamson. In February 1931, the original name Astounding Stories of Super-Science was shortened to Astounding Stories; the magazine was profitable. A publisher would pay a printer three months in arrears, but when a credit squeeze began in May 1931, it led to pressure to reduce this delay.
The financial difficulties led Clayton to start alternating the publication of his magazines, he switched Astounding to a bimonthly schedule with the June 1932 issue. Some printers bought the magazines which were indebted to them: Clayton decided to buy his printer to prevent this from happening; this proved a disastrous move. Clayton did not have the money to complete the transaction, in October 1932, Clayton decided to cease publication of Astounding, with the expectation that the January 1933 issue would be the last one; as it turned out, enough stories were in inventory, enough paper was available, to publish one further issue, so the last Clayton Astounding was dated March 1933. In April, Clayton went bankrupt, sold his magazine titles to T. R. Foley for $100. Science fiction was not a departure for Street & Smith. They
Unknown (magazine)
Unknown was an American pulp fantasy fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1943 by Street & Smith, edited by John W. Campbell. Unknown was a companion to Street & Smith's science fiction pulp, Astounding Science Fiction, edited by Campbell at the time; the leading fantasy magazine in the 1930s was Weird Tales, which focused on horror. Campbell wanted to publish a fantasy magazine with more finesse and humor than Weird Tales, put his plans into action when Eric Frank Russell sent him the manuscript of his novel Sinister Barrier, about aliens who own the human race. Unknown's first issue appeared in March 1939. Gold's "Trouble With Water", a humorous fantasy about a New Yorker who meets a water gnome. Gold's story was the first of many in Unknown to combine commonplace reality with the fantastic. Campbell required his authors to avoid simplistic horror fiction and insisted that the fantasy elements in a story be developed logically: for example, Jack Williamson's "Darker Than You Think" describes a world in which there is a scientific explanation for the existence of werewolves.
L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's Harold Shea series, about a modern American who finds himself in the worlds of various mythologies, depicts a system of magic based on mathematical logic. Other notable stories included several well-received novels by L. Ron Hubbard and short stories such as Manly Wade Wellman's "When It Was Moonlight" and Fritz Leiber's "Two Sought Adventure", the first in his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. Unknown was forced to a bimonthly schedule in 1941 by poor sales, cancelled in 1943 when wartime paper shortages became so acute that Campbell had to choose between turning Astounding into a bimonthly or ending Unknown; the magazine is regarded as the finest fantasy fiction magazine published, despite the fact that it was not commercially successful, in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley it was responsible for the creation of the modern fantasy publishing genre. In May 1923, the first issue of Weird Tales appeared, from Rural Publications in Chicago.
Weird Tales was a pulp magazine that specialized in fantasy stories and material that no other magazine would accept. It was not successful, but by the 1930s had established itself and was publishing science fiction as well as fantasy. Weird Tales was the first magazine to focus on fantasy, it remained the pre-eminent magazine in this field for over a decade. In the meantime, science fiction was starting to form a separately marketed genre, with the appearance in 1926 of Amazing Stories, a pulp magazine edited by Hugo Gernsback. In 1930 pulp publisher Clayton Publications launched Astounding Stories of Super Science, but the company's bankruptcy in 1933 led to the acquisition of the magazine by Street & Smith; the title was shortened to Astounding Stories, it became the leading magazine in the science fiction field over the next few years under the editorship of F. Orlin Tremaine. At the end of 1937 John W. Campbell took over as editor. By 1938, Campbell was planning a fantasy companion to Astounding: Weird Tales was still the leader in the fantasy genre, though competitors such as Strange Stories were being launched.
Campbell began acquiring stories suitable for the new magazine, without a definite launch date in mind. When Eric Frank Russell sent him the manuscript of his novel Sinister Barrier, Campbell decided it was time to put his plans into action; the first issue of Unknown appeared in March 1939. It was a monthly at first, but poor sales forced a switch to a bimonthly schedule beginning in February 1941. In December 1940 the subtitle Fantasy Fiction was added, in October 1941 the main title was changed to Unknown Worlds; when wartime paper shortages became severe in late 1943, Campbell made the choice to keep Astounding monthly and cancel Unknown, rather than switch the former to a bimonthly schedule as well. The last issue was dated October 1943. Campbell's plans for Unknown were laid out in the February 1939 issue of Astounding, in the announcement of the new magazine, he argued that "it has been the quality of the fantasy that you have read in the past that has made the word anathema... will offer fantasy of a quality so far different from that which has appeared in the past as to change your entire understanding of the term".
The first issue, the following month, led with Russell's Sinister Barrier, the novel that had persuaded Campbell to set his plans for a fantasy magazine into motion: the plot, involving aliens who own the human race, has been described by sf historian Mike Ashley as "a strange mixture of science fiction and occult fantasy". Campbell asked Russell for revisions to the story to emphasize the fantastic elements, but still demanded that Russell work out the logical implications of his premises; this became a defining characteristic of the fiction published in Unknown. The first issue contained Horace L. Gold's "Trouble with Water", a comic fantasy about a modern New Yorker. Campbell commented in a letter at the time that Sinister Barrier, "Trouble with Water", "'Where Angels Fear...'" by Manly Wade Wellman were the only stories in the first issue that reflected his goals for the magazine. Under
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