1.
Louis Fabian Bachrach Jr.
–
Louis Fabian Bachrach, Jr. was an American photographer, known for portraits of celebrities, politicians, presidents and other prominent individuals. He was professionally known as Fabian, Bachrach was best known for a portrait of Senator John F. Kennedy, which was later used as his official photograph after he was elected President in 1960. Bachrachs family, who own Bachrach Studios, has been in the photography business for more than 140 years. Bachrach Studios is believed to be the worlds oldest continuously operating photography studio and his paternal grandfather, David Bachrach, Jr. founded Bachrach Studios in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1868. He had previously photographed Abraham Lincoln during his trip to Gettysburg in 1863 during the U. S. Civil War, Louis Fabian Bachrach, Jr. was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on April 9,1917. His father, Louis Fabian Bachrach, was also a photographer, Bachrach received a bachelors degree in history from Harvard University in 1939 and joined Bachrach Studios shortly afterwards. Bachrach served as a navigator in the United States Navy in the Pacific during World War II. Bachrach later earned a degree in Italian literature from Boston College in 1988. Bachrach introduced color photography to Bachrach Studios during the 1950s, Fabian Bachrach died of pneumonia on February 26,2010, in Newton, Massachusetts, at the age of 92. 1997 Wizards and Their Wonders, Portraits in Computing, written by Christopher Morgan, a collection of historic and current portrait photographs of figures from the computer industry
2.
Luxembourg City
–
Luxembourg, also known as Luxembourg City, is the capital city of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and the countrys most populous commune. The city contains Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, as of January 2016, the commune had a population of 115,227, which was more than three times the population of the countrys second most populous commune. The citys metropolitan population, including that of surrounding communes of Hesperange, Sandweiler, Strassen, in 2011, Luxembourg was ranked as having the second highest per capita GDP in the world at $80,119, with the city having developed into a banking and administrative centre. In the 2011 Mercer worldwide survey of 221 cities, Luxembourg was placed first for personal safety while it was ranked 19th for quality of living, in the Roman era, a fortified tower guarded the crossing of two Roman roads that met at the site of Luxembourg city. Siegfried built his castle, named Lucilinburhuc, on the Bock Fiels, in 987, Archbishop Egbert of Trier consecrated five altars in the Church of the Redemption. At a Roman road intersection near the church, a marketplace appeared around which the city developed, the city, because of its location and natural geography, has through history been a place of strategic military significance. The first fortifications were built as early as the 10th century, by the end of the 12th century, as the city expanded westward around the new St. Nicholas Church, new walls were built that included an area of 5 hectares. In about 1340, under the reign of John the Blind, in 1443, the Burgundians under Philip the Good conquered Luxembourg. Subsequently, the Burgundians, the Spanish, the French, the Spanish again, the Austrians, the French again, in the 17th century, the first casemates were built, initially, Spain built 23 km of tunnels, starting in 1644. These were then enlarged under French rule by Marshal Vauban, during the French Revolutionary Wars, the city was occupied by France twice, once, briefly, in 1792–3, and, later, after a seven-month siege. After the Luxembourg Crisis, the 1867 Treaty of London required Luxembourg to dismantle the fortifications in Luxembourg City. Their demolition took sixteen years, cost 1.5 million gold francs, furthermore, the Prussian garrison was to be withdrawn. When, in 1890, Grand Duke William III died without any heirs, the Grand Duchy passed out of Dutch hands. Despite Luxembourgs best efforts to remain neutral in the First World War, on 30 August, Helmuth von Moltke moved his headquarters to Luxembourg City, closer to his armies in France in preparation for a swift victory. However, the victory never came, and Luxembourg would play host to the German high command for another four years. At the end of the occupation, Luxembourg City was the scene of an attempted communist revolution, on 9 November 1918, communists declared a socialist republic, in 1921, the city limits were greatly expanded. The communes of Eich, Hamm, Hollerich, and Rollingergrund were incorporated into Luxembourg City, in 1940, Germany occupied Luxembourg again. Under the occupation, the citys streets all received new, German names
3.
Manhattan
–
Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
4.
Science fiction
–
Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
5.
WRNY (defunct)
–
WRNY was an American AM radio station that operated in New York City, New York from 1925 to 1934. It was started by Hugo Gernsbacks Experimenter Publishing Company to promote his radio and it was one of the first stations to have regularly scheduled experimental television broadcast starting in August 1928. Experimenter Publishing went bankrupt in early 1929 and the station was purchased by the Curtiss Aeroplane, Hugo Gernsback was born in Luxembourg and studied electrical engineering in Germany. In 1904 at age 20, Gernsback emigrated to America to sell his battery design and to start a mail order radio. The Electro Importing Company catalog soon grew into a magazine, Modern Electrics, the Experimenter Publishing Company was started in 1915 and by the early 1920s was publishing Radio News, Science and Invention, and Practical Electrics magazines. Gernsback had always included fiction stories in his magazines and in 1926 launched the first magazine devoted to scientific fiction, Experimenter Publishing also published numerous technical and general interest books. KDKA in Pittsburgh was the first commercial station in the United States having made its first broadcast in November 1920. By 1925 there were over 500 broadcast stations in the United States, KDKA was operated by Westinghouse Electric to help sell radio receivers. In addition to equipment manufacturers, many publishers were starting stations. Experimenter Publishing applied for and was granted a radio station license to transmit at 1160 kHz with the call sign WRNY, over the next three years they would use 800 kHz,1070 kHz,970 kHz,920 kHz and finally 1010 kHz. Its state of the art studio was in a room on the 18th floor of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. The first broadcast was on June 12,1925, and was covered by The New York Times, the opening speaker was former Senator Chauncey Depew followed by the father of radio, Lee De Forest. The evening concluded with two hours of musical entertainment. Experimenter Publishing used the station and the magazines to promote each other. Radio interviews with scientists or other radio notables would be reprinted in the magazines, projects or articles from Gernsbacks magazines would be discussed on WRNY. The station call letters, WRNY, appeared on each magazine cover, by 1927 there were over fifty radio stations and 1.5 million radio sets in the New York metropolitan area. There were so many stations it was common for stations to share the frequency at different times during the day. Early radio receivers were not very selective and there were frequent disputes over interference between stations with adjacent frequencies, the Radio Act of 1912 did not mention broadcasting and it was not clear who controlled radio stations, the states or the federal government
6.
Inventor
–
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. The invention process is a process within an overall engineering and product development process and it may be an improvement upon a machine or product or a new process for creating an object or a result. An invention that achieves a unique function or result may be a radical breakthrough. Such works are novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field, an inventor may be taking a big step in success or failure. A patent legally protects the property rights of the inventor. The rules and requirements for patenting an invention vary from country to country, another meaning of invention is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social behaviours adopted by people and passed on to others. The Institute for Social Inventions collected many such ideas in magazines, Invention is also an important component of artistic and design creativity. Inventions often extend the boundaries of knowledge, experience or capability. Brainstorming also can spark new ideas for an invention, collaborative creative processes are frequently used by engineers, designers, architects and scientists. Co-inventors are frequently named on patents, in addition, many inventors keep records of their working process - notebooks, photos, etc. including Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Evangelista Torricelli, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein. In the process of developing an invention, the idea may change. The invention may become simpler, more practical, it may expand, working on one invention can lead to others too. History shows that turning the concept of an invention into a device is not always swift or direct. Inventions may also more useful after time passes and other changes occur. For example, the became more useful once powered flight was a reality. Invention is often a creative process, an open and curious mind allows an inventor to see beyond what is known. Seeing a new possibility, connection, or relationship can spark an invention, inventive thinking frequently involves combining concepts or elements from different realms that would not normally be put together. Sometimes inventors disregard the boundaries between distinctly separate territories or fields, several concepts may be considered when thinking about invention
7.
Magazine
–
A magazine is a publication, usually a periodical publication, which is printed or electronically published. Magazines are generally published on a schedule and contain a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, by a price, by prepaid subscriptions. At its root, the magazine refers to a collection or storage location. In the case of written publication, it is a collection of written articles and this explains why magazine publications share the word root with gunpowder magazines, artillery magazines, firearms magazines, and, in French, retail stores such as department stores. By definition, a magazine paginates with each issue starting at three, with the standard sizing being 8 3/8 ×10 7/8 inches. However, in the sense a journal has continuous pagination throughout a volume. Some professional or trade publications are also peer-reviewed, an example being the Journal of Accountancy, academic or professional publications that are not peer-reviewed are generally professional magazines. That a publication calls itself a journal does not make it a journal in the technical sense, magazines can be distributed through the mail, through sales by newsstands, bookstores, or other vendors, or through free distribution at selected pick-up locations. The subscription business models for distribution fall into three main categories. In this model, the magazine is sold to readers for a price, either on a basis or by subscription. Paid circulation allows for defined readership statistics and this means that there is no cover price and issues are given away, for example in street dispensers, airline, or included with other products or publications. Because this model involves giving issues away to unspecific populations, the statistics only entail the number of issues distributed and this is the model used by many trade magazines distributed only to qualifying readers, often for free and determined by some form of survey. This allows a level of certainty that advertisements will be received by the advertisers target audience. This latter model was used before the rise of the World Wide Web and is still employed by some titles. For example, in the United Kingdom, a number of computer-industry magazines use this model, including Computer Weekly and Computing, for the global media industry, an example would be VideoAge International. The earliest example of magazines was Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen, a literary and philosophy magazine, the Gentlemans Magazine, first published in 1731, in London was the first general-interest magazine. Edward Cave, who edited The Gentlemans Magazine under the pen name Sylvanus Urban, was the first to use the term magazine, founded by Herbert Ingram in 1842, The Illustrated London News was the first illustrated magazine
8.
Publishing
–
Publishing is the dissemination of literature, music, or information—the activity of making information available to the general public. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers, meaning originators and developers of content also provide media to deliver, also, the word publisher can refer to the individual who leads a publishing company or an imprint or to a person who owns/heads a magazine. Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as books, Publishing includes the following stages of development, acquisition, copy editing, production, printing, and marketing and distribution. There are two categories of book publisher, Non-paid publishers, A non-paid publisher is a house that does not charge authors at all to publish their books. Paid publishers, The author has to meet with the expense to get the book published. This is also known as vanity publishing, at a small press, it is possible to survive by relying entirely on commissioned material. But as activity increases, the need for works may outstrip the publishers established circle of writers, for works written independently of the publisher, writers often first submit a query letter or proposal directly to a literary agent or to a publisher. Submissions sent directly to a publisher are referred to as unsolicited submissions, the acquisitions editors send their choices to the editorial staff. Unsolicited submissions have a low rate of acceptance, with some sources estimating that publishers ultimately choose about three out of every ten thousand unsolicited manuscripts they receive. Many book publishers around the world maintain a strict no unsolicited submissions policy and this policy shifts the burden of assessing and developing writers out of the publisher and onto the literary agents. At these publishers, unsolicited manuscripts are thrown out, or sometimes returned, established authors may be represented by a literary agent to market their work to publishers and negotiate contracts. Literary agents take a percentage of earnings to pay for their services. Some writers follow a route to publication. Such books often employ the services of a ghostwriter, for a submission to reach publication, it must be championed by an editor or publisher who must work to convince other staff of the need to publish a particular title. An editor who discovers or champions a book that becomes a best-seller may find their reputation enhanced as a result of their success. Once a work is accepted, commissioning editors negotiate the purchase of property rights. The authors of traditional printed materials typically sell exclusive territorial intellectual property rights that match the list of countries in which distribution is proposed. In the case of books, the publisher and writer must also agree on the formats of publication —mass-market paperback
9.
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. Science fiction magazines traditionally featured speculative fiction in short story, novelette, novella or novel form, many also contain editorials, book reviews or articles, and some also include stories in the fantasy and horror genres. The most influential British science fiction magazine was New Worlds, newer British SF magazines include Interzone, many science fiction magazines have been published in languages other than English, but none has gained worldwide recognition or influence in the world of anglophone science fiction. There is a trend toward important work being published first on the Internet. A web-only publication can cost as little as one-tenth of the cost of publishing a print magazine, moreover, the magazine is internationally accessible, and distribution is not an issue – though obscurity may be. Web-based magazines tend to favor shorter stories and articles that are read on a screen. From 1926 until the early 1950s, American science fiction magazines were the sources of written science fiction. Today, there are relatively few paper-based science fiction magazines, the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, was published in a format known as bedsheet, roughly the size of Life but with a square spine. Later, most magazines changed to the magazine format, roughly the size of comic books or National Geographic. Science fiction magazines in this format often feature non-fiction media coverage in addition to the fiction, knowledge of these formats is an asset when locating magazines in libraries and collections where magazines are usually shelved according to size. The premiere issue of Amazing Stories, edited and published by Hugo Gernsback, after many minor changes in title and major changes in format, policy and publisher, Amazing Stories ended January 2005 after 607 issues. Before that consolidation, it ran 128 issues, much fiction published in these bedsheet magazines, except for classic reprints by writers such as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe, is only of antiquarian interest. Some of it was written by science fiction fans, who were paid little or nothing for their efforts. Jack Williamson for example, was 19 when he sold his first story to Amazing Stories and his writing improved greatly over time, and until his death in 2006, he was still a publishing writer at age 98. Some of the stories in the issues were by scientists or doctors who knew little or nothing about writing fiction. The Gostak and the Doshes is one of the few stories from that era still widely read today, other stories of interest from the bedsheet magazines include the first Buck Rogers story. Armageddon 2419 A. D, by Philip Francis Nowlan and The Skylark of Space by E. E. Smith and Mrs. Lee Hawkins Garby, both in Amazing Stories in 1928. There have been a few attempts to revive the bedsheet size using better quality paper
10.
H. G. Wells
–
Herbert George H. G. Wells was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, social commentary, Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is called a father of science fiction, along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Wellss earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context and he was also from an early date an outspoken socialist, often sympathising with pacifist views. His later works became increasingly political and didactic, and he wrote science fiction. A diabetic, in 1934, Wells co-founded the charity The Diabetic Association, Herbert George Wells was born at Atlas House,46 High Street in Bromley, Kent, on 21 September 1866. Called Bertie in the family, he was the fourth and last child of Joseph Wells and his wife, Sarah Neal. An inheritance had allowed the family to acquire a shop in which they sold china and sporting goods, although it failed to prosper, the stock was old and worn out, and the location was poor. Joseph Wells managed to earn an income, but little of it came from the shop. Payment for skilled bowlers and batsmen came from voluntary donations afterwards, a defining incident of young Wellss life was an accident in 1874 that left him bedridden with a broken leg. To pass the time he started reading books from the local library and he soon became devoted to the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access, they also stimulated his desire to write. Later that year he entered Thomas Morleys Commercial Academy, a school founded in 1849 following the bankruptcy of Morleys earlier school. The teaching was erratic, the curriculum mostly focused, Wells later said, Wells continued at Morleys Academy until 1880. In 1877, his father, Joseph Wells, fractured his thigh, the accident effectively put an end to Josephs career as a cricketer, and his subsequent earnings as a shopkeeper were not enough to compensate for the loss of the primary source of family income. No longer able to support financially, the family instead sought to place their sons as apprentices in various occupations. From 1880 to 1883, Wells had an apprenticeship as a draper at the Southsea Drapery Emporium. Wellss parents had a turbulent marriage, owing primarily to his mother being a Protestant, when his mother returned to work as a ladys maid, one of the conditions of work was that she would not be permitted to have living space for her husband and children. Thereafter, she and Joseph lived separate lives, though they never divorced and remained faithful to each other, as a consequence, Herberts personal troubles increased as he subsequently failed as a draper and also, later, as a chemists assistant
11.
Jules Verne
–
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. Verne is generally considered a literary author in France and most of Europe. Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979 and he has sometimes been called the Father of Science Fiction, a title that has also been given to H. G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback. His parents were Pierre Verne, an originally from Provins, and Sophie Allote de la Fuÿe. In 1829, the Verne family moved some hundred meters away to No.2 Quai Jean-Bart, three sisters, Anna, Mathilde, and Marie, would follow. In 1834, at the age of six, Verne was sent to boarding school at 5 Place du Bouffay in Nantes, the teacher, Mme Sambin, was the widow of a naval captain who had disappeared some 30 years before. Mme Sambin often told the students that her husband was a shipwrecked castaway, the theme of the Robinsonade would stay with Verne throughout his life and appear in many of his novels, including The Mysterious Island, Second Fatherland, and The School for Robinsons. In 1836, Verne went on to École Saint‑Stanislas, a Catholic school suiting the pious religious tastes of his father, Verne quickly distinguished himself in mémoire, geography, Greek, Latin, and singing. In the same year,1836, Pierre Verne bought a house at 29 Rue des Réformés in the village of Chantenay on the Loire River. In his brief memoir Souvenirs d’enfance et de jeunesse, Verne recalled a deep fascination with the river and with the many merchant vessels navigating it. He also took vacations at Brains, in the house of his uncle Prudent Allotte, a retired shipowner, who had gone around the world and served as mayor of Brains from 1828 to 1837. Verne took joy in playing interminable rounds of the Game of the Goose with his uncle, and both the game and his uncles name would be memorialized in two late novels. It is now known that the legend is a tale invented by Vernes first biographer, his niece Marguerite Allotte de la Füye. In 1840, the Vernes moved again to an apartment at No.6 Rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau. In the same year Verne entered another school, the Petit Séminaire de Saint-Donatien. His unfinished novel Un prêtre en 1839, written in his teens, from 1844 to 1846, Verne and his brother were enrolled in the Lycée Royal in Nantes. After finishing classes in rhetoric and philosophy, he took the baccalauréat at Rennes, however, his father took it for granted that Verne, being the firstborn son of the family, would not attempt to make money in literature but would instead inherit the family law practice. In 1847, Vernes father sent him to Paris, primarily to begin his studies in law school, and secondarily to distance him temporarily from Nantes
12.
Hugo Award
–
The Hugo Awards are a set of awards given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. Organized and overseen by the World Science Fiction Society, the awards are given each year at the annual World Science Fiction Convention as the focus of the event. They were first given in 1953, at the 11th World Science Fiction Convention, the Hugo Awards have been termed as among the highest honors bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing. Works that have won have been published in collections. The 2016 awards were presented at the 74th Worldcon, MidAmeriCon II, in Kansas City, United States, the 2017 Hugos will be presented at the 75th Worldcon, Worldcon 75, in Helsinki, Finland, on August 12,2017. For lists of winners and nominees for each category, see the list of categories below. The World Science Fiction Society gives out the Hugo Awards each year for the best science fiction or fantasy works, the award is named after Hugo Gernsback, who founded the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories and who is considered one of the fathers of the science fiction genre. Works are eligible for an award if they were published in English in the calendar year. There are no rules as to which works qualify as science fiction or fantasy. Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, the selection process is defined in the WSFS constitution as instant-runoff voting with five nominees per category, except in the case of a tie. The awards are split over more than a dozen categories, for each category of Hugo, the voter may rank No Award as one of their choices. Voters are instructed that they should do so if they feel that none of the nominees are worthy of the award, or if they feel the category should be abolished entirely. A vote for No Award other than as ones first choice signifies that the voter believes the nominee ranked higher than No Award are worthy of a Hugo in that category, while those ranked lower are not. The five works on the ballot for each category are the most-nominated by members that year, from 1953 to 1958 the awards did not include any recognition of runner-up novels, but since 1959 all of the candidates have been recorded. Worldcons are generally held near the start of September, and take place in a different city around the world each year, the idea of giving out awards at Worldcons was proposed by Harold Lynch for the 1953 convention. The idea was based on the Academy Awards, with the name Hugo being given by Robert A. Madle, the award trophy was created by Jack McKnight and Ben Jason in 1953, based on the design of hood ornaments of 1950s cars. It consisted of a rocket ship on a wooden base
13.
Naturalization
–
Naturalization is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen in a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done by a statute, without any effort on the part of the individual, or it may involve an application, an oath or pledge of allegiance is also sometimes required. In some rare cases, laws for mass naturalization were passed, since World War II, the increase in international migrations created a new category of refugees, most of them economic refugees. The Peoples Republic of China gives citizenship to persons with one or two parents with Chinese nationality who have not taken residence in other countries, the country also gives citizenship to people born on its territory to stateless people who have settled there. Furthermore, individuals may apply for nationality if they have a relative with Chinese nationality, if they have settled in China. In practice, only few people gain Chinese citizenship, as of 2010, the naturalization process starts with a written application. Applicants must also submit original copies of a passport, a residence permit, a permanent residence permit. The Indian citizenship and nationality law and the Constitution of India provides single citizenship for the entire country, the provisions relating to citizenship at the commencement of the Constitution are contained in Articles 5 to 11 in Part II of the Constitution of India. Relevant Indian legislation is the Citizenship Act 1955, which has been amended by the Citizenship Act 1986, the Citizenship Act 1992, the Citizenship Act 2003, and the Citizenship Ordinance 2005. The Citizenship Act 2003 received the assent of the President of India on 7 January 2004, the Citizenship Ordinance 2005 was promulgated by the President of India and came into force on 28 June 2005. Following these reforms, Indian nationality law largely follows the jus sanguinis as opposed to the jus soli, Indonesian nationality is regulated by Law No. The Indonesian nationality law is based on jus sanguinis and jus soli, the Indonesian nationality law does not recognize dual citizenship except for persons under the age of 18. After reaching 18 years of age individuals are forced to choose one citizenship, Israels Declaration of Independence was made on 14 May 1948, the day before the British Mandate was due to expire as a result of the United Nations Partition Plan. The Israeli parliament created two laws regarding immigration, citizenship and naturalization, the Law of Return and the Israeli nationality law, the Law of Return, enacted on July 15,1950, gives Jews living anywhere in the world the right to immigrate to Israel. This right to immigrate did not and still does not grant citizenship, in fact, for four years after Israel gained independence, there were no Israeli citizens. On July 14,1952, the Israeli parliament enacted the Israeli Nationality Law. The Nationality Law naturalized all citizens of Mandated Palestine, the inhabitants of Israel on July 15,1952, because of Israels relatively new and culturally mixed identity, Israel does not grant citizenship to persons born on Israeli soil. Instead, the government chose to enact a jus sanguinis system, there is currently no legislation on second-generation immigrants
14.
The Roosevelt Hotel (Manhattan)
–
The Roosevelt Hotel is a historic luxury hotel, located at 45 East 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The hotel, named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt, opened on September 22,1924, the hotel later closed in 1995 and reopened again in 1997 after a $65 million extensive renovation. There are a total of 1,015 rooms in the hotel, the 3,900 square feet Presidential Suite has four bedrooms, a kitchen, formal living and dining areas, and a wrap-around terrace. The rooms are decorated, with mahogany wood furniture and light-colored bed coverings. There are several eateries within the hotel and they include, The Roosevelt Grill, which serves American food and regional specialties for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The Madison Club Lounge, a bar and lounge which has a 30-foot mahogany bar and features stained glass windows, Vander Bar, a bar that serves classic, hand-crafted cocktails and creative gastro-pub fare like the Vander Burger and Korena Steak Salad. The Roosevelt has 30,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space and it offers a business center which provides Internet access, fax services, secretarial services, copy services, and shipping services. Other services include a concierge, a 24-hour fitness center, safety deposit boxes, valet laundry, valet or self-parking, the Roosevelt hotel, opened on September 23,1924, was built by Niagara Falls businessman Frank A. Dudley and operated by the United Hotels Company. The hotel was designed by the architecture firm George B, post & Son, and leased from The New York State Realty and Terminal Company, a division of the New York Central Railroad. The hotel, built at a cost of $12,000,000, was the first to incorporate store fronts instead of lounges in its sidewalk facades due to the Prohibition era. The Roosevelt Hotel was at one time linked with Grand Central Terminal by way of a passage that connected the hotel to the train terminal. The Roosevelt housed the first guest pet facility and child care service in The Teddy Bear Room and had the first in-house doctor, in 1947, the Roosevelt became the first hotel to have a television set in every room. Beginning in 1979, the hotel was leased by the Pakistan International Airlines through its investment arm PIA Investments Ltd. with an option to purchase the building after 20 years. Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia was one of the investors in the 1979 deal. In 1999, PIA exercised their option and bought the hotel for $36.5 million, after a battle with owner Paul Milstein. In 2005, PIA bought out its Saudi partner in a deal that included the princes share in Hôtel Scribe in Paris in exchange for $40 million, PIA has since controlled 99 percent interest in the hotel, while the Saudis have only 1 percent. In July 2007, after a major $65 million renovation, PIA announced that it was putting the hotel up for sale, the increasing profitability of the hotel, at the same time as the airline itself started to incur massive losses, resulted in the sale being abandoned. On January 1,2011 The Roosevelt Hotels General Manager stated the hotel is again undergoing extensive renovations
15.
Television
–
Television or TV is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images in monochrome, or in color, and in two or three dimensions and sound. The term can refer to a set, a television program. Television is a medium for entertainment, education, news, politics, gossip. Television became available in experimental forms in the late 1920s. After World War II, a form of black-and-white TV broadcasting became popular in the United States and Britain, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses. During the 1950s, television was the medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the US, for many reasons, the storage of television and video programming now occurs on the cloud. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, digital television transmissions greatly increased in popularity, another development was the move from standard-definition television to high-definition television, which provides a resolution that is substantially higher. HDTV may be transmitted in various formats, 1080p, 1080i, in 2013, 79% of the worlds households owned a television set. Most TV sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs, major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. In the near future, LEDs are gradually expected to be replaced by OLEDs, also, major manufacturers have announced that they will increasingly produce smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s, Television signals were initially distributed only as terrestrial television using high-powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the signal to individual television receivers. Alternatively television signals are distributed by cable or optical fiber, satellite systems and. Until the early 2000s, these were transmitted as analog signals, a standard television set is composed of multiple internal electronic circuits, including a tuner for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which lacks a tuner is correctly called a video monitor rather than a television, the word television comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε, meaning far, and Latin visio, meaning sight. The Anglicised version of the term is first attested in 1907 and it was. formed in English or borrowed from French télévision. In the 19th century and early 20th century, other. proposals for the name of a technology for sending pictures over distance were telephote. The abbreviation TV is from 1948, the use of the term to mean a television set dates from 1941
16.
Amateur radio
–
The amateur radio service is established by the International Telecommunication Union through the International Telecommunication Regulations. National governments regulate technical and operational characteristics of transmissions and issue individual stations licenses with a call sign. Prospective amateur operators are tested for their understanding of key concepts in electronics, according to an estimate made in 2011 by the American Radio Relay League, two million people throughout the world are regularly involved with amateur radio. About 830,000 amateur radio stations are located in IARU Region 2 followed by IARU Region 3 with about 750,000 stations, a significantly smaller number, about 400,000, are located in IARU Region 1. The origins of amateur radio can be traced to the late 19th century, the First Annual Official Wireless Blue Book of the Wireless Association of America, produced in 1909, contains a list of amateur radio stations. This radio callbook lists wireless telegraph stations in Canada and the United States, as with radio in general, amateur radio was associated with various amateur experimenters and hobbyists. Amateur radio enthusiasts have significantly contributed to science, engineering, industry, research by amateur operators has founded new industries, built economies, empowered nations, and saved lives in times of emergency. Ham radio can also be used in the classroom to teach English, map skills, geography, math, science, the term ham radio was first a pejorative that mocked amateur radio operators with a 19th-century term for being bad at something, like ham-fisted or ham actor. It had already used for bad wired telegraph operators. Subsequently, the community adopted it as a moniker, much like the Know-Nothing Party, or other groups. Other, more entertaining explanations have grown up throughout the years, the many facets of amateur radio attract practitioners with a wide range of interests. Many amateurs begin with a fascination of radio communication and then combine other personal interests to make pursuit of the hobby rewarding, some of the focal areas amateurs pursue include radio contesting, radio propagation study, public service communication, technical experimentation, and computer networking. Amateur radio operators use various modes of transmission to communicate, the two most common modes for voice transmissions are frequency modulation and single sideband. FM offers high quality audio signals, while SSB is better at long distance communication when bandwidth is restricted. Radiotelegraphy using Morse code, also known as CW from continuous wave, is the extension of landline telegraphy developed by Samuel Morse. Morse, using internationally agreed message encodings such as the Q code, a similar legacy mode popular with home constructors is amplitude modulation, pursued by many vintage amateur radio enthusiasts and aficionados of vacuum tube technology. Demonstrating a proficiency in Morse code was for years a requirement to obtain an amateur license to transmit on frequencies below 30 MHz. Following changes in regulations in 2003, countries are no longer required to demand proficiency
17.
Modern Electrics
–
Modern Electrics was a technical magazine for the amateur radio experimenter. The magazine existed between 1908 and 1914, Modern Electrics was created by Hugo Gernsback and began publication in April 1908. The magazine was intended to provide mail-order information for radio parts and to promote the amateur radio hobby. The first fiction appeared in the April,1911 issue, the circulation for this magazine increased rapidly, starting at 2,000 and increasing to 52,000 in 1911. In 1908, the announced the wireless registry, a listing of radio owners, their call letters. The magazine was sold in 1913, and ceased publication in 1914 and it then merged with Electrician and Mechanic to become Modern Electrics and Mechanics. The experience Gernsback gained with Modern Electrics led him to introduce Electrical Experimenter magazine in 1913 and pulp science fiction magazine Amazing Stories in 1926
18.
Science-Fiction Plus
–
Science-Fiction Plus was a U. S. science fiction magazine published by Hugo Gernsback for seven issues in 1953. In 1926 Gernsback had launched Amazing Stories, the first science magazine, but he had not been involved in the genre since 1936. Science-Fiction Plus was initially in slick format, meaning that it was large-size, Gernsback had always believed in the educational power of science fiction, and he continued to advocate his views in the new magazines editorials. Combined with Gernsbacks earnest editorials, the use of early writers gave the magazine an anachronistic feel. Sales were initially good, but soon fell, for the last two issues Gernsback switched the magazine to cheaper pulp paper, but the magazine remained unprofitable. The final issue was dated December 1953 and he also published several new writers, but only one, Anne McCaffrey, went on to a successful career in the field. Science fiction historians consider the magazine a failed attempt to reproduce the early days of the science fiction pulps, the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, was launched in 1926 by Hugo Gernsback at the height of the pulp magazine era. The two magazines were combined as Wonder Stories, which lasted until 1936, when Gernsback sold it to Ned Pines of Beacon Magazines. Gernsback remained in the business as proprietor of several profitable magazines, but he did not return to the sf field for nearly seventeen years. The first issue produced for sale was dated March 1953, the price,35 cents, was also competitive. Sales were initially good, and Science-Fiction Plus remained on a schedule until June, but when the circulation began to slip. In October Gernsback cut costs by switching to cheaper pulp paper, during Gernsbacks long absence from sf publishing, from 1936 to 1953, the field evolved away from his focus on facts and education. And he stated his preference for truly scientific, prophetic Science-Fiction with the accent on SCIENCE. The managing editor, Sam Moskowitz, also had a history in the field. Lawler agrees, describing the magazine as an anachronism, and dull from first to last, as part of Gernsbacks attempt to encourage stories that contained plausible scientific predictions, he created a symbol made up of a sphere labeled SF, with a five-pointed star atop it. He placed the first of these awards on a story of his own, Exploration of Mars, in the first issue, Lawler describes Simaks story, Spacebred Generations, as a gem, and cites Farmers Strange Compulsion as the high point in story quality for the entire run. Ashley praises the same two stories, and considers Nightmare Planet, by Murray Leinster, from the June 1953 issue, as equal in quality. Moskowitz attempted to find and develop new writers, and published the first story by Anne McCaffrey, Freedom of the Race, however, none of Moskowitzs other new writers lasted in the field, and he rejected McCaffreys subsequent submissions
19.
Alex Schomburg
–
Alex A. Schomburg, born Alejandro Schomburg y Rosa, was an American commercial artist and comic-book artist and painter whose career lasted over 70 years. Alex Schomburg was born on May 10,1905 in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and moved to New York City in the early 1920s, where he began work as a commercial artist with three of his brothers. In 1928, the partnership ended and Schomburg found work with the National Screen Service, creating lantern slides. During the 1930s, in addition to working for the NSS, Schomburg freelanced Better Publications, producing interior line art for Thrilling Wonder Stories and his skill at drawing anything mechanical soon had him illustrating aviation covers for Flying Aces and electronic equipment for the Hugo Gernsback pulp Radio Craft. Schomburgs first science fiction-themed cover was for the September 1939 issue of Startling Stories, the following decade, Schomburg freelanced primarily for Timely Comics, the 1940s forerunner of Marvel, displaying his talent for slam-bang action tableau. He mastered the use of the airbrush, signing many of his airbrushed covers Xela, Schomburg drew between five and six hundred covers during this Golden Age of Comic Books. In 1977, Schomburg and a few of his fellow Golden Age comic book artists collaborated on the Invaders Annual #1, Schomburg penciled and inked a 6-page chapter featuring the Golden Age Human Torch. This issues story, set in the 1940s, contained his first work for Timely/Marvel Comics since the 1940s, late in life, Schomburg was living in Hillsboro, Oregon, and died in Beaverton, Oregon on April 7,1998. Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist 1962, runner-up, doc Smith Second Stage Lensman Award September 30,1979 Moscon 1. Guest of Honor, PulpCon 16, July 9–12,1987, Dayton, lifetime Achievement Award, Kansas City Comic Con, Fall 1989. First Fandom Hall of Fame award 1990, 47th World Science Fiction Convention Noreascon III Special Committee Award,1989, for contributions to Science Fiction. The Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame 1999, stan Lee, Ive always felt that Alex Schomburg was to comic books what Norman Rockwell was to The Saturday Evening Post. He was totally unique, with a distinctive style. You could never mistake a Schomburg cover for any other artists, I remember hearing Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman tell me time and again how great a cover illustrator Alex was, and how he wished we had more like him. Espite the quantity of work we gave him, despite the care and effort went into every Schomburg cover. Gustafson, Jon, ed. Chroma, The Art of Alex Schomburg, poughkeepsie, New York, Father Tree Press. The Official Estate of Alex Schomburg Site, archived from the original on December 16,2014. Alex Schomburg at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Duin, Steve, archived from the original on July 17,2006
20.
Amazing Stories
–
Amazing Stories is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsbacks Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction, Science fiction stories had made regular appearances in other magazines, including some published by Gernsback, but Amazing helped define and launch a new genre of pulp fiction. Amazing was published, with interruptions, for almost eighty years, going through a half-dozen owners. Gernsback was forced into bankruptcy and lost control of the magazine in 1929, and by 1938 it was purchased by Ziff-Davis, Palmer made the magazine successful though it was not regarded as a quality magazine within the science fiction community. Amazing switched to a digest size format in 1953, shortly before the end of the pulp-magazine era. Ted White took over as editor in 1969, eliminated the reprints and made the magazine respected again, several other owners attempted to create a modern incarnation of the magazine in the following decades, but publication was suspended after the March 2005 issue. A new incarnation appeared in July 2012 as an online magazine, Gernsbacks initial editorial approach was to blend instruction with entertainment, he believed science fiction could educate readers. His audience rapidly showed a preference for implausible adventures, however, despite this, Gernsback had an enormous impact on the field, the creation of a specialist magazine for science fiction spawned an entire genre publishing industry. The letter columns in Amazing, where fans could make contact with other, led to the formation of science fiction fandom. Writers whose first story was published in the magazine include John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Howard Fast, Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, and Thomas M. Disch. Overall, though, Amazing itself was rarely an influential magazine within the genre after the 1920s, by the end of the 19th century, stories centered on scientific inventions, and stories set in the future, were appearing regularly in popular fiction magazines. The market for short stories lent itself to tales of invention in the tradition of Jules Verne, Magazines such as Munseys Magazine and The Argosy, launched in 1889 and 1896 respectively, carried a few science fiction stories each year. In 1908, Hugo Gernsback published the first issue of Modern Electrics and it was an immediate success, and Gernsback began to include articles on imaginative uses of science, such as Wireless on Saturn. In 1920 Gernsback retitled the magazine Science and Invention, and through the early 1920s he published much scientific fiction in its pages, Gernsback had started another magazine called Practical Electrics in 1921. However, in 1926 he decided to go ahead, and ceased publication of The Experimenter to make room in his schedule for a new magazine. The editor of The Experimenter, T. OConor Sloane, became the editor of Amazing Stories, the first issue appeared on 10 March 1926, with a cover date of April 1926. Initially the magazine focussed on reprints, the first original story was “The Man From the Atom ” by G. Peyton Wertenbaker in the May 1926 issue, in the August issue, new stories were noted with an asterisk in the table of contents. The editorial work was largely done by Sloane, but Gernsback retained final say over the fiction content, Two consultants, Conrad A. Brandt and Wilbur C
21.
Edgar Allan Poe
–
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and he is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the countrys earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a difficult life. Poe was born in Boston, the child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year, thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but Poe was with them well into young adulthood, tension developed later as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man. Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money, Poe quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at time that his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with the anonymous collection of poems Tamerlane and Other Poems. With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement, however, Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and he ultimately parted ways with John Allan. Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the several years working for literary journals and periodicals. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, in Richmond in 1836, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem The Raven to instant success and his wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal The Penn, Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, a number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre. He was born Edgar Poe in Boston on January 19,1809 and he had an elder brother William Henry Leonard Poe, and a younger sister Rosalie Poe. Their grandfather David Poe Sr. had emigrated from Cavan, Ireland to America around the year 1750, Edgar may have been named after a character in William Shakespeares King Lear, a play that the couple were performing in 1809
22.
Percival Lowell
–
Percival Lawrence Lowell was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars. He founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and formed the beginning of the effort led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death. Percival Lowell was a member of the wealthy Boston, Massachusetts and he was born in Cambridge on March 13,1855, the brother of Abbott Lawrence Lowell and Amy Lowell. Percival graduated from the Noble and Greenough School in 1872 and Harvard University in 1876 with distinction in mathematics, at his college graduation, he gave a speech, considered very advanced for its time, on the nebular hypothesis. He was later awarded honorary degrees from Amherst College and Clark University, after graduation he ran a cotton mill for six years. In the 1880s, Lowell traveled extensively in the Far East, in August 1883, he served as a foreign secretary and counselor for a special Korean diplomatic mission to the United States. He lived there for two months. He also spent significant periods of time in Japan, writing books on Japanese religion, psychology, and behavior. Books by Percival Lowell on the Orient include Noto, An Unexplored Corner of Japan and Occult Japan, or the Way of the Gods and his time in Korea inspired Chosön, The Land of the Morning Calm. The writer Lafcadio Hearn called it a colossal, splendid, godlike book and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1892. He moved back to the United States in 1893, beginning in the winter of 1893–94, using his wealth and influence, Lowell dedicated himself to the study of astronomy, founding the observatory which bears his name. In 1904, Lowell received the Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the Société astronomique de France, for the last 23 years of his life astronomy, Lowell Observatory, and his and others work at his observatory were the focal points of his life. World War I very much saddened Lowell, a dedicated pacifist and this, along with some setbacks in his astronomical work, undermined his health and contributed to his death from a stroke on November 12,1916, aged 61. Lowell is buried on Mars Hill near his observatory, Lowell claimed to stick to the church though at least one current author describes him as an agnostic. Lowell became determined to study Mars and astronomy as a career after reading Camille Flammarions La planète Mars. He was particularly interested in the canals of Mars, as drawn by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, in 1894 Lowell chose Flagstaff, Arizona Territory, as the home of his new observatory. At an altitude of over 2,100 meters, with few cloudy nights and this marked the first time an observatory had been deliberately located in a remote, elevated place for optimal seeing. For the next fifteen years he studied Mars extensively, and made drawings of the surface markings as he perceived them
23.
Science-fiction fandom
–
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people actively interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization, Science fiction fandom started through the letter column of Hugo Gernsbacks fiction magazines. Not only did fans write comments about the stories—they sent their addresses, soon, fans were writing letters directly to each other, and meeting in person when they lived close together, or when one of them could manage a trip. In New York City, David Lasser, Gernsbacks managing editor, nurtured the birth of a local club called the Scienceers. Almost all the members were adolescent boys, around this time a few other small local groups began to spring up in metropolitan areas around the United States, many of them connecting with fellow enthusiasts via the Science Correspondence Club. In May 1930 the first science fiction fan magazine, The Comet, was produced by the Chicago branch of the Science Correspondence Club under the editorship of Raymond A. Palmer and Walter Dennis. In 1934, Gernsback established a club for fans called the Science Fiction League. Local groups across the nation could join by filling out an application, a number of clubs came into being around this time. LASFS was founded at this time as a branch of the SFL, while several competing local branches sprang up in New York City. Soon after the fans started to communicate directly with each other came the creation of science fiction fanzines and these amateur publications might or might not discuss science fiction and were generally traded rather than sold. They ranged from the utilitarian or inept to professional-quality printing and editing, science-fiction fans have been among the first users of computers, email, personal computers and the Internet. Many professional science fiction authors started their interest in fiction as fans. A widely regarded history of fandom in the 1930s can be found in Sam Moskowitzs The Immortal Storm, Moskowitz was himself involved in some of the incidents chronicled and has his own point of view, which has often been criticized. Organized fandom in Sweden emerged during the early-1950s, the first Swedish science fiction fanzine was started in the early 1950s. The oldest still existing club, Club Cosmos in Gothenburg, was formed in 1954, today, there are a number of science fiction clubs in the country, including Skandinavisk Förening för Science Fiction, Linköpings Science Fiction-Förening and Sigma Terra Corps. Between one and four science fiction conventions are held each year in Sweden, among them Swecon, an annual prize is awarded to someone that has contributed to the national fandom by the Alvar Appeltofft Memorial Fund. Since the late 1930s, SF fans have organized conventions, non-profit gatherings where the meet to discuss SF. The 1st World Science Fiction Convention or Worldcon was held in conjunction with the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, and has been held annually since the end of World War II
24.
Experimenter Publishing
–
Experimenter Publishing was an American media company founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1915. The first magazine was The Electrical Experimenter and the most notable magazines were Radio News and their radio station, WRNY, began broadcasting experimental television in 1928. In early 1929 the company was forced into bankruptcy and the Gernsback brothers lost control of Experimenter Publishing, the magazines did not miss an issue and were quickly sold to another publisher. The Gernsbacks promptly started new magazines to compete with their former ones, Radio News became Popular Electronics and the January 1975 issue featured the Altair 8800 computer on the cover, this launched the personal computer revolution. Hugo Gernsback was born in Luxembourg in 1884 and he became fascinated with electricity as a boy, while studying electrical engineering at a Technikum University in Bingen, Germany, he built a simple radio transmitter and receiver. Gernsback also developed a powerful dry-cell battery but was unable to patent it in Europe, in February 1904 Gernsback emigrated to America hoping to sell his battery design to automobile companies and had modest success with this. Gernsback lived in a New York City boarding house where he met Lewis Coggeshall, an early product was a spark-gap telegraph transmitter with a one-mile range that was first advertised in the November 25,1905 issue of Scientific American and sold for $8.50. Another product featured in The Electro Importing Company was Gernsbacks own Telimco Wireless Telegraph, upon investigation, Gernsback and Coggeshall were able to prove to a police officer who had come to the Electro Importing Companys office that the Telimco did work as advertised. The Electro Importing Company catalogs soon had 64 pages of products, the catalog used the title Modern Electrics in 1908 before the magazine was launched. The catalog continued to grow and used various titles, Gernsback bought Coggeshalls share of the company in 1907. To expand Electro Importing, Gernsback ran an ad in the January 27,1908 New York Times looking for a new investor. Partner wanted in well-established electrical manufacturing business, good chance for party, have more orders than can fill. H. Gernsback,108 Duane St. Milton Hymes answered and with the new capital, Electro Importing moved to a building on Fulton Street. Modern Electrics was launched as a magazine in April 1908, the Electro Importing Catalogs continued independently. This is the magazine where Gernsback wrote his first science fiction story Ralph 124C 41+ in April 1911, Gernsback wanted to start a second magazine, Electrical Experimenter, so he sold Modern Electrics and the Modern Publishing Company to a business partner, Orland Ridenour. The last issue with Hugo Gernsback as editor was March 1913, the first issue of Electrical Experimenter was May 1913. Modern Publishing acquired Electrician and Mechanic and merged it with Modern Electrics in January 1914 to become Modern Electrics and Mechanics, after a series of mergers and title changes the magazine became Popular Science Monthly in October 1915 and is still published today. Hugo Gernsback frequently formed new partnerships with investors for a new magazine or other opportunity, the Experimenter Publishing Company was incorporated in March 1915
25.
Bernarr Macfadden
–
Bernarr Macfadden was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He also founded the magazine publishing company Macfadden Publications. He was the predecessor of Charles Atlas and Jack LaLanne, and has credited with beginning the culture of health. Born Bernard Adolphus McFadden in Mill Spring, Missouri, Bernarr Macfadden changed his first and last names to them a greater appearance of strength. He thought Bernarr sounded like the roar of a lion, as a young child, Macfadden was weak and sickly. After being orphaned by the time he was 11, he was placed with a farmer, the hard work and wholesome food on the farm turned him into a strong and fit boy. When he was 13, however, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, quickly his health reverted again and by 16 he described himself as a physical wreck. He started exercising again with dumbbells, walking up to six miles a day and he quickly regained his previous health. Macfadden founded Physical Culture magazine in 1899, and was editor up to the August 1912 issue, Macfaddens magazines included SPORT, a preeminent sports magazine prior to Time, Inc. s Sports Illustrated. Ghost Stories was a nod in the direction of the growing field of pulp magazines. In 1928, Macfadden made more overt moves into the pulps with, for example, Red Blooded Stories, Flying Stories, in 1929, Macfadden underwrote Harold Herseys pulp chain, the Good Story Magazine Company. Macfadden titles like Ghost Stories and Flying Stories continued as Good Story publications, other intended Macfadden pulps, like Thrills of the Jungle and Love and War Stories, originated as Good Story magazines. This apparently made Good Story expendable and financial support was withdrawn almost immediately, the Teck titles lasted under Macfadden control until being sold in the late 30s, after which Macfadden was absent from the pulp field. Macfadden also contributed to articles and books including The Virile Powers of Superb Manhood, MacFaddens Encyclopedia of Physical Culture, Fasting for Health. Macfadden popularized the practice of fasting that previously had been associated with such as anorexia nervosa. He felt strongly that fasting was one of the surest ways to physical health, many of his subjects would fast for a week in order to rejuvenate their body. He claimed that a person could exercise unqualified control over all types of disease while revealing a degree of strength. He saw fasting as an instrument with which to prove a mans superiority over other men, Macfadden had photographs of himself taken before and after fasts to demonstrate their positive effects on the body
26.
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 magazine, Amazing Stories. Within a few months of the bankruptcy, Gernsback launched three new magazines, Air Wonder Stories, Science Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Quarterly, Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories were merged in 1930 as Wonder Stories, and the quarterly was renamed Wonder Stories Quarterly. The last issue was dated Winter 1955, and the title was merged with Startling Stories. Startling itself lasted only to the end of 1955 before finally succumbing to the decline of the magazine industry. The editors under Gernsbacks ownership were David Lasser, who worked hard to improve the quality of the fiction, under its new title, Thrilling Wonder Stories was initially unable to improve its quality. For a period in the early 1940s it was aimed at younger readers, with a juvenile editorial tone, later editors began to improve the fiction, and by the end of the 1940s, in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley, the magazine briefly rivaled Astounding. By the end of the 19th century, stories centered on scientific inventions and set in the future, Magazines such as Munseys Magazine and The Argosy, launched in 1889 and 1896 respectively, carried a few science fiction stories each year. The first science magazine, Amazing Stories, was launched in 1926 by Hugo Gernsback at the height of the pulp magazine era. Wonder Stories was launched in the era, not long after Amazing Stories. Gernsbacks new magazine, Amazing Stories, was successful, but Gernsback lost control of the publisher when it went bankrupt in February 1929, by April he had formed a new company, Gernsback Publications Incorporated, and created two subsidiaries, Techni-Craft Publishing Corporation and Stellar Publishing Corporation. Gernsback sent out letters advertising his plans for new magazines, the lists he used almost certainly were compiled from the subscription lists of Amazing Stories. This would have been illegal, as the lists were owned by Irving Trust, Gernsback denied using the lists under oath, but historians have generally agreed that he must have done so. The letters also asked potential subscribers to decide the name of the new magazine, they voted for Science Wonder Stories, Gernsbacks recovery from the bankruptcy judgment was remarkably quick. By early June he had launched three new magazines, two of which published science fiction, the June 1929 issue of Science Wonder Stories appeared on newsstands on 5 May 1929, and was followed on 5 June by the July 1929 issue of Air Wonder Stories. Both magazines were monthly, with Gernsback as editor-in-chief and David Lasser as editor, Lasser had no prior editing experience and knew little about science fiction, but his recently acquired degree from MIT convinced Gernsback to hire him. Gernsback claimed that science fiction was educational and he also recruited a panel of nationally known educators pass upon the scientific principles of all stories. However, Donald Menzel, the astrophysicist on the panel, has said that Gernsback sent him manuscripts, in 1930, Gernsback decided to merge Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories into Wonder Stories
27.
H. P. Lovecraft
–
Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He was virtually unknown and published only in magazines before he died in poverty. Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life, among his most celebrated tales are The Call of Cthulhu and The Shadow over Innsmouth, both canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft was never able to support himself from earnings as author and editor and he saw commercial success increasingly elude him in this latter period, partly because he lacked the confidence and drive to promote himself. He subsisted in straitened circumstances in his last years, an inheritance was completely spent by the time that he died at age 46. Lovecraft was born on August 20,1890 in his home at 194 Angell Street in Providence. Both of his parents were of entirely English ancestry, and most of his ancestors had been in New England since the colonial period and his great-grandfather Joseph Lovecraft Jr. emigrated to Rochester, New York from Devon, England in 1831. Lovecraft maintained throughout his life that his father died in a condition of paralysis brought on by nervous exhaustion. It has been suggested that his fathers mental illness may have been caused by syphilis, all five resided together in the family home. Lovecraft was a prodigy, reciting poetry at the age of three and writing complete poems by six. His grandfather encouraged his reading, providing him with such as One Thousand and One Nights, Thomas Bulfinchs Age of Fable, and childrens versions of the Iliad. His grandfather also stirred the boys interest in the weird by telling him his own tales of gothic horror. Lovecraft was frequently ill as a child, and he attended school until he was eight years old because of his sickly condition. He read voraciously during this period and became enamored of chemistry. He produced several hectographed publications with a circulation, beginning in 1899 with The Scientific Gazette. Four years later, he returned to school at Hope High School. Beginning in his life, Lovecraft is believed to have suffered from sleep paralysis. Much of his work is thought to have been directly inspired by these terrors
28.
Clark Ashton Smith
–
Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling. Smith was one of the big three of Weird Tales, with Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft, the fantasy critic L. Sprague de Camp said of him that nobody since Poe has so loved a well-rotted corpse. Smith was a member of the Lovecraft circle and his friendship with Lovecraft lasted from 1922 until Lovecrafts death in 1937. His work is marked by a rich and ornate vocabulary, a cosmic perspective. Smith was born January 13,1893, in Long Valley, California, of English and he spent most of his life in the small town of Auburn, California, living in a small cabin built by his parents, Fanny and Timeus Smith. His parents decided it was better for him to be educated at home, however, he was an insatiable reader, and continued to teach himself after he left school. His education began with the reading of Robinson Crusoe, Gullivers Travels, the tales of Hans Christian Andersen and Madame dAulnoy, the Arabian Nights. He read an unabridged dictionary through, word for word, studying not only the definitions of the words, having an extraordinary eidetic memory, he seems to have retained most or all of it. The other main course in Smiths self-education was to read the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica through at least twice, Smith later taught himself French and Spanish in order to translate verse out of those languages. Smith professed to hate the provinciality of the town of Auburn. His first literary efforts, at the age of 11, took the form of fairy tales, later, he wrote long adventure novels dealing with Oriental life. By 14 he had written a short adventure novel called The Black Diamonds which was lost for years until published in 2002. Another juvenile novel was written in his teenaged years—The Sword of Zagan, at age 17, he sold several tales to The Black Cat, a magazine which specialized in unusual tales. He also published some tales in the Overland Monthly in this brief foray into fiction which preceded his poetic career, however, it was primarily poetry that motivated the young Smith and he confined his efforts to poetry for more than a decade. On a month-long visit to Sterling in Carmel, California, Smith was introduced by Sterling to the poetry of Baudelaire and he became Sterlings protégé and Sterling helped him to publish his first volume of poems, The Star-Treader and Other Poems, at the age of 19. Smith received international acclaim for the collection, the Star-Treader was received very favorably by American critics, one of whom named Smith the Keats of the Pacific. Smith briefly moved among the circle that included Ambrose Bierce and Jack London, a little later, Smiths health broke down and for eight years his literary production was intermittent, though he produced his best poetry during this period
29.
Jack Williamson
–
John Stewart Williamson, who wrote as Jack Williamson, was an American science fiction writer, often called the Dean of Science Fiction after the death of Robert Heinlein in 1988. Early in his career he used the pseudonyms Will Stewart. Williamson was born April 29,1908 in Bisbee, Arizona Territory, in search of better pastures, his family migrated to rural New Mexico in a horse-drawn covered wagon in 1915. The farming was difficult there and the family turned to ranching and he served in the U. S. Army Air Corps in World War II as a weather forecaster. As a child Williamson enjoyed storytelling to his brother and two sisters, as a young man, he discovered the magazine Amazing Stories, established in 1926 by Hugo Gernsback, after answering an ad for one free issue. He strove to write his own fiction and sold his first story to Gernsback at age 20 and his work during this early period was heavily influenced by A. Merritt, author of The Metal Monster and other fantasy serials. Noting the Merritt influence, Algis Budrys described The Metal Man as a full of memorable images. Early on, Williamson became impressed by the works of Miles J. Breuer, a doctor who wrote science fiction in his spare time, Breuer had a strong talent and turned Williamson away from dreamlike fantasies towards more rigorous plotting and stronger narrative. Under Breuers tutelage, Williamson would send outlines and drafts for review, heinleins The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. From this period, his stories take on a grittier, more realistic tone, Williamson remained a regular contributor to the pulp magazines but did not achieve financial success as a writer until many years later. Williamson wrote the strip Beyond Mars, loosely based on his novel Seetee Ship, beginning 1954 and continuing into the 1990s, Williamson and Frederick Pohl wrote more than a dozen science fiction novels together, including the series Jim Eden, Starchild, and Cuckoo. Williamson continued to write as a nonagenarian and won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards during the last decade of his life, by far the oldest writer to win those awards. The labels you hear so much of—commercial, serious writer, mainstream, hack, New Wave, but certainly the writing they did earlier was deservedly popular among SF fandom, who evidently found these works serious enough to merit reading. I am opposed, however, to literary tricks that tend towards obscurity or artificial difficulty, the point is that these patterns and structures form the basic vocabulary through which all SF writers must speak. Williamson received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in English in the 1950s from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales and he remained affiliated with the school for the rest of his life. In the late 1990s, he established a permanent trust to fund the publication of El Portal, ENMUs journal of literature and art. In addition, Williamson hosted the Jack Williamson Lectureship Series, a panel discussion in which two science fiction authors were invited to speak to attendees on a set topic. The Jack Williamson Liberal Arts building houses the Mathematics, Art, in the field of science, Jack Williamson coined the word terraforming in a science-fiction story published in 1942 in Astounding Science Fiction
30.
Frederik Pohl
–
From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy and its sister magazine If, the latter won three successive annual Hugo Awards as the years best professional magazine. He won the Campbell Memorial Award again for the 1984 collection of novellas Years of the City, for his 1979 novel Jem, Pohl won a U. S. National Book Award in the one-year category Science Fiction. It was a finalist for three other years best novel awards and he won four Hugo and three Nebula Awards. Pohl won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2010, for his blog, Pohl was the son of Frederik George Pohl and Anna Jane Mason. Pohl Sr. held various jobs, and the Pohls lived in such locations as Texas, California, New Mexico. The family settled in Brooklyn when Pohl was around seven and he attended Brooklyn Technical High School, and dropped out at 17. In 2009, he was awarded a diploma from Brooklyn Tech. While a teenager, he co-founded the New York–based Futurians fan group, and began lifelong friendships with Donald Wollheim, Isaac Asimov and others who would become important writers and editors. Pohl later said that other friends came and went and were gone, many of the ones I met through fandom were friends all their lives – Isaac, Damon Knight, Cyril Kornbluth, Dirk Wylie, Dick Wilson. In fact, there are one or two – Jack Robins, Dave Kyle – whom I still count as friends, seventy-odd years later and he published a science fiction fanzine called Mind of Man. During 1936, Pohl joined the Young Communist League because of its positions for unions and against racial prejudice, Adolf Hitler and he became president of the local Flatbush III Branch of the YCL in Brooklyn. Pohl has said that after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, the party changed and he could no longer support it. Pohl served in the United States Army from April 1943 until November 1945, after training in Illinois, Oklahoma, and Colorado, he was mainly stationed in Italy with the 456th Bombardment Group. His first wife, Leslie Perri, was another Futurian, they were married in August 1940 and he then married Dorothy LesTina in Paris in August 1945 while both were serving in the military in Europe, the marriage ended in 1947. During 1948, he married Judith Merril, they had a daughter, Pohl and Merril divorced in 1952. In 1953, he married Carol M. Ulf Stanton, with whom he had three children and collaborated on books, they separated in 1977 and were divorced in 1983. From 1984 until his death, Pohl was married to science fiction expert and he fathered four children – Ann, Frederik III, Frederik IV and Kathy. Grandchildren include Canadian writer Emily Pohl-Weary and chef Tobias Pohl-Weary, from 1984 on, he lived in Palatine, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago
31.
Ralph 124C 41+
–
Ralph 124C 41+, by Hugo Gernsback, is an early science fiction novel, written as a twelve-part serial in Modern Electrics magazine beginning in April 1911. It was compiled into novel/book form in 1925, while one of the most influential science fiction stories of all time, modern critics tend to pan the novel and few people read it today. The title itself is a play on words, meaning One to foresee for one another, the eponymous protagonist saves the life of the heroine by directing energy remotely at an approaching avalanche. As the novel goes on, he describes the wonders of the modern world. The hero finally rescues the heroine by travelling into space on his own space flyer to rescue her from the villains clutches and it also contains. the first accurate description of radar, complete with diagram. According to Arthur C. Clarke in his non-genre novel Glide Path, a pulsating polarized ether wave, if directed on a metal object can be reflected in the same manner as a light-ray is reflected from a bright surface or from a mirror. Inevitably, some of the predictions made in the story turned out to be wrong. For example, in 1911 it was assumed that, just as a sound wave needed a medium to travel in. Ether was postulated as the substance that light traveled in. In the story an ether vacuum occurred when too much energy was radiated at once, heat and cold could also not be transferred during such a blackout. It is now known that such ether does not exist and is not needed for light to travel, even though Ralph 124C 41+ is one of the most influential science fiction stories of all time, and filled with numerous science fiction ideas, few people still read the story. Brian Aldiss has called the story a tawdry illiterate tale and a sorry concoction while Lester del Rey called it simply dreadful, martin Gardner referred to the book as surely the worst SF novel ever written. Groff Conklin more generously described it as thoroughly delightful, the genuine charm of a sound, workmanlike antique. Reviewing the 1950 Frederick Fell edition in the New York Times and it has a narrative style as quaint as the retarder on a Hupmobile. Everett F. Bleiler similarly noted that The literary treatment is on a low level. Accelerated Plant Growing Farms, Huge greenhouse farms used to feed the rapidly growing Earth population and they can grow five harvests per year as opposed to normal harvests of two in 1911. Aeroflyer, A small flying transport that can reach speeds of up to 600 mph, appetizer, A large waiting room in more scientifically advanced restaurants. The room is flooded with gases that increase the appetites/hunger before eating, automatic-Electric Packing Machines Bacillatorium, A decontamination chamber for the home
32.
Brian Aldiss
–
Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE is an English writer and anthologies editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society. He is also co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group, Aldiss was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2000 and inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2004. He has received two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award, and one John W. Campbell Memorial Award and he wrote the short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, the basis for the Stanley Kubrick-developed Steven Spielberg film A. I. Aldiss was associated with the British New Wave of science fiction, Aldisss father ran a department store that his grandfather had established, and the family lived above it. He started to write stories as a 3 year old which his mother would bind, at the age of 6, Brian was sent to board at West Buckland School in Devon, and then on to Framlingham College. During World War II in 1943, he joined the Royal Signals, after the war, he worked as a bookseller in Oxford. As a result, Aldisss first book was The Brightfount Diaries, about this time he also began to write science fiction for various magazines. According to ISFDB his first speculative fiction in print was the short story Criminal Record, several of his stories appeared in 1955 including three in monthly issues of New Worlds, a more important magazine also edited by Carnell. In 1954, The Observer newspaper ran a competition for a story set in the year 2500. The Brightfount Diaries had been a success, and Faber asked Aldiss if he had any more writing that they could look at with a view to publishing. By this time, his earnings from writing matched his wages in the bookshop, Aldiss led the voting for Most Promising New Author of 1958 at the next years World Science Fiction Convention, but finished behind no award. He was elected President of the British Science Fiction Association in 1960 and he was the literary editor of the Oxford Mail newspaper from 1958 to 1969. S. Lewis, and Kingsley Amis in the first issues, besides his own writings, he has had great success as an anthologist. For Faber he edited Introducing SF, a collection of stories typifying various themes of science fiction, in 1961 he edited an anthology of reprinted short science fiction for the British paperback publisher Penguin Books under the title Penguin Science Fiction. This was remarkably successful, going into numerous reprints, and was followed up by two further anthologies, More Penguin Science Fiction, and Yet More Penguin Science Fiction. The later anthologies enjoyed the success as the first. Around this time, he edited a large-format volume Science Fiction Art, with selections of artwork from the magazines, reprinting stories based on the pre-probe ideas of Venus
33.
Lester del Rey
–
Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey often told people his real name was Ramon Felipe Alvarez-del Rey and he also claimed that his family was killed in a car accident in 1935. However, his sister has confirmed that his name was really Leonard Knapp, Del Rey first started publishing stories in pulp magazines in the late 1930s, at the dawn of the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction. The December 1938 issue featured his story Helen OLoy which was selected for the prestigious anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, by the end of 1939 he had also placed stories in Weird Tales and Unknown, which featured more horror and more fantasy respectively. In the 1950s, del Rey was one of the authors writing science fiction for adolescents. During this time some of his fiction was published under the name Erik van Lhin, during a period when del Reys work was not selling well, he worked as a short order cook at the White Tower Restaurant in New York. After he married his wife, Helen Schlaz, in 1945. After meeting Scott Meredith at the 1947 World Science Fiction Convention, he working as a first reader for the new Scott Meredith Literary Agency. He later became an editor for several magazines and then for book publishers. During 1952 and 1953, del Rey edited several magazines, Space SF, Fantasy Fiction, Science Fiction Adventures, Rocket Stories, also during 1952, his first two novels were published in the Winston juvenile series, one with an Italian-language edition in the same year. In 1957, del Rey and Damon Knight co-edited a small amateur magazine named Science Fiction Forum, Del Rey was most successful editing with his fourth wife, Judy-Lynn del Rey, at Ballantine Books where they established the fantasy and science fiction imprint Del Rey Books in 1977. After science fiction gained respectability and began to be taught in classrooms, Del Rey stated that to develop science fiction had to remove itself from the usual critics who viewed it from the perspective of mainstream, and who judged its worth largely on its mainstream values. As part of mainstream, it would never have had the freedom to make the choices it did – many of them quite possibly wrong. For a number of years in the 1970s, Del Rey, himself, helmed the review column for Analog Science Fiction and Fact entitled The Reference Library. Del Rey was a member of an all-male literary banqueting club, the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimovs fictional group of mystery solvers, Del Rey was the model for Emmanuel Rubin. Del Rey was awarded the 1972 E. E and he also won a special 1985 Balrog Award for his contributions to fantasy, voted by fans and organized by Locus Magazine. The Science Fiction Writers of America named him its 11th SFWA Grand Master in 1990, marooned on Mars Rocket Jockey as Philip St. John Attack from Atlantis Battle on Mercury as Erik Van Lhin The Mysterious Planet as Kenneth Wright Rockets to Nowhere as Philip St. Jones. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy
34.
James Blish
–
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr. Blish was born at East Orange. In the late 1930s to the early 1940s, Blish was a member of the Futurians and he broke into science fiction print with two stories published by Frederik Pohl in Super Science Stories, Emergency Refueling in March and Bequest of the Angel in May 1940. ISFDB catalogs ten more stories published during 1941 and 1942, Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942–1944 as a medical technician in the United States Army. After the war he became the editor for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. His writing career progressed until he gave up his job to become a professional writer and he is credited with coining the term gas giant, in the story Solar Plexus as it appeared in the anthology Beyond Human Ken, edited by Judith Merril. From 1962 to 1968, Blish worked for the Tobacco Institute, Blish adapted episodes of Star Trek for Bantam Books. They were collected into volumes, and published as a title series of the same name from 1967 to 1977. The adaptations were based on draft scripts, often containing additional plot elements or differing situations from the televised episodes. The original novel Spock Must Die. also by Blish, was released by Bantam in 1970, Blish noted his financial stability later in life was the result of his Star Trek work. Releases after Star Trek 6 were likely written in collaboration with his wife Judith Lawrence, Blish died before the series was completed, and the final volume, Star Trek 12, was co-credited to his wife. She continued the series with Mudds Angels in 1978, the archive of Blishs books and papers is deposited at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Blish is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, perhaps Blishs most famous works were the Okies stories, known collectively as Cities in Flight, published in the science-fiction digest magazine Astounding Science Fiction. The framework for these was set in the first of four novels, They Shall Have Stars, the second is the development of an antigravity device known as the spindizzy. Since the device becomes more efficient when used to larger objects, entire cities leave an Earth in decline and rove the stars. The long life provided by ascomycin is necessary because the journeys between stars are time-consuming, the second, A Life For The Stars, is a coming of age story set amid flying cities. For his fourth and final installment, The Triumph of Time, a film version of Cities in Flight was in pre-production by Spacefilms in 1979, but never materialized. This term describes the background of a number of Blishs science fiction short stories, Three distinct technologies, their invention, and consequences are outlined
35.
Museum of Pop Culture
–
The Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPOP is a nonprofit museum, dedicated to contemporary popular culture. It was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000 as the Experience Music Project, since that time MoPOP has organized dozens of exhibits,17 of which have toured across the US and internationally. An annual 21 and under battle-of-the-bands that supports the all-ages scene, and Pop Conference, a gathering of academics, critics, musicians. MoPOP, in collaboration with the Seattle International Film Festival presents the Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Film Festival, MoPOP is home to exhibits, interactive activity stations, sound sculpture, and various educational resources. Exhibits that cover pop culture, from the art of fantasy, horror cinema, IF VI WAS IX, a guitar sculpture consisting of more than 500 musical instruments and 30 computers conceived by UK exhibit designer Neal Potter and developed by sound sculptor Trimpin. Public programs such as MoPOP’s Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival, Pop Conference, the Youth Advisory Board, the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame was founded by Paul Allen and Jody Patton and opened to the public on June 18,2004. It incorporated the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame which had established in 1996. The museum was divided into galleries with common themes such as Homeworld, Fantastic Voyages, Brave New Worlds. Each gallery displayed related memorabilia in large display cases, posters, from robots to jet packs to space suits and ray guns, its all here. Members of the advisory board included Steven Spielberg, Ray Bradbury, James Cameron. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame was founded in 1996 by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society, the chairmen were Keith Stokes and Robin Wayne Bailey. Only writers and editors were eligible for recognition and four were inducted annually, each class of four was announced at Kansas Citys annual science fiction convention, ConQuesT, and inducted at the Campbell Conference hosted by CSSF. The Hall of Fame stopped inducting fantasy writers after 2004, when it became part of the Science Fiction Museum affiliated with MoPOP, having inducted 36 writers in nine years, in 2005 it began to recognize non-literary media. It retained the quota of four new members and thus reduced the number of writers. The 2005 and 2006 press releases placed new members in Literature, Art, and Film, Television and Media, in 2007 and 2008 the fourth inductee was placed in one of the three substantial categories. MoPOP de-installed the Science Fiction Museum in March 2011, when the exhibition Icons of Science Fiction opened in June 2012, a new Hall of Fame display was unveiled and the class of 2012 inducted. Nominations are submitted by the public but the selections are made by award-winning science fiction authors, artists, editors, publishers, MoPOP restored the original name online during June 2013 and announced five new members, one daily, beginning June 17. The first four were cited largely or wholly for science fiction, tolkien, hailed as the father of modern fantasy literature
36.
John F. Rider
–
John F. Rider was an American radio engineer best known as publisher and author of over 125 books for radio and television servicing. He founded John F. Rider Publisher Inc. and was responsible for volumes of the Perpetual Troubleshooters Manual from 1931 to 1954. Born in 1900, John F. Rider grew up during the invention of the tube by J Ambrose Fleming and Lee DeForest. Before getting involved into publishing he served at the rank of Lt Colonel for the US Signal Corps after military service he became an engineer for Alfred H. Grebe a manufacturer of radios. According to Alan Douglas, a radio historian, Rider may have been one of the many engineers that worked on Grebes top of the line Synchrophase 7 Receivers in 1927. He states, John Rider was a engineer, aside from his publishing career. I believe he designed the system of the 1927 Grebe Synchrophase 7. He conceived the idea of a tuned analyzer and sold the first VTVM using the circuit that became universal for decades. He got his name on several patents in the test-equipment field, Rider probably accumulated a lot of knowledge through his military experience and radio engineering which enabled him to work for Hugo Gernsback as editor for Gernsbacks Radio Craft Magazine. During the 1920s with the rise of radio manufacturers came the rise of the radio servicing business, the need for radio servicing literature rose. Gernsback started to produce compilations of servicing data for radio repair, Rider was also an amateur radio operator and his call letters were W2RID. Rider left Gernsback Publishing to start his own publishing company, John F. Rider Publisher at 404 Fourth Avenue, New York and he, like Gernsback Publishing before him was involved with radio servicing literature. The book consisted of genuine service technical data from the radio manufacturers, each volume represented a year of service data. This, in time became his best known and greatest contribution to the business, there were a total of 23 volumes, ending in 1954. Rider also published over a 125 other technical books on servicing and he was a contributor to the WW2 US war effort through his technical publications and teaching military personnel for the US Army. After WW2, many of the training manuals were available at little or minimal charge. This was an opportunity for publishers to capitalize on this as men leaving active military duty were looking to start a career or retrain. In 1955, Rider published the Basic Electronics series, based on the US Navy training books used in their training classes, considered by radio collectors and restorers as his most important work
37.
Signal Corps (United States Army)
–
The United States Army Signal Corps develops, tests, provides, and manages communications and information systems support for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of United States Army Major Albert J. Myer, support for the command and control of combined arms forces. Signal support includes Network Operations and management of the electromagnetic spectrum, while serving as a medical officer in Texas in 1856, Albert James Myer proposed that the Army use his visual communications system, called aerial telegraphy. When the Army adopted his system on 21 June 1860, the Signal Corps was born with Myer as the first, Major Myer first used his visual signaling system on active service in New Mexico during the early 1860s Navajo expedition. For nearly three years, Myer was forced to rely on detailed personnel, although he envisioned a separate, myers vision came true on 3 March 1863, when Congress authorized a regular Signal Corps for the duration of the war. Some 2,900 officers and enlisted men served, although not at any single time, even in the Civil War, the wigwag system, restricted to line-of-sight communications, was waning in the face of the electric telegraph. Initially, Myer used his office downtown in Washington, D. C. to house the Signal Corps School, when it was found to need additional space, he sought out other locations. First came Fort Greble, one of the Defenses of Washington during the Civil War, the size and location were outstanding. The school remained there for over 20 years and ultimately was renamed Fort Myer, Signal Corps detachments participated in campaigns fighting Native Americans in the west, such as the Powder River Expedition of 1865. The electric telegraph, in addition to signaling, became a Signal Corps responsibility in 1867. Within 12 years, the Corps had constructed, and was maintaining and operating, in 1870, the Signal Corps established a congressionally mandated national weather service. Within a decade, with the assistance of Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, Myer died in 1880, having attained the rank of brigadier general and the title of Chief Signal Officer. The weather bureau became part of the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 1891, the Signal Corps role in the Spanish–American War of 1898 and the subsequent Philippine Insurrection was on a grander scale than it had been in the Civil War. In 1908, on Fort Myer, Virginia, the Wright brothers made test flights of the Armys first airplane built to Signal Corps specifications, reflecting the need for an official pilot rating, War Department Bulletin No. 2, released on 24 February 1911, established a Military Aviator rating, Army aviation remained within the Signal Corps until 1918, when it became the Army Air Service. The Signal Corps lost no time in meeting the challenges of World War I, Chief Signal Officer George Owen Squier worked closely with private industry to perfect radio tubes while creating a major signal laboratory at Camp Alfred Vail. Early radiotelephones developed by the Signal Corps were introduced into the European theater in 1918, while the new American voice radios were superior to the radiotelegraph sets, telephone and telegraph remained the major technology of World War I. A pioneer in radar, Colonel William Blair, director of the Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, even before the United States entered World War II, mass production of two radar sets, the SCR-268 and the SCR-270, had begun
38.
Electrician and Mechanic
–
Electrician and Mechanic was an American science and technology magazine published from 1890 to January 1914 when it merged with Modern Electrics to become Modern Electrics & Mechanics. In July 1914, incorporated with Popular Electricity and the Worlds Advance, the new publisher, Modern Publishing, began a series of magazine mergers and title changes so numerous that librarians began to complain. In October 1915 the title became Popular Science Monthly and the magazine is published under that name today. Bubiers Popular Electrician was acquired by Frank R. Fraprie and the newly formed Sampson Publishing Company in May 1906, the name was changed to Electrician & Mechanic with the July issue. The editors were Frank Fraprie, Arthur Eugene Watson and Mary Otis Sampson, Sampson was also the treasurer and director of the publishing company. By 1912, Electrician and Mechanic had absorbed three other magazines, Amateur Work, Building Craft and Collins Wireless Bulletin. The magazine typically had about 100 pages and each covered a wide variety of topics in electricity, wireless radio, machining, mechanical drawing, wood working. There were articles for radio technicians such as The Calculation of Inductance that details how to design, a skilled machinist might read about The Production of Accurate Screw-Threads in a Lathe. There were also articles for the hobbyist readers, woodworkers could find plans for an armchair or a simple letter box. Hugo Gernsbacks Electro Importing Company catalogs had elaborate instructions on how to use the electrical and these catalogs spawned Modern Electrics in April 1908 and the magazine had over 100,000 readers by 1911. In March 1913, Gernsback sold the magazine and the Modern Publishing Company to his business partner, Modern Publishing acquired Electrician and Mechanic and merged it with Modern Electrics. The new magazine, Modern Electrics and Mechanics, was published from January 1914 to June 1914, Gernsback started a new magazine, The Electrical Experimenter, in May 1913. Popular Electricity Publishing of Chicago merged Popular Electricity in Plain English with Worlds Advance in September 1913, Modern Publishing acquired Popular Electricity and Worlds Advance and combined it with Modern Electrics and Mechanics in July 1914. The new magazine was Popular Electricity and Modern Mechanics but it changed the title to Modern Mechanics and was Worlds Advance by April 1915. The numerous title changes were a topic of discussion in library journals of the time, libraries would have individual magazines bound into books. A typical size magazine would be bound into volumes every six months and this was not the case with Modern Publishing. The following editorial appeared in the April 1915 Bulletin of Bibliography, the Worlds Advance is a new title in magazinedom, and April 1915, is the initial number. Oh, no, not a new magazine, it is vol,30, number 4, it was Modern Mechanics recently, and back of that — but let it tell its own story of absorptions, marriages, serial-cannibalism or whatever you may call its checkered life hitherto
39.
Radio-Electronics
–
Radio-Electronics was an American electronics magazine that was published under various titles from 1929 to 2003. Hugo Gernsback, sometimes called by Americans as The Father of Science Fiction, the title was changed to Radio-Electronics in October 1948 and again to Electronics Now in July 1992. In January 2000 it was merged with Gernsbacks Popular Electronics to become Poptronics, Gernsback Publications ceased operations in December 2002 and the January 2003 issue was the last. Over the years, Radio-Electronics featured audio, radio, television, the most notable articles were the TV Typewriter and the Mark-8 computer. These two issues are considered milestones in the computer revolution. In 1905 Hugo Gernsback established Electro Importing Company to sell radio components, the catalogs had detailed instructions on projects like a wireless telegraph outfit and were the predecessor of his first magazine, Modern Electrics. Gernsback sold Modern Electrics in March 1913 and it became Electrician, in May 1913 he started another magazine, The Electrical Experimenter. Gernsback was a supporter of amateur radio. Gernsback started a magazine devoted to radio, Radio Amateur News The title was shortened to Radio News in July 1920, Radio News was a very successful magazine that enabled Hugo Gernsback and his brother Sidney to build a publishing empire. Amazing Stories was introduced in April 1926 and was the first magazine devoted to science fiction, in 1925 they launched the radio station WRNY. This was the first radio station to broadcast experimental television starting in 1928, in February 1929 Gernsbacks Experimenter Publishing was forced into bankruptcy. Everything was sold to pay off the creditors, at the last court proceeding in April 1929, Hugo Gernsback announced a new publishing company. Mr. Gernsback said after the hearing that his new magazines would be Radio Craft, Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories, the beginning of the Great Depression was not the best time to start a magazine but Radio-Craft survived. The paper shortages during World War II were even more difficult for magazines, Gernsback had to merge Radio and Television into Radio-Craft. A few months were combined such as the January–February 1942 and the August–September 1942 issues, the material shortages eased and the growing electronics industry during the war led to more advertisers and readers. Hugo Gernsback first used the term Television in the December 1909 issue of his Modern Electrics magazine, by the late 1940s, television stations and home receivers were becoming a reality. Gernsback felt his Radio-Craft magazine needed a new name, it should be short, when the staff could not decide on a name, they sent a survey to 500 readers with 13 proposed names. Over 50% of the readers selected a name that was included just to expand the list, Gernsback accepted his readers verdict and used the title that did not use the magic word of the period
40.
Pulp magazine
–
Pulp magazines were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the 1950s. The term pulp derives from the wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, in contrast. The typical pulp magazine had 128 pages, it was 7 inches wide by 10 inches high, the pulps gave rise to the term pulp fiction in reference to run-of-the-mill, low-quality literature. Pulps were the successors to the penny dreadfuls, dime novels, although many respected writers wrote for pulps, the magazines were best known for their lurid, exploitative, and sensational subject matter. The first pulp was Frank Munseys revamped Argosy Magazine of 1896, with about 135,000 words per issue, on paper with untrimmed edges. In six years Argosy went from a few thousand copies per month to over half a million, Street & Smith, a dime novel and boys weekly publisher, was next on the market. Seeing Argosys success, they launched The Popular Magazine in 1903, due to differences in page layout however, the magazine had substantially less text than Argosy. Haggards Lost World genre influenced several key pulp writers, including Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Talbot Mundy and Abraham Merritt. Street and Smiths next innovation was the introduction of specialized genre pulps, with each focusing on a particular genre, such as detective stories, romance. At their peak of popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, the most successful pulps could sell up to one million copies per issue, in 1934, Frank Gruber says there were some 150 pulp titles. The most successful pulp magazines were Argosy, Adventure, Blue Book and Short Stories, although pulp magazines were primarily an American phenomenon, there were also a number of British pulp magazines published between the Edwardian era and World War II. Notable UK pulps included Pall Mall Magazine, The Novel Magazine, Cassells Magazine, The Story-Teller, The Sovereign Magazine, Hutchinsons Adventure-Story and Hutchinsons Mystery-Story. The German fantasy magazine Der Orchideengarten had a format to American pulp magazines, in that it was printed on rough pulp paper. During the Second World War paper shortages had a impact on pulp production, starting a steady rise in costs. Beginning with Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine in 1941, pulp magazines began to switch to digest size, in 1949, Street & Smith closed most of their pulp magazines in order to move upmarket and produce slicks. The pulp format declined from rising expenses, but even more due to the competition from comic books, television. In a more affluent post-war America, the price gap compared to slick magazines was far less significant, in the 1950s, mens adventure magazines began to replace the pulp. The format is still in use for some lengthy serials, like the German science fiction weekly Perry Rhodan, many titles of course survived only briefly
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
