Early Magazines in Your Collection (Astounding, Galaxy, etc.)

[BAYLOR]

I remember when this showed up at Newberry's and I let it slip away. Teenagers do such silly things.
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I just found a copy of this edition of Planetary Hunter in my favorite used bookshop .

 

[dask]

I just found a copy of this edition of Planetary Hunter in my favorite used bookshop .

Cool! I like it when stuff like that happens.

 

[Boaz]

@Bick In the second post of this thread, you've posted a picture of the cover of Galaxy Science Fiction #43. It seems there is an article titled The Demotion of Pluto by Willy Ley. I am curious about the title since the actual demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet in the last fifteen years.

Edit: A quick search shows Willy Ley as a regular contributor to GSF, a writer of space exploration both factual and fictional, and a cryptozoologist. I found that the article about Pluto comes from 1956 and is related to or either retitled as a German language article Die Suche nach Planetem X in 1959.

I'm not a scientist. My poorest grades were always in physics, biology, chemistry, etc... but exploration interests me. As a child, the nine planets were drilled into my brain... and I find it interesting that there may have been doubt as to Pluto's status even before it was taught to me.

 

[Bick]

@Bick In the second post of this thread, you've posted a picture of the cover of Galaxy Science Fiction #43. It seems there is an article titled The Demotion of Pluto by Willy Ley. I am curious about the title since the actual demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet in the last fifteen years.

Edit: A quick search shows Willy Ley as a regular contributor to GSF, a writer of space exploration both factual and fictional, and a cryptozoologist. I found that the article about Pluto comes from 1956 and is related to or either retitled as a German language article Die Suche nach Planetem X in 1959.

I'm not a scientist. My poorest grades were always in physics, biology, chemistry, etc... but exploration interests me. As a child, the nine planets were drilled into my brain... and I find it interesting that there may have been doubt as to Pluto's status even before it was taught to me.

Good question Boaz. Willy Ley wrote a science fact peice in most if not all issues of Galxy at this time, as far as I can see and they were generally pretty good; well researched.

In this piece he is not actually predicting the diminishment of Pluto to dwarf planet status (which happened a lot later as you rightly point out), but referring to a suggestion at the time, by Dr Gerard Kuiper of the University of Chicago, that Pluto may be a runaway moon, that escaped from the orbit of Neptune in the early solar system. He then goes on the compare the 'planetary' characteristics of Pluto with the predicted characteristics of the "Planet X", proposed to exist by Lowell, to see if how close it comes to meeting the requirements for a true planet. These include the Bode-Titius rule (worth googling) and the specific orbit. Pluto didn't quite match Lowell's expectations when it was discovered by Clyde Tildsley apparently. Quite interesting.

 

[Boaz]

@Bick Thank you.

 

[2DaveWixon]

Good question Boaz. Willy Ley wrote a science fact peice in most if not all issues of Galxy at this time, as far as I can see and they were generally pretty good; well researched.

In this piece he is not actually predicting the diminishment of Pluto to dwarf planet status (which happened a lot later as you rightly point out), but referring to a suggestion at the time, by Dr Gerard Kuiper of the University of Chicago, that Pluto may be a runaway moon, that escaped from the orbit of Neptune in the early solar system. He then goes on the compare the 'planetary' characteristics of Pluto with the predicted characteristics of the "Planet X", proposed to exist by Lowell, to see if how close it comes to meeting the requirements for a true planet. These include the Bode-Titius rule (worth googling) and the specific orbit. Pluto didn't quite match Lowell's expectations when it was discovered by Clyde Tildsley apparently. Quite interesting.

Thank you Bick, for giving me another excuse to go off-thread on behalf of Cliff Simak.
I say that because the discussion you've had with Boaz has reminded me of Cliff's story "Construction Shack," which was a contender for a Hugo in 1973, The story is a little different from the general perceptions of Cliff...
It was published in the Jan-Feb issue of WORLDS OF IF, which was v. 21, no. 9. (I think it got to that magazine because Cliff had been connected to the GALAXY publications for a long time by then...).

You can figure that I was reminded because Cliff's story dealt with Pluto -- but in the interest of not being a spoiler, I won't tell you any more. (The story is available in vol. 12 of my collection of Simak Stories (THE THING IN THE STONE AND OTHER STORIES).

 

[Bick]

Pluto didn't quite match Lowell's expectations when it was discovered by Clyde Tildsley...

Clyde Tombaugh of course; I just spotted this error. I must have read “Tildsley” somewhere just before I posted.

 

[2DaveWixon]

I forgot to put into my last posting a mention that "Construction Shack" was not the first time Cliff used Pluto in a story -- not only was Pluto a primary site for the first part of the novel COSMIC ENGINEERS, but there was also the short story "The Call from Beyond," which appeared in the May, 1950, issue of SUPER SCIENCE STORIES.
It wasn't until some time after those two publications that Cliff made the acquaintance of Willy Ley, who ended up contributing several articles to one of Cliff's science anthologies -- so I would guess that it was not Ley who turned Cliff on to speculation about the ninth planet. (My guess? I think Cliff was intrigued by the fact that Pluto, as the outermost planet, was the natural jumping-off point for interstellar travel...)

 

[Alex The G and T]

It seems that most of the handful of other old mags that I happen to have acquired are also Simak related. This one turned up, quite by accident, today. I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I'd forgotten I had it.

I have a few more to post later on; but this one is.... what it is...

The Freas cover captures the essence of the story perfectly.

 

[Bick]

That particular issue of Astounding is quite sought after I believe - and your copy looks in good condition. I’m looking out for it idly myself. Nice one! (And it’s a Simak classic of course).

 

[Extollager]

Alex's cover image reminds me that Kelly Freas used to paint for Mad magazine at about the same time.

 

[Extollager]

More Mad Freas:

 

[Extollager]

 

[Extollager]

 

[Bick]

Can we stick to thread topic please? This thread is for posting about science fiction and fantasy magazines we own from the Golden Age or earlier. Thanks.

 

[Alex The G and T]

First installment of Simak's four part serial, later published as the novel Time is the Simplest Thing.
No, I don't have the follow up editions.

 

[Extollager]

Can we stick to thread topic please? This thread is for posting about science fiction and fantasy magazines we own from the Golden Age or earlier. Thanks.

Got it, thanks. Incidentally I expect to be posting something about a freebie trove coming my way, sometime in the next few weeks.

 

[BAYLOR]

Alex's cover image reminds me that Kelly Freas used to paint for Mad magazine at about the same time.
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Oh my god that is scary !

 

[BigBadBob141]

Got a lot of these SF mags shown here, but now the market seems to have dried up somewhat.
Have a few 30s Astoundings, plus a few of the rare WW2 issues, lots and lots of 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s plus I also have a full run of the A4 size (slick ?) Analogs.
All but three of Unkown( Worlds), plus a lot of Fantastic.
All but one issue of F&SF , lots of Galaxy's and Ifs plus a complete run of Ellory Queens Mystery Magazine from issue 1(1941) up to April '79.
I have ongoing subscriptions to Analog, Asimov SFs, plus Ellory Queen, Alfred Hitchcock Mysterys and finally F&SF!
But to be honest I don't seem to read them as often as I used to.
I'm a bit like that avid reader in that old Twilight Zone episode who survives WW3 then manages to break his reading glasses, with me it's a question of time, or lack of it, I also have a lot of non-fiction to go through, maths, science & military history!
I seem to be getting addicted to shopping on Amazon, plus playing games and watching You Tube on this damned tablet!!!
P.S. Anyone interested, I highly recommend Lindybeige ( watch his episode about Western Approaches and war gaming, excellent!!!) and The Tank Museum on You Tube!

 

[2DaveWixon]

This may be one of the most unusual covers I've ever seen for an SF magazine. This is Wonder Stories v. 4 no 6, of November, 1932, and it was in Clifford Simak's estate because it's the issue that contained Cliff's story "The Asteroid of Gold." (I have my own copy, but the estate's is in a little better condition...)
Although Frank R. Paul continued to be the Art Director for the mag at this time, it appears that this cover was designed by the editor, Hugo Gernsback, himself -- for HG makes it the subject of his editorial and seems to take credit for designing and creating it.
Throughout his career editing SF magazines, HG seems to have made it his mission to use SF to push science (to the extent of, for instance, inserting his own footnotes in a Simak story, published in 1952, that he tried to make appear to have been the work of the author...)
In this case, HG explained, at length and in excruciating prose, that he was trying to illustrate how the process of printing color pictures worked -- and this cover is a three-color process screen, magnified 60 times.