UPDATE: Pre-Orders of the Amazon Kindle edition are now available. Other outlets will be coming on line.
(News outlets are encouraged to copy and re-distribute the official press at the end of this post. A copy may also be requested via email at the included address. If you are interested in writing a review, query using the same address.)
From the Publisher
I have been relentlessly teasing this release for the past so-many months that I am sure some folks are a bit inured to its charms: I am relieved to be able to inform you all that this has now come to an end.
Amazing Selects, Experimenter’s book imprint, is pleased to announce the impending release of:
THE MARTIAN TRILOGY
John P. Moore, Amazing Stories, Black Science Fiction & The Illustrated Feature Section
a book featuring the VERY FIRST Space Operas published by a Black author – John P. Moore – originally published in 1930 in The Illustrated Feature Section, a syndicated insert distributed to the African American newspapers of the day. It also includes several essays addressing the stories, their place in the history of Black Science Fiction and the SF Genre in general, biographies of key individuals, historical timelines and an illuminating selected bibliography of Black Science Fiction, that will be released on November 9th, 2024.
I wish to note at the outset that this republication is not a “discovery”. It is a recovery of lost art. Science Fiction (and proto-Science Fiction) has been written by Black authors in the United States since at least the 1800s, but there is a noticeable gap in our knowledge of the literature, one stretching from approximately 1920 to the early 1950s. This is due, at least in part, to both deliberate and unintentional marginalization and erasure.
That fact should hit home with the revelation that there existed, within the pages of the Illustrated Feature Section, a section titled “AMAZING STORIES”.
Less than four years after Gernsback’s founding of the Amazing Stories we are more familiar with, the IFS published its own, for a Black audience.
It is strongly suspected that Black authors and readers of that era (the “Jim Crow” era) were not encouraged to become involved with the pulp magazines and therefore sought out their own outlets. In fact, the African American newspapers were so successful that their known readership well-exceeded that of their pulp counterparts.
John P. Moore’s Space Opera tales were likely read by more readers than any Space Opera by Hamilton or Smith, Williamson or (some guy who had his own hand in dismissing Black Science Fiction).
There’s more historical intrigue as well: the publisher of the IFS was one William Bernard Ziff Sr., the same Ziff whose publishing house – Ziff-Davis, would go on to acquire Amazing Stories in 1938. William was publishing an Amazing Stories before he owned it.
The history and persecution of one of the editors of the IFS – Benjamin Jefferson Davis Jr. – resonates with some of today’s social issues as well.
However, the main take-away are the stories themselves, an adventure relating the first trip to Mars by a team of scientists and a journalist, who find multiple civilizations on the red planet, told from a unique authorial and cultural perspective.
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I also can’t say enough about the contributors to this book. Dr. Liza Yaszek, who has been deeply involved in recovering “lost” science fiction, was instrumental in bringing the entire book together. A team of students working with her did yeoman’s work and have contributed much of the supporting materials. Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki shares his thoughts as a leading author and editor of contemporary Black science fiction; Brooks E. Hefner adds to this from his deep knowledge of Black creator’s involvement in the Pulp Era. I write about Amazing Stories. John Jennings created an absolutely fantastic cover, enhanced the original illustrations accompanying the stories and contributes a piece about the cover art and its homage to Aaron Douglas, a pioneering artist of the Harlem Renaissance.
Thank you all for your efforts and your contributions!
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Here is the title page:
and here is the table of contents:
and the full cover:
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We all strongly believe that these stories occupy an important chapter in the history of our genre. We look forward to the recovery of more such stories, and we hope that this volume contributes to solidifying Black Science Fiction’s place in our genre, not as something new, but as something that has always been with us, beginning with the roots of this genre and extending and expanding its spirit of Black
imagination into the future.
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Below – the official press release, a copy of which is provided in PDF format if you would like to download and distribute it, helping to spread the word.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
REPUBLISHES THE FIRST SPACE OPERA BY A BLACK SCIENCE FICTION AUTHOR
“AMAZING STORIES” PUBLISHED IN 1930’S ERA BLACK NEWSPAPERS
AMAZING SELECTS PUBLISHES THE MARTIAN TRILOGY BY JOHN P. MOORE
The Experimenter Publishing Company, home of Amazing Stories, the World’s First Science Fiction Magazine, is pleased to announce the impending release of
THE MARTIAN TRILOGY: John P. Moore, Amazing Stories, Black Science Fiction and the Illustrated Feature Section
In 1930, Black science fiction author John P. Moore wrote and submitted three interconnected stories and he sold them to The Illustrated Feature Section, a syndicated insert published in many Negro newspapers throughout the U.S..
His stories were featured under the insert’s “AMAZING STORIES” section heading.
Now, for the first time in 94 years, John P. Moore’s story is available once again, along with compelling commentary from Lisa Yaszek, Regents’ Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech and editor of the ground-breaking anthology The Future is Female; Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, famed Nigerian author and editor (02 Arena, The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction, Nebula, WFA); Brooks E. Hefner, Professor of English at James Madison University; author of Black Pulp: Genre Fiction in the Era of Jim Crow; Steve Davidson, publisher of Amazing Stories, along with graduate and undergraduate students at Georgia Tech contributing supporting research, biographical and historical materials.
John Jennings, UC Riverside Professor of Media & Cultural Studies, Hugo Award-Winning artist (Octavia E. Butler’s The Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Presentation) has crafted a fantastic cover honoring Aaron Douglas, a pioneering figure in the Harlem Renaissance and reflecting the spirit of Black imagination expanding into the cosmos.
With the release of these rediscovered stories, we learn that not only was there a Black Amazing Stories published during the formative years of the genre, but that Black Science Fiction is not a newcomer to the field. Rather, it enjoys as rich and deep a history as the science fiction we are more familiar with, and one that found its beginnings in its own Amazing Stories!
The Martian Trilogy gathers together three interconnected space opera tales featuring the first trip to Mars, the civilizations discovered there, interwoven with a tale of love and loss.
Additional features include an examination of the Illustrated Feature Section, biographies of the editors and publishers – including William Bernard Ziff Jr., who would come to be the publisher of the more familiar Amazing Stories a few short years following the release of The Martian Trilogy – a critique of the stories, a reflection on the impact of this rediscovery on the history of the genre, historical timeline, and bibliographic materials.
Bonus materials link the book to the original newspaper publications of John P. Moore’s stories, allowing readers to experience them in their original format.
The Martian Trilogy: John P. Moore, Amazing Stories, Black Science Fiction and the Illustrated Feature Section will be released November 9th, 2024, available through the Amazing Stories website, and can be ordered from most independent bookstores and will be available through B&N, Amazon, and other online book outlets. It will be published in print, electronic, and audiobook editions.
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Amazing Stories will host a live, online, video-based Book Release event that will be hosted on the Amazing Stories TV Channel (Youtube), Facebook and other video outlets. The schedule for the Release Party and other events will be provided in a separate release.
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For more information, please contact Steve Davidson of Amazing Stories.
Steve@AmazingStories.com
603-290-0351
