In an article last month, I noted that this past April (April 2016), Amazing Stories had celebrated its 90th anniversary.
This is not entirely true. As many may know, magazine cover dates are the date after which the periodical should be removed from the shelves (and presumably replaced with the next issue). A magazine with a cover date of April is “out dated” come May 1st.
If you are familiar with that concept, then you also know that the “April” issue is usually placed on the stands approximately mid-way through the preceding month. In Amazing’s case, that would be March 12th, 1926 for the first (April 1926) issue.
Thanks to many SF and pulp historians (chief among them Michael Ashley), we actually have a birth date for the world’s first magazine devoted entirely to scientifiction.
But this presents a quandary. Most people looking at the magazine’s first issue when confronted with a March celebration will, at best be confused. At this present time in history, if they seek clarification, most sources will tell them that the first issue of the magazine was dated April. Surmounting that potential confusion will required an explanation every single time the birthday is announced.
So I’ve decided to split the baby. Hence forth, Amazing Stories birth day is March 12th. The magazine’s anniversary is celebrated in April, in honor of its cover date,
With that out of the way, we can celebrate Amazing Stories’ 90th January today (with no explanation needed or required).
January 2005, Volume 74, Number 1
Jeff Berkwitz, Editor
Paizo Publishing
$5.99 per copy
Bedsheet
84 Pages
Contents
Nowhere in Particular by Mike Resnick
The Wisdom of Disaster by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Brainspace shortstory by Robin D. Laws
Jimmy and Cat shortstory by Gail Sproule
Wishful Thinking shortstory by J. Gregory Keyes
Summer, 1998, Volume 70, Number 1*
Kim Mohan, Editor
Wizards of the Coast
$4.00 per copy
Bedsheet
100 Pages
Contents
Unbelievable – but True by Kim Mohan
Dispatches (Amazing Stories, Summer 1998) by The Editor
The Observatory: It All Started by Being Amazing by Bruce Sterling
Scientifiction: From Silver Screen to Superstore
January, 1987 Volume 61, Number 5
Patrick Price, Editor
TSR. Inc.
$1.75 per copy
Bedsheet
162 pages
Contents
Among the Stones by Paul J. McAuley
Forward from What Vanishes by Mark Rich
Harbard by Larry Walker
Max Weber’s War by Robert Frezza
Kleinism by Arthur L. Klein
Temple to a Minor Goddess by Susan Shwartz
Upon Hearing New Evidence That Meteors Caused the Great Extinctions by Robert Frazier
Transients by Darrell Schweitzer
Light Reading by John Devin
Vergil and the Caged Bird by Avram Davidson
Snorkeling in The River Lethe by Rory Harper
Able Baker Camel by Richard Wilson
March, 1977 Volume 50, Number 4*
Ted White, Editor
Ultimate Publishing
$1.00 per copy
Digest
134 Pages
Contents
Alec’s Anabasis Robert F. Young
Shibboleth by Barry N. Malzberg
Our Vanishing Triceratops by Joseph F. Pumilia and Steven Utley
The Bentfin Boomer Girl Comes Thru by Richard A. Lupoff
The Recruiter by Glen Cook
Two of a Kind by Rich Brown
Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear by Jack C. Haldeman, II
An Animal Crime of Passion by Vol Haldeman
February, 1967 Volume 40, Number 10*
Joseph Ross, Editor
Ultimate Publishing
50 cents per copy
Digest
164 pages
Contents
Two Days Running and Then Skip a Day by Ron Goulart
Tumithak of the Corridors by Charles R. Tanner
Methuselah, Ltd. by Richard Barr and Wallace West
The Man with Common Sense by James E. Gunn
Born Under Mars (Part 2 of 2) by John Brunner
January, 1957 Volume 31, Number 1
Paul W. Fairman, Editor
Ziff-Davis Publshishing Company
35 cents per copy
Digest
132 pages
Contents
Quest of the Golden Ape (Part 1 of 3) • serial by Paul W. Fairman and Milton Lesser [as by Ivar Jorgensen and Adam Chase ]
Savage Wind • shortstory by Harlan Ellison
Reluctant Genius by Henry Slesar
Heart by Henry Slesar
Before Egypt by Robert Bloch
January, 1947 Volume 21, Number 1
Raymond A. Palmer, Editor
Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
25 cents per copy
Pulp
180 Pages
Contents
I Have Been in the Caves by Margaret Rogers
Rejuvenation Asteroid by William L. Hamling
The Secret of Sutter’s Lake by Don Wilcox
Like Alarm Bells Ringing by Robert Moore Williams
The Mind Rovers by Richard S. Shaver
Death Seems So Final by Richard S. Shaver
Mr. Wilson’s Watch by H. B. Hickey
February, 1937 Volume 11, Number 1*
T. O’Conor Sloane, Editor
Teck Publications
25 cents per copy
Pulp
148 pages
Contents
The Planet of Perpetual Night by John Edwards
Prometheus by Arthur K. Barnes
“By Jove!” (Part 1 of 3)by Dr. Walter Rose
Denitro by Stanton A. Coblentz
The Last Neanderthal Man by Isaac R. Nathanson
January, 1927, Volume 1, Number 10
Hugo Gernsback, Editor
Experimenter Publishing Company
25 cents per copy
Bedsheet
108 Pages
Contents
The Red Dust by Murray Leinster
The Man Who Could Vanish by A. Hyatt Verrill
The First Men in the Moon (Part 2 of 3) by H. G. Wells
The Man with the Strange Head by Miles J. Breuer, M.D.
The Second Deluge (Part 3 of 4) by Garrett P. Serviss
Perhaps the most interesting statistic is that we’re producing a series of anthologies and facsimile reprint editions, drawn from all of these years of STF goodness and keeping them accessible.
If art is your thing, take a gander at the posters we’ve got for sale; if fiction is what you’re after, here are the titles we’ve currently got on sale – with more coming every month; (click on any cover to purchase).
Also note: this article could not have been prepared without the resources of ISFDB.ORG and Galactic Central – Philsp.com. We are continually grateful for the work that they do in preserving genre history.
*As always, we try to get as close to an actual anniversary issue as possible, but given Amazing’s interesting publishing history, this is not always possible.
