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Science Fiction Pulp: A PrimerBy Robert P. FittonForrest J. Ackerman coined the word "sci-fi". Johannas Kepler 1571-1630
Sci-Fi From Kepler: 400 years agoCenturies before Edgar
Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, and Jules Verne, Johannes Kepler
unlocked the secrets of planetary motion but he also wrote a short
work, The Somnium , a sixteenth century story about going to the moon.
His mother's occult powers enabled travel to find life on the moon. The
tale was published posthumously in 1634. And now a history of pulpTurn of the 20th Century...Advances in printing provided papers and
magazines an inexpensive, wide
distribution. In February- August, 1897, Frank Munsey's The Argosy
contained science fiction story: A. Laurie's " A Month in the Moon."  Tarzan
before the Movies
Enter the new generation of authors in the pulp magazines: Science and Invention, initiated by Hugo Gernsback in August 1923. J.C. Henneberger in 1923 published Weird Tales--The Unique Magazine. Old Jules Verne and H.G. Wells material was encapsulated in this magazine as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs's stories. In 1926 Gernsback called his Amazing Stories an example of scientification. Air Wonder Stories was also Gernsback's creations in 1929. Astounding Stories of Super-Science, founded in 1930 became Astounding Science Fiction in 1938 and editor John W. Campbell upgraded story content. A cult movement was afoot: fandom ... fanzines ...conventions ...
Dateline
1930's:
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| November 1929: "Cities in the Air" by Edmond Hamilton Cover by Frank R. Paul |
October, 1931: Gernsback's Stellar Publishing Corporation Cover by Frank R. Paul |
Does the 86th floor of the Empire State Building mean anything to you? How about the HIDALGO TRADING COMPANY and the Flea Run? No, you say? Then join the wild adventure as Doc Savage stomps out evil doers! This is the 1930's and 40's! Harrison Ford where are you?
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| Spring '44 The Monster Maker Ray Bradbury |
November, 1952 | January, 1940 |
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| October, 1950 | October, 1951 |
Richard
Matheson - "Born of Man & Woman" (1950)
Alfred Bester - "Fondly
Fahrenheit" (1954)
Damon Knight - "The Country of the
Kind" (1954)
Shirley Jackson - "One Ordinary
Day, With Peanuts" (1955)
Walter M. Miller - "A Canticle for
Leibowitz" (1955)
Robert Bloch - "That Hellbound
Train" (1958; Hugo Award)
Daniel
Keyes - "Flowers for Algernon" (1959; Hugo Award)
Robert A. Heinlein - "All You
Zombies --" (1959)
Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Troopers (as "Starship Soldier") (1959;
Hugo Award)
Isaac Asimov penned more than 500 books. Did we really need an Asimov magazine in the late 1970's? Of course ... Asimov brought fresh ideas, poetry, illustrations, and cartoons into his monthly magazine. And authors: Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Silverberg, Nancy Kress, Bruce Sterling, Connie Willis, William Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Michael Swanwick, Joe Haldeman, Harry Turtledove, Lucius Shepard, Mary Rosenblum, Greg Egan, James Patrick Kelly, Brian W. Aldiss, Orson Scott Card, Karen Joy Fowler, Frederik Pohl, Kate Wilhelm, Harlan Ellison, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Brian Stableford, Gregory Benford, Janet Kagan, Isaac Asimov himself. Book reviews and critical essays by Norman Spinrad, Paul Di Filippo, and Peter Heck.
The journey from Kepler continues into an electronic, ethereal universe of bits and bytes.
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More Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Magazines
What will
the future offer? I dare say in the world of science fiction and
fantasy the next step will be as significant as the Internet leap. We
will be reading, participating and perceiving in realms we cannot even
imagine. Enjoy the ride.
PS: I don't want to leave Homer
out of this......
Robert P. Fitton grew up amidst the less
complicated life of a small Massachusetts town in the 1950's and 60's.
He was raised by his parents with an appreciation of local, family, and
American history. His summers were spent in his neighborhood and town,
often competing in baseball and other sports, cast within the values of
changing small town America. With television's increasing influence,
Fitton reveled in the 1960's Star Trek and The Twilight Zone. On cold
winter nights he pointed his telescope skyward and dreamed of traveling
to the stars or back through time.
Fitton graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a degree in American Studies. Within a year of graduation he began writing science fiction novels, fortified by his youthful dreams and influences. He built a career in outside sales, but continued writing in his free time.
With the advent of personal computers, Fitton retired his typewriter and dramatically increased his volume on computer disc. The Fitton Chronicles is the ongoing accumulation of that effort. Fitton compressed his writing time in the pre-dawn hours, adding the mystery, fantasy, thriller, and pop novel genres to his work, while defining his style by attending writing conferences and seminars. He refined his writing technique and studied with science fiction icon, Orson Scott Card, mystery writer, Sally Gunning, and Murder, She Wrote, producer/writer, Tom Sawyer.
In 2001, Fitton became the original Internet Author by building his own web site and selling his books directly to the public. Fitton books have been sold worldwide from China to Venezuela, Sweden to Indonesia.
Not surprisingly, Fitton resides in a New England village. He maintains a jogging schedule, often under the stars by winter, and a warm weather biking routine in summer. His writing continues with a number of series books and new works posted on the Fitton Chronicles.
