The Face in the Abyss is a fantasy novel by American writer A. Merritt . It is composed of a novelette with the same title and its sequel, "The Snake Mother". It was first published in its complete form in 1931 by Horace Liveright . The novelette "The Face in the Abyss" originally appeared in the magazine Argosy All-Story Weekly in the September 8, 1923 issue. "The Snake Mother" was originally serialized in seven parts in Argosy beginning with the October 25, 1930 issue.
41-672: Amazing Stories Annual was a pulp magazine which published a single issue in July 1927. It was edited by Hugo Gernsback , and featured the first publication of The Master Mind of Mars , by Edgar Rice Burroughs , which had been rejected by several other magazines, perhaps because the plot included a satire on religious fundamentalism. The other stories in Amazing Stories Annual were reprints, including two stories by A. Merritt , and one by H.G. Wells . The magazine sold out, and its success led Gernsback to launch Amazing Stories Quarterly
82-485: A contemptuous crook who stiffed his writers but paid himself $ 100K a year as President of Gernsback Publications) has been clearly established. Jack Williamson , who had to hire an attorney associated with the American Fiction Guild to force Gernsback to pay him, summed up his importance for the genre: At any rate, his main influence in the field was simply to start Amazing and Wonder Stories and get SF out to
123-413: A forum for the modern genre of science fiction in 1926 by founding the first magazine dedicated to it, Amazing Stories . The inaugural April issue comprised a one-page editorial and reissues of six stories, three less than ten years old and three by Poe , Verne , and Wells . He said he became interested in the concept after reading a translation of the work of Percival Lowell as a child. His idea of
164-1295: A hydraulic fishery ( U.S. patent 2,718,083 ), in 1955. Gernsback published a work entitled Music for the Deaf in The Electrical Experimenter describing the Physiophone, a device which converted audio into electrical impulses that could be detected by humans. He advocated this device as a method for allowing the deaf to experience music. Other patents held by Gernsback are related to: Incandescent Lamp, Electrorheostat Regulator, Electro Adjustable Condenser, Detectorium, Relay, Potentiometer , Electrolytic Interrupter, Rotary Variable Condenser, Luminous Electric Mirror, Transmitter, Postal Card, Telephone Headband, Electromagnetic Sounding Device, Submersible Amusement Device, The Isolator , Apparatus for Landing Flying Machines, Tuned Telephone Receiver, Electric Valve, Detector, Acoustic Apparatus, Electrically Operated Fountain, Cord Terminal, Coil Mounting, Radio Horn, Variable Condenser, Switch, Telephone Receiver, Crystal Detector, Process for Mounting Inductances, Depilator , Code Learner's Instrument. Novels: Short stories: Magazines edited or published: The Face in
205-430: A movement, a social force; this was probably decisive for the subsequent history of the genre. Gernsback created his preferred term for the emerging genre, "scientifiction", in 1916. He is sometimes also credited with coining "science fiction" in 1929 in the preface of the first Science Wonder Stories , although instances of "science-fiction" (mostly, but not always, hyphenated) have been found as far back as 1851, and
246-463: A novel in his Barsoom series; but had sent it to Munsey's Argosy , Street and Smith 's Popular Magazine , and Elks Magazine without success. One of the rejection letters described aspects of the story as "repellent"; science fiction historian Mike Ashley suggests that this was probably in reference to the human organ transplant plot elements in the book. Another science fiction historian, Everett Bleiler, gives an additional possible reason:
287-401: A perfect science fiction story was "75 percent literature interwoven with 25 percent science". As an editor, he valued the goal of scientific accuracy in science fiction stories: "Not only did Gernsback establish a panel of experts——all reputable professionals from universities, museums, and institutes—to pass judgment on the accuracy of the science; he also encouraged his writers to elaborate on
328-443: A process that ends with vote by current Convention members. They originated and acquired the "Hugo" nickname during the 1950s and were formally defined as a convention responsibility under the name "Science Fiction Achievement Awards" early in the 1960s. The nickname soon became almost universal and its use legally protected; "Hugo Award(s)" replaced the longer name in all official uses after the 1991 cycle. In 1960 Gernsback received
369-427: A special Hugo Award as "The Father of Magazine Science Fiction". The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 1996, its inaugural class of two deceased and two living persons. Science fiction author Brian W. Aldiss held a contrary view about Gernsback's contributions: "It is easy to argue that Hugo Gernsback ... was one of the worst disasters to hit the science fiction field ... Gernsback himself
410-606: A winemaker. His family was Jewish. Gernsback emigrated to the United States in 1904 and later became a naturalized citizen . He married three times: to Rose Harvey in 1906, Dorothy Kantrowitz in 1921, and Mary Hancher (1914–1985) in 1951. In 1925, he founded radio station WRNY , which was broadcast from the 18th floor of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. In 1928, WRNY aired some of the first television broadcasts. During
451-516: Is saved by Suarra and the Snake Mother whom he joins in their struggle against Nimir. Peter Levi has noted parallels between The Face in the Abyss and a story H.P. Lovecraft created as a ghostwriter, " The Mound ." This article about a 1930s fantasy novel is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on
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#1732858719399492-486: The " Hugos ". Gernsback emigrated to the U.S. in 1904 and later became a citizen. He was also a significant figure in the electronics and radio industries, even starting a radio station, WRNY, and the world's first magazine about electronics and radio, Modern Electrics . Gernsback died in New York City in 1967. Gernsback was born in 1884 in Luxembourg City , to Berta (Dürlacher), a housewife, and Moritz Gernsbacher,
533-485: The $ 1,250 Gernsback owed him. Gernsback eventually paid him with trade acceptances (a form of commercial IOU ), but Burroughs added seven per cent interest to the original fee, for a total of $ 1,266.01. In his correspondence with Burroughs, Gernsback had specified that he would like something with more scientific content than was usual in Burroughs' work. Science fiction historian Milton Wolf quotes Gernsback's assertion that
574-448: The 1920s to experiment themselves to improve the technology. WRNY was often used as a laboratory to see if various radio inventions were worthwhile. Articles that were published about television were also tested in this manner when the radio station was used to send pictures to experimental television receivers in August 1928. The technology, however, required sending sight and sound one after
615-561: The Abyss The novel concerns American mining engineer Nicholas Graydon. While searching for lost Inca treasure in South America, he encounters Suarra, handmaiden to the Snake Mother of Yu-Atlanchi. She leads Graydon to an abyss where Nimir, the Lord of Evil is imprisoned in a face of gold. While Graydon's companions are transformed by the face into globules of gold on account of their greed, he
656-530: The Earth" by Austin Hall , and "The Man Who Could Vanish" by A. Hyatt Verrill . Gernsback had also intended to reprint Murray Leinster's "The Runaway Skyscraper"; it was not included, so Leinster may have refused because he knew of Gernsback's poor payment habits. The cover art, and most of the interior illustrations, were by Frank R. Paul . The print run sold out; Bleiler quotes a figure of 150,000 copies, but Wolf says it
697-758: The Knife", which was included in the Annual , had originally appeared in 1896 in the British magazine The New Review . There were two stories by A. Merritt , as with Burroughs a very popular writer: "The People of the Pit", and " The Face in the Abyss "; the latter was the only story not to be reprinted from Amazing Stories , having been printed in 1923 in Argosy Allstory Weekly . The other stories were "The Feline Light and Power Company Is Organized" by Jacque Morgan, "The Man Who Saved
738-501: The Rat". Barry Malzberg has said: Gernsback's venality and corruption, his sleaziness and his utter disregard for the financial rights of authors, have been well documented and discussed in critical and fan literature. That the founder of genre science fiction who gave his name to the field's most prestigious award and who was the Guest of Honor at the 1952 Worldcon was pretty much a crook (and
779-708: The U.S. were involved in amateur radio. In 1913, he founded a similar magazine, The Electrical Experimenter , which became Science and Invention in 1920. It was in these magazines that he began including scientific fiction stories alongside science journalism, including his novel Ralph 124C 41+ , which he ran for 12 months from April 1911 in Modern Electrics . Hugo Gernsback started the Radio News magazine for amateur radio enthusiasts in 1919. He died at Roosevelt Hospital ( Mount Sinai West as of 2020) in New York City on August 19, 1967, at age 83. Gernsback provided
820-413: The book's satire of religious fundamentalists might have made the book unattractive to the usual pulp editors. Even when Burroughs offered it to Street and Smith's Popular Magazine with the proviso that he would only be paid if the magazine's circulation went up, it was rejected. Bleiler speculates that Gernsback knew his readership was less likely to be sympathetic to religious fundamentalism, or that he
861-562: The following year. In 1926, Hugo Gernsback launched Amazing Stories , the first magazine to publish only science fiction . The magazine was an immediate success, and in order to take advantage of its popularity Gernsback considered either increasing the frequency of Amazing Stories to twice a month, or taking the year's most popular stories from the magazine, and publishing them in an annual reprint edition. In early April 1927, Gernsback asked Edgar Rice Burroughs if he had anything to submit. Burroughs had completed Vad Varo of Barsoom ,
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#1732858719399902-524: The largest readership among radio magazines in radio broadcasting's formative years. He edited Radio News until 1929. For a short time he hired John F. Rider to be editor. Rider was a former engineer working with the US Army Signal Corps and a radio engineer for Alfred H. Grebe , a radio manufacturer. However, Rider would soon leave Gernsback and form his own publishing company, John F. Rider Publisher , New York around 1931. Gernsback made use of
943-493: The magazine to promote his interests, including having his radio station's call letters on the cover starting in 1925. WRNY and Radio News were used to cross-promote each other, with programs on his station often used to discuss articles he had published, and articles in the magazine often covering program activities at WRNY. He also advocated for future directions in innovation and regulation of radio. The magazine contained many drawings and diagrams, encouraging radio listeners of
984-402: The other rather than sending both at the same time, as WRNY only broadcast on one channel. Such experiments were expensive, eventually contributing to Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing Company going into bankruptcy in 1929. WRNY was sold to Aviation Radio, who maintained the channel part-time to broadcast aviation weather reports and related feature programs. Along with other stations sharing
1025-575: The placing of a blot on the memory of a justly honored man." Gernsback combined his fiction and science into Everyday Science and Mechanics magazine, serving as the editor in the 1930s. In 1954, Gernsback was awarded an Officer of Luxembourg's Order of the Oak Crown , an honor equivalent to being knighted . The Hugo Awards or "Hugos" are the annual achievement awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention , selected in
1066-501: The preface itself makes no mention of it being a new term. In 1929, he lost ownership of his first magazines after a bankruptcy lawsuit. There is some debate about whether this process was genuine, manipulation by publisher Bernarr Macfadden , or a Gernsback scheme to begin another company. After losing control of Amazing Stories , Gernsback founded two new science fiction magazines, Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories . A year later, due to Depression-era financial troubles,
1107-608: The public newsstands—and to name the genre he had earlier called "scientifiction." Frederik Pohl said in 1965 that Gernsback's Amazing Stories published "the kind of stories Gernsback himself used to write: a sort of animated catalogue of gadgets". Gernsback's fiction includes the novel Ralph 124C 41+ ; the title is a pun on the phrase "one to foresee for many" ("one plus"). Even though Ralph 124C 41+ has been described as pioneering many ideas and themes found in later SF work, it has often been neglected due to what most critics deem poor artistic quality. Author Brian Aldiss called
1148-568: The same frequency, it was acquired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and consolidated into that company's WHN in 1934. Gernsback held 80 patents by the time of his death in New York City on August 19, 1967. His first patent was a new method for manufacturing dry cell batteries, a patent applied for on June 28, 1906, and granted February 5, 1907. Among his inventions are a combined electric hair brush and comb ( U.S. patent 1,016,138 ), 1912; an ear cushion ( U.S. patent 1,514,152 ) in 1927; and
1189-599: The science in the story was "excellent", and also quotes author Frederik Pohl 's reminiscences: "It was even scientifically accurate. That, I admit, is a claim for Burroughs not often heard...Barsoom is not much like the Mars of the Mariner photographs. But it is very like the Mars of Percival Lowell, and that was all that science knew of Mars at the time". The title of the novel changed several times. In manuscript, Burroughs had called it A Weird Adventure on Mars , but sent it out under
1230-504: The scientific details they employed in their stories, comment on the impossibilities in each other's stories, and even offered his readers prize money for identifying scientific errors." He also played an important role in starting science fiction fandom , by organizing the Science Fiction League and by publishing the addresses of people who wrote letters to his magazines. Fans began to organize, and became aware of themselves as
1271-412: The show, audio stopped and each artist waved or bowed onscreen. When audio resumed, they performed. Gernsback is also considered a pioneer in amateur radio . Before helping to create science fiction, Gernsback was an entrepreneur in the electronics industry , importing radio parts from Europe to the United States and helping to popularize amateur "wireless". In April 1908 he founded Modern Electrics ,
Amazing Stories Annual - Misplaced Pages Continue
1312-423: The story a "tawdry illiterate tale" and a "sorry concoction", while author and editor Lester del Rey called it "simply dreadful." While most other modern critics have little positive to say about the story's writing, Ralph 124C 41+ is considered by science fiction critic Gary Westfahl as "essential text for all studies of science fiction." Gernsback's second novel, Baron Münchausen's Scientific Adventures ,
1353-477: The title Vad Varo of Barsoom . Burroughs allowed Gernsback to choose the title for its appearance in Amazing Stories Annual ; Gernsback initially suggested Xaxa of Mars , but finally chose The Master Mind of Mars , which remained the book's title in its subsequent editions. The remainder of the magazine was made up of reprints. Five were from Amazing Stories , though in all but one case their first appearances had been elsewhere—for example, H.G. Wells ' "Under
1394-454: The two were merged into Wonder Stories , which Gernsback continued to publish until 1936, when it was sold to Thrilling Publications and renamed Thrilling Wonder Stories . Gernsback returned in 1952–53 with Science-Fiction Plus . Gernsback was noted for sharp, sometimes shady, business practices, and for paying his writers extremely low fees or not paying them at all. H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith referred to him as "Hugo
1435-560: The world's first magazine about both electronics and radio, called "wireless" at the time. While the cover of the magazine itself states it was a catalog, most historians note that it contained articles, features, and plotlines, qualifying it as a magazine. Under its auspices, in January 1909, he founded the Wireless Association of America , which had 10,000 members within a year. In 1912, Gernsback said that he estimated 400,000 people in
1476-467: Was 100,000. Gernsback had asked the readers of the Annual to send him feedback, and the response was enthusiastic, with almost every letter asking for Amazing Stories to be switched to a fortnightly basis. In the event Gernsback decided instead to launch Amazing Stories Quarterly , with the first issue appearing the following year. There was a single issue, published by Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing Company of New York, in large pulp format. It
1517-445: Was 128 pages, and priced at 50 cents. The editor was Hugo Gernsback. The magazine was at one time considered to be extremely rare, with only about two dozen copies thought to exist, but the appearance of multiple copies for sale on eBay has made it apparent that it is not as rare as was once thought. Hugo Gernsback Hugo Gernsback ( / ˈ ɡ ɜːr n z b æ k / ; born Hugo Gernsbacher , August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967)
1558-420: Was a Luxembourgish-American editor and magazine publisher whose publications included the first science fiction magazine , Amazing Stories . His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with the novelists Jules Verne and H. G. Wells , he is sometimes called "The Father of Science Fiction". In his honor, annual awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention are named
1599-507: Was liberal enough to enjoy Burroughs' criticisms of religion; whatever the reason, he agreed to purchase the novel early in May. As a result of the repeated rejections Burroughs only asked for two cents per word from Gernsback, instead of the six cents he was used to getting for his work; even this was conditional on the success of Gernsback's magazine. Gernsback was notorious for slow payment and non-payment, and Burroughs had some difficulty extracting
1640-547: Was serialized in Amazing Stories in 1928. Gernsback's third (and final) novel, Ultimate World , written c. 1958 , was not published until 1971. Lester del Rey described it simply as "a bad book", marked more by routine social commentary than by scientific insight or extrapolation. James Blish , in a caustic review, described the novel as "incompetent, pedantic, graceless, incredible, unpopulated and boring" and concluded that its publication "accomplishes nothing but
1681-452: Was utterly without any literary understanding. He created dangerous precedents which many later editors in the field followed." Gernsback made significant contributions to the growth of early broadcasting, mostly through his efforts as a publisher. He originated the industry of specialized publications for radio with Modern Electrics and Electrical Experimenter . Later on, and more influentially, he published Radio News , which would have