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62-480: Anderson did not write the stories in chronological order. He included a series timeline in the Winter 1955 issue of Startling Stories to accompany the novella "The Snows of Ganymede". By the late 1950s, Anderson's political beliefs had altered to the extent that he was uncomfortable with the political philosophy implied by the series, and he abandoned it. In particular, he had reversed his earlier strong endorsement for

124-472: A pulp magazine published by Hugo Gernsback . By the end of the 1930s the field was booming. Standard Magazines, a pulp publishing company owned by Ned Pines , acquired its first science fiction magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories , from Gernsback in 1936. Mort Weisinger , the editor of Thrilling Wonder , printed an editorial in February 1938 asking readers for suggestions for a companion magazine. Response

186-453: A Science Fiction Book Club edition titled Moment in Time . P. Schuyler Miller praised it as "an excellent collection by anyone's standards." Ace Double American company Ace Books began publishing genre fiction starting in 1952. Initially these were mostly in tête-bêche format with the ends of the two parts meeting in the middle and with a divider between them which functioned as

248-486: A complete novel, along with one or two short stories; long stories did not appear since the publisher's policy was to avoid serials. When Standard Magazines had bought Wonder Stories in 1936, they had also acquired rights to reprint the stories that had appeared in it and in its predecessor magazines, Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories , and so Startling also included a "Hall of Fame" reprint from one of these magazines in every issue. The first lead novel

310-526: A completed draft in September. This time, Merwin asked for revisions: Leo Margulies , Merwin's boss, had decided that Startling needed to focus more on action and adventure in the style of Amazing , and less on cerebral stories in the style of Astounding . Asimov, "for the first and only time of [his] life...openly lost [his] temper with an editor", stalked out of the room with his manuscript and never submitted anything to Merwin again, though he later expressed

372-471: A four-year period from 1946 to 1949 the writing team of Kuttner and Moore had seven novels published in Startling , mostly science fantasy , a subgenre not common at that time. Notable novels that appeared in the late 1940s include Fredric Brown 's What Mad Universe and Charles L. Harness 's Flight Into Yesterday , later published in book form as The Paradox Men . Arthur C. Clarke 's novel The City and

434-425: A full-scale colonization of Mars, quickly enough for Rostomily to have spent most of his adult life there. Knowing what we know now about space programs and how much they cost, this is utter nonsense – unless, within a decade or so of the world-destroying war, this timeline managed to achieve anti-gravity or another miracle way of jumping at a low cost out of Earth's gravity well. Which is also highly implausible, to say

496-539: A little over two years, and was replaced by Sam Merwin Jr. , as of the Winter 1945 issue. Merwin succeeded in making Startling popular and successful, and the bimonthly schedule was resumed in 1947. At the start of 1952 Startling switched to a monthly schedule; this was unusual in that Startling was notionally junior to Thrilling Wonder , its sister magazine, which remained bimonthly. Merwin left shortly before this switch, in order to spend more time on his own writing. He

558-540: A monthly schedule that lasted for over a year. The first editor was Mort Weisinger , who had been an active fan in the early 1930s and had joined Standard Magazines in 1935, editing Thrilling Wonder from 1936. Weisinger left in 1941 to take a new post as editor of Superman , and was replaced by Oscar J. Friend , who was an established writer of pulp fiction, though his experience was in western fiction rather than sf. During Friend's tenure Startling slipped from bimonthly to quarterly publication. Friend lasted for

620-417: A more sober title typeface and reducing the sensationalism of the covers, but by 1955 the pulp magazine market was collapsing. Startling absorbed its two companion magazines, Thrilling Wonder and Fantastic Story Magazine , in early 1955, but by the end of that year it too ceased publication. Ron Hanna of Wild Cat Books revived Startling Stories in 2007. Wild Cat Books folded in 2013. A statement of

682-511: A softening of feeling and admitted Merwin had been within his rights. Another title in the Standard Magazines stable was Captain Future , which had been launched a year after Startling , and featured the adventures of the superhero after whom the magazine was named. When it folded with its Spring 1944 issue, the series of novels was continued for some time in the pages of Startling ; over

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744-499: A story, "Science Island", under their joint pseudonym Eando Binder . The "Hall of Fame" reprint was D.D. Sharp's "The Eternal Man", from 1929. Other features included a pictorial article on Albert Einstein, and a set of biographical sketches of scientists, titled "Thrills in Science". The letter column was called "The Ether Vibrates", and there was a regular fanzine review column, providing contact information so that readers could obtain

806-662: A taboo-breaking story about aliens who can reproduce only by mating with humans. Illustrated with an eye-popping cover by Bergey, Farmer's ground-breaking story integrated sex into the plot without being prurient, and was widely praised. Farmer, partly as a consequence, went on to win a Hugo Award as "Most Promising New Writer". New authors first published by Mines include Frank Herbert , who debuted with "Looking for Something?" in April 1952, and Robert F. Young , whose first story, "The Black Deep Thou Wingest", appeared in June 1953. The artwork

868-425: A total of 21 or 22 issues (sources differ on the correct number). Six quarterly issues appeared from Summer 1945 through Fall 1946 from Publication Enterprises, Ltd.; then another three bimonthly issues appeared, from May to September 1948, from Pines Publications . Finally 12 more bimonthly issues appeared from March 1949 to January 1951, from Better Publications of Canada. All these issues were almost identical to

930-818: Is established on the Moon with the goal of assisting in the terraforming of the Solar System . Early in the 22nd century, as the settlements on the Moon, Venus , Mars , and the Asteroid Belt grow in importance, the United Nations is succeeded by the Solar Union. By the late 22nd century, the Psychotechnic Institute becomes a victim of its own success. An automated economy has created massive unemployment , which causes

992-512: The United Nations as the basis of a world government , an opinion which was the main plot element of several earlier stories in the series. Anderson's future history begins with a nuclear war during the late 1950s that nearly destroys civilization. Sandra Miesel wrote a new prologue that was added to the series' republication during the 1980s and formally transformed it from future history into alternate history . Her prologue considered

1054-526: The divergence point from our own history as the (premature) death of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 (in our world he died in 1969), and the assumption of power by a younger, less cautious Richard Nixon , which resulted in exacerbation of the Cold War and a devastating nuclear war in 1958. During the war's aftermath, a science known as psychodynamics is created. Like Isaac Asimov 's psychohistory , psychodynamics can be used to predict and guide

1116-518: The science fiction books (see the section for References ). The tête-bêche format inspired a further series of sf doubles published by Tor Books between 1988 and 1991, the Tor Double Novels . Because the tête-bêche format is part of the attraction for some collectors, titles published between 1974 and 1978, which contained two titles by one or two authors but which are not tête-bêche, are not regarded by some collectors as true Ace Doubles. All

1178-456: The "Hall of Fame" reprint section of the magazine. Then in 1954 Samuel Mines edited The Best from Startling Stories , published by Henry Holt; despite the title, the stories were reprinted from both Startling and its sister magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories . The anthology was reprinted twice in the UK under different titles; as Startling Stories in 1954, published by Cassell, and then in 1956 as

1240-557: The American versions, although they are 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) taller. A Mexican magazine, Enigmas , ran for 16 issues from August 1955 to May 1958; it included many reprints, primarily from Startling and from Fantastic Story Magazine . Two anthologies of stories from Startling have been published. In 1949 Merlin Press brought out From Off This World , edited by Leo Margulies and Oscar Friend, which included stories that had appeared in

1302-597: The Coordination Service. Eleven of the stories of the Psychotechnic League series occur before the Second Dark Ages, and eleven occur after; none occur during the Second Dark Ages. The perception of human history as composed of civilizations which develop, flourish, and disintegrate, followed by a dark age and the beginning of a new civilization, was also the basis of Anderson's later future history with

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1364-721: The Polesotechnic League followed by the Terran Empire. Specifically, the situation depicted in "Brake" - with the protagonists managing heroically to delay, but unable to prevent, the inevitable destructive ending of their civilization - is similar in some respects to the Dominic Flandry series. Reviewer Vincent Carter noted that "Like much of the Science Fiction written previous to the advent of actual space programs, Poul Anderson's early future history grossly underestimated

1426-475: The Psychotechnic Institute is not revived, and, in its absence, technic civilization becomes gradually extremist which results in a new dark age starting during the 24th century. The Second Dark Ages end during the 27th century, followed by the discovery of a form of faster-than-light travel that results in interstellar colonization and commerce, and the creation of the Stellar Union and its enforcement agency,

1488-626: The Stars first saw print in Startling in abbreviated form, in the November 1948 issue, under the title Against the Fall of Night . One novel that did not appear in Startling was Isaac Asimov 's Pebble in the Sky , which Merwin had commissioned from Asimov in the early summer of 1947. After the unusual step of allowing the editor to twice read the work-in-progress and receiving nothing but approval, Asimov delivered

1550-438: The books are included in the list given below, with the difference in format noted. The list given here includes an indication of the genre of the works, in italics after the serial number. Abbreviations used are "SF" for science fiction titles; "MY" for mystery titles, and "WE" for westerns . In addition, "NA" is used to mean "not applicable", when one or both of the books is not in one of these three genres; and "UN", when

1612-461: The closure is still posted on the Facebook page All Pulp dated March 12, 2013 (as of January 29, 2019). The magazine was again revived by John Gregory Betancourt 's Wildside Press in February 2021, with Douglas Draa as editor. Although science fiction had been published before the 1920s, it did not begin to coalesce into a separately marketed genre until the appearance in 1926 of Amazing Stories ,

1674-452: The cost in money and material resources of even the smallest and shortest venture outside Earth's atmosphere.(…) In "Marius" we meet Stephen Rostomily as already a combat veteran in a ravaged Europe, where even the basic necessities of life are scarce – and at that, Europe is relatively fortunate, with Russia and China having been reduced to "howling cannibals". Yet in reading "The un-man" we find that that ravaged world had been able to embark on

1736-418: The date of original publication of the novels. For more information about the history of these titles, see the entry for Ace Books , which includes a discussion of the serial numbering conventions used and an explanation of the letter-code system. Ace published science fiction , mysteries , and westerns , as well as books not in any of these genres . Several bibliographic references have been compiled for

1798-481: The development of an antitechnology philosophy known as Humanism (a term having little to do with the historical philosophy of Humanism , and is indeed in many ways antithetical to it). About 2170, the Humanists seize control of Earth, withdraw from the Solar Union, and abolish the Psychotechnic Institute. The Humanist regime quickly becomes unpopular, and is ended by a popular rebellion aided by Mars and Venus. However,

1860-491: The end came only a few years later. In 1954, Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent , a book in which he asserted that comics were inciting children to violence. A subsequent Senate subcommittee hearing led to a backlash against comics, and the publishers dropped titles in response. The financial impact spread to pulp magazines, since often a publisher would publish both. A 1955 strike by American News Corporation,

1922-671: The fanzines directly. Initially the stories for the "Hall of Fame" were chosen by the editor, but soon Weisinger recruited well-known science fiction fans to make the choices. Startling was popular, and soon "became one of the core science fiction magazines", according to science fiction historian Mike Ashley . The target audience was younger readers, and the lead novels were often space operas by well-known pulp writers such as Edmond Hamilton and Manly Wade Wellman . In addition to space opera, some more fantastical fiction began to appear, contributed by writers such as Henry Kuttner . These early science fantasy stories were popular with

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1984-565: The field. Critics' opinions vary on the relative quality of the magazines of this era; Malcolm Edwards regards Startling as second only to Astounding , but Ashley considers Thrilling Wonder to be Astounding ' s closest challenger in the late 1940s. Merwin's discoveries included Jack Vance , whose first story, "The World Thinker", appeared in the Summer 1945 issue. He also regularly published work by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore , who wrote both under Kuttner's name and as "Keith Hammond": in

2046-528: The future course of social evolution. An organization known as the Psychotechnic Institute is founded during the 1970s that uses psychodynamics to influence government policy and popular attitudes, with the goal of redirecting society towards greater rationality and internationalism. The Psychotechnic Institute assists a reborn United Nations based in Rio de Janeiro to become a world government , and also encourages space colonization . The Order of Planetary Engineers

2108-408: The genre of the books is not known. The list also gives a date of publication; in all cases this refers to the date of publication by Ace, and not necessarily the date of original publication of the novels. The list is thought to be complete, but there may be minor omissions among the later lists. For more information about the history of these titles, see Ace Books , which includes a discussion of

2170-440: The image of science fiction as it was perceived by the general public. When Merwin became editor in 1945 he brought changes, but artist Earle K. Bergey retained the creative freedom he had come to expect given his relationship with Standard. Some argue that Bergey's covers became more realistic, and Merwin managed to improve the interiors of Startling to the point of being a serious rival to Astounding , acknowledged leader of

2232-417: The leading magazines. However, Startling ' s editorial policy was more eclectic: it did not limit itself to one kind of story, but printed everything from melodramatic space opera to sociological sf, and Mines had a reputation as having "the most catholic tastes and the fewest inhibitions" of any of the science fiction magazine editors. In late 1952, Mines published Philip José Farmer 's "The Lovers",

2294-401: The least. Otherwise, it is very unlikely that anyone would have conceived of spending scarce resources on space flight, and even the first Lunar landing would have had to wait until much later than 1969. 1949 1950 1951 1953 1954 1955 1957 1968 The first component of the series to achieve book publication was Star Ways , which appeared as half of Ace Double D-255 in 1957. This

2356-587: The magazine stayed on a quarterly schedule from then until the last issue, Fall 1955. There was a British reprint edition from Pembertons between 1949 and 1954. These were heavily cut, with sometimes only one or two stories and usually only 64 pages, though the October and December 1952 issues both had 80 pages. It was published irregularly; initially once or twice a year, and then more or less bimonthly beginning in mid-1952. The issues were numbered from 1 to 18. Three different Canadian reprint editions also appeared for

2418-431: The magazine. Many subscribers found the approach irritating. The interior artwork was initially done by Hans Wessolowski (more usually known as "Wesso"), Mark Marchioni and Alex Schomburg , and occasionally Virgil Finlay . The initial cover art was mostly painted by Howard Brown , but when Earle K. Bergey began to paint covers for Startling in 1940, soon after its launch, Bergey quickly became identified with

2480-461: The magazine; between 1940 and 1952 (the year of Bergey's death) he painted the great majority of covers. Bergey's covers were visually striking: in the words of science fiction editor and critic Malcolm Edwards, they typically featured "a rugged hero, a desperate heroine (in either a metallic bikini or a dangerous state of déshabillé ) and a hideous alien menace". The brass bra motif came to be associated with Bergey, and his covers did much to create

2542-447: The main distributor in the U.S., meant that magazines remained in warehouses and never made it to the newsstands; the unsold copies represented a significant financial blow and contributed to publishers' decisions to cancel magazines. Startling was one of the casualties. The schedule had already returned from monthly to bimonthly in 1953, and it became a quarterly in early 1954. Thrilling Wonder published its last issue in early 1955, and

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2604-487: The next six years ten more "Captain Future" novels appeared, with the last one, Birthplace of Creation , printed in the May 1951 issue. Merwin's successor, Mines, also published some excellent work, though increased competition in the early 1950s from Galaxy and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction did lead to some dilution of quality, and Startling ' s rates—one to two cents per word—could not compete with

2666-473: The page count drop again, to 132, and a year later the Fall 1954 issue cut the page count to 116. The magazine remained at 116 pages and a price of 25 cents for the rest of its existence. The original bimonthly schedule continued until the March 1943 issue, which was followed by June 1943 and then Fall 1943. This inaugurated a quarterly schedule that ran until Fall 1946, except that an additional issue, dated March,

2728-474: The public image of science fiction in his day was partly created by his work for Startling and other magazines. Merwin left in 1951, and Samuel Mines took over; the standard remained fairly high but competition from new and better-paying markets such as Galaxy Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction impaired Mines' ability to acquire quality material. In mid-1952, Standard attempted to change Startling ' s image by adopting

2790-463: The readers, and contrasted with the hard science fiction that John W. Campbell was pioneering at Astounding . Weisinger set out to please the younger readers, and when Friend became editor in 1941, he went further in this direction, giving the magazine a strongly juvenile flavor. For example, Friend introduced "Sergeant Saturn", a character (originally from Thrilling Wonder Stories ) who answered readers' letters and appeared in other features in

2852-399: The rear cover of both (the two parts were oriented upside-down with respect to each other in order to effect this), but the company also published some single volumes during the early years. The proportion of singles increased until they stopped producing doubles about 1978. The tête-bêche format was discarded in 1973, but future double novels were continued for a while with both parts oriented

2914-423: The rights to stories published in that magazine's predecessor, Wonder Stories , and selections from this early material were reprinted in Startling as "Hall of Fame" stories. Under Weisinger the magazine focused on younger readers and, when Weisinger was replaced by Oscar J. Friend in 1941, the magazine became even more juvenile in focus, with clichéd cover art and letters answered by a "Sergeant Saturn". Friend

2976-436: The same way, so that the first page of one part followed soon after the last page of the other part. Between 1952 and 1968, the books had a letter-series identifier; after that date they were given five-digit numeric serial numbers. The list given here includes every Ace Double Book published between 1952 and 1978, for all genres. It gives a date of publication; in all cases this refers to the date of publication by Ace, and not

3038-448: The stories (including Virgin Planet ), with forewords and intertextual commentary by Sandra Miesel, into three volumes under the general title "The Psychotechnic League". The name was an homage to Anderson's better known future history series about the Polesotechnic League, a future interstellar version of the historical Hanseatic League . The third volume also included a modified version of

3100-571: The stories in the timeline. "The Acolytes" was published in August Derleth 's 1953 anthology Worlds of Tomorrow under the title "The Tinkler"; "The Green Thumb" was published in Ivan Howard's 1964 anthology Masters of Science Fiction ; and "The Stranger Was Himself" was included in Anderson's 1989 collection Space Folk under the title "Symmetry". Startling Stories Startling Stories

3162-659: The timeline from Startling Stories . Miesel dealt with the divergence of the fictional 20th century history from actual history by converting the series from future history to alternate history . Of the six stories not collected in "The Psychotechnic League" trilogy, " The Entity " and "The Stranger Was Himself", which had been included in the original Startling Stories timeline, were delisted; Star Ways had been published in book form as The Peregrine ; and "The Snows of Ganymede", "The Acolytes", and "The Green Thumb" were simply not included. In 2017/18 Baen issued The Complete Psychotechnic League in three volumes which included all

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3224-468: The women in brass bras. With the Spring 1955 issue, at the start of its final year, Startling dropped its long-standing policy of printing a novel in every issue, but only three issues later it ceased publication. The editorial succession at Startling was as follows: Startling was a pulp-sized magazine for all of its 99 issues. It initially was 132 pages, and was priced at 15 cents. The page count

3286-418: Was The Black Flame , a revised version of "Dawn of Flame", a story by Stanley Weinbaum that had previously appeared only in an edition limited to 250 copies. There was also a tribute to Weinbaum, written by Otto Binder ; Weinbaum had died in 1935 and was well regarded, so even though the story was not one of his best, it was excellent publicity for the magazine. Otto and his brother, Earl, also contributed

3348-466: Was also high quality; Virgil Finlay's interior illustrations were "unparalleled", according to science fiction historian Robert Ewald. Other well-known artists who contributed interior work included Alex Schomburg and Kelly Freas . Startling ' s instantly recognizable title logo was redolent of the magazine's pulp roots, and in early 1952 Mines decided to replace it with a more staid typeface. The covers became more sober, with spaceships replacing

3410-452: Was an American pulp science fiction magazine , published from 1939 to 1955 by publisher Ned Pines ' Standard Magazines . It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger , who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories , Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue; the first was The Black Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum . When Standard Magazines acquired Thrilling Wonder in 1936, it also gained

3472-484: Was followed by The Snows of Ganymede , half of Ace Double D-303 in 1958, and a paperback edition of Virgin Planet published by Beacon Books in 1959. "Un-Man" was included in Un-Man and Other Novellas as half of Ace Double F-139 in 1962. Star Ways was reprinted by Ace Books in 1978 under the title The Peregrine , and Virgin Planet was reprinted by Baen Books in 2000. In the early 1980s, Tor Books collected sixteen of

3534-409: Was inserted between the Winter 1946 and Spring 1946 issues. The next issue, January 1947, began another bimonthly sequence, which ran without interruption until November 1951. With the following issue, January 1952, Startling switched to a monthly schedule, which lasted until the June 1953 issue which was followed by August and October 1953 and then January 1954. The next issue was Spring 1954, and

3596-430: Was positive, and the new magazine, titled Startling Stories , was duly launched, with a first issue (pulp-sized, rather than bedsheet-sized , as many readers had requested), dated January 1939. Initial pay rates were half a cent per word, lower than the leading magazines of the day. Startling was launched on a bimonthly schedule, alternating months with Thrilling Wonder Stories , though in 1940 Thrilling moved to

3658-454: Was reduced to 116 pages with the Summer 1944 issue and then increased to 148 pages with the March 1948 issue, at which time the price went up to 20 cents. The price increased again, to 25 cents, in November 1948, and the page count increased again to 180 pages. This higher page count did not last; it was reduced to 164 in March 1949 and then again to 148 pages in July 1951. The October 1953 issue saw

3720-480: Was replaced by Sam Merwin Jr. in 1945, and Merwin was able to improve the quality of the fiction substantially, publishing Arthur C. Clarke 's Against the Fall of Night , and several other well-received stories. Much of Startling ' s cover art was painted by Earle K. Bergey , who became strongly associated with the magazine, painting almost every cover between 1940 and 1952. He was known for equipping his heroines with brass bras and implausible costumes, and

3782-402: Was replaced by Samuel Mines, who had worked with Standard's Western magazines, though he was a science fiction aficionado. Street & Smith , one of the longest established and most respected publishers, shut down all of their pulp magazines in the summer of 1949. The pulps were dying, partially as a result of the success of paperbacks. Standard continued with Startling and Thrilling , but

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3844-409: Was then merged with Startling , as was Fantastic Story Magazine , another companion publication, but the combined magazine lasted only three more issues. Mines left the magazine at the end of 1954; he was succeeded for two issues by Theron Raines, who was followed by Herbert D. Kastle for the last two. The final issue was dated Fall 1955. From the beginning, every issue of Startling contained

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