Heartwood Books and Art is proud to present a complete set of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. From the very first issues to the July 2020 issue, this set includes 745 digests. This is an incredible archive of SFF history with the first appearances of many key stories by many Key authors. The Average condition is Very Good.
Publication Information
The Award-winning and influential science fiction and fantasy magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction began its history as a quarterly magazine titled The Magazine of Fantasy in 1949 and switched to the current title with its second issue, shifted to a bimonthly schedule beginning with its fifth issue and a monthly schedule with its 15th issue. This schedule prevailed for the next 38 years before dropping back to 11 issues a year in 1991.
In contrast with the magazine's impressive bank of almost 5,000 stories built up over decades, the first issue included only one story that could be called science fiction: Theodore Sturgeon's "The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast." From the second issue onward, the magazine gathered every nationally recognized science fiction author from the 1950s to the 1970s. It is impossible to read any issue in the set without an acclaimed author, story, or artist.
However, this title was quite different in presentation from the existing science-fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format; it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single-column format, which in the opinion of science-fiction historian, Mike Ashley, “set F&SF apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine.”
To start the magazine, editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas approached Lawrence Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine to which many of the stories published in The Magazine Fantasy and Science Fiction are included in. McComas left for health reasons in 1954, but Boucher continued as sole editor until 1958, winning the Hugo Award for Best Magazine that year, a feat his successor, Robert Mills, repeated in the next two years. Mills was responsible for publishing Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, and the first of Brian Aldiss's Hothouse collection. Ferman remained editor for over 25 years and published many well-received stories, including Fritz Leiber's “Ill Met in Lankhmar” and Robert Silverberg's “Born with the Dead.”
In 1991, he turned the editorship over to Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who included more horror and dark fantasy in the magazine’s bibliography. On October 6, 1949, Spivak, Boucher, and McComas held a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Edgar Allan Poer, Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers was serialized in F&SF, under the title Starship Soldier; this was intended to be a juvenile novel but was rejected by Scribner's for being too violent. It won the Hugo Award in the novel category the following year and proved to be one of Heinlein's most controversial books.
Influence
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is responsible for the original publication of SF classics like Stephen King's Dark Tower, Daniel Keyes's Flowers for Algernon, and Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. The magazine invested in popular authors’ early careers such as Damon Knight with his story, “Not with a Bang,” which Knight himself described as his first fully professional piece. To continue the fresh authorship in the magazine, Spivak requested new and diverse material, including a new story by Raymond Chandler, and reprint rights to stories by H.P. Lovecraft, John Dickson Carr, and Robert Bloch. Yet, this title not only included distinguished speculative fiction, but also compelling literary short fiction by writers such as Lewis Caroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Shirley Jackson, Agatha Christie, John Updike, Kelly Link, Mary Robinette Kowal, John Collier, Michael Moorcock, and many others. This connection to historically valued fiction allowed SFF to become the mainstream pop-culture icon that it is today, catapulting the removal of the stigmas and stereotyping the SFF genre had faced in the decades before.
As it gained rapid popularity, the title spread across the globe. There were two separate British reprint editions, one running for 12 issues in 1953 and 1954, and the other for 55 issues between 1959 and 1964. 14 issues of an Australian reprint edition ran between 1954 and 1958 and yet, even beyond the English-speaking world, the title had sister publications in Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, and Sweden. This magazine's global significance cannot be overstated as it was arguably the main conductor for the popularization of the fantasy and science fiction genres.
Art
Nonetheless, the title included one of the most famous SF artists ever, Ed Emshwiller (Emsh) who contributed to a majority of the covers, as well as Nuetzell, Bill Stone, Jack Coggins, Fred Kirberger, Morris Scott Dollens, Mel Hunter, Nick Solovioff, Chesley Bonestell, Chesley Bonestell, Pederson, George Salter, Stanley Meltzoff, Barry Waldman, Bert Tanner, Dick Shelton, George Gibbons, and Kelly Freas. Although the cover style changed in October 1952, copies of the July 1953 issue were published with both old and new cover styles, creating the perfect balance between old and new for any collector's collection.
Contents
With a legendary bibliography, this set features fantastic fiction from the most famous SFF, mystery, and fiction writers and artists in the world. Some of the stories in this set include:
Isaac Asimov: Insert Knob A in Hole B · Science: Love Those Zeroes · Science: Life’s Bottleneck · Science: No More Ice Ages? · Dreamworld · The Fun They Had · The Boys and Girls Page · Science: Nothing · Science: The Dust of Ages · Science: Catching Up with Newton · Science: Battle of the Eggheads · Unto the Fourth Generation · Science: Nothing Counts · Science: Welcome, Stranger! · Science: The Sight of Home · Science: About Time · Science: Varieties of the Infinite · Obituary · Science: The Height of Up · Science: The Planet of the Double Sun · Flies · Including Venture Science Fiction · Science: The Ultimate Split of the Second · A Loint of Paw · The Brazen Locked Room · The By-Product of Science Fiction · Science: Thin Air · Science: The Lost Generation · Science: The Flickering Yardstick · The Singing Bell [Wendell Urth] · Science: He’s Not My Type! · I Just Make Them Up, See! · The Up-to-Date Sorcerer · I Feel It in My Bones · Science: Of Capture and Escape · The Talking Stone [Wendell Urth] and more.
Philip José Farmer: Father [Father John Carmody] · Prometheus [Father John Carmody] · The Alley Man · Totem and Taboo
August Derleth: A Room in a House · Adventure of the Ball of Nostradamus [Solar Pons] · The Adventure of the Snitch in Time [Solar Pons] · The Lamp of Alhazred with H. P. Lovecraft · The Survivor and Others written by Derleth from a fragment by Lovecraft · The Dark Boy
Arthur C. Clarke: Security Check · This Earth of Majesty · Venture to the Moon · Green Fingers · Venture to the Moon · Watch This Space · The Evening Standard May 28 1956, as “Who Wrote That Message to the Stars?” · A Question of Residence · Of Mind and Matter · Crime on Mars Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine July 1960 · No Morning After · All That Glitters · The Planets Are Not Enough, Superiority · What Goes Up… [Harry Purvis (White Hart)] · Venture to the Moon · The Starting Line · The Evening Standard May 23 1956, as “Double-Crossed in Outer Space” · Robin Hood, F.R.S. · The Evening Standard May 24 1956, as “Saved…By a Bow and Arrow”
L. Sprague de Camp: How to Talk Futurian · Lament by a Maker · Chat Is a Rosicrucian? · More Than Skin Deep [Gavagan’s Bar] · The Gift of God [Gavagan’s Bar] · Elephas Frumenti [Gavagan’s Bar] · The Black Ball · The Ancestral Amethyst [Gavagan’s Bar] · The Rape of the Lock [Gavagan’s Bar] · The Reporter August 7 19513 · Beasts of Bourbon [Gavagan’s Bar] · Dragon Hunt · The Weissenbroch Spectacles · One Man’s Meat The Untimely Toper
Poul Anderson: Three Hearts and Three · Lions Interloper · Yo Ho Hoka! [Hokas] · The Immortal Game · Inside Straight · Delenda Est [Manse Everard (Time Patrol)] · The Barbarian · Operation Afreet [Steven Matuchek; Ginny Greylock] · Wildcat · The Sky People [Maurai] · Journeys End · Operation Salamander [Steven Matuchek; Ginny Greylock] · Ballade of an Artificial Satellite · The Martian Crown Jewels Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine February 1958 · The Man Who Came Early · Operation Incubus [Steven Matuchek; Ginny Greylock] · The Only Game in Town [Manse Everard (Time Patrol)] · Brave to Be a King [Manse Everard (Time Patrol)] · The Martyr · The Peacemongers · Survival Technique · Nice Girls on Mars · Half-Gods Go · Ghetto · Superstition · The Tiddlywink Warriors [Hokas] · Life Cycle · Time Patrol [Manse Everard (Time Patrol)] · Full Pack (Hokas Wild) [Hokas]
Ray Bradbury: The One Who Waits (The Arkham Sampler Summer 1949) ·The Wilderness [Mars] · Icarus Montgolfier Wright · The Dragon · All Summer in a Day · The Shoreline at Sunset · Death and the Maiden
C. S. Lewis: The Shoddy Lands · Ministering Angels · An Expostulation · The End of the Wine · Punch
C. S. Forester: Payment Anticipated · Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
Damon Knight: What Rough Beast? · The Night of Lies · Stranger Station · You’re Another
Robert Bloch: Some of My Best Fans Are Friends, All on a Golden Afternoon, I Kiss Your Shadow · That Hell-Bound Train · I Do Not Love Thee, Doctor Fell · How Bug-Eyed Was My Monster · Caper May 1957
Robert A. Heinlein: Star Lummox · Glory Road · The Menace from Earth · The Door Into Summer · The Door Into · Summer Starship Soldier ·“All You Zombies—” · Have Space Suit—Will Travel · Have Space Suit—Will Travel
Evelyn E. Smith: BAXBR/DAXBR · The Captain’s Mate · Outcast of Mars · Send Her Victorious
Philip K. Dick: The Father-Thing · The Little Movement · Explorers We · Cantata 140 [Jim Briskin] · Expendable · Bulletin
Shirley Jackson: One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts · The Missing Girl · The Omen
Theodore Sturgeon: The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast · A Touch of Strange · Like Young · The Man Who Lost the Sea · Theodore Sturgeon · The [Widget], the [Wadget] · and Boff [Both parts]· Fear Is a BusinessSturgeon · And Now the News…
Fritz Leiber: Last · The Silver Eggheads · The Silence Game · Success · Myths My Great-Granddaughter Taught Me · When the Change-Winds Blow [Change War] · The Big Trek · Little Old Miss Macbeth · Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee [Simon Grue] · The Big Holiday
Agatha Christie: The Last Séance · The Call of Wings · The Hound of Death and Other Stories
Joanna Russ: My Dear Emily
Edgar Allan Poe: Mellonta Tauta
John W. Vandercook: he Challenge · Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine July 1952
Lester del Rey: Little Jimmy
Andre Norton: Mousetrap
Sheridan Le Fanu: The Dead Sexton
Jack London: Meeting of Relations Man Overboard · The Angry Mammoth
Robert Louis Stevenson: The Isle of Voices
Anne McCaffrey: The Ship Who Sang [Brainship] · The Lady in the Tower [Tower and the Hive]
Roger Zelazny: A Rose for Ecclesiastes · Braxa · The Salvation of Faust ·
Murray Leinster: Anthropological Note · The Case of the Homocidal Robots
Aldous Huxley: Chemical Persuasion
Jack Williamson: Beans
Sam Moskowitz: How Science Fiction Got Its Name
Cornell Woolrich: Somebody’s Clothes—Somebody’s Life
Jules Verne; translated by I. O. Evans: Gil Braltar ·translated from the French
Lewis Carroll: Photography Extraordinary ·
Robert Silverberg: The Man Who Never Forgot, Warm Man, The Nature of the Place
Carol Emshwiller: The Coming ·Baby · Day at the Beach · You’ll Feel Better…
Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore: Two-Handed Engine · Rite of Passage
C. Day Lewis: The Antique Heroes
John Updike: Cosmic Gall
Jack Vance: Green Magi
Frederik Pohl: To See Another Mountain
Clark Ashton Smith: A Prophecy of Monsters
A. E. van Vogt: Process
An interesting compilation of most of the key Science Fiction Authors of it’s time