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Joined: 13 Mar 2011
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 Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 3:59 pm Post subject: Bernard Davis |
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In 1938, Ziff-Davis, a Chicago-based publisher looking to expand into the pulp magazine market, acquired Amazing Stories.[2] The number of science fiction magazines grew quickly; several new titles appeared over the next few years, including Fantastic Adventures, which was launched by Ziff-Davis in 1939 as a companion to Amazing.[3] Under the editorship of Raymond Palmer the magazines were reasonably successful but published poor quality work, and when Howard Browne took over as editor of Amazing in January 1950 he decided to try to move the magazine upmarket.[4][5] Ziff-Davis agreed to back the new magazine, and Browne put together a sample copy, but when the Korean War broke out Ziff-Davis cut their budgets and the project was abandoned.[6] Browne did not give up, and in 1952 received the go-ahead to try a new magazine instead, focused on high-quality fantasy,[7] a genre which had recently become more popular.[8] The first issue of Fantastic, dated Summer 1952, appeared on March 21 of that year.[7]
[edit] Early years
Issues of Fantastic through 1960, identifying volume and issue numbers, and indicating editors: in sequence, Howard Browne, Paul Fairman, and Cele Goldsmith
Sales were very good, and Ziff-Davis was sufficiently impressed to move the magazine from a quarterly to a bimonthly schedule after only two issues, and to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest-size to match Fantastic. Shortly afterwards the decision was taken to eliminate Fantastic Adventures: the March 1953 issue was the last, and the May–June 1953 issue of Fantastic added a mention of Fantastic Adventures to the masthead, though this disappeared with the following issue.[7] Payment started at two cents per word for all rights, but could go up to ten cents at the editor's discretion; this put Fantastic in the second echelon of magazines, behind markets such as Astounding and Galaxy.[9][10] The experiment with quality fiction did not last; circulation dropped, which led to budget cuts, and in turn the quality of the fiction fell. Browne had wanted to separate Fantastic from Amazing's pulp roots, but now found he had to print more science fiction (sf) and less fantasy in order to attract Amazing's readers to its sister magazine.[7] Fantastic's poor results were probably a consequence of the overloaded sf magazine market; far more magazines appeared in the early 1950s than the market was able to support. Ziff-Davis sales staff were able to help sell Fantastic and Amazing along with the technical magazines that it published, and the availability of a national sales network, even though it was not focused solely on Fantastic, undoubtedly helped the magazine to survive.[11]
In May 1956 Browne left Ziff-Davis to become a screenwriter. Paul W. Fairman took over as editor of both Fantastic and Amazing. In 1957 Bernard Davis left Ziff-Davis; it had been Davis who had suggested the acquisition of Amazing in 1939, and he had stayed involved with the sf magazines throughout the time he spent there. With his departure Amazing and Fantastic stagnated; they remained monthly but drew no attention from Ziff-Davis’s management.[12]boat charter italy
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