STARTLING STORIES

   US PULP MAGAZINE, 99 issues Jan 1939-Fall 1955, published by Better Publications Jan 1939-Winter 1955, and by Standard Magazines (really the same company) Spring-Fall 1955; ed Mort WEISINGER (Jan 1939-May 1941), Oscar J. FRIEND (July 1941-Fall 1944), Sam MERWIN Jr (Winter 1945-Sep1951), Samuel MINES (Nov 1951-Fall 1954) and Alexander SAMALMAN (Winter-Fall 1955). Leo MARGULIES was editorial director of SS and its companion magazines during Weisinger's and Friend's editorships. The schedule varied between bimonthly (dated by month) and quarterly (dated by season), with a monthly period in 1952-3.SS was started as a companion magazine to THRILLING WONDER STORIES. Whereas TWS printed only shorter fiction, the policy of SS was to include a complete novel (albeit sometimes very short) per issue; in its early years the cover bore the legend "A Novel of the Future Complete in This Issue". The space left for shorter stories was limited, and was partially filled by "Hall of Fame" reprints - stories from the Hugo GERNSBACK-edited WONDER STORIES and its predecessors. \#1 featured Stanley G. WEINBAUM's The Black Flame (Jan 1939; 1948); other contributors in the early years included Eando BINDER, OscarJ. Friend, Edmond HAMILTON, Henry KUTTNER, Manly Wade WELLMAN and Jack WILLIAMSON. Hamilton's "A Yank at Valhalla" (Jan 1941; vt The Monsters of Juntonheim 1950 UK; vt A Yank at Valhalla 1973 dos US) was a particularly vigorous early novel. Early covers were by Howard BROWN and Rudolph Belarski, but from 1940 onwards the covers were mostly by Earle K. BERGEY,the artist whose style is most closely identified with SS and its sister magazines. The characteristic Bergey cover showed a rugged hero, a desperate heroine (in either a metallic bikini or a dangerous state of deshabille) and a hideous alien menace.Under Margulies and, more particularly, under Friend SS adopted a deliberately juvenile slant. This was most clearly manifested in the patronizing shape of the character "Sergeant Saturn", who conducted the letter column and other readers'departments (in TWS and CAPTAIN FUTURE as well as in SS). Many readers were alienated by this, and when Merwin became editor he phased out such juvenilia and gradually built SS into the best sf magazine of the period, apart from ASF. In 1948-9 it featured such novels as WHAT MAD UNIVERSE (Sep 1948; 1949) by Fredric BROWN, Against the Fall of Night (Nov 1948;1953; rev vt The City and the Stars 1956) by Arthur C. CLARKE and Flight into Yesterday (May 1949; 1953; vt The Paradox Men UK) by Charles L. HARNESS, in addition to novels by Henry Kuttner (mostly SCIENCE FANTASY)and Murray LEINSTER and stories by Ray BRADBURY, Clarke, C.M. KORNBLUTH, John D. MACDONALD, Jack VANCE, A.E. VAN VOGT and others.Merwin left themagazine in 1951 (thereafter becoming a frequent contributor). By this time SS, like other PULP MAGAZINES, was feeling the effect of the increased competition provided by such new magazines as GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION and The MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION . Although thestandard suffered to a degree, Merwin's successor, Mines, continued to publish interesting material, such as Philip Jose FARMER's The Lovers (Aug 1952; exp 1961) - which helped earn him a HUGO as Most Promising NewWriter - and many Vance stories, notably Big Planet (Sep 1952; 1957). The magazine adopted a new cover slogan ("Today's Science Fiction - Tomorrow's Fact") and a more dignified appearance, but it became another victim ofthe general decline of pulp magazines. In Spring 1955, as the most popular title in its stable, it absorbed TWS and its more recent companion, FANTASTIC STORY MAGAZINE. After 2 further issues it ceased publication,one short of \#100. Mines ed an anthology drawn from its pages, The Best from Startling Stories (anth 1954), while a number of its "Hall of Fame" reprints were collected in From off this World (anth 1949) ed Margulies and Friend. A heavily cut and very irregular UK edition was published by Pembertons in 18 numbered issues June 1949-May 1954. A 1st Canadianreprint series ran 1945-6, and a 2nd 1948-51.

   MJE

   See also: GOLDEN AGE OF SF.