TREMAINE, F(rederick) Orlin

(1899-1956)

   US editor and writer; his first story was "The Throwback" for Weird Tales in 1926 as by Orlin Frederick. Already experienced in PULP-MAGAZINE publishing-he had ed various magazines from 1921 onward, including Bernarr MACFADDEN's Brain Power 1921-4 and True Story in 1924 - FOT assumed the editorship of Astounding Stories (ASTOUNDINGSCIENCE-FICTION) in Oct 1933, after it had been taken over by STREET \& SMITH; curiously, although he had been working for ASF's previous publishers, Clayton Magazines, FOT seems to have had no connection with the magazine prior to becoming its editor. He produced 50 issues of ASF, initially with the assistance of Desmond W. HALL, and under his editorship it became unquestionably the pre-eminent sf magazine of its day, featuring all the leading writers of the period and publishing the first stories of such writers as L. Sprague DE CAMP and Eric Frank RUSSELL. He soon instituted a policy of featuring in each issue at least 1 story described as a "thought variant" - i.e., a tale which presented a new concept, or a new gloss on a familiar idea. As an attention-attracting device this was an undoubted success, inspiring an imitation "new-story" policy in WONDER STORIES. When FOT became editorial director of a number of the Street \&Smith magazines, he gave up the editorship of ASF, being followed in December 1937 by his personal choice for the job, John W. CAMPBELL Jr, whose stories as by Don A. Stuart FOT had been publishing for several years; the GOLDEN AGE OF SF was just around the corner. FOT's "thought-variant" notion can be seen as marking an important step inshifting magazine sf from its concentration on pulp adventure to the idea-led sf instituted by his successor.The next year FOT left the company to found his own publishing firm, Orlin Tremaine Co., producing and editing COMET STORIES, which lasted only 5 issues 1940-41. He wrote a number of stories under his own name, and at least 1 as Warner VAN LORNE. He worked in non-sf publishing enterprises in later years, before beingforced into early retirement through ill health.

   MJE

   See also: ROBOTS; SF MAGAZINES.