Category: Science Fiction Magazines – MF&SF

A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Robert P. Mills – 1962 [Richard M. Powers]

Here’s a nice Richard Powers cover from 1962, with elements typical of his art: Multicolored, curved, geometric, mobile-like shapes; a weird, irregularly-shaped, dented, floating, metallic king of thingy; a figure garbed in a space-suit.  (Well, it looks like a space-suit!) 

Like many of the images of “people” in Powers’ art, the space explorer’s outfit looks detailed and ornate, but on closer inspection, this arises from a series of rings or ridges covering the garment, giving it the suggestion rather than the reality of detail. 

But, it still looks cool.

The “lower” of the two images, appearing on the book’s back cover, is simply a reproduction of the art on the front cover, sans text.

As for the stories within the book?  Though I have read them all (some years ago!), none particularly currently stand out in memory.  Yet, in a larger sense, I was always impressed by the works of Zenna Henderson (“The People” series), Ward Moore (author of one of the best time travel stories I’ve ever read; fully worthy of a mini-series on Netflix or Amazon Prime (hint, hint, Mr. Bezos!): “Bring the Jubilee”), and, Manly Wade Wellman. 

Contents

Walk Like A Mountain, by Manly Wade Wellman, June, 1955

Men of Iron, by Guy Endore, Fall, 1949

Rabbits to The Moon, by Raymond E. Banks, July, 1959

The Certificate, by Avram Davidson, March, 1959

The Sealman, by John Mansfield, July, 1955

The Sky People, by Poul Anderson, March, 1959

The Causes, by Idris Seabright, June, 1952

The Hypnoglyph, by John Anthony, July, 1953

A Tale of The Thirteenth Floor, by Ogden Nash, July, 1955

Spud and Cochise, by Oliver La Forge, December, 1957

Unto The Fourth Generation, by Isaac Asimov, April, 1959

Jordan, by Zenna Henderson, March, 1959

Will You Wait?, by Alfred Bester, March, 1959

Proof Positive, by Graham Greene, August, 1952

Shock Treatment, by J. Francis McComas, April, 1956 (From 9 Tales of Space and Time, May, 1954)

Gandolphus, by Anthony Boucher, June, 1952

The Last Shall Be First, by Robert P. Mills, August, 1958

A Trick Or Two, by John Novotny, July, 1957

Lot’s Daughter, by Ward Moore, October, 1954

Saturnian Celia, by Horace Walpole, April, 1957 (May, 1774.  First known to have been published in The Letters of Horace Walpole, 1903)

Fear Is A Business, by Theodore Sturgeon, April, 1956

Meeting of Relations, by John Collier, January, 1959 (From The Yale Review, December, 1941)

First Lesson, by Mildred Clingerman, December, 1956

To Fell A Tree, by Robert F. Young, July, 1959

Reference

A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction – April, 1952 [Stefan Salter]

Another cover by Stephen Salter.   The magazine went by the title “The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction” from February of 1951 through September of 1952, when it reverted to and remained as “The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction“. 

Though subtle, the “&” symbol in the title was actually the silhouette of a smiling impish face, and also forms the bottom part of the letter “F” in the word “Fantasy“.  (You can see it, below.)  This symbol seems to have been the magazine’s unofficial logo, and was displayed on the back cover (and randomly in the interior) during the 1950s.  (Information from VISCO.)

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction – Winter-Spring, 1950 [Stefan Salter]

Another cover by Stephen Salter, probably completed using an airbrush.  Disconcerting, intriguing, and fascinating, all at once. 

This was the second issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and the first of ten covers Salter completed for the publication, nine of which appeared from “this” 1950 issue through December of 1951, and the last for June of 1955.

The Magazine of Fantasy – Fall, 1949 [Kodachrome by Bill Stone]

Here’s the cover of the first issue of The Magazine of Fantasy, prior to its change of title to the far familiarly known The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. 

Notice that the cover is actually a photographic print from Kodachrome film, rather than the reproduction of a painting.  The image of the long-tailed, smiling, nebulous whatever-it-is has been retouched upon the original image, while the model upon which he (it’s?) superimposed looks more inconvenienced than she does frightened.  

Notice that the cover presents a nearly full list of the magazine’s table of contents, rather than – unlike most pulp magazines – the title and author of a select story.  (“Private – Keep Out!”, by Philip MacDonald is superb…)

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction – September, 1956 (Featuring “Operation Afreet”, by Poul Anderson) [Frank Kelly Freas]

Unlike the majority of science fiction (and fantasy) magazines of the 40s and 50s, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction eschewed interior art.  The issue of September, 1956 was an exception to this policy, featuring two illustrations – below – by Frank Kelly Freas, which accompanied Poul Anderson’s tale “Operation Afreet”. 

The third illustration is an allegorical image created by the unknown artist “H.M.”

(Page 11) (Page 37)

(Page 37)

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Seventeenth Series, Edited by Edward L. Ferman – 1966 (1967, 1968) [Davis Meltzer]

Cyprian’s Room, by Monica Sterba

Out Of Time, Out of Place, by George Callyn

Vom Goom’s Gambit, by Victor Contoski

Bumberboom, by Avram Davidson

Fill In The Blank, by Ron Goulart

Balgrummo’s Hell, by Russell Kirk

Corona, by Samuel R. Delaney

The Inner Circles, by Fritz Leiber

Problems of Creativeness, by Thomas M. Disch

Encounter In The Past, by Robert Nathan

The Sea Change, by Jean Cox

The Devil and Democracy, by Brian Cleeve

Randy’s Syndrome, by Brian W. Aldiss

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Eighteenth Series, Edited by Edward L. Ferman – 1972 (1970, 1971) [Unknown Artist]

The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D, by J.G. Ballard

The People Trap, by Robert Sheckley

In His Own Image, by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

Ogre!, by Ed Jesby

Lunatic Assignment, by Sonya Dorman

Gifts From the Universe, by Leonard Tushnet

Sundown, by David Redd

Beyond the Game, by Vance Aandahl

Sea Home, by William M. Lee

That High-Up Blue Day That Saw the Black Sky-Train Come Spinning, by David R. Bunch

Muscadine, by Ron Goulart

Final War, by K.M. O’Donnell

I Have My Vigil, by Harry Harrison

The Egg of The Glak, by Harvey Jacobs