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Science Fiction Series

Entry updated 26 May 2025. Tagged: Publication.

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A series of eighteen pamphlets published between 1929 and 1932 by Hugo Gernsback's Stellar Publishing Corporation, and seemingly edited by him. The pamphlets were either 24 or 28 pages long, and were published without cover illustrations; though early ads do show illustrated covers for the first twelve, they were only in the event internally illustrated (#1-#6 by Frank R Paul). Most volumes contained a single novelette, such as Jack Williamson and Miles J Breuer's The Girl from Mars (1929 chap), or Manly Wade Wellman's The Invading Asteroid (1932 chap), and in several instances, including these two titles, constituted their authors' first book publications. Five volumes in the series were anthologies, each containing two stories. In Science-Fiction: The Early Years (1990), E F Bleiler speculates that, considering the low quality of most of the series, at least some of these titles may have been rejected submissions to one or another of Gernsback's magazines. This may have been the case; but the cachet of book publication may well have at the same time helped stimulate some of the contributors into embarking upon significant careers.

The loss of so many dustjackets from newly published books – especially from UK titles, many of which were issued in hardback – has made dubious any claim about what was said and what was not 1929-1932 in the evolving theatre of presentation of what came to be called science fiction. It does seem plausible, though, to suggest that The Girl from Mars may the first standalone volume to use the term "science fiction" on its cover. [JC]

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