Spaceway
Entry updated 24 August 2017. Tagged: Publication.
US Digest-size magazine, in two series. The first series had eight issues December 1953 to June 1955, and the second series, four issues, January 1969 to May/June 1970, published by William L Crawford's Fantasy Publishing Company Inc in Los Angeles; the subtitle "Stories of the Future" was changed to "Science Fiction" from December 1954. The title was taken from the UK film Spaceways (1953). Most of the material came from Forrest Ackerman's agency, which meant that a high proportion of it was either by minor writers of limited talent or by old-time writers whose heyday had passed. Hence there were stories by Arthur J Burks, Clyde F Beck and Stanton Coblentz. There was also one by L Ron Hubbard. The most notable story carried by the magazine was "The Cosmic Geoids" by John Taine (December 1954-April 1955), though this had already been published in book form, by the same publisher, as the lead novel of The Cosmic Geoids, and One Other (coll 1949). When Spaceway died it had published only the first part of Ralph Milne Farley's "Radio Minds of Mars" (June 1955). On its resurrection by the same publisher many years later, it printed the serial in full (January-September/October 1969).
The second series of Spaceway, which Crawford compiled with the assistance of Gerald W Page, reprinted material from the first but added a few new stories. Another unfinished serial in the second version was Andre Norton's "Garan of Yu-Lac" (September/October 1969-May/June 1970), which Crawford had been holding since 1935; he later published it in book form as Garan the Eternal (1972). Page compiled two special issues: that for September/October 1969 celebrated the first manned lunar landing by reprinting two stories from 1938! The May/June 1970 issue, with a lovely cover by Morris Scott Dollens, was a special Mars issue and a tribute to Edgar Rice Burroughs. The magazine was definitely one for the nostalgic.
The first four issues of the first series were reprinted in the UK 1954-1955 by Regular Publications. [BS/PN/MA]
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