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FFF's Illustrated Nycon Review, 1942

Page 13

The _TIME_ Write-up of the First World Sff Convention
(reprinted from TIME MAGAZINE, July 10th issue 1939)

AMAZING! ASTOUNDING!
     Sold at U.S. newsstands are about a dozen pulp magazines with such titles as AMAZING STORIES, ASTOUNDING STORIES, STARTLING STORIES, STRANGE STORIES, FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, THRILLING WONDER STORIES, UNKNOWN, MARVEL SCIENCE STORIES, WEIRD TALES. In the pulp trade they are known as "pseudo-scientifics" or "scientifiction". This  week in Manhattan this amazing group of publications produced an amazing show: a convention of their fans.
     Scientifiction, which deals almost exclusively with the world of tomorrow and life on other planets, was inspired by Jules Verne's and H.G. Well's fantasies. Father of pseudo-scientific magazines was a shrewd, fat old man named Hugo Gernsback, an old-time radio fan, who in 1926 started AMAZING STORIES. It zoomed like a moonward rocket. Today the magazines in this prosperous publishing group (chiefly controlled by the big pulp firms of Street & Smith, Standard Magazines, and Ziff-Davis), average about 150,000 readers apiece (sometimes much more), make a good living for many shamo-scientific writer.
    Among famed writers of scientifiction are Edgar Rice Burroughs, Eric Temple Bell (penname: John Taine), Abraham Merritt, editor of the AMERICAN WEEKLY, and one time Wisconsin State Senator Roger Sherman Hoar (penname: Ralph Milne Farley). Pay is 1¢ to 4¢ a word. Many a well known author who commands higher rates in slick-paper magazines writes these stories for fun. But writers as well as readers take their predictions seriously.
     Ray Cummings, a veteran pseudo-fictioneer who once was Thomas Edison's secretary, claims to have originated in his stories the word NEWSCASTER and the phrase THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. Says he: "It is astonishing how many things come true."
     Chief themes of scientifiction are rocket trips of the earth by Martians, Mercurians. Authors may be as fantastic as they like in

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Left to right: Leo Margulies, Mort Weisinger, Otto Binder, Edomon Hamilton, Manly Wade Wellman

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The _TIME_ Write-up of the First World Sff Convention (reprinted from TIME MAGAZINE, July 10th issue 1939) AMAZING! ASTOUNDING! Sold at U.S. newsstands are about a dozen pulp magazines with such titles as AMAZING STORIES, ASTOUNDING STORIES, STARTLING STORIES, STRANGE STORIES, FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, THRILLING WONDER STORIES, UNKNOWN, MARVEL SCIENCE STORIES, WEIRD TALES. In the pulp trade they are known as "pseudo-scientifics" or "scientifiction". This week in Manhattan this amazing group of publications produced an amazing show: a convention of their fans. Scientifiction, which deals almost exclusively with the world of tomorrow and life on other planets, was inspired by Jules Verne's and H.G. Well's fantasies. Father of pseudo-scientific magazines was a shrewd, fat old man named Hugo Gernsback, an old-time radio fan, who in 1926 started AMAZING STORIES. It zoomed like a moonward rocket. Today the magazines in this prosperous publishing group (chiefly controlled by the big pulp firms of Street & Smith, Standard Magazines, and Ziff-Davis), average about 150,000 readers apiece (sometimes much more), make a good living for many shamo-scientific writer. Among famed writers of scientifiction are Edgar Rice Burroughs, Eric Temple Bell (penname: John Taine), Abraham Merritt, editor of the AMERICAN WEEKLY, and one time Wisconsin State Senator Roger Sherman Hoar (penname: Ralph Milne Farley). Pay is 1¢ to 4¢ a word. Many a well known author who commands higher rates in slick-paper magazines writes these stories for fun. But writers as well as readers take their predictions seriously. Ray Cummings, a veteran pseudo-fictioneer who once was Thomas Edison's secretary, claims to have originated in his stories the word NEWSCASTER and the phrase THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. Says he: "It is astonishing how many things come true." Chief themes of scientifiction are rocket trips of the earth by Martians, Mercurians. Authors may be as fantastic as they like in Left to right: Leo Margulies, Mort Weisinger, Otto Binder, Edomon Hamilton, Manly Wade Wellman 13