Free: 356 Problems with Galaxy, the Groundbreaking Fifties Science Fiction Journal

Together with Astound­ing Sci­ence Fic­tion and The Magazine­a­zine of Fan­ta­sy and Sci­ence Fic­tion, Galaxy Magazine­a­zine was probably the most impor­tant sci­ence fic­tion digests in Fifties Amer­i­ca. Ray Brad­bury wrote for it–together with an ear­ly ver­sion of his mas­ter­piece Fahren­heit 451–as did Robert A. Hein­lein, Isaac Asi­mov, Fred­erik Pohl, Theodore Stur­geon, Wire­wain­er Smith, Jack Vance, and numer­ous oth­ers.

Now a good­ly respectable col­lec­tion of points (356 in complete) is avail­in a position to your perusal at archive.org for absolute­ly free. It’s not com­plete but, but it surely’s shut.

When Galaxy appeared in Octo­ber 1950, it promised a type of sci­ence fic­tion dif­fer­ent from the area operas of pre­vi­ous a long time. As an “annu­al report” writ­ten by pub­lish­er H.L. Gold professional­claimed,

…oth­er pub­lish­ers thought the thought of supply­ing mature sci­ence fic­tion in an attrac­tive, grownup for­mat was down­proper enjoyable­ny. They knew what bought–shapely feminine endo­morphs with bronze bras, embat­tled male meso­morphs clad in mus­cle, and fright­ful alien mon­sters searching for a human soul.

And whereas Astound­ing Sci­ence Fic­tion was targeted on expertise–suited to an Amer­i­ca that had enjoyable­da­males­tal­ly modified since WWII–H.L. Gold’s Galaxy targeted on concepts, humor, satire, psy­chol­o­gy and soci­ol­o­gy. It additionally had the most effective pay charges within the indus­strive, and provided a few of its writ­ers exclu­sive con­tracts. And the writ­ers reply­ed in type and fol­lowed their very own obsessions–though Gold typically pitched concepts.

(Iron­i­cal­ly, although immersed in sto­ries of internal and out­er area, Gold was an acute in the past­ra­phobe, and stayed in his aside­ment, com­mu­ni­cat­ing by telephone.)

After a wob­bly begin graph­ics-wise, Gold employed Ed Emsh­willer in 1951 to color cov­ers, whose typically humor­ous model (e.g. this Christ­mas problem under) swimsuit­ed the humor inside the problem.

Con­fi­dent of their sta­ble of writ­ers, Galaxy professional­duced the gained­der­ful start­day cov­er on the prime, fea­tur­ing automotive­i­ca­tures of each­physique from Brad­bury to Asi­mov. There’s additionally a information to see who’s who.

A sequence of editors–together with Fred­erik Pohl–took over from Gold after a automotive acci­dent in 1961, and by 1977–eight years after Pohl’s departure–the magazine­a­zine was on its decline. There have been extra iter­a­tions, reprints, antholo­gies, and on-line ver­sions, however the essen­tial run is right here. And people first ten years modified Amer­i­can sci­ence fic­tion for­ev­er, paving the best way for exper­i­males­tal writ­ers like Philip Ok. Dick and William Gib­son.

You can begin with the Ray Brad­bury sto­ry (“The Fireplace­man”) we instructed you about, or Robert A. Heinlein’s “The Pup­pet.”

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Enter a Large Archive of Amaz­ing Sto­ries, the World’s First Sci­ence Fic­tion Magazine­a­zine, Launched in 1926

The Ency­clo­pe­dia of Sci­ence Fic­tion: 17,500 Entries on All Issues Sci-Fi Are Now Free On-line

Isaac Asimov’s Foun­da­tion Tril­o­gy: Hear the 1973 Radio Drama­ti­za­tion

Sci-Fi Radio: Hear Radio Dra­mas of Sci-Fi Sto­ries by Ray Brad­bury, Philip Ok. Dick, Ursu­la Ok. LeGuin & Extra (1989)

X Minus One: Hear Clas­sic Sci-Fi Radio Sto­ries from Asi­mov, Hein­lein, Brad­bury & Dick

Ted Mills is a free­lance author on the humanities who cur­lease­ly hosts the artist inter­view-based FunkZone Pod­solid and is the professional­duc­er of KCR­W’s Curi­ous Coast. You can even fol­low him on Twit­ter at @tedmills, learn his oth­er arts writ­ing at tedmills.com and/or watch his movies right here.