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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-theme"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Boys' Papers </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 13 December 2021. Tagged: Theme.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=boys_papers'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=boys_papers'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=boys_papers'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> <span style="cursor: pointer;" onclick="window.open('/gallery.php?link=boys_papers');"> <img alt="Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com" style="margin: 0; position: relative; top:-2px;" src="/images/icon-gal.gif"></img></span> </div><p style='float:right; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:10px; position: relative; top: 3px;'> <a href='/gallery.php?id=Cox-ColdTub.jpg' target='_blank'> <img src='https://x.sf-encyclopedia.com/gal/thumbs/Cox-ColdTub.jpg' alt='pic'></a></p> <p>Although boys' papers could easily be dismissed as being of negligible literary value, perhaps unjustly since Upton <a href="/entry/sinclair_upton">Sinclair</a> and other eminent authors found their footing there, they played an important role in the <a href="/entry/history_of_sf">History of SF</a> in the last three decades of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century, by creating a potential readership for the <a href="/entry/sf_magazines">SF Magazines</a> and by anticipating many <a href="/entry/genre_sf">Genre-SF</a> themes.</p> <p>The prevailing style of US boys' papers was largely set in the 1870s and after by periodicals such as <i>The Boys of New York</i> and <i>Golden Hours</i>, which published serialized novels similar and often identical to those in dime-novel format (that is, one single short novel per issue); these are discussed in detail under <a href="/entry/dime-novel_sf">Dime-Novel SF</a>. Since US boys' papers were rare after World War I – <a href="/entry/american_boy_the">American Boy</a> was an exception (see also Carl <a href="/entry/claudy_carl_h">Claudy</a>), another being <a href="/entry/boys_life">Boys' Life</a> (which see) – the current discussion is UK-oriented.</p> <p>Some sf did appear quite early in UK boys' papers. W S <a href="/entry/hayward_william_stephens">Hayward</a>'s novel <i>Up in the Air and Down in the Sea</i> (<b>1865</b>) was serialized <i>circa</i> 1863-1865 in Henry Vickers's <i>Boy's Journal</i>, as were its sequels. Nonetheless, the major impetus towards boys' sf in the UK came from abroad. Jules <a href="/entry/verne_jules">Verne</a> appeared in UK periodicals with <i>Hector Servadac</i> (trans 1877 <i>Good Things</i>; <b>1878</b>), <i>The Steam House</i> (trans 1880-1881 <i>Union Jack</i>; <b>1881</b>) and 16 other serializations in <i>The Boy's Own Paper</i>. André <a href="/entry/laurie_andre">Laurie</a> was represented with "A Marvellous Conquest: A Tale of the Bayouda" (<b>1888</b>; trans <b>1889</b> <i>The Boy's Own Paper</i>; vt <i>The Conquest of the Moon: A Story of the Bayouda</i>, <b>1889</b>), and US dime novels from the <a href="/entry/frank_reade_library">Frank Reade Library</a> were reprinted in <b>The Aldine Romance of Invention, Travel and Adventure Library</b>.</p> <p>UK authors soon followed this lead with a variety of themes. Several interplanetary adventures appeared in the mid-1890s in <i>The Marvel</i> and elsewhere; e.g., "In Trackless Space" (1902 <i>The Union Jack</i>) by George C <a href="/entry/wallis_george_c">Wallis</a>, later a contributor to the sf pulps. <a href="/entry/lost_worlds">Lost Worlds</a> were prominent, notably Sidney Drew's <i>Wings of Gold</i> (1903-1904 <i>The Boy's Herald</i>; <b>1908</b>) and the works of Fenton Ash (see Frank <a href="/entry/aubrey_frank">Aubrey</a>). World <a href="/entry/disaster">Disaster</a> appeared in the latter's "Doom" (1912 <i>The Dreadnought</i>), a vehicle capable of travel through the Earth in "Kiss, Kiss, the Beetle" (1913 <i>Fun and Fiction</i>), and an early <a href="/entry/superman">Superman</a> in "Vengeance of Mars" (1912 <i>Illustrated Chips</i>).</p> <p>Overriding all these themes was the <a href="/entry/future_war">Future War</a> story, previously a minor genre – and remaining so in US boys' fiction – but encouraged obsessively in the UK by Lord Northcliffe, head of Amalgamated Press. Between 1901 and the outbreak of <a href="/entry/world_war_one">World War One</a> in 1914, numerous warnings of imminent <a href="/entry/invasion">Invasion</a> were published, foremost among them the works of Sidney <a href="/entry/gowing_sidney">Gowing</a> writing as by John Tregellis, who contributed <i>Britain Invaded</i> (26 May-17 November 1906 <i>The Boys' Friend</i>; <b>1910</b>), <i>Britain at Bay</i> (24 November 1906-14 September 1907 <i>The Boys' Friend</i>; <b>1910</b>), <i>Kaiser or King?</i> (1912 <i>The Boys' Friend</i>; <b>1913</b>) and others.</p> <p>When World War I did finally break out, many papers folded, but they were replaced shortly after the Armistice by new periodicals firmly rooted in the twentieth century. Among these was <i>Pluck</i>; subtitled "The Boy's Wireless Adventure Weekly", it published several sf stories linked by the common theme of radio. Among its stories were Lester <a href="/entry/bidston_lester">Bidston</a>'s <i>The Radio Planet</i> (1923; <b>1926</b>) and the first UK publication in 1923 of Edgar Rice <a href="/entry/burroughs_edgar_rice">Burroughs</a>'s <i>At the Earth's Core</i> (4-25 April 1914 <a href="/entry/all-story_the">All-Story</a> <i>Weekly</i>; <b>1922</b>); the latter contributed to the publication of Edgar <a href="/entry/wallace_edgar">Wallace</a>'s <i>Planetoid 127</i> (4 September-23 October 1924 <i>The Mechanical Boy</i>; as title story of coll <b>1929</b>; <b>1986</b>) and adaptations of various stories in Sax <a href="/entry/rohmer_sax">Rohmer</a>'s <b>Dr Fu-Manchu</b> series (stories 1923-1924 <i>Chums</i>). Notable among the many other stories published were Leslie <a href="/entry/beresford_leslie">Beresford</a>'s "War of Revenge" (1922 <i>The Champion</i>), an account of a German attack on the UK in 1956 using guided missiles, Frank H <a href="/entry/shaw_frank_h">Shaw</a>'s world-catastrophe novel "When the Sea Rose Up" (15 December 1923-10 May 1924 <i>Chums</i>) and Eric Wood's <a href="/entry/dystopias">Dystopia</a> <i>The Jungle Men: A Tale of 2923 AD</i> (1923-1924 <i>The Boys' Friend</i>; <b>1927</b>).</p> <p>Most popular of all were the <a href="/entry/space_opera">Space Operas</a> then appearing in <i>Boy's Magazine</i> (first published 1922). Typical was Raymond Quiex's "The War in Space" (1926), which was very reminiscent of the 1930s <a href="/entry/pulp">Pulp</a> magazines with its story of <a href="/entry/asteroids">Asteroids</a> drawn from orbit and hurled as missiles towards Earth, manmade webs of metal hanging in space, domed cities on strange planets and giant insects stalking the surface of hostile worlds. Many similar stories appeared: time machines, androids, titanic war machines, robot armies and matter transmitters became commonplace.</p> <p>When <i>Boy's Magazine</i> folded in 1934, its place was taken three weeks later by <a href="/entry/scoops">Scoops</a>, the first UK all-sf periodical. In spite of its capable editor, Haydn Dimmock, and contributions by John Russell <a href="/entry/fearn_john_russell">Fearn</a>, Maurice G <a href="/entry/hugi_maurice_g">Hugi</a> and A M <a href="/entry/low_a_m">Low</a>, <i>Scoops</i> folded after only 20 issues.</p> <p>Adult sf magazines were available in the UK, both native and reprint, to fill the temporary gap left by the demise of <i>Scoops</i> – and <a href="/entry/comics">Comic</a> books made their appearance in the later 1930s – but boys' papers continued to introduce young readers to sf concepts: <i>Modern Boy</i> with the <a href="/entry/captain_justice">Captain Justice</a> series that influenced a youthful Brian W <a href="/entry/aldiss_brian_w">Aldiss</a>, <i>Modern Wonder</i> with serializations of John <a href="/entry/wyndham_john">Wyndham</a> and W J <a href="/entry/passingham_w_j">Passingham</a>, and the <a href="/entry/sexton_blake_library">Sexton Blake Library</a>, with pseudonymous contributions by E C <a href="/entry/tubb_e_c">Tubb</a>, Michael <a href="/entry/moorcock_michael">Moorcock</a> and others, are among the titles of the next few decades.</p> <p>Sf has continued to play a role in boys' papers, with content modified to suit the times. In 1976, for example, an anonymous adaptation – as "Kids Rule, OK", from 18 September – in <i>Action</i> of Dave <a href="/entry/wallis_dave">Wallis</a>'s <i>Only Lovers Left Alive</i> (<b>1964</b>) proved so violent that public outcry led to temporary suspension of the already heavily censored paper in October 1976; in retrospect, the adaptation (which was in fact by Jack <a href="/entry/adrian_jack">Adrian</a>) can be seen as a forerunner of such later favourites as <a href="/entry/judge_dredd">Judge Dredd</a>, while <i>Action</i> itself led directly to the 1977 launch of <a href="/entry/2000_ad">2000 AD</a> under <i>Action</i> editor Pat Mills. [JE]</p> <p><b>see also:</b> <a href="/entry/boys_friend_library">Boys' Friend Library</a>.</p> <p><b>further reading</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li>E S <a href="/entry/turner_e_s">Turner</a>. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Boys+Will+Be+Boys+The+Story+of+Sweeney+Todd&field-author=Turner+E+S" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Boys Will Be Boys: The Story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton, et al</a></em> (London: Michael Joseph, <b>1948</b>) [nonfiction: also revised editions 1957 and 1975: hb/James <a href="/entry/broom_lynne_james">Broom Lynne</a>]</li> <li>Jack Cox. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Take+a+Cold+Tub+Sir+The+Story+of+the+Boy+Own&field-author=Jack+Cox" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Take a Cold Tub, Sir!: The Story of the Boy's Own Paper</a></em> (Guildford, Surrey: Lutterworth Press, <b>1982</b>) [nonfiction: illus/various: hb/from John Hassall, "Irresistible!"]</li> <li>Fred <a href="/entry/erisman_fred">Erisman</a>. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Boys+Books+Boys+Dreams+and+the+Mystique+of&field-author=Erisman+Fred" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Boys' Books, Boys' Dreams, and the Mystique of Flight</a></em> (Fort Worth, Texas: Texas Christian University Press, <b>2006</b>) [nonfiction: hb/Bill Maize]</li> </ul> <p><b>links</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/gallery.php?link=boys_papers">Picture Gallery</a></li> </ul> <p><b>previous versions of this entry</b></p> <ul><li><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/boys_papers' target='_blank'>Internet Archive</a></li></ul><br /><br /></article></div> <div class="sideBarsWrapper"> <div class="sideBarsColsWrapper clearfix"> <div class="column sideBar12 clearfix"> <div class="columnForm"><aside id="blogFeed" class="widget"> <div class="content STeditorial clearfix"> <h2>Recently visited entries<span style="background:url(/images/thingSFE2.png) !important"></span></h2><ul style='width: 50%; 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