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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-publication"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, The </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 16 September 2024. Tagged: Publication.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=fsf'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=fsf'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=fsf'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> </div><p style='float:right; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:10px; position: relative; top: 3px;'> <a href='/gallery.php?id=FermanJordan-BestHorrorFSF.jpg' target='_blank'> <img src='https://x.sf-encyclopedia.com/gal/thumbs/FermanJordan-BestHorrorFSF.jpg' alt='pic'></a></p> <p>US <a href="/entry/digest">Digest</a>-size magazine; published Fall 1949 to the present. The first issue was titled simply <i>The Magazine of Fantasy</i>. Until February 1958 published by Fantasy House, Inc, a subsidiary of Mercury Publications, then by Mercury Press until January 2001, then by Gordon <a href="/entry/van_gelder_gordon">Van Gelder</a>'s Spilogale, Inc; Lawrence E Spivak (1900-1994) was Publisher from Fall 1949 to July 1954, Joseph W <a href="/entry/ferman_joseph_w">Ferman</a> August 1954 to October 1970, Edward L <a href="/entry/ferman_edward_l">Ferman</a> from November 1970 to January 2001, and Gordon Van Gelder from February 2001 to the present. The full list of editors is given below. The founding editors were Anthony <a href="/entry/boucher_anthony">Boucher</a> and J Francis <a href="/entry/mccomas_j_francis">McComas</a> with Boucher continuing alone from September 1954 until August 1958. The magazine began as a quarterly, became a bimonthly in February 1951, and monthly from August 1952 to March 2009, though with a combined October/November issue (meaning eleven issues per year) since 1991. It became once again bimonthly, with larger issues, from April/May 2009. With the January/February 2013 issue <i>F&SF</i> – this encyclopedia's usual abbreviation of the title – reached its 700th individual issue. Throughout it has retained many features typical of Mercury Publications, whose designer, George <a href="/entry/salter_george">Salter</a>, not only created the look of the new magazine but contributed cover illustrations as well for several years. These features include the digest format, the same typography on the cover and spine, and a continued use of one-column pages, making it the most consistent of all the long-running sf magazines. It is now the only surviving professional digest-size magazine.</p> <p><i>F&SF</i> – the abbreviation, taken from the words "Fantasy and Science Fiction" on the spine, being in almost universal use by its readers – won <a href="/entry/hugo">Hugos</a> for Best Magazine in 1958, 1959, 1960, 1963, 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972; after that category was dropped, Edward L <a href="/entry/ferman_edward_l">Ferman</a> won the Hugo for Best Editor in 1981, 1982 and 1983. There was then a long gap until Kristine Kathryn <a href="/entry/rusch_kristine_kathryn">Rusch</a> won the same award in 1994 and another gap before Gordon <a href="/entry/van_gelder_gordon">Van Gelder</a> won it in the Best Editor, short form category, in 2007 and 2008. The contents and artwork in <i>F&SF</i> have won a considerable number of awards, as shown by the list at the end of this entry which covers only the Hugo, <a href="/entry/nebula">Nebula</a> and <a href="/entry/locus_award">Locus Awards</a>. Stories from <i>F&SF</i> have won a greater diversity of awards than any other magazine.</p> <p>Although <i>F&SF</i> has serialized novels, its editorial policy has always placed the emphasis on short stories. Its founding editors abandoned the standards of <a href="/entry/pulp">Pulp</a>-magazine fiction and asked for stylish sf/fantasy that was up to the literary standards of the <a href="/entry/slick">Slick</a> magazines that had shaped US short-story writing between the wars; they also abandoned interior illustrations. At the outset <i>F&SF</i> published a great deal of light and humorous material, and used occasional reprints of stories by prestigious writers, including Robert <a href="/entry/graves_robert">Graves</a>, Eric <a href="/entry/linklater_eric">Linklater</a>, Robert <a href="/entry/nathan_robert">Nathan</a>, Robert Louis <a href="/entry/stevenson_robert_louis">Stevenson</a>, James <a href="/entry/thurber_james">Thurber</a>, Oscar <a href="/entry/wilde_oscar">Wilde</a> and P G <a href="/entry/wodehouse_p_g">Wodehouse</a> and new material by Gerald <a href="/entry/heard_gerald">Heard</a> and C S <a href="/entry/lewis_c_s">Lewis</a>. It had modelled itself to a degree on <i>Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine</i> (see Ellery <a href="/entry/queen_ellery">Queen</a>), which was a companion title when <i>F&SF</i> began and which had also been in digest form from the start, had sought to divorce itself from the pulps and, to a degree, had despite its title presented itself more as an <a href="/entry/anthologies">Anthology</a> than a magazine. <i>F&SF</i> did the same, and the issues edited by Boucher and McComas serve as a showcase for little-known sf and fantasy stories as well as the more unusual new material. Its cover art, mostly by George <a href="/entry/salter_george">Salter</a> at the start, was distinctive and like nothing else in the <a href="/entry/sf_magazines">SF Magazine</a> world. The fact that it published material by authors who only appeared in <i>F&SF</i> and not in any other genre magazines, though might equally be at home in a <a href="/entry/slick">Slick</a> magazine, shows the extent to which <i>F&SF</i> set itself apart from the other magazines: writers like Vance <a href="/entry/aandahl_vance">Aandahl</a>, Doris Pitkin <a href="/entry/buck_doris_pitkin">Buck</a>, Esther Carlson, Mildred <a href="/entry/clingerman_mildred">Clingerman</a>, P M Hubbard, H <a href="/entry/nearing_homer_jr">Nearing</a> Jr, John Novotny, Will <a href="/entry/stanton_will">Stanton</a> – plus those who were almost exclusively <i>F&SF</i> writers, such as Avram <a href="/entry/davidson_avram">Davidson</a>, Zenna <a href="/entry/henderson_zenna">Henderson</a>, Harvey <a href="/entry/jacobs_harvey">Jacobs</a>, Willard Marsh, Ward <a href="/entry/moore_ward">Moore</a> and Kit <a href="/entry/reed_kit">Reed</a> – or indeed those who created separate personae exclusively for <i>F&SF</i> such as Margaret <a href="/entry/st_clair_margaret">St Clair</a> as Idris Seabright, and Manly Wade <a href="/entry/wellman_manly_wade">Wellman</a> as Levi Crow. Even today there are writers still far more closely associated with <i>F&SF</i> than any other magazine, such as Albert E <a href="/entry/cowdrey_albert_e">Cowdrey</a> and Mary Rickert, showing that even though the magazine has developed, an individuality – almost an exclusivity – remains.</p> <p>Thus during the 1950s <i>F&SF</i> was not regarded in the same way as its two close rivals, <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a> and <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>, and though these were for many years banded together as "the Big Three", that had more to do with diversity than similarity: in simplistic terms, <i>Astounding</i> for <a href="/entry/hard_sf">Hard SF</a>, <i>Galaxy</i> for social and satirical sf and <i>F&SF</i> for literary sf and anything out of the ordinary. Several stories are testament to the distinctiveness of <i>F&SF</i>'s broader editorial policy: "Born of Man and Woman" (Summer 1950) by Richard <a href="/entry/matheson_richard">Matheson</a>, <i>Bring the Jubilee</i> by Ward <a href="/entry/moore_ward">Moore</a> (November 1952; exp <b>1953</b>); Manly Wade <a href="/entry/wellman_manly_wade">Wellman</a>'s <b>John the Ballad Singer</b> series; a number of Avram <a href="/entry/davidson_avram">Davidson</a>'s early stories, especially "The Golem" (March 1955), the <b>Papa Schimmelhorn</b> stories by Reginald <a href="/entry/bretnor_reginald">Bretnor</a>, several stories by Damon <a href="/entry/knight_damon">Knight</a>, especially "The Country of the Kind" (February 1956), the <b>People</b> series by Zenna <a href="/entry/henderson_zenna">Henderson</a>, these are all uniquely <i>F&SF</i> stories. Others, that by rights could have appeared elsewhere, have Anthony <a href="/entry/boucher_anthony">Boucher</a> or Robert P <a href="/entry/mills_robert_e">Mills</a> to thank for finding them a home. Paramount amongst these are the series that became the book <i>A Canticle for Leibowitz</i> (fixup dated 1960 but <b>1959</b>) that began with the title story in the April 1955 issue and included "And the Light is Risen" (August 1956) and "The Last Canticle" (February 1957). Miller had been unable to sell the first story but Boucher instantly saw its importance. Another example is one of the most respected of all sf stories, "Flowers for Algernon" (April 1959) by Daniel <a href="/entry/keyes_daniel">Keyes</a> which had been written for H L <a href="/entry/gold_h_l">Gold</a> at <i>Galaxy</i>: Gold rejected it, asking for a happy ending. William <a href="/entry/tenn_william">Tenn</a> advised Keyes not to revise it and Robert P Mills snapped it up for <i>F&SF</i>. One further example will suffice. Mills had originally rejected a story by Philip José <a href="/entry/farmer_philip_jose">Farmer</a> which was then sold to <a href="/entry/fantastic_universe">Fantastic Universe</a>, but when that magazine folded, Mills changed his mind and published the story as "Open to Me, My Sister" (May 1960), perhaps the most extreme example of alien <a href="/entry/sex">Sex</a> to appear in the sf magazines of that period.</p> <p><a href="/entry/mills_robert_p">Mills</a>, who was editor from September 1958 to March 1962, is often unfairly regarded as a caretaker editor; but not only had he served as managing editor under Boucher, compiling the issues in his New York office from what Boucher sent him, but he himself acquired fiction for thirty-one creditable issues. Besides the Farmer and Keyes stories, he also published Robert A <a href="/entry/heinlein_robert_a">Heinlein</a>'s "All You Zombies –" (March 1959); Theodore <a href="/entry/sturgeon_theodore">Sturgeon</a>'s "The Man Who Lost the Sea" (October 1959); Alfred <a href="/entry/bester_alfred">Bester</a>'s "The Pi Man" (October 1959); an abridged version of Heinlein's <i>Starship Troopers</i> (<b>1959</b>) as "Starship Soldier" (October-November 1959) and of Algis <a href="/entry/budrys_algis">Budrys</a>'s <i>Rogue Moon</i> (December 1960; exp <b>1960</b>); plus Brian W <a href="/entry/aldiss_brian_w">Aldiss</a>'s <b>Hothouse</b> series which began in February 1961; and J G <a href="/entry/ballard_j_g">Ballard</a>'s "The Garden of Time" (February 1962). He gave the first US publication to Kingsley <a href="/entry/amis_kingsley">Amis</a>'s "Something Strange" (25 November 1960 <i>Spectator</i>; July 1961) and published six stories by the author of <i>Spartacus</i> (<b>1951</b>), Howard <a href="/entry/fast_howard">Fast</a>. He also published the first stories to see print by Richard M <a href="/entry/mckenna_richard_m">McKenna</a> and Joanna <a href="/entry/russ_joanna">Russ</a>. At this same time he was editing <i>F&SF</i>'s new sister magazine <a href="/entry/venture_science_fiction">Venture Science Fiction</a> and when <i>Venture</i> closed, Mills ensured that the science column, which Isaac <a href="/entry/asimov_isaac">Asimov</a> had started there, continued in <i>F&SF</i>. It ran in every issue from November 1958 to February 1992: 399 essays which Asimov collected into many books. The series, which Asimov always maintained was what he most enjoyed writing, ceased only with Asimov's death. A 400th essay, "A Way of Thinking" (December 1994) was put together by his widow Janet <a href="/entry/asimov_janet">Asimov</a> based on their discussions, but a more appropriate final one appeared as "Yours Isaac Asimov" (January 1996) extracted from the book <i>Yours, Isaac Asimov: A Lifetime of Letters</i> (<b>1995</b>) assembled by his brother, Stanley Asimov (1929-1995).</p> <p>Under Mills, <i>F&SF</i> maintained its distinctiveness though it also lost some of the Boucher idiosyncrasies and the <a href="/entry/slick">Slick</a> veneer. It did, however, run the long series (1958-1964) of punning and shaggy-dog stories known as <a href="/entry/feghoots">Feghoots</a>, written by Reginald <a href="/entry/bretnor_reginald">Bretnor</a> as Grendel Briarton. It was on its way to becoming a more orthodox sf magazine, though it had first to pass through the even more idiosyncratic editorship of Avram <a href="/entry/davidson_avram">Davidson</a> which ran from April 1962 to November 1964. Davidson rarely settled and spent much of his time as editor in Mexico, and the young Edward L <a href="/entry/ferman_edward_l">Ferman</a> came in as managing editor, to assemble the issues in New York. Davidson made the magazine peculiarly his own. He introduced writers from beyond the English-speaking world, such as Hugo Correa from Chile (see <a href="/entry/latin_america">Latin America</a>), Herbert W <a href="/entry/franke_herbert_w">Franke</a> from <a href="/entry/germany">Germany</a>, Shin'ishi <a href="/entry/hoshi_shinichi">Hoshi</a> from Japan and Valentina Zhuravlyova from the Soviet Union. He published the first story by Terry <a href="/entry/carr_terry">Carr</a>, "Who Sups with the Devil?" (May 1962) and the first of Roger <a href="/entry/zelazny_roger">Zelazny</a>'s stories to be nominated for a <a href="/entry/hugo">Hugo</a>, "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" (November 1963). At the suggestion of Joseph <a href="/entry/ferman_joseph_w">Ferman</a>, Davidson produced the first two "author special" issues, featuring Theodore <a href="/entry/sturgeon_theodore">Sturgeon</a> (September 1962) and Ray <a href="/entry/bradbury_ray">Bradbury</a> (May 1963). This has since become an occasional but important part of <i>F&SF</i>'s history. Subsequent special issues featured Isaac <a href="/entry/asimov_isaac">Asimov</a> (October 1966), Fritz <a href="/entry/leiber_fritz">Leiber</a> (July 1969), Poul <a href="/entry/anderson_poul">Anderson</a> (April 1971), James <a href="/entry/blish_james">Blish</a> (April 1972), Frederik <a href="/entry/pohl_frederik">Pohl</a> (September 1973), Robert <a href="/entry/silverberg_robert">Silverberg</a> (April 1974), Damon <a href="/entry/knight_damon">Knight</a> (November 1976), Harlan <a href="/entry/ellison_harlan">Ellison</a> (July 1977), Stephen <a href="/entry/king_stephen">King</a> (December 1990), Lucius <a href="/entry/shepard_lucius">Shepard</a> (March 2001), Kate <a href="/entry/wilhelm_kate">Wilhelm</a> (September 2001), Barry N <a href="/entry/malzberg_barry_n">Malzberg</a> (June 2003), Gene <a href="/entry/wolfe_gene">Wolfe</a> (April 2007) and David <a href="/entry/gerrold_david">Gerrold</a> (September/October 2016).</p> <p>It became impractical for Davidson to continue editing the magazine at long distance, and from December 1964 Joseph Ferman nominally took over as editor; in practice his son, Edward <a href="/entry/ferman_edward_l">Ferman</a> was really producing the magazine in all but name, and had been since the November 1964 issue, though the first for which he felt fully in control was for May 1965. He remained editor for the next 26 years, also succeeding his father as publisher from November 1970. Ferman made <i>F&SF</i> something of a cottage industry run from his home in Connecticut, with a succession of assistant editors, including Ted <a href="/entry/white_ted">White</a> and Andrew <a href="/entry/porter_andrew">Porter</a> in New York and Anne Jordan (1943-2013) in Connecticut. He introduced Judith <a href="/entry/merril_judith">Merril</a> as the regular book columnist from March 1965.</p> <p>It was during Ferman's long run that the magazine consolidated itself, keeping the character of the past with the need to reflect the present and look to the future. It managed to avoid the odder excesses of the <a href="/entry/new_wave">New Wave</a> and yet published first-class material by people associated with it, such as Thomas M <a href="/entry/disch_thomas_m">Disch</a> and John <a href="/entry/sladek_john_t">Sladek</a>, and the new wave of American talent, notably Samuel <a href="/entry/delany_samuel_r">Delany</a> and Roger <a href="/entry/zelazny_roger">Zelazny</a>. In 1968 the magazine sponsored a novel-writing contest won by Piers <a href="/entry/anthony_piers">Anthony</a> with <i>Sos the Rope</i> (July-September 1968; <b>1968</b>). If it had a heyday – and it is rare for <i>F&SF</i> not to be having a heyday – it would have been the 1970s and, amidst a wealth of creative and important writers, the two that dominate that decade are Harlan <a href="/entry/ellison_harlan">Ellison</a> and James <a href="/entry/tiptree_james_jr">Tiptree</a> Jr. Ellison was at his most creative during that period and <i>F&SF</i> benefited the most with "Corpse" (January 1972), "Basilisk" (August 1972), "The Deathbird" (March 1973), "Croatoan" (May 1975) and "Jeffty is Five" (October 1979), to name but a few. James Tiptree was also writing at her best in this decade and <i>F&SF</i> arguably ran her best work, "Painwise" (February 1972), "And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side" (March 1972) and the story that almost defined her whole output, "The Women Men Don't See" (December 1973).</p> <p>Ferman also discovered several important writers during the 1970s, chief amongst them Pamela <a href="/entry/sargent_pamela">Sargent</a>, Tom <a href="/entry/reamy_tom">Reamy</a> and John <a href="/entry/varley_john">Varley</a>, and he ran much of the important early work of Michael <a href="/entry/bishop_michael">Bishop</a>, James Patrick <a href="/entry/kelly_james_patrick">Kelly</a>, Lisa <a href="/entry/tuttle_lisa">Tuttle</a> and Michael <a href="/entry/shea_michael_2">Shea</a>. Ferman was welcoming to British writers, and even assembled an all-British issue (April 1978). Works of special interest by British writers at this time include "Pages from a Young Girl's Journal" (February 1973) by Robert Aickman (1914-1981), which won the first short-fiction <a href="/entry/world_fantasy_award">World Fantasy Award</a>; "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (March 1976) by Richard <a href="/entry/cowper_richard">Cowper</a>, which served as a prelude to his <b>Corlay</b> sequence, and "Palely Loitering" (January 1979) by Christopher <a href="/entry/priest_christopher">Priest</a>, which won the <a href="/entry/bsfa_award">BSFA Award</a>.</p> <p>During the 1970s Ferman was able to show <i>F&SF</i> at its best with its widest range of material, from solid <a href="/entry/hard_sf">Hard SF</a> in the works of Gregory <a href="/entry/benford_gregory">Benford</a>, Algis <a href="/entry/budrys_algis">Budrys</a>, John <a href="/entry/varley_john">Varley</a> and Frederik <a href="/entry/pohl_frederik">Pohl</a>, to the more exotic sf of Michael <a href="/entry/bishop_michael">Bishop</a> and Robert <a href="/entry/silverberg_robert">Silverberg</a> – whose <i>Lord Valentine's Castle</i> (<b>1980</b>) was serialized from November 1979 to February 1980 – to the fantasies of Sterling <a href="/entry/lanier_sterling_e">Lanier</a> and Tom <a href="/entry/reamy_tom">Reamy</a> and the supernatural horror of Charles L <a href="/entry/grant_charles_l">Grant</a> and Stephen <a href="/entry/king_stephen">King</a>. Ferman also retained the eccentric and idiosyncratic with contributors like Harvey <a href="/entry/jacobs_harvey">Jacobs</a>, R A <a href="/entry/lafferty_r_a">Lafferty</a> and the linguistically challenging Felix <a href="/entry/gotschalk_felix_c">Gotschalk</a>.</p> <p>The 1980s began in the same way but brought a new challenge. <i>Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine</i> (see <a href="/entry/asimovs">Asimov's</a>), which had started in 1977, had followed its own course under George <a href="/entry/scithers_george_h">Scithers</a> but under Shawna <a href="/entry/mccarthy_shawna">McCarthy</a> from 1983 and Gardner <a href="/entry/dozois_gardner">Dozois</a> from 1986 began to run material that would normally be more closely associated with <i>F&SF</i>. Avram <a href="/entry/davidson_avram">Davidson</a> had already been lured away to <i>Asimov's</i> and whilst <i>F&SF</i> had published most of the early work by Lucius <a href="/entry/shepard_lucius">Shepard</a> he, too, was soon selling regularly to <i>Asimov's</i>. Moreover, <i>Asimov's</i> was publishing authors you would expect to see in <i>F&SF</i>, like James P <a href="/entry/blaylock_james_p">Blaylock</a>, John <a href="/entry/crowley_john">Crowley</a> and Dan <a href="/entry/simmons_dan">Simmons</a>. There was a similar, but not quite so intense rivalry from <i>Omni</i>. The territory which <i>F&SF</i> had for so long regarded as its own and which had made it so popular, was now being invaded by two other major magazines. <i>F&SF</i> still acquired excellent material, including most of the final stories by James <a href="/entry/tiptree_james_jr">Tiptree</a> Jr, and work by Jonathan Carroll, Robert P <a href="/entry/holdstock_robert_p">Holdstock</a>, Nancy Springer and Bruce <a href="/entry/sterling_bruce">Sterling</a>, and would occasionally publish stories that stood out for their audacity or daring, notably "Lost Boys" (October 1989) by Orson Scott <a href="/entry/card_orson_scott">Card</a> or the start of the <b>Kirinyaga</b> series by Mike <a href="/entry/resnick_mike">Resnick</a> with <i>Kirinyaga</i> (November 1988; <b>1992</b> chap). But the uniqueness of <i>F&SF</i> had been eroded.</p> <p>In 1991 Ferman handed the editorial reins to Kristine Kathryn <a href="/entry/rusch_kristine_kathryn">Rusch</a>, twenty-three years his junior, which had an immediate impact on the magazine. Under Rusch's editorship many readers claimed to detect a change in the "feel" of the magazine, as Rusch introduced a greater element of dark fantasy and horror, as best exemplified by "The Night We Buried Road Dog" (January 1993) by Jack <a href="/entry/cady_jack">Cady</a>. It was also during her tenure that Isaac <a href="/entry/asimov_isaac">Asimov</a> died; the loss of his column, which had added significantly to the magazine's personality, was not easy to replace. His successors have included Gregory <a href="/entry/benford_gregory">Benford</a> and Bruce <a href="/entry/sterling_bruce">Sterling</a>. Also, Algis <a href="/entry/budrys_algis">Budrys</a>, who had been the magazine's lead book reviewer since 1975, stepped down in 1992. He was succeeded by John <a href="/entry/kessel_john">Kessel</a> who stepped down in 1995 to be followed by Robert Killheffer (1994-2004) sometimes alternating with Elizabeth <a href="/entry/hand_elizabeth">Hand</a> and James <a href="/entry/sallis_james">Sallis</a>. Rusch also introduced the new column, "Plumage from Pegasus" by Paul <a href="/entry/di_filippo_paul">Di Filippo</a> from September 1994. Rusch still published some important fiction, such as "Last Summer at Mars Hill" (August 1994) by Elizabeth Hand and "The Martian Child" (September 1994) by David <a href="/entry/gerrold_david">Gerrold</a>, but it was difficult to compete with <i>Asimov's</i>, though Rusch did win the Best Professional Editor <a href="/entry/hugo">Hugo</a> award in 1994. Amongst the readers of <i>Locus</i> who vote for the <a href="/entry/locus_award">Locus Awards</a>, <i>F&SF</i> was now the regular runner-up rather than winner, and it did not regain first place until 2002, a position it continued to hold until superseded again by <i>Asimov's</i> in 2011.</p> <p>This recovery is due to the change to Gordon <a href="/entry/van_gelder_gordon">Van Gelder</a> as editor in June 1997 and as publisher from 2001. He began to restore some of the magazine's distinctiveness, and though he still ran <a href="/entry/hard_sf">Hard SF</a> on occasions, the magazine's emphasis shifted towards a broader range of fantasy and thereby regaining its own voice. Van Gelder's biggest challenge was how to deal with the drop in circulation that was afflicting all <a href="/entry/print_magazines">Print Magazines</a>. <i>F&SF</i>'s circulation had always been fairly constant, between 50-60,000 and had even defied trends in the 1980s by rising above 60,000, mostly due to a solid subscriber base, but by the mid-1990s began to drop, roughly 10% year on year to under 15,000 by 2011. To reduce costs Van Gelder switched to bimonthly publication from April 2009, but increased the page count from 160 to 260 with a corresponding price rise. The extra pages allowed Van Gelder to include a wider range of material and longer stories, so that each issue is now a more substantial read. Contents-wise, <i>F&SF</i> is as good as ever, but its future, in terms of sales, still raises questions. C C <a href="/entry/finlay_c_c">Finlay</a> took over as editor with the March/April 2015 issue, while Van Gelder continued as publisher. As a contributor Finlay had been quite a renegade, producing such notable stories as "The Political Officer" (April 2002) and "Pervert" (March 2004). This did not translate into his editing where he kept a reasonably even keel, continuing in the tradition of <i>F&SF</i>, always allowing some experimentation but generally not changing the trusted formula. As under van Gelder, there was a preponderance of fantasy over sf. Slowly but steadily, Finlay encouraged more contributions by writers from outside the USA. He was succeeded as editor by Sheree Renée <a href="/entry/thomas_sheree_renee">Thomas</a> from the March/April 2021 issue. Owing to production problems the schedule slipped to quarterly in 2024, with the Spring issue skipped and the Summer issue released in September of that year.</p> <p>Throughout its life <i>F&SF</i> has generally not carried any internal illustrations besides occasional cartoons and department masthead designs (one of the rare exceptions being artwork for Robert A <a href="/entry/heinlein_robert_a">Heinlein</a>'s "Star Lummox", May-July 1954), but it has always had exceptional cover art. During the 1950s the mainstay artist was Ed <a href="/entry/emshwiller_ed">Emshwiller</a>, with occasional space covers by Chesley <a href="/entry/bonestell_chesley">Bonestell</a>. Of interest was a series of sixteen covers by Mel <a href="/entry/hunter_mel">Hunter</a>, which ran between October 1955 and December 1971, with one later one in May 2003 and was known as the "Last Man" series, depicting a lone <a href="/entry/robots">Robot</a> in various settings and guises, long after humanity has gone. A distinctive artist in the 1960s was Ron <a href="/entry/walotsky_ron">Walotsky</a>, whose first cover was in May 1967 and he continued to provide occasional covers up to his death in 2002. David <a href="/entry/hardy_david_a">Hardy</a>, Rick <a href="/entry/sternbach_rick">Sternbach</a> and Don Davis all provided some striking astronomical covers throughout the 1970s – <i>F&SF</i> would sometimes have a science-based cover but with no <a href="/entry/hard_sf">Hard SF</a> stories in the issue. Barclay <a href="/entry/shaw_barclay">Shaw</a> began his run of over twenty occasional covers in March 1979. In more recent years covers have been provided by Kent Bash, Jill Bauman, Max Bertolini, Cory and Catska Ench, Michael Garland and Maurizio Manzieri, most of them fantasy-orientated, whilst Bob <a href="/entry/eggleton_bob">Eggleton</a> has won four <a href="/entry/chesley_awards">Chesley Awards</a> for his more science-based covers.</p> <p>There have been many anthologies derived from <i>F&SF</i>, for details of which see the individual editors' entries. In addition, <i>The Eureka Years</i> (anth <b>1982</b>) compiled by Annette Peltz McComas, reprinted stories, commentary and letters from the magazine's first five years, showing how it was founded and established.</p> <p>UK editions of the magazine ran from October 1953 to September 1954 (12 issues) from Mellifont Press (for an index of its publications see Stephen <a href="/entry/holland_stephen">Holland</a>), and from December 1959 to June 1964 (55 issues) from Atlas Publishing and Distributing. These did not reprint whole issues, but selected and recombined stories from the US edition. The UK reprint magazine <a href="/entry/venture_science_fiction">Venture Science Fiction</a> (1963-1965), also from Atlas, carried material from <i>FSF</i> as well as from the US <a href="/entry/venture_science_fiction">Venture</a>. There was a selective reprint edition in Australia between November 1954 and August 1958 (14 issues, undated) from Consolidated Press, Sydney.</p> <p>There has also been an extensive number of non-English language editions of <i>F&SF</i> around the world, two of which evolved into major magazines. In <a href="/entry/france">France</a>, <i>Fiction</i> began in October 1953 and continued, with occasional lulls, until February 1990, a total of 412 issues. For most of that time it was edited by Alain Dorémieux and it incorporated original French material in addition to the translations from the US edition. Some of those new stories were translated into English for the US edition, such as Claude Veillot's story of alien domination, "The First Days of May" (May 1960 <i>Fiction</i> as "Les Premiers jours de mai"; December 1961 trans Damon <a href="/entry/knight_damon">Knight</a>). <i>Fiction</i> was relaunched in Spring 2005 as a twice-yearly magazine/anthology series. In <a href="/entry/japan">Japan</a>, <i>S-F Magazine</i> began in February 1960 as an edition of <i>F&SF</i> but soon developed as a major magazine of original material and continues today, one of the world's longest running magazines. If both <i>F&SF</i> and <i>S-F Magazine</i> maintain their current schedules, <i>S-F Magazine</i> will pass <i>F&SF</i>'s total number of issues in January 2016, and possibly earlier if it continues to produce the occasional special extra issue. Other editions of <i>F&SF</i>, in order of appearance, include: <a href="/entry/italy">Italy</a>, <i>Fantascienza</i> (November 1954-May 1955), <i>Fantasia & Fantascienza</i> (December 1962-October 1963) and a current incarnation published by Elara Libre; <a href="/entry/brazil">Brazil</a>, <i>Magazine de Ficção Científica</i> (April 1970-November 1971; 20 issues); <a href="/entry/norway">Norway</a>, <i>Science Fiction Magasinet</i> (September and October 1971), which thereafter continued as a separate magazine; <a href="/entry/sweden">Sweden</a>, <i>Jules Verne Magasinet</i> which was revived and, from issue #343 (January 1972) reached an agreement with Edward Ferman to translate stories; <a href="/entry/argentina">Argentina</a>, <i>La revista de ciencia ficción y fantasía</i> (October 1976-February 1977; 3 issues); <a href="/entry/israel">Israel</a>, <i>Fantasia 2000</i> (December 1978-August 1984; 44 issues) and <a href="/entry/russia">Russia</a>, <i>Supernova</i>, which began in January 1994. [MA]</p> <h2>Editors</h2> <ul class="x"> <li>Anthony <a href="/entry/boucher_anthony">Boucher</a> and J Francis <a href="/entry/mccomas_j_francis">McComas</a>, Fall 1949 to August 1954</li> <li>Anthony <a href="/entry/boucher_anthony">Boucher</a> alone, September 1954 to August 1958</li> <li>Robert P <a href="/entry/mills_robert_p">Mills</a>, September 1958 to March 1962</li> <li>Avram <a href="/entry/davidson_avram">Davidson</a>, April 1962 to November 1964</li> <li>Joseph W <a href="/entry/ferman_joseph_w">Ferman</a>, December 1964 to December 1965</li> <li>Edward L <a href="/entry/ferman_edward_l">Ferman</a>, January 1966 to June 1991</li> <li>Kristine Kathryn <a href="/entry/rusch_kristine_kathryn">Rusch</a>, July 1991 to May 1997</li> <li>Gordon <a href="/entry/van_gelder_gordon">Van Gelder</a>, June 1997 to January/February 2015</li> <li>C C <a href="/entry/finlay_c_c">Finlay</a>, March/April 2015 to January/February 2020</li> <li>Sheree Renée <a href="/entry/thomas_sheree_renee">Thomas</a>, March/April 2021 to current</li> </ul> <h2>Awards for fiction</h2> <ul class="x"> <li>September 1958: Robert <a href="/entry/bloch_robert">Bloch</a>, "That Hellbound Train" – short story Hugo</li> <li>April 1959: Daniel <a href="/entry/keyes_daniel">Keyes</a>, "Flowers for Algernon" – short fiction Hugo; the novel version, <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Flowers+for+Algernon&field-author=" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Flowers for Algernon</a></em> (<b>1966</b>), won a <a href="/entry/nebula">Nebula</a></li> <li>February-December 1961: Brian W <a href="/entry/aldiss_brian_w">Aldiss</a>, <b>Hothouse</b> series – short fiction Hugo (fixup as <em>The Long Afternoon of Earth</em> <b>1962</b>; exp vt <em>Hothouse</em> <b>1962</b>)</li> <li>June 1963: Poul <a href="/entry/anderson_poul">Anderson</a>, "No Truce with Kings" – short fiction Hugo</li> <li>March 1965: Roger <a href="/entry/zelazny_roger">Zelazny</a>, "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" – novelette Nebula</li> <li>September 1965: Brian W <a href="/entry/aldiss_brian_w">Aldiss</a>, "The Saliva Tree" – novella Nebula</li> <li>October-November 1965: Roger <a href="/entry/zelazny_roger">Zelazny</a>, "... And Call Me Conrad" (exp vt <em>This Immortal</em> <b>1966</b>) – novel Hugo</li> <li>July 1969: Fritz <a href="/entry/leiber_fritz">Leiber</a>, "Ship of Shadows" – novella Hugo</li> <li>April 1970: Fritz <a href="/entry/leiber_fritz">Leiber</a>, "Ill Met in Lankhmar" – novella Hugo and Nebula</li> <li>April 1971: Poul <a href="/entry/anderson_poul">Anderson</a>, "The Queen of Air and Darkness" – novella Hugo, novelette Nebula, short fiction <a href="/entry/locus_award">Locus Award</a></li> <li>February 1972: Poul <a href="/entry/anderson_poul">Anderson</a>, "Goat Song" – novelette Hugo and Nebula</li> <li>August 1972: Harlan <a href="/entry/ellison_harlan">Ellison</a>, "Basilisk" – novelette Locus</li> <li>November 1972: Frederik <a href="/entry/pohl_frederik">Pohl</a> and Cyril M <a href="/entry/kornbluth_c_m">Kornbluth</a>, "The Meeting" – short story Hugo</li> <li>March 1973: Harlan <a href="/entry/ellison_harlan">Ellison</a>, "The Deathbird" – novelette Hugo, short fiction Locus</li> <li>April 1974: Robert <a href="/entry/silverberg_robert">Silverberg</a>, "Born With the Dead" – novella Nebula and Locus</li> <li>October 1974: Harlan <a href="/entry/ellison_harlan">Ellison</a>, "Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans, Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W" – novelette Hugo and Locus</li> <li>March 1975: Fritz <a href="/entry/leiber_fritz">Leiber</a>, "Catch that Zeppelin!" – short story Hugo and Nebula</li> <li>May 1975: Harlan <a href="/entry/ellison_harlan">Ellison</a>, "Croatoan" – short story Locus</li> <li>August 1975: Tom <a href="/entry/reamy_tom">Reamy</a>, "San Diego Lightfoot Sue" – novelette Nebula</li> <li>February 1976: Michael <a href="/entry/bishop_michael">Bishop</a>, "The Samurai and the Willows" – novella Locus</li> <li>April-June 1976: Frederik <a href="/entry/pohl_frederik">Pohl</a>, <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Man+Plus&field-author=" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Man Plus</a></em> (<b>1976</b>) – novel Nebula</li> <li>June 1976: Charles L <a href="/entry/grant_charles_l">Grant</a>, "A Crowd of Shadows" – short story Nebula</li> <li>July 1977: Harlan <a href="/entry/ellison_harlan">Ellison</a>, "Jeffty is Five" – short story Hugo and Nebula, short fiction Locus</li> <li>February 1978: Edward <a href="/entry/bryant_edward">Bryant</a>, "Stone" – short story Nebula</li> <li>March 1978: John <a href="/entry/varley_john">Varley</a>, "The Persistence of Vision" – novella Hugo, Nebula and Locus</li> <li>October 1978: C J <a href="/entry/cherryh_c_j">Cherryh</a>, "Cassandra" – short story Hugo</li> <li>August 1980: Thomas M <a href="/entry/disch_thomas_m">Disch</a>, <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=The+Brave+Little+Toaster&field-author=" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">The Brave Little Toaster</a></em> (<b>1986</b> chap) – novelette Locus</li> <li>May 1981: Lisa <a href="/entry/tuttle_lisa">Tuttle</a>, "The Bone Flute" – short story Nebula</li> <li>October 1981: John <a href="/entry/varley_john">Varley</a>, "The Pusher" – short story Hugo</li> <li>January 1982: Joanna <a href="/entry/russ_joanna">Russ</a>, "Souls" – novella Hugo and Locus</li> <li>September 1982: John <a href="/entry/kessel_john">Kessel</a>, "Another Orphan" – novella Nebula</li> <li>January 1983: James <a href="/entry/tiptree_james_jr">Tiptree</a> Jr, "Beyond the Dead Reef" – short story Locus</li> <li>July 1983: George R R Martin, "The Monkey Treatment" – novelette Locus</li> <li>April 1984: Lucius Shepard, "Salvador" – short story Locus</li> <li>March 1985: Nancy <a href="/entry/kress_nancy">Kress</a>, "Out of All Them Bright Stars" – short story Nebula</li> <li>October 1985: James <a href="/entry/tiptree_james_jr">Tiptree</a> Jr, "The Only Neat Thing to Do" – novella Locus</li> <li>July 1986: David <a href="/entry/brin_david">Brin</a>, "Thor Meets Captain America" – novelette Locus</li> <li>November 1987: Ursula K <a href="/entry/le_guin_ursula_k">Le Guin</a>, "Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight" – novelette Hugo</li> <li>July 1988: Harlan <a href="/entry/ellison_harlan">Ellison</a>, "Eidolons" – short story Locus</li> <li>November 1988: Mike <a href="/entry/resnick_mike">Resnick</a>, "Kirinyaga" – short story Hugo</li> <li>October 1989: Orson Scott <a href="/entry/card_orson_scott">Card</a>, "Lost Boys" – short story Locus</li> <li>January 1991: John <a href="/entry/kessel_john">Kessel</a>, "Buffalo" – short story Locus</li> <li>February 1991: Alan <a href="/entry/brennert_alan">Brennert</a>, "Ma Qui" – short story Nebula</li> <li>May 1991: Mike <a href="/entry/conner_michael">Conner</a>, "Guide Dog" – novelette Nebula</li> <li>October/November 1992: Joe <a href="/entry/haldeman_joe">Haldeman</a>, "Graves" – short story Nebula</li> <li>January 1993: Jack <a href="/entry/cady_jack">Cady</a>, "The Night We Buried Road Dog" – novella Nebula</li> <li>August 1994: Elizabeth <a href="/entry/hand_elizabeth">Hand</a>, "Last Summer at Mars Hill" – novella Nebula</li> <li>September 1994: David <a href="/entry/gerrold_david">Gerrold</a>, "The Martian Child" – novelette Hugo, Nebula and Locus</li> <li>October/November 1994: Mike <a href="/entry/resnick_mike">Resnick</a>, "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge" – novella Hugo and Nebula</li> <li>December 1994: Ursula K <a href="/entry/le_guin_ursula_k">Le Guin</a>, "Solitude" – novelette Hugo</li> <li>April 1995: Maureen F <a href="/entry/mchugh_maureen_f">McHugh</a>, "The Lincoln Train" – short story Hugo and Locus</li> <li>August 1995: Esther M <a href="/entry/friesner_esther_m">Friesner</a>, "A Birthday" – short story Nebula</li> <li>October/November 1995: Bruce Holland Rogers, "Lifeboat on a Burning Sea" – novelette Nebula</li> <li>September 1996: John <a href="/entry/crowley_john">Crowley</a>, "Gone" – short story Locus</li> <li>December 1996: Jerry <a href="/entry/oltion_jerry_b">Oltion</a>, "Abandon in Place" – novella Nebula</li> <li>January 1998: Sheila <a href="/entry/finch_sheila">Finch</a>, "Reading the Bones" – novella Nebula</li> <li>May 1998: Bruce <a href="/entry/sterling_bruce">Sterling</a>, "Maneki Neko" – short story Locus</li> <li>May 1999: Stephen <a href="/entry/baxter_stephen">Baxter</a>, "Huddle" – novelette Locus</li> <li>October/November 1999: Terry <a href="/entry/bisson_terry">Bisson</a>, "macs" – short story Nebula and Locus</li> <li>January 2000: David <a href="/entry/langford_david">Langford</a>, "Different Kinds of Darkness" – short story Hugo</li> <li>June 2000: Ursula K <a href="/entry/le_guin_ursula_k">Le Guin</a>, "The Birthday of the World" – novelette Locus</li> <li>October/November 2001: Carol <a href="/entry/emshwiller_carol">Emshwiller</a>, "Creature" – short story Nebula</li> <li>August 2002: Richard Chwedyk, "Bronte's Egg" – novella Nebula</li> <li>May 2003: Ellen <a href="/entry/klages_ellen">Klages</a>, "Basement Magic" – novelette Nebula</li> <li>March 2005: Carol <a href="/entry/emshwiller_carol">Emshwiller</a>, "I Live With You" – short story Nebula</li> <li>September 2005: Kelly Link, "Magic for Beginners" – novella Nebula</li> <li>October/November 2005: Elizabeth <a href="/entry/hand_elizabeth">Hand</a>, "Echo" – short story Nebula</li> <li>October/November 2005: Peter S <a href="/entry/beagle_peter_s">Beagle</a>, "Two Hearts" – novelette Hugo and Nebula</li> <li>March/April 2011: Ken <a href="/entry/liu_ken">Liu</a>, "The Paper Menagerie" – short story Hugo and Nebula</li> <li>September/October 2011: Geoff <a href="/entry/ryman_geoff">Ryman</a>, "What We Found" – novelette Nebula</li> <li>September/October 2012: Andy <a href="/entry/duncan_andy">Duncan</a>, "Close Encounters", reprinted from <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=The+Pottawatomie+Giant+and+Other+Stories&field-author=" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories</a></em> (coll <b>2012</b>) – novelette Nebula</li> <li>July/August 2014: Alaya Dawn <a href="/entry/johnson_alaya_dawn">Johnson</a>, "A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i" – novelette Nebula</li> <li>May/June 2016: William Ledbetter, "The Long Fall Up" – novelette Nebula</li> <li>September/October 2017: Samuel R <a href="/entry/delany_samuel_r">Delany</a>, "The Hermit of Houston" – novelette Locus</li> </ul> <p><b>see also:</b> <a href="/entry/golden_age_of_sf">Golden Age of SF</a>; <a href="/entry/longevity_in_publications">Longevity in Publications</a>.</p> <p><b>links</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/"><em>The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction</em></a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.philsp.com/mags/fsf.html">Galactic Central illustrated checklist</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/fsf' target='_blank'>Internet Archive</a></li></ul><br /><br /></article></div> <div class="sideBarsWrapper"> 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