Copies of the Introduction to this exhibition and catalogues of previous exhibitions are available from the Rare Books Department

An Exhibition of Material from the Rare Book Collection
Monash University Library
1 September 1999 to 29 February 2000

Exhibition and catalogue by Richard Overell, Rare Books Librarian,
Monash University Library

Introduction

This exhibition by the Monash Rare Books library links the development of a particular form of speculative fiction through several critical phases.

The earliest exhibits demonstrate the power of speculative fantasy to make powerful political commentary. These books were written at a time when the concept of science was weak and embryonic. Arguably they follow the common science fiction convention of making a key major assumption (which may have no foundation) and building the story on the consequences of the altered society or world that emerges. Swift broadly follows this approach and places his stories in a distant part of the world: a location outside common experience and where anything might be thought to happen. As society becomes more complex and technically based Verne moved his speculative world into the unreachable heart of the earth or out to the unattainable moon.

The start of modern science fiction overlapped Verne. Wells wrote many stories exploring the implications of technical assumptions. The elegant reversals of perspective and society of the Country of the Blind arise from the simple assumption that blindness is normal. The First Men in the Moon follows the Verne tradition very closely - but this time with a typical big assumption (the existence of the antigravity Caverite) - but it is in the less-known novel that Wells strikes out into modern science fiction territory. His explorations of the impacts of air power (War in the Air) and the implications of an unrestrained growth factor (Food of the Gods) are often neglected in favour of critical attention to The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine.

One of the books that cross the divide between these speculative fictions and modern science fiction appeared in the 1920s. Hugo Gernsback's Ralph 124c41+ is set in a post-2000 world carefully fleshed out with extrapolations of all sorts of barely conceivable technical advances. Hardly a well-written novel, it remains an exciting departure into serious efforts to project possible futures and envisage the way people would behave in such environments. Ralph 124c41+ is closer to a future scenario development than an exploitation of single suspension of disbelief, and its reliance on "hard science" is echoed by the use of this phrase in modern novels by Clarke, Niven, Baxter and others who extrapolate largely within the increasing constraints of the scientific world as we have learned more about it.

The period between the two world wars saw fantastical adventures placed in space. Science fiction concepts provided the basis of a robust, almost invariably, badly written, but exciting style of fiction, frequently cowboy and Indian tales transposed to outer space. This space opera style still remains, but was in the inter-war period often expressed in comic book form. Superman and other derivatives followed. After the second world-war this tradition grabbed the imaginations of young boys, already aware of the long range V2 rockets, in the full-colour comic book adventures of, for example, Dan Dare in the Eagle comics.

The format of the comic remained but the technical assumptions of most of the readers had moved on, although many of the superhero stereotypes have lingered, repeating similar feats in issue after issue (and more recently movie after movie): the imaginative fever had shifted away from the superhero. The War had led to rapid advances in technology. A feeling of scientific capability and of infinite possibilities had encouraged such speculations as Steve Cartwright’s careful and highly accurate extrapolation of a nuclear weapon, well before the completion of the Manhattan project. This mix of technical optimism and positivism became a major theme in science fiction after the war. Soon, however, the social atmosphere and the nuclear arms race led to a noticeable withdrawal from technical positivism, and speculative fiction began to concentrate on the implications of paranormal capabilities: telepathy, telekinensis, and other inner space hypothetical explorations.

Whilst all these waves are still rolling along with a greater or lesser level of vitality, the successful space program has slowly begun to stimulate carefully constructed technical and positivist projections of futures unconstrained by a single planet (Robinson’s Red Mars series is typical). The space opera continues (Star Wars is an ideal example) and the superhero comics remain collectible. However, although these waves continue to wash up onto the shore of our bookshops, this form of speculative fiction is now once again telling us stories about expanding possibilities beyond the planet, often worked out in meticulous detail.

Science fiction and fantasy are close kin, but science fiction has always had a more hard-edged message. This can be illustrated in the current exhibition, from the classic older literature through the lurid magazines, and onwards to the continuing vigour of the genre. The new tools of cultural sharing, video, film, the Internet and video games are heavy users of the science fiction conventions. Many require users to participate in wars of conquest, or to learn survival skills in totally alien situations. Science fiction has retained its vigour, and provides a fascinating historical view of the human need to envision the future. It is inescapable that this fiction about the future will always tell so much more about the present than those who wrote them ever realised.

This exhibition includes examples of several eras of speculative fiction, and the novels, comics and magazine stories are best read and considered in the context of the times in which they were written, and what it tells us about them.

Professor Marcus Wigan
Honorary Senior fellow,
School of Geography and Environmental Science
<mwigan@hotmail.com>

Science Fiction

Although the main emphasis in this exhibition is on twentieth-century material from our collections of science-fiction magazines and our comic collection, we have examples of many of the earlier works which are often seen as precursors of the modern genre.

1. Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.

Serious reflections during the life and surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, with his vision of the angelick world. / Written by himself. (London : Printed for W. Taylor ..., 1720). Forms part 3 of the 1st ed. of Robinson Crusoe.

Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, first published in 1719 was so successful that he published a second volume in the same year and then a third and final volume in 1720. At the end of this volume, Crusoe gives us his "vision of the angelick world". The Serious Reflections purports to be Robinson Crusoe’s philosophical musings, most of which were the product of his extended periods of solitude. In his Vision of the Angelick World he recounts the vivid dreams he experienced while on his island, of travelling through space on his final voyage into the after-world of the spirits.

2. Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745.

The annotated Gulliver's travels by Jonathan Swift ; edited with a biographical introduction and notes by Isaac Asimov. (New York : C. N. Potter : distributed by Crown Publishers, 1980)

Swift’s Gulliver is best-remembered for his journeys to Lilliput and Brobdingnag, the lands of the little people and of the giants, but on his third voyage he visited Laputa, the floating island, and Balnibarbi, lands inhabited by people crazed through their faith in science. The description of the Grand Academy of Lagado, the capital of Balnibarbi, is a satire against the Royal Society.

Laputa floats by virtue of an anti-magnetic lode-stone, under the control of a group of astronomers who are able to manipulate the Earth’s magnetic field to propel the island where they want it to go.

Gulliver’s Travels was published in 1726; the edition on display is edited and annotated by Isaac Asimov, who gives an emphasis to science fiction aspects of the work which have never been fully discussed before.

3. Mercier, Louis-Sebastien, 1740-1814.

L'an deux mille quatre cent quarante. Nouvelle edition avec figures.: ([Paris : s.n.], 1791)

As an example of the novel set in the future, we have Mercier’s L'an deux mille quatre cent quarante. It was translated into English as Memoirs of the year Two Thousand Five Hundred (1772). In this the hero falls asleep, and like Rip Van Winkle, awakes in the future. He finds a rational utopia. The work first appeared in 1771. Later, after the excesses of the French Revolution, writers were less optimistic about the possibility of man’s perfectibility.

4. The Pall Mall Magazine.: (London : George Routledge & Sons Ltd, 1893-1914)

Although best known for publishing Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, the Pall Mall also published some fantasy works, and, between October 1894 and April 1895, a series of plates, "Guesses at the Future", or "Guesses at Futurity", which were an artist’s view of life in the twentieth century.

5. Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946.

The first men in the moon. (London : George Newnes, 1901)

The idea of the lunar voyage has a long literary history. It was used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a form of social satire, a convenient setting for utopias and dystopias, in a way similar to the use made of the Antipodes. During the nineteenth century writers began to give serious consideration to the possibility of a voyage to the moon someday being possible. Poe in his story, "Hans Pfaal" (1835) suggested that a balloon may be used. Jules Verne in his De la Terre de la Lune (1865) and Autour de la Lune (1870) put forward the idea of a space gun to propel his heroes.

In Wells’s novel, the protagonists use an anti-gravity powered spaceship to fly to the moon. They are captured by insect-like moon creatures, but manage to escape and return to the earth, leaving behind germs of the common cold which wipe out the moon’s inhabitants.

6. Pearsons Magazine (London, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd., [1896-1939])

H. G. Wells War of the Worlds first appeared in this magazine from April to December 1897. Wells was probably the best-known and most prolific pioneer writer of Science Fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This novel is concerned with an invasion of the Earth by Martians in giant tripods equipped with death rays. Wells points out that Western civilization is not exempt from the cosmic battle for survival, and just as we have wiped out the Tasmanian aborigines, so other races, perhaps from other planets, may threaten our own race with extinction.

7. Saturday Review of politics, literature, science and art.

(London : David Jones [etc.], 1855-1938)

In the Saturday Review of 19 January 1895 there appeared an unsigned article, "The limits of individual plasticity", which dealt with the possibilities of physiological modification of people through grafting and inoculation. This was by H. G. Wells. He developed this idea into The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), the article appearing in chapter XIV of the novel.

8. Verne, Jules.

The Moon-Voyage. Containing "From the earth to the Moon" and "Round the Moon." Illustrated by Henry Austin. (London, Ward, Lock, [1877])

The nineteenth century French novelist Jules Verne was a master of the adventure tale. Many of his works have their basis in fantasy and in what would now be called science-fiction. He is often linked with H. G. Wells as one of the founders of the genre.

These novellas De la Terre de la Lune (1865) and Autour de la Lune (1870), were translated into English in 1873 as From the earth to the moon direct in 97 hours 20 minutes and a trip around it. Verne’s astronauts are propelled into space from a giant cannon in Florida.

9. Easterley, Robert, 1831-1908.

The germ growers : an Australian story of adventure and mystery / by Robert Easterley and John Wilbraham. (Melbourne : Melville, Mullen & Slade ; London : Hutchinson & Co., 1892)

One of the earliest examples of Australian science fiction, The Germ Growers was written by Robert Potter, Canon of St. Pauls Cathedral in Melbourne. The two names on the title page refer to the main characters, and are part of the author’s attempt to give his novel an air of verisimilitude.

It purports to be a factual recounting of events which took place in the Kimberleys in north-west Australia. This is possibly the first novel to deal with an alien invasion. The aliens, who have the power to change shape, set up bases in the desert. They use airships, biological weapons and an ability to become invisible in their attempts to take over the world. The world is saved however when another, benevolent, race of aliens steps in, defeats the malevolent invaders, and destroys their dangerous bacteria.

  10. Cox, Erle, 1873-1950.

Out of the silence / Erle Cox. (Melbourne : Robertson & Mullens, 1947)

Erle Cox was a journalist on the Argus, a Melbourne daily newspaper. Out of the Silence first appeared as a serial in that newspaper in 1919. It is set on a pastoral property in the Victorian countryside where a farmer uncovers an advanced civilization. The main character is a woman "Earani", who has been in a state of suspended animation for two thousand years. She teleports herself into the office of the Australian Prime Minister and takes control of his mind. Her plan is to use Australia as a base from which to conquer the world.

As well as appearing in book form in various editions in England Australia and America, and in Russian, and French translations, it was also made into a comic strip in the Argus in 1934, and was broadcast as a wireless serial.

11. Eldershaw, M. Barnard.

Tomorrow and tomorrow / by M. Barnard Eldershaw. (London : Phoenix House, in association with Georgian House, Melbourne, 1948)

Marjorie Barnard and Flora Eldershaw wrote under the combined nom de plume, M. Barnard Eldershaw. Tomorrow and Tomorrow is set partly in the present and partly four hundred years in the future. Although the work is essentially a dystopia, among the innovations of the 24^th century we find such ultra democratic elements as a psychic polling device.

12. Valdez, Paul.

The fatal focus / by Paul Valdez. (Sydney : Transport Publishing, [1950])

Paul Valdez was a pseudonym for Alan Yates, better known under his other pseudonym, Carter Brown.

The Fatal Focus was part of the "Scientific Thriller" series. The hero, George Wiggs had X-ray vision. The cover art is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this pulp paperback.

13. Clarke, Arthur C. (Arthur Charles), 1917-

Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke. (London, Gollancz, 1973)

Arthur C. Clarke is an English science-fiction writer, best known for his short story, "The Sentinal", made into a landmark movie as "2001: a space odyssey" by Stanley Kubrick in 1968.

Rendezvous with Rama was Clarke’s next SF novel after 2001. It won many awards including the Hugo, the Nebula, the John W. Campbell Memorial, the Jupiter and the British Science Fiction Award.

It deals with the approach to earth of a giant object, at first thought to be an asteroid, but which on closer inspection turns out to be a gigantic space craft. A team is sent to investigate. It is uninhabited, and they find no clues as to its purpose. The power of the novel lies in the description and scale of Rama itself, and vivid sense it conveys of purposes in the universe quite beyond the knowledge and concerns of humanity.

Magazines

Monash University Library purchased this collection from a Melbourne Science Fiction enthusiast in the late 1970s. It contains complete or near-complete runs of most of the major American Science fiction magazines from the 1920s to the 1960s.

14. Science and invention.

(New York, N.Y. : Experimenter Publishing Co., Inc., 1920-1923) 4 v
Continues: Electrical experimenter
Continued by: New science and invention in pictures

Science and Invention, and its similarly titled continuations, was perhaps the first magazine to include science fiction on a regular basis. It was edited by Hugo Gernsback, "the father of science-fiction". Gernsback, who had migrated to America from Luxombourg in 1904, was the designer of the first home radio set. Science and Invention grew from the Electrical Experimenter, a popular science type of publication.

As well as regular instalments of fiction such as Ray Cumming’s serial, "Into the fourth dimension", Science and Invention, maintained a practical, albeit often speculative, emphasis. We find articles on "aerial fire-fighters" (March 1927); and the "dream recorder" (September 1926). The article, "Hands create radio music" (December 1927 dealt with the "new world of musical tones discovered by experimenting with the squeal of a radio receiving set". This was done by moving your hands around the radio’s aerial. Gernsback put forward his idea for the best way to contact the planets in his article, "How I would speak to Mars" in the March 1924 issue.

15. Amazing stories. (New York, N.Y. : Experimenter Pub. Co., 1926-1958) 7 v.

Variant title: Amazing stories quarterly.
Continues: Amazing stories annual
Continued by: Amazing science fiction (New York, N.Y. : 1958)
The science fiction stories Gernsback published in Science and Invention were popular enough for him to begin a magazine devoted entirely to them, Amazing Stories. This began in 1926. It was the first magazine devoted entirely to science-fiction. He had originally intended to call it "Scientifiction". Each issue had the heading "Extravagant fiction today, cold fact tomorrow".

In 1927 and 1928 the companion titles, Amazing Stories Annual and Amazing Stories Quarterly were launched.

As well as reprinting H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, contemporary authors such as David H. Keller, Edward E. Smith, and Clare W. Harris, and of course, Gernsback himself were featured. The art-work set the trend for fantasy and imagination which was followed through all the subsequent science fiction magazines. Frank R. Paul did many of the early covers.

The issues from February to May 1934 contained a serial, "Terror out of Space", by an Australian author, H. Haverstock Hill, a pen-name for James Morgan Walsh. The story deals with the menace from the dark side of the moon.

The issue for June 1930 features a cover showing a ship being lifted up on a triangle. The story is "The Non-Gravitational Vortex", by A. Hyatt Verrill. It is thought to be the source of the modern myth of the "Bermuda Triangle".

Gernsback suffered a financial setback in 1929 and had to sell his holdings in these magazines. He soon returned to the field however with a series entitled Science Fiction, and in the 1930s published Science Wonder Stories, Air Wonder Stories, Wonder Stories Quarterly, and Amazing Detective Tales.

16. Wonder stories quarterly.

(Mt. Morris, Ill. : Stellar Pub. Corp., 1930-1933) 4 v.
Continues: Science Wonder Quarterly

This was another of Gernsback’s titles. All the covers were by F. R. Paul. Each issue included a long novel as well as some shorter pieces. Interplanetary travel was the usual theme. The issue for Summer 1931 saw the publication of "Vandals of the Void" by Australian writer James Morgan Walsh under his own name; there is even a portrait of Walsh included. This was his first published work. It deals with Mercurian space pirates with their disintegrator rays preying on the shipping routes between the Earth and Mars.

17. Wonder stories. (Mount Morris, Ill., Stellar Pub. Corp., 1930-1936. 6 v.

Merger of: Science wonder stories and Air wonder stories.
Continued by: Thrilling wonder stories

Gernsback’s various Wonder Stories magazines run through the first half of the 1930s. F. R. Paul was the cover artist.

Among the issues on display are some which included stories by Alan Connell, an Australian writer. The December 1935 issue has a dramatic cover showing a battleship floating upside down above New York. This illustration relates to Connell’s "Dream’s end", a philosophical science-fiction tale on the theme that our reality is merely part of some cosmic being’s dream. As the rational laws of physics break down, the world ends in chaos. The story draws to its close,

In a dimension beyond comprehension or rational understanding, a Dreamer awakened and the phantoms of his night-haunted mind dissolved instantaneously into the changeless nothingness from which they had come, signalling forever THE END. (P. 651)

18. Thrilling wonder stories.

(New York, N.Y. : Beacon Magazines 1936; Better Publications, Aug. 1937-1943; Standard Magazines, fall 1943-1955)

Continues: Wonder stories
Absorbed by: Startling stories spring 1955

Thrilling wonder stories was a continuation of Wonder Stories. It began in 1936 and ran until 1955 when it was absorbed in Startling stories. There was a conscious attempt to appeal to the younger audience. A comic strip, "Zarnak" appeared in the earlier issues.

The covers treat us to a spectacular cross-section of science fiction themes. Earl Bergey’s cover-illustration for the Summer 1946 issue looks forward to "Planet of the Apes". It relates to a story, "Titan of the Jungle" by Stanton A. Coblentz, in which the apes and chimpanzees, through ingesting a "mysterious fluid of enlightenment" have become the masters, while men are their slaves.

 19. Astounding Stories.

(New York, N.Y. : Street & Smith, 1933-1938) 9 v

Continues: Astounding stories of super-science (New York, N.Y. : 1933)
Continued by: Astounding science-fiction

Astounding stories was the major SF magazine of the 1930s. It paid its contributors better than the other magazines did. Among the writers we find E. E. "Doc" Smith. His first SF novel, "The Skylark of Space" ran as a serial in Amazing Stories in 1928. Throughout the 1930s his "Lensman" series ran in Astounding. It is similar in some ways to Star Wars, featuring a battle throughout the universe between the forces of good and evil. H. P. Lovecraft also had stories in Astounding. "At the Mountains of Madness" appeared in the February 1936 issue and "The Shadow out of Time" in the issue for June of the same year.

20. Blue book Magazine. (Dayton, Ohio : McCall, 1905 - )

Blue book magazine grew from The Monthly Story Magazine which had begun publication in 1907. From the 1930s its emphasis shifted to fantasy and science-fiction. Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, was one of the authors featured. Here we see the first appearance of his Swords of Mars, beginning November 1934.

21. Street & Smith's Unknown.

[British ed.] (London : Atlas, 1939-1949)
Variant-Title: Unknown
Continued by: Unknown worlds (British ed.)

Unknown was begun by J. W. Campbell when he read the E. F. Russell story "Sinister Barrier" in Astounding Stories. This gave Campbell the idea of starting a magazine for fantasy fiction. Among the authors featured was L. Ron Hubbard, later to become famous as the founder of the Church of Scientology.

22. From unknown worlds : an anthology of modern fantasy for grownups.:

British ed. (London : Atlas, 1952, c1948)

Editor: John W. Campbell, Jr. "... selected from the pages of the magazine 'Unknown Worlds'"--P. [1]

Unknown’s successor, Unknown Worlds had folded in 1943. This anthology, From unknown worlds, was published in America in 1948 to test the possibility of re-floating the original magazine, but the publishers were not encouraged y the response. It features a cover by E. Cartier in his slightly threatening style of child’s fantasy. One of the stories is "The Compleat Werewolf" by Anthony Boucher. It begins with an "Author’s note",

In my criminological researches, I have occasionally come across references to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who bids fair to become as great a figure of American legend as Paul Bunyan or John Henry. This man is invulnerable to bullets. He strikes such terror into criminals as to drive them to suicide or madness. He sometimes vanishes from the human ken entirely, and at other times he is reported to have appeared with equal suddenness stark naked. And perhaps the most curious touch of all, he engages in a never-ceasing quest, of Arthurian intensity, for someone who can perform the Indian rope trick.

Only recently, after intensive probings in Berkeley, where I have certain fortunate connections particularly with the department of German, and a few grudging confidences from my old friend Fergus O’Breen, have I been able to piece together the facts behind this legend.

Here, then, is the story, with only one important detail suppressed, and that, assure you, strictly for your own good. (p. 75)

The man character in the story is "Wolfe Wolf".

23. Startling Stories. (Chicago : Better Publications, 1939-1955)

Complete in 99 issues. Cf. Day, Bradford M. Complete checklist of science-fiction magazines, p. 49-50.
A thrilling publication. Later issues published in Kokomo, Ind.
Absorbed: Thrilling wonder stories, and: Fantastic story magazine, spring 1955.

Startling Stories was published by the same firm as Thrilling Wonder Stories. In the late 1940s and early 1950s theses two were widely regarded as the best Science fiction magazines. The policy of Startling Stories was to publish one long story per issue. These novella length works included material from such writers as Eando Binder and Manly Wade Wellman, both of whom also contributed to Thrilling Wonder Stories.

24. Fantastic adventures. (Chicago, Ziff-Davis, 1939-1953) 15 v.

This was a companion to Amazing Stories. It contained an Edgar Rice Burroughs story, "The Scientists Revolt" in issue no. 1 (July 1939). Among the issues on display we find one which features "He fell among thieves" by Milton Lesser (March 1952). The cover art sets the scene. Joseph Stalin stands watching an American and a Russian struggle while a little green man stands alongside the Communist leader. The plot deals with a Martian who crashed behind the Iron Curtain and helped the Russians build flying saucers which were sent on spy missions over America. This explains why so many were seen over the United States during that period. The term "flying saucer" was coined by American newsmen in 1947.

The issue for November 1951 is also on display. The cover shows a man calmly walking through a tiled bathroom wall as a woman emerges from her shower. This is an illustration for a fantasy story, "The man who stopped at nothing" by Paul W. Fairman. The protagonist is enjoying these unusual powers as a spirit after having been killed in a car crash.

25. Fantastic. (Chicago, Ill. : Ziff-Davis, c1952-c1955) 4 v

Absorbed: Fantastic adventures
Continued by: Fantastic science fiction

This absorbed Fantastic Adventures. It published fiction by some authors otherwise unknown to the realms of science fiction, for example, Raymond Chandler was in issue number one (Summer 1952) with "Professor Bingo’s Snuff", Truman Capote in the second issue (Fall 1952) with "Miriam", and Evelyn Waugh in the fourth issue, (July 1953) with "The man who liked Dickens". Its more mainstream Science fiction writers included Ray Bradbury, A. E. van Vogt and Isaac Asimov.

26. Famous fantastic mysteries. (New York : Frank A. Munsey Co., 1939-1953) 14 v.

Famous fantastic mysteries and its companion, Fantastic Novels specialised in reprinting material which had already appeared in book form or in magazines such as Argosy. Works by such writers as H. P. Lovecraft, Rider Haggard, H. G. Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle appeared alongside stories by American Science fiction writers from the 1930s and 1940s. The issue for October 1946 reprinted "The Island of Doctor Moreau" with the sub-title "a novel of spectral terror".

The August 1947 issue carried a story, "Boomerang" by George Whitley, a pseudonym for A. Bertram Chandler. This centres on a space race to the moon, the rivals being Melbourne and Sydney.

27. Super science stories: the big book of science fiction.

(British ed.) (Leicester : Thorpe & Porter, [1949-1953])

This was a British version of an American title. It reprinted stories from the US magazine. The issue on display (no. 2) features the L. Ron Hubbard story, "Beyond all weapons".

28. Dynamic science fiction.

(Holyoke, Mass. : Columbia Publications, 1952-1954) 6 nos.

This was a short-lived companion to Future Science Fiction and Science Fiction Quarterly. Lester del Rey was one of the important writers to appear in this series.

29. Future science fiction.

(Holyoke, Mass.: Columbia Publications, c1952-c1954) 3 v.
Continued: Future science fiction stories
Absorbed by: Science fiction stories

This magazine featured stories by such writers as James Blish, Sam Merwin jr., Philip K. Dick, and Arthur C. Clarke. Isaac Asimov was also a contributor. His story "Each an explorer" appeared in no. 30 of the smaller, "digest" format series.

30. Science fiction quarterly. (Springfield, Mass. : Double Action Magazines, 1940-1958)

Editor: 1940-1941, C.D. Hornig; 1941-1958, R.W. Lowndes.

This was the last of the large format "pulp" sized science fiction magazines. It began by running reprints but the issues in the 1950s included mostly new stories as well as columns of commentary such as R. Madle’s "Inside Science Fiction: a department for the science fictionist", which had begun to appear in 1953 in Dynamic Science Fiction. This column is important for the student of the genre as it gives a detailed account of the conventions and other important events taking place in America at the time, as well as listing and commenting on article of interest to science fiction enthusiasts in other publications. It also has a sub-section "Twenty years ago in science fiction."

32. Space stories. (Kokomo, Ind. : Standards Magazines, Inc.,1952-1953) 2 v

Editor: S. Mines.

This short-lived periodical featured a novel in each issue. The final issue (June 1953) included Sam Merwin Jr’s novel, "The Dark side of the moon".

33. Planet stories.

[Australian ed.] (Manchester : Pemberton's, c1948-c1953) 12 nos.
Contains selected reprints from the original U.S. issues.

Planet Stories included the works of such writers as Alfred Coppel, Erik Fennel, Fox B. Holden, and Ray Bradbury. On display we see some of the Australian editions which featured such Bradbury classics as "A Sound of Thunder" (no. 11), "The Golden apples of the sun" (no. 9), and "Forever and the Earth" (no. 2). This latter story is set in 2257 AD, and through the wonders of time travel, the novelist Thomas Wolfe is transported from 1938 into the future, where he able to write his greatest work, after which he is transported back to his hospital bed, five minutes after he had left it, in 1938. Shortly afterwards he dies of pneumonia, "an ancient and awful disease".

34. Amazing science fiction stories. (New York, N.Y. : Ziff-Davis Pub., 1958-1960)

Continues: Amazing science fiction (New York, N.Y. : 1958)
Continued by: Amazing stories (New York, N.Y. :1960)

This was a continuation of Amazing stories in the smaller format which had become popular by the late 1950s. The cover for the October 1958 issue shows how science fiction tied in with politics, with a Venusian appearing in front of Kruschev at the United Nations. This issue also includes what was probably a paid advertisement although it has the appearance of an article, "Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t Science Fiction" (p. 5).

35. Venture science fiction.

(Concord, N.H. : Fantasy House, 1957-1958)

This included works by C. M. Kornbluth, Lester del Rey, and Isaac Asimov, whose story, "The Dust of Death" appeared in the first issue, January 1957.

36. Science-fantasy.

(London : Nova Publications, c1950-c1966) 24 v.
Continues: Science-fantasy review
Continued by: Impulse

Science Fantasy was an English Science fiction magazine. Brian Aldiss was one of the regular contributors. It included profiles of noted science fiction and fantasy writers by Sam Moscowitz.

37. Weird tales. (New York, N.Y. : Weird Tales, 1923-1954)

This was a short story magazine which helped to popularise the supernatural as a field of fiction. It included science fiction by such writers as Edmond Hamilton and Ray Bradbury. H. P. Lovecraft and Robert Bloch also appeared.

Robert Bloch wrote in the hard-boiled style of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Among the issues on display we see one for November 1947, which includes his story. "The Cheaters". This is a story of the "X-ray specs" type, except when Joe, the man character, puts on the spectacles he can "see" people’s thoughts. He comes home and finds his wife Maggie, and his friend Jake drinking coffee,

Maggie kind of grinned at me. Then she said: "How did you make out, Joe, you lousy old baboon? I’m glad we’re going to kill you."

No she didn’t say all that. She just said, "How did you make out, Joe?" but she was thinking the rest. I saw it.

Don’t ask me to explain. I saw it. Not words or anything. And I didn’t hear. I saw. I knew by looking at her, what she was thinking, and planning. (p. 10)

The story is in fact a series of stories, for after Joe kills Maggie and Jake and is executed, the spectacles are bought by other people who all experience the ability to see through the pretences of those around them.

38. Other world's science stories.

(Evanston, Ill. : Clark Pub. Co., 1949-1957)
Editor: R.A. Palmer.

During its suspension, Palmer Publications issued a separate publication: Science stories.
Absorbed: Universe science fiction 1955
Continued by: Flying saucers from other worlds.

39. Flying saucers from other worlds.

(Evanston, Ill. : Palmer Publications, 1957-1958)
Editor: R.A. Palmer.
Continues: Other world's science stories
Continued by: Flying saucers

40. Flying saucers. (Amherst, Wis. : Palmer Publications, 1957-1965)

"The magazine of space conquest."
Editor: R.A. Palmer.
Continues: Flying saucers from other worlds

These magazines catered for the interest in flying saucers resulting from the widespread reports of sightings in the 1950s. The cover for Other Worlds September 1956 has a distinct Playboy cartoon feel, and marks an attempt by the publishers to go down-market in their push for subscriptions. The story "Cat Astrophy" by Robert More Williams, in the same issue, is an example of humanity being displaced by animals. After exposure to radiation, cats at an atomic testing centre in the Rockies become the size of mountain lions. The summary reads,

Have you ever had a cat look at you and found your-self thinking: "If looks could kill, I’d be a dead man right now!" Cats have terrorised man for ages, and here’s a story to freeze your mind in your skull. (September 1956, p. 16)

41. Science fiction adventures.

(New York, N.Y. : Science Fiction Publications, 1952-1958)
Variant-Title: Science fiction adventure magazine

42. Science fiction adventures.

(London : Nova Publications, March 1958-May 1963)
Editor: E.J. Carnell.

This magazine originally began as the British edition of item 41. However, when the American magazine ceased, the British title continued with original stories.

43. Science fiction adventures.

(Flushing, N.Y. : Ultimate Pub. Co., 1958-1973)

This was a reprint magazine. The issue on display (January 1973) includes Robert Bloch’s "Murder from the Moon".

Comics

Science fiction has always been a popular comic book genre. Here at Monash we have one of the best collections of Australian comics in a public institution. They include many titles original to Australia as well as reprints of American and British strips.

44. Bonzer: Australian Comics 1900s-1990s,

edited by Annette Shiel, (Red Hill South, Elgua Media, 1998)

This recent publication was initiated by the National Centre for Australian Studies here at Monash. It grew from an exhibition which Annette Shiell organised while she was working at the Centre as a research assistant. It consists of nine essays on various aspects of Australian comics, and a valuable checklist of Australian comics compiled by Mick Stone, the proprietor of Camberwell Books, the most prominent dealer in the field.

One of the essayists, John Foster, who lectures in Children’s Literature at the University of South Australia, summarises the science-fiction genre thus,

Science fiction stories – in comic strips as well as books – can be divided into three groups. These sub-genres are based on the types of stories written by the founders of the genre, Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Verne liked gee-whiz technology and wrote "scientific romances" which. Today, seem very far-fetched ...

H. G. Wells, unlike Verne, was worried about society and the future of the human race ...

The most enjoyable strips however, are those inspired by the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote not only Tarzan but also a number of light-hearted, incredible science fiction adventures which today are called "space opera". In these travel faster than the speed of light is a matter of course, as are the conventions that almost al aliens speak English, and that virtually every planet in the universe is habitable for earthlings. There is one last convention observed in almost all these strips, all females wear revealing outfits, whatever the circumstances. (p. 21-22)

45. The Adventures of Buck Rogers.

(Melbourne, Fitchett Brothers, 1936-1953)

Buck Rogers began as a comic strip in the United States in January 1929. It was adapted by Phil Nowlan from his novel, Armaggedon 2419 A.D. It was originally entitled "Buck Rogers in the Year 2429 A.D.", later "Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century", a name which was used in some of the "Buck Rogers Specials" in Australia. Buck Rogers was a U.S. Air Force Lieutenant who awakes from a sleep of 500 years to find America over-run by invaders. He is able to rout them but then has to fight fresh waves of invaders from outer space. The strip ran with various artists and writers until 1965. The Australian version began in November 1936 and finished in January 1953. As with many of the Australian science fiction comics, it was a local reprint of American strips.

The model of Buck Rogers’ space-craft is on loan from Camberwell Books. The proprietor, Mick Stone also specialises in early toys.

46. Whiz Comics (Melbourne, Vee Publishing Co., 1946-?)

 47. Captain Marvel Adventures (Melbourne, Vee Publishing Co., 1946-1953)

48. The Marvel Family (Melbourne, Vee Publishing Co., 1946-1953)

49. Marvel Family Adventures (Melbourne, Vee Publishing Co., 1946-1953)

50. Young Marvelman (Sydney, Youngs Merchandising Co., [1952?])

51. Master Comics, with Capt. Marvel Jr. (Melbourne, Vee Publishing Co., [n.d.])

Larry S. Cleland became successful re-publishing the Fawcett stable of comics from America. Captain Marvel was the main character. He had begun life in Whiz in February 1940. Fred MacMurray, the actor, was used by the artist as the basis for his characterisation of the super-hero. The magic word "Shazam" was used to invoke the super-human powers.

National Comics, Superman’s publisher, brought an action against Fawcett, the publishers of Captain Marvel alleging that the Marvel character was too similar to Superman and therefore was an infringement of copyright. This law suit was fought over many years but Fawcett finally agreed to settle out of court and cease publishing their comics. The final issue was in January 1954. The English publisher of Captain Marvel changed the name of the superhero to Marvelman, and changed the magic word from "Shazam" to "Kimota". He used British artists and writers and continued to produce the strip until 1963.

52. Little Trimmer.

(Oakleigh, Vic., Frank Douglas James, [1950?-1954])

In Australia, Cleland opted to use local material, producing Little Trimmer which ran through twenty-two numbers, ceasing in 1954. This was usually a comic book which contained various strips. The Science-Fiction enthusiast would have bought it for "Lieutenant Lew Mason". On display we have no. 3 which includes "Atom bombs the moon" in which the moon-men try to invade the earth.

53. Supreme Feature Comic. (Auckland, J. York and Co., [1948?])

This was a New Zealand comic. The copy on display features "Tiger Darrell", a character who had appeared in the Australian Woman’s Mirror in the late 1930s. Here Tiger joins hands with Standish Steele to carry out an order from Winston Churchill to thwart a German scientist, Bruno Schwartz. The setting is a Nazi stronghold in the Peruvian Andes to which some of the Germans have fled after World War II. They are perfecting weapons in the hopes of causing World War III and becoming Masters of the World. Prominent among the inventions is an army of robots.

  54. Island of Amazement (Sydney , NSW Bookstall Co., [1943])

This one-off comic by Will Donald, features Doctor Sun-Yo. He lives a Dr. Moreau-like existence on an island in the middle of the ocean. Two men on a raft are washed up on the beach, and they observe the inventions the Doctor has built. These include robot servants and various rays which can increase or diminish the size of living beings. Another ray "develops to an abnormal degree the good or bad in a human mind". This is being trained on a strange mutant figure in a cage, "The subject of my experiment posed as a public benefactor – at other people’s expense. But in his heart he is what you see him fast becoming. A human vulture." He also has a magnetic ray which he uses to capture "the Nazi battleship ‘Schwinehunde’". He then uses the reducing ray, and quips that "She is now a veritable pocket battleship." Of course all this meddling with nature does not go unpunished. The robot servants turn upon their master and Doctor Sun Yo dies in a "terrific explosion" and a "heap of twisted mechanism".

55. The Death Ray (Sydney NSW Bookstall Co., [1944])

Terry Powis was the other major comic artist to work for the New South Wales Bookstall Company during the Second World War. This was a time when the Australian comic industry was enormously popular as there was a restriction on imports from Britain and the United States. The local industry was limited only by the amount of paper the publishers could muster.

The Death Ray is a war-time story set in the South American jungle where the English have set-up a secret laboratory to develop a death ray which can kill people and knock down planes.

56. Mighty: the 100-page comic (Sydney, Colour Comics Pty. Ltd., [n.d.])

This is an example of the compilation comics from the 1950s and 1960s which featured various strips such as Wonder Woman as well as many one-off comic stories. They were American, but often published in Australian editions.

This comic has fantasy, and western strips as well as science-fiction.

57. Middy Malone’s Magazine.

(Sydney, Fatty Finn Publications [1946-1950]) This magazine was edited by Syd Nicholls, the creator of "Fatty Finn". The Middy Malone stories centred on the adventures of a pirate, but these magazines included a variety of strips. The issue on display includes a story about two aliens who crash to Earth.

58. Corker Comics (Sydney, Frank Johnson, [1941])

59. King "Magpie" Comics (Sydney, Frank Johnson, [1946])

60. Grand Comics (Sydney, Frank Johnson, [1946])

Frank Johnson was one of the major figures in the Australian publishing scene in the 1930s and 1940s. As well as publishing Vision magazine for Norman Lindsay, and Five Bells for Kenneth Slessor, he also published pulp fiction and comics. The comics included various one-off titles designed to circumvent a war-time restriction on the publication of serials.

All of these comics included various strips, usually with at least one science fiction story. Noel Cook’s "Peace Planet" in King Comics, deals with an attempt to form an alliance with Jupiter to "prevent, perhaps, the probable interplanetary wars of the future."

Corker and Grand both contain "Dr. Evil", a strip concerning a sinister genius and his mechanical assistant, "Robot Man".

61. Crimson Comet (Sydney, H. John Edwards, 1949-1957)

The Crimson Comet was a super-hero who could fly because he had the wings of a giant eagle grafted onto his back by his surgeon-father.

John Dixon, one of the artists who worked on the Crimson Comet later drew Air Hawk, the flying doctor.

62. Legion of Space (Sydney, Invincible Press, 1944-1951)

Legion of Space was a comic by Philip Wearne, and art student who approached the published Henry Edward Hoffman with his science fiction strip in 1943.

It deals with atomic-powered interplanetary flight, trade with Mars and the "gravity motor".

63. Captain Atom (Sydney, Atlas Publications, [1948-1954])

This was one of the earliest full colour Australian comics. Captain Atom acquired his super powers as a result of the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. As with Captain Marvel, he too had a magic word, "Exenor!" In the issue on display (no. 6) "The Menace of the Flying Saucers", he "saves civilization and solves the riddle of the flying saucers."

Clive Turnbull was one of the principals in Atlas Publications. The artist for Captain Atom was Arthur Mather; he also wrote the story-lines.

64. Climax Color Comic (Sydney, K. G. Murray Publishing Co., 1947-1948)

This was another early Australian full-colour production. Climax often included science-fiction strips. Among the issues on display, we find one (no. 5) which includes the story, "The Runaway Rocket". This involves the descent of Miracle Jim and an aborigine called Porakanee, into the earth under Central Australia where they find they are in the 30^th century, a world inhabited by "fabulously beautiful demon women."

French Comics

As part of their exposure to modern French popular culture, students at Monash are encouraged to study the comic books produced in France. The French comic industry is a phenomenon on a scale unknown in English-speaking countries. The books themselves are usually hard-back and are meant to appeal to adults even more than to children. Tin Tin and Asterix are well-known because they have been widely translated, but the modern French comics are altogether darker and more fantastic in their content.

65. Savoia, Sylvain.

Nomad: Mémoire vive / dessin, Sylvain Savoia, Philippe Buchet ; scénario, Jean-David Morvan ; couleur, Jean-Jacques et Yves Chagnaud ; lettrage, Anne Bidault. (Grenoble : Glénat, 1994)

66. Meurois-Givaudan, Anne.

Terre d’emeraude: Voyages d'outre-corps / dessins d'Albert Soyez ; textes de Anne et Daniel Meurois-Givaudan. (Plazac, France : Amrita, 1995)

67. Mathieu, Marc-Antoine.

Le début de la fin ; La fin du début / texte et dessins, Marc-Antoine Mathieu. ([Paris] : Delcourt, 1995)

The two titles are bound back to back. This is a variant on The Invisible Man illustrated in an M. C. Escher fantasy style.

68. Schuiten, François.

La fièvre d'Urbicande / Schuiten, Peeters. ([Brussels] : Casterman, 1985)

69. Schuiten, François.

L'archiviste / Schuiten, Peeters. ([Tournai] : Casterman, c1987)

70. Schuiten, François.

Les murailles de Samaris / Schuiten, Peeters. (Tournai : Casterman, c1988)

71. Schuiten, Luc.

Nogegon / Luc et François Schuiten. (Genève : Les humanoïdes associés, 1995 printing, c1990)

72. Schuiten, François.

L'enfant penchée / Schuiten [et] Peeters ; photographies de Marie-Françoise Plissart ; avec la participation de Martin Vaughn-James. (Tournai : Casterman, 1996)

73. Schuiten, François.

Le guide des cités / Schuiten, Peeters ; photographies, Marie-Françoise Plissart ; mise en pages, Martine Gillet. ([Tournai, Belgique] : Casterman, 1996)

Francois Schuiten has created a fantasy world, even to the point of compiling a tourist guide to his imaginary futuristic cities.

74. Tardi, Jacques.

Le démon des glaces / texte et dessin, Tardi. ([Tournai] : Casterman, 1994)

Tardi’s Le démon des glaces is in the tradition of Jules Verne’s fabulous adventure stories.

Childrens' Annuals and Gift Books

The Monash Rare Book Collection includes the Lindsay Shaw Collection of children’s books. This has extensive holdings of children’s story-books and annuals, many of which included science fiction stories.

75. The Okay Adventure Annual ([London] [1950s]

This includes a story, "The Monsters of Matto Grosso" which is in the vein of Conan Doyle’s Lost World. The heroes return from space to find themselves in the past. Their spaceship lands in South America on the Matto Grosso, which they find to be inhabited by "prehistoric monsters".

The cover is very much in the Jurassic Park style, but with a rocket ship blasting across the sky in the background.

76. Giant Book of Amazing Stories (London, Children’s Press [1950s])

Most stories here are on science fiction. Dinosaurs and time travel feature are among the elements featured.

77. Lion Annual (London, Fleetway, 1953- )

On display are two of the Lion Annuals which feature Science Fiction images on their covers, the issues for 1955 and 1982. Robots bulk large because of the Lion character, "Robot Archie".

78. The Adventure Annual. (London : Popular Press, [1954])

The cover illustration comes from the story "The Robot Empire" which features a robot army under the control of "the troublesome Voss of Saturn".

79. Bowen, Mollie.

Flying saucers and outer space / by Mollie Bowen ; illustrated by Gerry Wood, edited by Dan Lloyd. (London : Tyndall Mitchell, 1969)

The flying saucer phenomenon began in the 1950s and has continued unabated. This volume comes with a large collection of press-cuttings gathered by a previous owner.

80. Harris, Mark, 1960-

The Doctor Who technical manual / Mark Harris. (Boronia [Vic.] : Australian Broadcasting Commission in association with J.M. Dent, 1983)

81. Terry Nation's Dalek annual 1978.

(Manchester : World Distributors (Manchester) Ltd., c1977)

The Doctor Who television series began on the BBC in 1963. Like most Science fiction series it has generated a great deal of merchandise for fans.

82. Kasdan, Lawrence.

Star wars : Return of the Jedi / Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas ; story by George Lucas. (London : Octopus, 1983)

The movie Star Wars appeared in 1977 and became the most successful movies to that time. It was followed up by The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. There was then a gap until the recent "prequel" Star Wars, Episode One: the Phantom Menace.

Australian Children's Science Fiction

Although most Australian juvenile literature is set in the bush or the cities, there has been some science fiction written here for children.

83. Eliott, E. C.

Tas and the space machine / by E.C. Eliott. (London : Nelson, 1955)

The caption to the frontispiece reads "Woomera is bigger than the whole of England." The establishment of the Woomera Rocket range in central Australia in 1947 gave Australian authors the opportunity to use a local setting for science fiction tales.

84. Law, Winifred.

Rangers of the universe / by Winifred Law ; illustrated by Dick Alderton. (Sydney : New Century Press, 1945)

85. Patchett, Mary Elwyn, 1897-

Lost on Venus : the thrilling story of two boys who land on the planet and explore a fantastic world / by M. E. Patchett. (London : Lutterworth Press, 1954)

86. Patchett, Mary Elwyn, 1897-

Send for Johnny Danger : the amazing adventures of the ace pilot, Captain Danger, and his crew on the moon / by M.E. Patchett. (London : Lutterworth, 1956)

Both Winifred Law and Mary Patchett wrote extensively for children in a variety of genres. These are samples of their science fiction offerings.

Modern Australian Science Fiction
Two Women Writers

87. Love, Rosaleen.

The Total Devotion Machine and other stories (London, Womens’s Press, 1989)

88. Love, Rosaleen

Evolution Annie and other stories (London, Women's Press, 1993)

Rosaleen Love is a lecturer in Philosophy at Swinburne University in Melbourne, where she specialises in the history of science.

The Total Devotion Machine refers to an appliance of the future which the heroine of the title story uses to look after her child when she has to travel through space to Mars.

89. Sussex, Lucy (1957- )

My Lady Tongue and other tales (Port Melbourne, Heinemann, 1990)

Lucy Sussex is Senior Research Fellow in the English Department at Melbourne University, and teaches creative writing at the Burwood campus of Deakin University. Lucy is a writer of science-fiction and children’s books, and is also one of the editors of She’s fantastic, the first anthology of Australian women’s speculative fiction. My Lady Tongue is her first collection of stories. In 1988, the title story won the Ditmar (Australian Science Fiction Achievement) award.

90. Sussex, Lucy (1957- )

Deersnake (Rydalmere, NSW, Hodder Headline, 1994)

Deersnake involves a quest into the "nightmare Otherworld" searching for a vanished friend.

91. Sussex, Lucy (1957- )

The Scarlet Rider (New York, Tom Doherty Associates, 1996)

This novel deals in fictionalised form with Lucy’s research into Mary Fortune, "Waif Wander" the nineteenth-century Australian mystery writer.

92. Sussex, Lucy (1957- )

Black Ice (Rydalmere, NSW, Hodder Headline, 1997)

Black Ice is a novel about hacking on the Internet. The main character, Syb Attard, finds that cyberspace is inhabited by strange creatures.

Sources Consulted

Ash, Brian (editor),

The visual encyclopedia of science fiction (London, Pan, 1977)

Gunn, James,

Alternate worlds: the illustrated history of science fiction (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1978)

Javna, John,

The best of science fiction TV (New York, Harmony Books, 1987)

Kyle, David,

A pictorial history of science fiction (London, Hamlyn, 1976)

Nicholls, Peter. (editor)

The science fiction encyclopedia (London, Roxby Press, 1979)

Rottensteiner, Franz,

The science fiction book: an illustrated history (London, Thames and Hudson, 1975)

Shiell, Annette (editor) Bonzer:

Australian comics 1900s-1990s (Redhill South, Elgua Media, 1998)

Tuck, Donald H. (compiler)

The encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy through 1968 (Chicago Advent 1974) 3 vols.

Thanks are due to Mick Stone of Camberwell Books for making these sources available.

Exhibition and catalogue by Richard Overell, Rare Books Librarian,
Monash University Library, Wellington Road, Clayton, Victoria, 3168, Australia.

Posters by courtesy of Mick Stone, Rosaleen Love, Lucy Sussex, and Dorothy Goss of the Monash University Book Shop.
Toys and figurines on loan from Mick Stone of Camberwell Books and Collectibles.

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