Mary Gnaedinger continued to reprint work by A. Merritt in the second series of Fantastic Novels. (September 1948 issue pictured)
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Editor | Mary Gnaedinger |
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Categories |
Science fiction Fantasy Pulp |
Frequency | Bimonthly |
Year founded | 1940 |
Final issue | 1951 |
Company |
Munsey Company Popular Publications |
Country | United States Canada Great Britain |
Based in | New York City |
Language | English |
Fantastic Novels was an American science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine published by the Munsey Company of New York from 1940 to 1941, and again by Popular Publications, also of New York, from 1948 to 1951. It was a companion to Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Like that magazine, it mostly reprinted science fiction and fantasy classics from earlier decades, such as novels by A. Merritt, George Allan England, and Victor Rousseau, though it occasionally published reprints of more recent work, such as Earth's Last Citadel, by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore.
The magazine lasted for 5 issues in its first incarnation, and for another 20 in the revived version from Popular Publications. Mary Gnaedinger edited both series; her interest in reprinting Merritt's work helped make him one of the better-known fantasy writers of the era. A Canadian edition from 1948 to 1951 reprinted 17 issues of the second series; two others were reprinted in Great Britain in 1950 and 1951.
In the early 20th century, science fiction (sf) stories were frequently published in popular magazines, with the Munsey Company, a major pulp magazine publisher, printing a great deal of science fiction. In 1926 Amazing Stories became the first specialist pulp magazine publisher of science fiction. Munsey continued to print sf in Argosy during the 1930s, and in 1939 took advantage of the new genre's growing popularity by launching Famous Fantastic Mysteries, a vehicle to reprint the most popular fantasy and sf stories from the Munsey magazines.