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  • Question about ISFDB statistic

    From Charles Packer@21:1/5 to All on Sun Apr 13 07:51:50 2025
    Why the wide swing in the number of titles in the ISFDB
    by year of publication -- 50% jump -- from 1938 to 1939?
    It's hard to believe that it reflects a step function in public
    interest. The context is as follows:

    year 1936 count 4738
    1937 4628
    1938 4117
    1939 6245
    1940 6685
    1941 5746
    1942 5513

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Ahasuerus@21:1/5 to Charles Packer on Sun Apr 13 09:30:32 2025
    On 4/13/2025 3:51 AM, Charles Packer wrote:
    Why the wide swing in the number of titles in the ISFDB
    by year of publication -- 50% jump -- from 1938 to 1939?
    It's hard to believe that it reflects a step function in public
    interest. The context is as follows:

    year 1936 count 4738
    1937 4628
    1938 4117
    1939 6245
    1940 6685
    1941 5746
    1942 5513

    There were only 3 stable science fiction monthlies between mid-1930 and mid-1938, i.e. during the depths of the Great Depression: *Amazing*, *Astounding* and *Wonder* (*Thrilling Wonder* after 1936.) Things began
    to improve in mid-1938 with the launch of *Marvel* and then the Golden
    Age really took off in 1939: *Unknown*, *Planet Stories*, *Captain
    Future*, *Startling Stories*, *Dynamic*, *Famous Fantastic Mysteries*,
    *Science Fiction*/*Future Fiction*, *Strange Stories*, *Uncanny Tales*,
    *Marvel Science Stories*, *Fantastic Adventures*, *Science Fiction
    Quarterly*, *Super Science Stories*, *Astonishing Stories*, *Cosmic
    Stories*, *Fantastic Novels*, *Stirring Science Stories*. Many of them
    died or had to scale back in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, but the ones
    that survived made a comeback after WWII.

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  • From Charles Packer@21:1/5 to William Hyde on Mon Apr 14 08:00:41 2025
    On Sun, 13 Apr 2025 14:42:33 -0400, William Hyde wrote:

    Charles Packer wrote:
    Why the wide swing in the number of titles in the ISFDB by year of
    publication -- 50% jump -- from 1938 to 1939?
    It's hard to believe that it reflects a step function in public
    interest. The context is as follows:

    year 1936 count 4738 1937 4628 1938 4117 1939 6245 1940 6685 1941
    5746 1942 5513


    There was a bit of a boom in SF magazines about this time. Unknown, for example, was launched in 1939 as were Startling Stories and Planet
    Stories. I presume there were others I don't know about.

    Secondary publication and reprints became more popular, as I mentioned elsewhere.

    Pohl's two magazines at this time were launched in 1940, too late to
    account for the step function, but part of the 39-41 boom which came to
    an end due to wartime paper shortages.

    William Hyde

    A dip into the newpaper archives confirms what you're saying.
    First, there's a lot of writing about writing in those days.
    And I found easily comments about the increasing audience for
    SF. I also noticed that the postwar boom coincided with the
    1947 flying saucer frenzy. I suspect it's not a coincidence.

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  • From Ahasuerus@21:1/5 to William Hyde on Mon Apr 14 16:41:03 2025
    On 4/13/2025 2:44 PM, William Hyde wrote:
    Ahasuerus wrote:
    On 4/13/2025 3:51 AM, Charles Packer wrote:
    Why the wide swing in the number of titles in the ISFDB
    by year of publication -- 50% jump -- from 1938 to 1939?
    It's hard to believe that it reflects a step function in public
    interest. The context is as follows:

    year 1936 count 4738
    1937  4628
    1938  4117
    1939  6245
    1940  6685
    1941  5746
    1942  5513

    There were only 3 stable science fiction monthlies between mid-1930
    and mid-1938, i.e. during the depths of the Great Depression:
    *Amazing*, *Astounding* and *Wonder* (*Thrilling Wonder* after 1936.)
    Things began to improve in mid-1938 with the launch of *Marvel* and
    then the Golden Age really took off in 1939: *Unknown*, *Planet
    Stories*, *Captain Future*, *Startling Stories*, *Dynamic*, *Famous
    Fantastic Mysteries*, *Science Fiction*/*Future Fiction*, *Strange
    Stories*, *Uncanny Tales*, *Marvel Science Stories*, *Fantastic
    Adventures*, *Science Fiction Quarterly*, *Super Science Stories*,
    *Astonishing Stories*, *Cosmic Stories*, *Fantastic Novels*, *Stirring
    Science Stories*. Many of them died or had to scale back in the
    aftermath of Pearl Harbor, but the ones that survived made a comeback
    after WWII.

    Clearly I should have read farther in the thread before replying.

    My hat's off to you.

    <adds the hat to his collection of metaphorical hats>

    As an aside, the sheer quantity of SF published during the Golden Age (1938/1939-1950) was a significant and often underestimated (see, e.g., https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/golden_age_of_sf) factor even though
    its quality outside of _Astounding_/_Unknown_ and, in the late 1940s, _Startling_/_Wonder_, was often abysmal. It helped future powerhouses
    like Bester and Pohl learn their craft.

    I occasionally wonder if certain popular online niches like Web serials, "cultivation" novels and other translations, "isekai"/portal fantasy, "progression fantasy", etc may end up playing a similar role in the 21st century.

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