''Beyond Fantasy Fiction'' was a US

fantasy fiction magazine A fantasy fiction magazine, or fantasy magazine, is a magazine which publishes primarily fantasy fiction. Not generally included in the category are magazines for children with stories about such characters as Santa Claus. Also not included are ...

edited by H. L. Gold, with only ten issues published from 1953 to 1955. The last two issues carried the cover title of ''Beyond Fiction'', but the publication's name for copyright purposes remained as before.See the individual issues, and also the index at Although not a commercial success, it included several short stories by authors such as Isaac Asimov,

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...

and Philip K. Dick.Asimov's "Kid Stuff" and Dick's "The King of the Elves" appeared in the September 1953 issue: Bradbury's "The Watchful Poker Chip" appeared in the March 1954 issue: . These and more may be found via an online index: The publication has been described by critics as a successor to the tradition of ''

Unknown Unknown or The Unknown may refer to: Film * ''The Unknown'' (1915 comedy film), a silent boxing film * ''The Unknown'' (1915 drama film) * ''The Unknown'' (1927 film), a silent horror film starring Lon Chaney * ''The Unknown'' (1936 film), a ...

'', a fantasy magazine that ceased publication in 1943. It was noted for printing fantasy with a rational basis such as werewolf stories that included scientific explanations. A selection of stories from ''Beyond'' was published in paperback form in 1963, also under the title ''Beyond''.

James E. Gunn James Edwin Gunn (July 12, 1923 – December 23, 2020) was an American science fiction writer, editor, scholar, and anthologist. His work as an editor of anthologies includes the six-volume ''The Road to Science Fiction, Road to Science Ficti ...

, a historian of science fiction, regarded the magazine as the best of the fantasy magazines launched in the early 1950s, and science fiction encyclopedist

Donald H. Tuck Donald Henry Tuck (3 December 1922 – 11 October 2010) was an Australian bibliographer of science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction. His works were "among the most extensive produced since the pioneering work of Everett F. Bleiler."

contended it printed very good material. Not every critic viewed ''Beyond'' as completely successful, however;

P. Schuyler Miller Peter Schuyler Miller (February 21, 1912 – October 13, 1974) was an American science fiction writer and critic. Life Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a lifelong interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as ...

, in a 1963 review, commented that the stories were most successful when they did not try to emulate ''Unknown''.

History and significance

''Beyond Fantasy Fiction'' was a fantasy-oriented companion to the more successful ''

Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...

'', which launched in 1950; ''Beyond'' had been planned by editor H. L. Gold from the time ''Galaxy'' was launched, but it had to wait until ''Galaxy'' was firmly established.Michael Ashley, ''Transformations'', pp. 65–66. ''Beyonds first issue, dated July 1953, included an editorial by Gold in which he laid out the magazine's scope, excluding (in his words) only "the probably possible" and "the unentertaining".H.L. Gold, "Beyond", in ''Beyond Fantasy Fiction'', July 1953, p. 2. Gold recruited

Sam Merwin Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictio ...

, who had recently quit as editor of ''

Fantastic Universe ''Fantastic Universe'' was a U.S. science fiction magazine which began publishing in the 1950s. It ran for 69 issues, from June 1953 to March 1960, under two different publishers. It was part of the explosion of science fiction magazine publishin ...

,'' to help in editing, though the masthead of both magazines listed Gold as editor. A typical issue of ''Beyond'' included several stories that were long enough to be listed as novellas or novelettes, with the contents augmented with shorter works, usually for a total of at least seven stories. The first issue featured

Theodore Sturgeon Theodore Sturgeon (; born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 sh ...

Damon Knight Damon Francis Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He is the author of " To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for ''The Twilight Zone''.Stanyard, ''Dimensions Behind t ...

, Frank M. Robinson, and

Richard Matheson Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is best known as the author of '' I Am Legend'', a 1954 science fictio ...

. Other writers who appeared in the magazine included

Jerome Bixby Drexel Jerome Lewis Bixby (January 11, 1923 – April 28, 1998) was an American short-story writer and scriptwriter. He wrote the 1953 story " It's a Good Life", which was the basis of a 1961 episode of ''The Twilight Zone'' and was included ...

John Wyndham John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (; 10 July 1903 – 11 March 1969) was an English science fiction writer best known for his works published under the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names ...

Fredric Brown Fredric Brown (October 29, 1906 – March 11, 1972) was an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer.D. J. McReynolds, "The Short Fiction of Fredric Brown" in Frank N. Magill, (ed.) ''Survey of Science Fiction Literature'', Vol. 4 ...

, Frederik Pohl (both under his own name and with

Lester del Rey Lester del Rey (June 2, 1915 – May 10, 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and scienc ...

under the joint pseudonym "Charles Satterfield"),

Philip José Farmer Philip José Farmer (January 26, 1918 – February 25, 2009) was an American author known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. Obituary. Farmer is best known for his sequences of novels, especially the ''World of Tiers ...

Randall Garrett Gordon Randall Phillip David GarrettGarrett, Randall
in ''

Zenna Henderson Zenna Chlarson Henderson (November 1, 1917 – May 11, 1983) was an American elementary school teacher and science fiction and fantasy author. Her first story was published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' in 1951. Her work is cit ...

, and

Algis Budrys Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome (in collaboration with Jerome Bixby), Jo ...

. Five of the ten covers were

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

, which was an unusual artistic choice for a genre magazine. The cover painting for the first issue was by Richard M. Powers; Gold was one of the very few American magazine editors to use his work, though Powers was prolific in providing artwork for paperback covers. In addition to Powers, René Vidmer and Arthur Krusz (among others) contributed cover art. The magazine also carried interior artwork, usually multiple illustrations, for almost every story; in addition, each story included a facsimile of the author's signature, set at the end of the text. The best-known interior artist ''Beyond'' used was

Ed Emshwiller Edmund Alexander Emshwiller (February 16, 1925 – July 27, 1990) was an American visual artist notable for his science fiction illustrations and his pioneering experimental films. He usually signed his illustrations as Emsh but sometimes used E ...

, though there were several other regular artists. The magazine carried almost no non-fiction, though there were occasional "filler" pieces to occupy spaces at the end of stories.For example, the January 1954 issue has a half-page filler entitled "Feline Facts", about the habits of cats. The publication contained no book reviews, and only the first issue carried an editorial. The magazine was not commercially successful: at that time circulation figures were not required to be published annually, as they were later,See for example the statement of circulation in "Statement Required by the Act of October 23, 1962", ''Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact'' vol. 76, no 4 (December 1965), p.161. so the actual circulation figures are not known. However, Fred Pohl, who was editor of Galaxy Publishing Co. from 1960-1969, stated in 1967 that the magazine showed a loss of $40,000 () during its publication. Its demise after less than two years can be attributed in part to the decreasing popularity of fantasy and horror fiction. In a 1958 advertisement in ''Galaxy'' for complete sets of the magazine for $3.50, the publisher described ''Beyond'' as "a princely experiment to determine whether there were enough readers to support a truly handsome, fantastically high-quality fantasy fiction magazine. There weren't, and so BEYOND had to cease publication after ten (10) hang-the-expense issues."

Reception

According to science-fiction historian

, ''Beyond'' published "some very good material,"Donald H. Tuck writes "Although it printed some very good material, it was never commercially successful." "''Beyond Fantasy Fiction''", in Donald H. Tuck, ed., ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy'' (Chicago: Advent, 1982; ), Vol. 3, p.549. with appearances by many well-known authors, and the magazine is often cited as being the successor to the unusual fantasy tradition of ''

''. Author

James Gunn James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker and executive. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with ''Tromeo and Juliet'' (1997). He then began working as a directo ...

said of the new fantasy magazines that appeared in the 1950s that "the best of these was ''Beyond'', created by Horace Gold as a companion fantasy magazine to ''Galaxy'', which he had created three years before. ''Beyond Fantasy Fiction'' aimed at the same rationalized fantasy niche that ''Unknown'' had established and to which Gold had contributed stories." Excerpted from 2003 edition at Not everyone thought the magazine was completely successful in emulating ''Unknown'', however; P. Schuyler Miller, reviewing an anthology drawn from the pages of ''Beyond'', was generally approving but commented that "Except for Budrys, Pohl, Brown and Sturgeon, these stories from ''Beyond'' are rather self-conscious. They are best when they are not trying to be like ''Unknown''." Miller's assessment of the magazine overall was that it "made a pass at the same position s ''Unknown''but didn't make it.""The Reference Library", ''Analog Science Fact—Science Fiction'' vol. 71, no 5 (July 1963), pp. 87–88. ''Beyonds selection of stories has been described by science fiction historian Michael Ashley as "seeking to achieve … high quality fantasy fiction acceptable to all readers"; he adds that ''Beyond'' was more artistically successful than ''

Fantastic The fantastic (french: le fantastique) is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. Bulgarian-French structuralist literary critic Tzvetan Todorov originated the concept, charac ...

'', a competitor in this niche, because Gold "had a clearer vision and was more determined … to achieve it. … despite sales problems, Gold persisted in publishing fiction that sought to stretch the boundaries of imagination." Several significant or widely reprinted stories appeared during ''Beyonds short history:All but the Gunn and Dick stories are included by Tuck in his list of "Notable fiction" from ''Beyond''. The Gunn story is mentioned as a classic by Ashley, in "''Beyond Fantasy Fiction''", p.110. Dick's story is included because of his current prominence; see Tuck "''Beyond Fantasy Fiction''". * "…And My Fear Is Great…", by

(July 1953) * "The Wall Around the World", by Theodore R. Cogswell (September 1953) * " Kid Stuff", by Isaac Asimov (September 1953) * "The Watchful Poker Chip", by

(March 1954). Generally reprinted under the title "The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse" * "Sine of the Magus", by

(May 1954) * "

The Green Magician ''The Green Magician'' is a fantasy novella by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. The fifth story in their Harold Shea series, it was first published in the November 1954 issue of the fantasy pulp magazine '' Beyond Fiction' ...

", by L. Sprague de Camp and

Fletcher Pratt Murray Fletcher Pratt (25 April 1897 – 10 June 1956) was an American writer of history, science fiction, and fantasy. He is best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War and for fiction written with L. Sprague de Camp. ...

(November 1954). Part of the Incompleat Enchanter series * "

Upon the Dull Earth "Upon the Dull Earth" is a fantasy short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in November 1954 in ''Beyond Fantasy Fiction''. Both the title and the protagonist's name are taken from Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Veron ...

", by Philip K. Dick (November 1954) Although no

Hugo Awards The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...

were presented in 1954, the 2004 World Science Fiction Convention awarded "

Retro Hugos The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...

" for that year. Two ''Beyond'' stories appeared as runners-up: Sturgeon's "…And My Fear Is Great…" placed third in the novella category, and Cogswell's "The Wall Around the World" fifth in the novelette category. In addition, Gold placed fifth in the editor category, though this recognized his work at ''Galaxy'' as well as at ''Beyond''.

Bibliographic details

The publisher was Galaxy Publishing Corporation, New York. The magazine was initially titled ''Beyond Fantasy Fiction'', and this remained the title on the masthead throughout the ten-issue run. However, issue 9 changed the title to simply ''Beyond Fiction'' on the cover, spine, and table of contents. Issue 10 used the new, shorter title on the cover and spine, but reverted to ''Beyond Fantasy Fiction'' for the table of contents. As a result, the magazine is often listed as having changed its name for the last two issues.See the individual issues, and also the index at Tuck, "''Beyond Fantasy Fiction''", p.549. The magazine began as a 160-page digest, priced at 35 cents. The price stayed the same throughout the run, but the page count was cut to 128 for the eighth issue, September 1954. The magazine was bimonthly, but issues 9 and 10 did not carry month and year dates, which has led different bibliographers to catalogue them in different ways. However, the masthead for these issues indicates that the magazine remained bimonthly, and so they are now usually catalogued as November 1954 and January 1955, respectively; the copyright dates on the last two issues correspond to these dates. The volume numbering was completely regular; volume 1 had six numbers, and volume 2 ceased with its fourth number. The stories were printed in the two-column format usual to digest magazines.Not described in the reference works; see the individual issues. A British edition of the magazine ran for four issues on a bimonthly schedule starting in November 1953 and finishing in May 1954. These copied the first four issues of the US version, with slightly cut contents. They were numbered 1 to 4 but were not dated.Ashley, ''Beyond Fantasy Fiction,'' p.110; Tuck, "''Beyond Fantasy Fiction''", p.549. Ten years after the magazine folded, nine stories from ''Beyond'' were collected into the 160-page paperback ''Beyond'', published in 1963 by Berkley Books (F712) and edited by Thomas Dardis (who was not credited on the book).Mike Ashley, ''Beyond Fantasy Fiction,'' in John Clute and John Grant, eds, ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (New York: St. Martin's; ), 110.

References

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

*
Archived Beyond Fantasy Fiction magazines
on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Featured article Defunct science fiction magazines published in the United States Fantasy fiction magazines Magazines disestablished in 1955 Magazines established in 1953 Science fiction magazines established in the 1950s Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Magazines published in New York City