''Imaginative Tales'' was an American
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
and
science fiction magazine
A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard-copy periodical format or on the Internet.
Science fiction magazines traditionally featured speculative fiction in short story, novelette, nov ...
launched in September 1954 by
William Hamling
William Hamling (10 August 1912 – 20 March 1975) was a British Labour Party politician.
Hamling was educated at Liverpool University and was a signals officer in the Royal Marines during World War II.
Hamling contested Southport in 1945, ...
's
Greenleaf Publishing Company. It was created as a sister magazine to ''
Imagination
Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one's mind, which can be re-creations ...
'', which Hamling had acquired from
Raymond A. Palmer
Raymond Arthur Palmer (August 1, 1910 – August 15, 1977) was an American author and editor, best known as editor of ''Amazing Stories'' from 1938 through 1949, when he left publisher Ziff-Davis to publish and edit '' Fate Magazine'', and eve ...
's Clark Publishing. ''Imaginative Tales'' began as a vehicle for novel-length
humorous fantasy
Fantasy comedy or comic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is primarily humorous in intent and tone. Typically set in imaginary worlds, fantasy comedy often involves puns on and parodies of other works of fantasy.
Literature
The subgenre rose ...
, early issues featuring stories by
Charles F. Myers and
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, psychological horror and fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small ...
. After a year, Hamling switched the focus to science fiction and it became similar in content to ''Imagination'', publishing routine
space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and soci ...
s. In 1958, with public interest in space high, Hamling changed the title to ''Space Travel'', but there was little effect on sales. Magazine circulation was suffering because of the rise of the paperback, and the liquidation in 1957 of
American News Company
American News Company (ANC) was a magazine, newspaper, book, and comic book distribution company founded in 1864 by Sinclair Tousey, which dominated the distribution market in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th ce ...
, a major magazine distributor, made it even harder for small magazines to survive. Hamling eventually ceased publication of both ''Imaginative Tales'' and ''Imagination'' in 1958, preferring to invest the money in ''
Rogue'', a men's magazine he had started in imitation of ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
'' in 1955.
Publication history
American
science fiction (sf) magazines first appeared in the 1920s with the launch of ''
Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances i ...
'', a
pulp magazine
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...
published by
Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback (; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish–American editor and magazine publisher, whose publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publ ...
. World War II and its attendant paper shortages interrupted the expanding market for the genre, but by the late 1940s, the market had begun to recover again. From a low of eight active magazines in 1946, the field expanded to 20 in 1950, and a further 22 had commenced publication by 1954.
[Magazine publishing dates for the period are tabulated in Ashley (1976), pp. 323–325.] One of these new titles was
''Imagination'', launched at the end of 1950 by
Raymond Palmer
Raymond Arthur Palmer (August 1, 1910 – August 15, 1977) was an American author and editor, best known as editor of ''Amazing Stories'' from 1938 through 1949, when he left publisher Ziff-Davis to publish and edit '' Fate Magazine'', and ev ...
, who had recently left
Ziff-Davis
Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, and ...
, where he had edited ''Amazing Stories''. In September 1950, Ziff-Davis made the decision to move to New York from Chicago, and Palmer quickly sold ''Imagination'' to
William Hamling
William Hamling (10 August 1912 – 20 March 1975) was a British Labour Party politician.
Hamling was educated at Liverpool University and was a signals officer in the Royal Marines during World War II.
Hamling contested Southport in 1945, ...
, a Ziff-Davis editor who did not want to relocate and who, like Palmer, chose instead to become an independent publisher.
[Ashley (2005), pp. 7–10.][Ashley (1976), pp. 48–49.] In 1954, Hamling started a fantasy magazine as a companion to ''Imagination''. He titled it ''Imaginative Tales''; science fiction historian
Mike Ashley comments that this was surprisingly late for Hamling to start a second title since it might have been more profitable earlier in the sf magazine boom, which was fading by late 1954.
[Ashley (2005), pp. 68–69.]
When Hamling announced the magazine, in an editorial in ''Imagination'', he said "We actually don't know whether it's a magazine or paperback in magazine form", adding that it would usually carry book-length works.
The format of the magazine was initially similar to that of ''
Galaxy Science Fiction Novels
''Galaxy novels'', sometimes titled ''Galaxy Science Fiction Novels'', were a series of mostly reprint American science fiction novels published between 1950 and 1961.
The series was started by H.L. Gold, the editor of ''Galaxy Science Fiction'', ...
'', a series of digest-sized novels started in 1950 as a companion to ''
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 ...
.''
Frank M. Robinson
Frank Malcolm Robinson (August 9, 1926 – June 30, 2014) was an American science fiction and techno-thriller writer. He was a speechwriter for gay politician Harvey Milk and Milk's designated successor in the event of his death but decline ...
, a science fiction writer who was friends with Hamling, suggested changing the title from ''Imaginative Tales'' to ''Caravan'' and printing men's adventure fiction. Hamling knew
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of ''Playboy'' magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles which provoked charges of obsc ...
, the publisher of ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
'', and Hefner set up a lunch with ''Playboy''
's distributor to talk over the idea. The distributor was unimpressed, and Hamling instead pitched the idea of a magazine that would compete with ''Playboy''.
[Robinson (2017), pp. 68–69.] The result was ''
Rogue'',
which was more profitable than either of Hamling's science fiction titles.
[Ashley (2005), p. 193.]
By the late 1950s, paperbacks were displacing magazines on newsstands, and there was widespread resistance among dealers to stocking new magazines. A further blow came in 1957 with the collapse of
American News Company
American News Company (ANC) was a magazine, newspaper, book, and comic book distribution company founded in 1864 by Sinclair Tousey, which dominated the distribution market in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th ce ...
, the most important US magazine distributor. The resulting disruption spelled the end for many sf titles. Hamling retitled ''Imaginative Tales'' to ''Space Travel'' with the July 1958 issue, hoping to cash in on public interest in the early years of the space program. There was no impact on sales, though Ashley attributes this to the lack of interest among book dealers in new magazines. At the end of 1958, both the science fiction titles were axed, and Hamling invested the money in ''Rogue'' instead.
Contents and reception
![Space travel 195807](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Space_travel_195807.jpg)
While at Ziff-Davis, Hamling had become familiar with ''
Fantastic Adventures
''Fantastic Adventures'' was an American pulp fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1953 by Ziff-Davis. It was initially edited by Raymond A. Palmer, who was also the editor of ''Amazing Stories'', Ziff-Davis's other scien ...
'', the fantasy companion to Ziff-Davis's ''Amazing Stories'', and he was a fan of Charles F. Myers' "Toffee" stories, which had appeared in ''Fantastic Adventures'' from the late 1940s. These were humorous stories about a man and his beautiful imaginary girlfriend, Toffee,
[Ashley (2005), p. 11.] with what sf historian Joe Sanders calls an "exaggerated pose of naughtiness": nakedness was implied but never directly described, and sex was only hinted at.
Hamling printed several "Toffee" stories in ''Imagination'',
and when he launched ''Imaginative Tales'', he reprinted ''Shades of Toffee'', a book-length story that had appeared in the June 1950 ''Fantastic Adventures'', in the first issue. The first six issues included novels in the same vein by either Charles Myers or
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, psychological horror and fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small ...
,
and short fiction soon began to appear.
[See the individual issues. An online index is available at ] With the seventh issue, dated September 1955, Hamling converted ''Imaginative Tales'' to more closely resemble ''Imagination'', printing science fiction rather than fantasy.
Mike Ashley describes the contents from this point on as "unremarkable space opera";
regular contributors included some of the same writers who wrote for ''Imagination'', including
Geoff St. Reynard and
Dwight V. Swain
Dwight Vreeland Swain (November 17, 1915 – February 24, 1992), born in Rochester, Michigan, was an American author, screenwriter and teacher. Swain was a member of the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame.
Career
His first published story was "Henry ...
.
Hamling obtained stories from
Edmond Hamilton
Edmond Moore Hamilton (October 21, 1904 – February 1, 1977) was an American writer of science fiction during the mid-twentieth century.
Early life
Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania. So ...
, who Sanders considers "the most readable of the novelists",
but he also printed Raymond Palmer's "The Metal Emperor"—"a dreadful
Shaveristic adventure" according to Ashley,
and "possibly the worst story published in either of Hamling's magazines", according to Sanders.
Henry Slesar
Henry Slesar (June 12, 1927 – April 2, 2002) was an American author, playwright, and copywriter. He is famous for his use of irony and twist endings. After reading Slesar's "M Is for the Many" in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', Alfre ...
's first sale, "The Brat", appeared in the November 1955 issue.
[Ashley (2005), p. 174.] Other writers included many authors who had been regular contributors to ''Amazing Stories—''Hamling was familiar with these writers from his time at Ziff-Davis.
Non-fiction features appeared once Hamling gave up on the novels-only format: a letter column, editorials, and an sf movie news column, "Scientifilm Marquee", contributed by
Forrest Ackerman
Forrest James Ackerman (November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American magazine editor; science fiction writer and literary agent; a founder of science fiction fandom; a leading expert on science fiction, horror, and fantasy films; a p ...
. With the title change to ''Space Travel,'' science articles by Henry Bott and Guenther Schmidt were added.
Bibliographic details
All 26 issues were digest-sized, edited by William Hamling and published by Hamling's
Greenleaf Publishing Company, based in
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...
. The schedule was bimonthly and was completely regular. Issues were initially labelled with a number only, and no volume; from the sixth issue this changed to a volume/number format. There were five volumes, all with six issues except the second volume, which had two. The first issue was 160 pages, and all remaining issues were 128 pages. The price was 35 cents throughout the run.
[Sanders (1985), pp. 347–350.]
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
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Magazines established in 1954
Defunct science fiction magazines published in the United States
Magazines disestablished in 1958
Science fiction magazines established in the 1950s