If (magazine)
| If
|
|
|---|---|
| description | magazine |
| Area of Expertise | Science fiction |
| language | English |
| First edition | 1952 |
| attitude | 1974 |
If was an English science fiction - Magazine . A total of 175 issues appeared between March 1952 and November / December 1974, mostly every two months. From March 1954 to July 1955 and from July 1964 to May 1970 (with 3 exceptions) the magazine appeared monthly. Initially, Worlds of Science Fiction was the subtitle, from November 1961 this was merged in the logo to form the title as Worlds of If - Science Fiction .
In 1966, 1967 and 1968 If received the Hugo Award for best magazine.
history
Founded If by James L. Quinn and first appeared in the publishing Quinn Publishing Co. with Paul W. Fairman as editor. Fairman had previously worked for Ziff-Davis and could not give the new magazine a face to Amazing Stories and other Ziff-Davis magazines. Therefore, Quinn took over his post from September 1952 and remained editor of If until August 1958 , with the exception of the period from May 1953 to March 1954, when Larry T. Shaw took over his duties as deputy editor. He was succeeded by Damon Knight for 3 issues , but then there was a hiatus because If was sold to Digest Productions , which also published Galaxy Science Fiction . From July 1959 If appeared in the new publishing house with HL Gold as publisher, who was also publisher of Galaxy .
In November 1961 Frederik Pohl became publisher and from July 1963 the publisher was named Galaxy Publishing Corporation . Pohl succeeded in giving the magazine its own profile towards Galaxy , at the same time the time of his editing was also the time in which If received the Hugo several times and stories published in If received several awards, including:
- Robert A. Heinlein : The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (published December 1965 to April 1966): Hugo as the best novel
- Larry Niven : Neutron Star (published October 1966): Hugo as the best short story
- Harlan Ellison : I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (published March 1967): Hugo best short story
- Isaac Asimov : The Gods Themselves (March / April 1972, part here, others in Galaxy ): Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award for best novel
In addition, Pohl introduced an If first section for first-time publications by young authors. Here Larry Niven made his debut in 1964 with The Coldest Place and with him Joseph Green , Bruce McAllister and Alexei Panshin .
In 1969 Galaxy and If were sold to Universal Publishing and Distributing Co. (UPD), Pohl took the change of ownership as an opportunity to return to writing, and in his place Ejler Jakobsson became the editor of both magazines in July. As a result, If lost both profile and circulation. The last four issues before the title was discontinued were edited by Jim Baen . In 1974 If was merged into Galaxy , although If had the higher edition last .
In addition to the US edition, there were also several British editions that were not independent, but merely reprinted US editions. Thus, in published Strato Publications 15 numbers from the years 1953/1954 and another 18 from the years 1959-1962. Then, from January to November 1967, Gold Star Publications published reprints of the US editions that had appeared 10 months earlier, and finally the UPD editions were imported and renumbered, but not consecutively.
An attempt at revival as Worlds of If in September / November 1986 failed after only one issue.
Editions and publishers
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | 1/1 | 1/2 | 1/3 | 1/4 | 1/5 | |||||||
| 1953 | 1/6 | 2/1 | 2/2 | 2/3 | 2/4 | 2/5 | ||||||
| 1954 | 2/6 | 3/1 | 3/2 | 3/3 | 3/4 | 3/5 | 3/6 | 4/1 | 4/2 | 4/3 | 4/4 | |
| 1955 | 4/5 | 4/6 | 5/1 | 5/2 | 5/3 | 5/4 | 5/5 | 5/6 | 6/1 | |||
| 1956 | 6/2 | 6/3 | 6/4 | 6/5 | 6/6 | 7/1 | ||||||
| 1957 | 7/2 | 7/3 | 7/4 | 7/5 | 7/6 | 8/1 | ||||||
| 1958 | 8/2 | 8/3 | 8/4 | 8/5 | 8/6 | 9/1 | ||||||
| 1959 | 9/2 | 8/6 | 9/4 | 9/5 | ||||||||
| 1960 | 9/6 | 10/1 | 10/2 | 10/3 | 10/4 | 10/5 | ||||||
| 1961 | 10/6 | 11/1 | 11/2 | 11/3 | 11/4 | 11/5 | ||||||
| 1962 | 11/6 | 12/1 | 12/2 | 12/3 | 12/4 | 12/5 | ||||||
| 1963 | 12/6 | 13/1 | 13/2 | 13/3 | 13/4 | 13/5 | ||||||
| 1964 | 13/6 | 14/1 | 14/2 | 14/3 | 14/4 | 14/5 | 14/6 | 14/7 | ||||
| 1965 | 15/1 | 15/2 | 15/3 | 15/4 | 15/5 | 15/6 | 15/7 | 15/8 | 15/9 | 15/10 | 15/11 | 15/12 |
| 1966 | 16/1 | 16/2 | 16/3 | 16/4 | 16/5 | 16/6 | 16/7 | 16/8 | 16/9 | 16/10 | 16/11 | 16/12 |
| 1967 | 17/1 | 17/2 | 17/3 | 17/4 | 17/5 | 17/6 | 17/7 | 17/8 | 17/9 | 17/10 | 17/11 | 17/12 |
| 1968 | 18/1 | 18/2 | 18/3 | 18/4 | 18/5 | 18/6 | 18/7 | 18/8 | 18/9 | 18/10 | 18/11 | 18/12 |
| 1969 | 19/1 | 19/2 | 19/3 | 19/4 | 19/5 | 19/6 | 19/7 | 19/8 | 19/9 | 19/10 | ||
| 1970 | 20/1 | 20/2 | 20/3 | 20/4 | 20/5 | 20/6 | 20/7 | 20/8 | ||||
| 1971 | 20/9 | 20/10 | 20/11 | 20/12 | 21/1 | 21/2 | ||||||
| 1972 | 21/3 | 21/4 | 21/5 | 21/6 | 21/7 | 21/8 | ||||||
| 1973 | 21/9 | 21/10 | 21/11 | 21/12 | 22/1 | 22/2 | ||||||
| 1974 | 22/3 | 22/4 | 22/5 | 22/6 | 22/7 | 22/8 |
| editor | from | to |
|---|---|---|
| Paul W. Fairman | March 1952 | September 1952 |
| James L. Quinn | November 1952 | August 1958 |
| Larry T. Shaw | May 1953 | March 1954 |
| Damon Knight | October 1958 | February 1959 |
| HL gold | July 1959 | September 1961 |
| Frederik Pohl | November 1961 | May 1969 |
| Ejler Jakobsson | July 1969 | January / February 1974 |
| Jim Baen | March / April 1974 | November / December 1974 |
literature
- Brian M. Stableford , Mike Ashley , Peter Nicholls : If. In: John Clute , Peter Nicholls: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . 3rd edition (online edition), version dated June 22, 2014.
- EF Casebeer: If. In: Marshall B. Tymn, Mike Ashley: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines. Greenwood Press, Westport 1985, ISBN 0-313-21221-X , pp. 329-343.
Web links
- If in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- If , digital copies in the Internet Archive
- If , checklist with cover images (accessed April 2, 2018)