Planet Stories

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Planet Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and
1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on other planets, and was initially focused on a
young readership. Malcolm Reiss was editor or editor-in-chief for all of its 71 issues. Planet Stories was
launched at the same time as Planet Comics, the success of which probably helped to fund the early issues of
Planet Stories. Planet did not pay well enough to regularly attract the leading science fiction writers of the day,
but did on occasion manage to obtain work from well-known authors including Isaac Asimov and Clifford
Simak. In 1952 Planet published Philip K. Dick's first sale, and went on to print four more of his stories over
the next three years.

The two writers most identified with Planet Stories are Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury, both of whom set
many of their stories on a romanticized version of Mars that owed much to the depiction of Barsoom in the
works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Bradbury's work for Planet included an early story in his Martian Chronicles
sequence. Brackett's best-known work for the magazine was a series of adventures featuring Eric John Stark,
which began in the summer of 1949. Brackett and Bradbury collaborated on one story, "Lorelei of the Red
Mist", which appeared in 1946; it was generally well-received, although one letter to the magazine complained
that the story's treatment of sex, though mild by modern standards, was too explicit. The artwork also
emphasized attractive women, with scantily clad damsels in distress or alien princesses on almost every cover.

Contents
1 Publication history
2 Contents and reception
3 Bibliographic details
3.1 Related publications
4 See also
5 Notes
6 Citations
7 References
8 External links

Publication history
Although science fiction (sf) had been published before the 1920s, it did not begin to coalesce into a separately
marketed genre until the appearance in 1926 of Amazing Stories, a pulp magazine published by Hugo
Gernsback. By the end of the 1930s the field was undergoing its first boom.[1] Fiction House, a major pulp
publisher, had run into difficulties during the Depression, but after a relaunch in 1934 found success with
detective and romance pulp titles. Fiction House's first title with sf interest was Jungle Stories, which was
launched in early 1939; it was not primarily a science fiction magazine, but often featured storylines with
marginally science fictional themes, such as survivors from Atlantis. At the end of 1939 Fiction House decided
to add an sf magazine to its lineup; it was titled Planet Stories, and was published by Love Romances, a
subsidiary company that had been created to publish Fiction House's romance titles. The first issue was dated
Winter 1939. Two comics were launched at the same time: Jungle Comics and Planet Comics; both were
published monthly, whereas Planet Stories was quarterly, and it is quite likely that the success of the comics
funded the early issues of the pulps.[2]

Malcolm Reiss edited Planet Stories from the beginning, and retained editorial oversight and control
throughout its run, though he was not always the named editor on the masthead; when other editors were
involved, his title was "managing editor".[3] The first of these sub-editors was Wilbur S. Peacock, who took
 over with the Fall 1942 issue and remained until Fall 1945, after which he
was replaced by Chester Whitehorn for three issues, and then by Paul L.
Payne, from Fall 1946 to Spring 1950.[3]

With the Summer 1950 issue the editorship passed to Jerome Bixby, who
was already editing Jungle Stories. Soon thereafter Planet Stories switched
from a quarterly to bimonthly schedule. Bixby lasted a little over a year;
Malcolm Reiss took over again in September 1951, and three issues later,
in March 1952, Jack O'Sullivan became editor.[4] A contemporary market
survey records that in 1953, payment rates were only one to two cents per
word; this was substantially less than the leading magazines of the
day.[5][6][notes 1] Planet returned to a quarterly schedule beginning with the
Summer 1954 issue, but the pulp market was collapsing, and the Summer
1955 issue was the final one.[4]

Planet Stories published Graham Contents and reception

Ingels's only cover for a science
fiction pulp in 1944 Fiction House apparently made the
decision to launch Planet Stories so
quickly that there was little time for
Reiss to obtain new stories, so he worked with Julius Schwartz and other
authors' agents to fill the first issue. The results were unremarkable, but
Reiss was energetic, and was able to improve the quality of fiction in
succeeding issues, though he occasionally apologized to the readers for
printing weak material.[2] The magazine was exclusively focused on
interplanetary adventures,[3] often taking place in primitive societies that
would now be regarded as "sword and sorcery" settings,[9] and was aimed
at a young readership; the result was a mixture of what became known as
space opera and planetary romancesmelodramatic tales of action and
adventure on alien planets and in interplanetary space.[2][3] Planet relied on
a few authors to provide the bulk of its fiction in the early years, with
Nelson Bond providing eight lead stories, some of them novels. Fourteen
more were written by Ray Cummings and Ross Rocklynne; and Leigh A characteristic Planet Stories cover,
Brackett was also a regular contributor, with seventeen stories in total by Alexander Leydenfrost.Planet
published over the lifetime of the magazine.[9] was one of the magazines to make
the "bug-eyed monster", or "BEM", a
The letter column in Planet was titled "The Vizigraph"; it was very active, staple of science fiction art.[8]
with long letters from an engaged readership. It often printed letters from
established writers, and from fans who would go on to become well known
professionally: Damon Knight's letters are described by sf historian Mike Ashley as "legendary"; and Robert
Silverberg commented in a letter in the Summer 1950 issue that Ray Bradbury "certainly gets some original
ideas, if not good ones".[9][10] The editors put a good deal of effort into keeping the letter column friendly and
lively; contemporary writer and editor Robert Lowndes recalls that "Reiss was sincere and urbane; Wilbur
[Peacock] enjoyed taking his coat off and being one of the crowd".[11]

Despite the focus on melodramatic space adventure, the fiction in Planet Stories improved over the next few
years, largely due to the work of Brackett and Bradbury. Both writers set many of their stories on a
romanticized version of Mars that owed much to the Barsoom of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Brackett's writing
improved during the 1940s from formulaic pulp adventure to a more mature style, and she became the most
accomplished writer of planetary romances of her day.[12] She wrote a well-received series of stories featuring
adventurer Eric John Stark, which began in the Summer 1949 Planet with "Queen of the Martian
Catacombs".[9] Her work had a strong influence on other writers, in particular Gardner F. Fox, Lin Carter and

Marion Zimmer Bradley,[12] Brackett later argued that "the so-called space opera is the folk-tale, the hero-tale
Marion Zimmer Bradley,[12] Brackett later argued that "the so-called space opera is the folk-tale, the hero-tale
of our particular niche in history".[9] Also arguing in support of Planet Stories, science fiction critic John Clute
has commented that "the content was far more sophisticated than the covers".[13]

Bradbury's work for Planet included two of the stories that he later
incorporated into The Martian Chronicles, including "The Million Year
Picnic"; only one other story in the series had appeared before
this.[12][14] He also collaborated on a story with Leigh Brackett,
"Lorelei of the Red Mist", based on an idea of hers, which appeared in
the Summer of 1946.[9][12] His stories for Planet demonstrate his
reservations about the advance of technology, in particular "The Golden
Apples of the Sun" (November 1953), and "A Sound of Thunder"
(January 1954, reprinted from the June 28, 1952 issue of Collier's
Weekly).[9][notes 2] Bradbury's work in Planet Stories is regarded by one
pulp historian, Tim de Forest, as "the magazine's most important
contribution to the genre".[14]

Several other well-known writers appeared in Planet Stories, including

Interior illustration by Alexander
Leydenfrost for Bradbury's "The Million
Year Picnic"
"Black Friar of the Flame".[15][notes 3]
Isaac Asimov, Clifford Simak, James Blish, Fredric Brown and Damon
Knight.[12] Asimov's story, originally titled "Pilgrimage", appeared in
1942; Asimov had been unable to sell the piece elsewhere, and rewrote
it numerous times for different editors, adding a religious element at
John Campbell's request, and removing it again when Malcolm Reiss
asked for further changes. Reiss bought it but changed the name to

Jerome Bixby, who took over as editor in 1950, was a published writer and was knowledgeable about sf, though
he had primarily written western fiction. In his short tenure he did much to improve the magazine, persuading
the established writers to produce better material and finding unusual variations on the interplanetary adventure
theme such as Poul Anderson's "Duel on Syrtis" in March 1951, about an Earthman tracking an alien on Mars,
and Theodore Sturgeon's "The Incubi on Planet X", about aliens who kidnap Earth women.[16] After Bixby's
departure in 1952, Planet's major contribution to the genre was the discovery of Philip K. Dick, whose first
sale, "Beyond Lies the Wub", appeared in the July 1952 issue. Dick went on to sell another four stories to
Planet over the next two years, including "James P. Crow", in which a human suffers discrimination in a world
of robots.[9]

Planet Stories clearly targeted a young readership, and the simultaneous launch in 1939 of Planet Comics may
have been instrumental in attracting young readers to science fiction, but Ashley suggests that it is more likely
that Planet Stories attracted experienced readers of the genre who "still yearned for the early days of sf".[2]
Critic and sf historian Thomas Clareson has commented that "Planet seemed to look backward towards the
1930s and earlier", an impression that was strengthened by the extensive use of interior artwork by Frank Paul,
who had been the cover artist for the early Gernsback magazines in the 1920s. Paul's distinctive style was
strongly associated with the early years of the field.[9] The cover art was also melodramatic, with beautiful
womensometimes human, sometimes princesses from other planetsand threatening aliens. The subheading
on the cover read "Strange Adventures on Other Worlds The Universe of Future Centuries" until the end of
1946.[9][17]

Although almost every story that appeared in Planet could be described as space opera, there was some variety
of approach to the basic themes. Earth was sometimes threatened, but more often the action took place on other
worlds, bringing Earthmen into local conflicts. This often involved beautiful native princesses, though the
romantic storylines were stereotyped: in one story, Carl Selwyn's "Venus Has Green Eyes", which appeared in
Fall 1940, the Venusian princess is dissuaded from her hatred of humans when the hero seizes her and kisses
her; she slaps him, but succumbs to his charm.[9] Some respite from these depictions of women was provided
by Leigh Brackett, who described her own heroines as "usually on the bitchy sidewarm-blooded, hot-
tempered, but gutty and intelligent" (with "bitchy" intended as a compliment).[18] During World War II, it was
in Planet Stories that a reader was most likely to come across a female
character who could fight, instead of merely being fought over.[19] Sex
itself had long been taboo in the pulp magazines, but some stories in
Planet depicted sexuality more directly than the competing magazines
would.[9] The readers were not always accepting; one reader in a letter in
1949 supported "jettisoning the taboos",[20] but a letter writer in 1946
objected to "Lorelei of the Red Mist", saying that he needed "a pint of
Listerine to wash the dirty taste out of my mouth".[9] The cover artwork
generally emphasized sex as well, with what sf author and critic Harry
Harrison sardonically referred to as "sexual dimorphism in space": heavy,
functional spacesuits for the men, and transparent suits through which
bikinis or swimsuits could be seen for the women.[21]

Hannes Bok contributed much of the interior artwork, and the covers were
often by Allen Anderson during the early years. Later, Kelly Freas became
a frequent cover artist. One of the best artists to work on Planet was
Alexander Leydenfrost, whose work, according to Clareson, "epitomized The November 1953 Planet Stories,
much of what Planet Stories represented in the 1940s",[3][9] though his by Kelly Freas, showing the "sexual
cover artwork was less impressive than his black-and-white interior dimorphism" mentioned by Harry
Harrison, and also showing the new
illustrations.[22] Artist and sf historian David Hardy has described
cover logo that was adopted from the
Leydenfrost's black and white illustrations as "almost Rembrandtian in his
Spring 1947 issue
use of light and shade".[23]

Bibliographic details
The editorial succession at Planet was:[4][9][24]

Malcolm Reiss: Winter 1939 Summer 1942.

Wilbur S. Peacock: Fall 1942 Fall 1945.
Chester Whitehorn: Winter 1945 Summer 1946.
Paul L. Payne: Fall 1946 Spring 1950.
Jerome Bixby: Summer 1950 July 1951.
Malcolm Reiss: September 1951 January 1952.
Jack O'Sullivan: March 1952 Summer 1955.

Planet Stories was a pulp-sized magazine for all of its 71 issues. It was 128 pages for most of its existence, and
was priced at 20 cents. With the November 1950 issue the page count was cut to 112, and the price went up to
25 cents. The page count was reduced to 96 for one issue in March 1952, but then returned to 112 until Summer
1954, when it was again reduced to 96 pages for the last five issues.[9]

Planet began as a quarterly. A brief attempt was made to switch to a bimonthly schedule in 1943; a March and
May issue appeared, but the next issue was titled Fall 1943, inaugurating another quarterly period. The Fall
1950 issue was followed by November 1950, and this began a bimonthly period that lasted until May 1954,
which was followed by a Summer 1954 issue. A quarterly schedule resumed until the end; unusually, the winter
issue that year was dated Winter 1954/55, rather than with a single year.[9] The volume numbering was
consistent throughout the magazine's publication, with five volumes of 12 issues and a final volume of 11, but
there were three errors in the volume numbering printed on the spine (though not on the masthead): issue 5/10
was given as 5/8 on the spine; issue 5/11 was given as 6/3 on the spine; and issue 6/11 was given as 6/12 on the
spine.[25]

A British reprint edition appeared between March 1950 and September 1954; the issues were numbered but not
dated, and were heavily cut, with only 64 to 68 pages.[25] There are twelve issues known; a thirteenth has been
rumored but not seen by any sf bibliographers.[9] The publisher was Pembertons, though some sources indicate
that Streamline Publications was the publisher of the first issue.[3][9][25] Issues 7 and 8 of the British edition
also contained nonfiction
material reprinted from Spring Summer Fall Winter
Startling Stories and Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Thrilling Wonder.[9] A 1939 1/1
Canadian edition was
published by American 1940 1/2 1/3 1/4 2/1
News Co., from Fall 1948 1941 1/6 1/7 1/8 1/9
to March 1951 (a total of 1942 1/10 1/11 1/12 2/1
twelve issues); these were
1943 2/2 2/3 2/4 2/5
identical to the
corresponding U.S. 1944 2/6 2/7 2/8 2/9
editions.[25] 1945 2/10 2/11 2/12 3/1
1946 3/2 3/3 3/4 3/5
Related publications
1947 3/6 3/7 3/8 3/9
In the summer of 1950 1948 3/10 3/11 3/12 4/1
Fiction House launched a 1949 4/2 4/3 4/4 4/5
companion magazine to
Planet. It was titled Two 1950 4/6 4/7 4/8 4/9
Complete Science- 1951 4/10 4/11 4/12 5/1 5/2 5/3
Adventure Books; the 1952 5/4 5/5 5/6 5/7 5/8 5/9
policy was to print two
1953 5/10 5/11 5/12 6/1 6/2 6/3
novels in a single
magazine. It appeared 1954 6/4 6/5 6/6 6/7 6/8 6/9
three times a year and 1955 6/10 6/11
lasted until the spring of
Issues of Planet Stories , showing volume/issue number . Underlining indicates tha t
1954.[12][26] In 1953 an issue was titled as a quarterly (e.g. "Fall 1949") rather than as a monthly . The
Fiction House launched a colors identify the editors for each issue: [4][9][24]
reprint magazine, Tops in Malcolm Reiss Wilbur S. Peacock Chester Whitehorn Paul L. Payne
Science Fiction, selecting Jerome Bixby Jack O'Sullivan

the contents from the

backfile of stories that
had appeared in Planet. It only lasted for two issues, the second of which received almost no
distribution.[27][28]

A derivative anthology, The Best of Planet Stories #1, appeared in 1975 from Ballantine Books, edited by
Leigh Brackett, containing seven stories reprinted from between 1942 and 1952.[9] It was intended to be the
first of a series, but no further volumes appeared.[3]

See also
History of science fiction

Notes
1. In 1944 the rates were one to one-and-a-half cents per word.[7]
2. According to Thomas Clareson, this "seems to be the one reprint Planet Stories used".[9]
3. The story has often been regarded as Asimov's worst, though Asimov himself felt that this was partly due
to the weak title, and that one or two of his earlier stories were weaker.[15]

Citations
1. Malcolm Edwards & Peter Nicholls, "SF Magazines", in Clute & Nicholls, Encyclopedia of Science
 Fiction, pp. 10661068.
2. Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 151152.
3. Malcolm Edwards, "Planet Stories", in Clute & Nicholls, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 937.
4. Ashley, Transformations, p. 336.
5. de Camp, Science-Fiction Handbook, pp. 102103.
6. de Camp, Science-Fiction Handbook, pp. 114115.
7. Brackett, "The Science-fiction Field", p. 27.
8. Kyle, Pictorial History, p. 96.
9. Thomas D. Clareson, "Planet Stories", in Tymn & Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction
Magazines, pp. 476481.
10. Ashley, Transformations, p. 47.
11. Ashley, History of the Science Fiction Magazine, Vol. 2, p. 58.
12. Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 193194.
13. Clute, Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, p. 101.
14. de Forest, Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics and Radio, p. 76.
15. Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, pp. 313, 326.
16. Ashley, Transformations, pp. 1112.
17. See the individual issues. For convenience, an online index is available at "Magazine:Planet Stories
ISFDB" (http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Magazine:Planet_Stories). Al von Ruff (Publisher).
Retrieved 22 January 2011.
18. Carter, Creation of Tomorrow, p. 186.
19. Carter, Creation of Tomorrow, p. 189.
20. Carter, Creation of Tomorrow, p. 192.
21. Harry Harrison, "Machine as Hero", in Holdstock, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 97.
22. Jon Gustafson and Peter Nicholls, "Alexander Leydenfrost", in Clute & Nicholls, Encyclopedia of
Science Fiction, p. 718.
23. David Hardy, "Art and Artists", in Holdstock, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 126.
24. Ashley, Time Machines, p. 247.
25. "Planet Stories", in Tuck, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Vol. 3, pp. 582583.
26. Ashley, Transformations, p. 351.
27. Ashley, Time Machines, p. 224.
28. Ashley, Transformations, p. 45.

References
Ashley, Michael (1976) [First edition 1975]. The History of the Science Fiction Magazine Vol. 2 1936
1945. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company. ISBN 0-8092-8002-7.
Ashley, Mike (2000). The Time Machines:The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the
beginning to 1950. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-865-0.
Ashley, Mike (2005). Transformations: The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970.
Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-779-4.
Asimov, Isaac (1979). In Memory Yet Green. Garden City: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-13679-X.
Brackett, Leigh (July 1944). "The Science-Fiction Field". Writer's Digest. 24: 27.
Carter, Paul A. (1977). The Creation of Tomorrow: Fifty Years of Magazine Science Fiction. New York:
Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-04211-6.
Clute, John (1995). Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley.
ISBN 0-7894-0185-1.
Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1993). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Press,
Inc. ISBN 0-312-09618-6.
de Camp, L. Sprague (1953). Science-Fiction Handbook: The Writing of Imaginative Fiction. New York:
Hermitage House.
de Forest, Tim (2004). Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular
Fiction in America. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1902-4.
Holdstock, Robert, ed. (1978). Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. London: Octopus Books. ISBN 0-7064-
0756-3.
Kyle, David (1977). The Pictorial History of Science Fiction. London: Hamlyn. ISBN 0-600-38193-5.
 Tuck, Donald H. (1982). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume 3. Chicago: Advent:
Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-911682-26-0.
Tymn, Marshall B.; Ashley, Mike (1985). Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines.
Westport CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-21221-X.

External links
Media related to Planet Stories at Wikimedia Commons

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