March26
Contents and reception
[edit]e.
|
Winter |
Spring |
Summer |
Autumn |
Winter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1937 |
1 | ||||
|
1938 |
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
|
1939 |
6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
|
1940 |
10 | 11 | 12 | ||
|
1941 |
13 | 14 | 15 | ||
|
1942 |
16 | ||||
| Issues of Tales of Wonder, showing issue number.
Walter Gillings was editor throughout.[1] | |||||
TalAmerican science fiction magazines had by the mid-1930s begun to publish some more sophisticated stories than the straightforward adventure fiction that was the staple of the earliest years of the genre. Gillings decided that the British market for science fiction would not be familiar with most of the developments in American sf, and so he did not make the point of seeking innovative and original material. The first issue contained "The Perfect Creature", an early story by John Wyndham, under the name "John Beynon", as well as "The Prr-r-eet", by Eric Frank Russell. The second issue included Wyndham's novel Sleepers of Mars, and William F. Temple's "Lunar Lilliput", which was Temple's first science fiction sale. "Stenographer's Hands", the story by David H. Keller, also appeared in the second issue, reprinted from the U.S. magazine; Gillings claimed that this was to introduce British science fiction readers to American developments in sf, but in fact it was because he was having trouble obtaining good quality material from British writers.[2][3]
The most significant writer introduced by Gillings was undoubtedly Arthur C. Clarke, whose first sales were to Gillings, for the science articles "Man's Empire of Tomorrow" and "We Can Rocket to the Moon—Now!", which were published in the Winter 1938 and Summer 1939 issues.[3]