The Rise And Fall Of American Science Fiction, From The 1920s To The 1960s

312 Pages·2019·2.56 MB·English

by  Gary Westfahl

The Rise and Fall
of American Science Fiction,
from the 1920s to the 1960s
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The Rise and Fall
of American Science Fiction,
from the 1920s to the 1960s
G W
ARY ESTFAHL
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
Also of interest and from McFarland:
Bridges to Science Fiction and Fantasy: Outstanding Essays from the
J. Lloyd Eaton Conferences(edited by Gregory Benford, Gary Westfahl,
Howard V. Hendrix and Joseph D. Miller, 2018)
The Spacesuit Film: A History, 1918–1969(by Gary Westfahl, 2012)
Science Fiction and the Prediction of the Future: Essays on Foresight and Fallacy
(edited by Gary Westfahl, Wong Kin Yuen and Amy Kit-sze Chen, 2011)
Science Fiction and the Two Cultures: Essays on Bridging the Gap Between
the Sciences and the Humanities(edited by Gary Westfahl and George
Slusser, 2009)
The Science of Fiction and the Fiction of Science: Collected Essays on
SF Storytelling and the Gnostic Imagination(by Frank McConnell,
edited by Gary Westfahl)
Hugo Gernsback and the Century of Science Fiction(by Gary Westfahl, 2007)
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Westfahl, Gary, author.
Title: The rise and fall of American science fiction, from the 1920s
to the 1960s / Gary Westfahl.
Description: Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Publishers, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019035920 | ISBN 9781476674940 (paperback)
♾
ISBN 9781476638515 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Science fiction, American—History and criticism. |
American fiction—20th century—History and criticism.
Classification: LCC PS374.S35 W435 2019 | DDC 813/.087620905—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019035920
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-7494-0
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-3851-5
© 2019 Gary Westfahl. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover illustration © 2019 Wood River Gallery
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To Mark R. Kelly—a friend, a supportive editor,
and one of this business’s genuine good guys
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part I. The 1920s and Thereafter
1. The Emergence of American Science Fiction
and Its Impact on the World 7
2. August 1928: Science Fiction’s Second Birthday 21
3. Artists in Wonderland: Towards a True History
of Science Fiction Art 39
Part II. The 1930s and Thereafter
4. Pulp Science Fiction: A Student’s Guide 61
5. Beyond Logic and Literacy: The Strange Case
of Space Opera 77
6. Five Ways to Conquer the Universe: The Forms
of Space Opera 85
Part III. The 1940s and Thereafter
7. The Tall Dark Stranger and the Boy Next Door:
A. E. van Vogt and Robert A. Heinlein 99
8. The Three Golden Ages of Science Fiction 111
9. Assemblers of Infinity: The Early History
of Science Fiction Anthologies 124
Part IV. The 1950s and Thereafter
10. Invasion of the Saucer Men: How the Universe
of Science Fiction Expanded in the 1950s 153
vii
viii Table of Contents
11. Hard Science Fiction: An Overview 180
12. The “Big Three” Approaches to Juvenile Science Fiction
and Why One Worked and the Others Did Not 196
Epilog. The 1960s and Thereafter
13. After Things Fell Apart: The Fragmentation
of Science Fiction in the 1960s and 1970s 211
14. Science Fiction Today: The Triumph of the Marketplace 233
Conclusion 247
Chapter Notes 251
Bibliography 268
Index 277
Acknowledgments
I should begin by thanking the individuals who were responsible for
originally commissioning, and/or publishing, early versions of some chapters
in this book, with the details listed below: Gerry Canavan, Donald M. Hassler,
Edward James, Rob Latham, Eric Carl Link, Farah Mendlesohn, Andy Sawyer,
Lars Schmeink, David Seed, the late George Slusser, and Peter Wright. Others
who made no direct contributions to this book’s contents, but have long been
helpful to my research and writing, should be mentioned as well: Gregory
Benford, George Butler, Marika Christofides, John Clute, Arthur B. Evans,
Mark R. Kelly, David Langford, Maria Mendoza, Janet Moores, David Pringle,
and Willis Regier. Finally, I thank the editors and other employees of McFar-
land, especially David Alff, Dylan Lightfoot, and Lisa Camp for their assis-
tance in getting this book published, and, as always, my wife Lynne, children
Allison Westfahl Kong and Jeremy Westfahl, son- in-law Steven Kong, and
grandchildren Serena Kong and Derek Kong for their continuing support
and encouragement.
A previous version of “The Emergence of American Science Fiction and
Its Impact on the World,” as “The Mightiest Machine: The Development of
American Science Fiction from the 1920s to the 1960s,” appeared in The Cam-
bridge Companion to American Science Fiction, edited by Eric Carl Link and
Gerry Canavan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 17–30.
A previous version of “Artists in Wonderland: Towards a True History
of Science Fiction Art” appeared in Unearthly Visions: Approaches to Science
Fiction and Fantasy Art, edited by Gary Westfahl, George Slusser, and Kath-
leen Church Plummer (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002), 19–38.
A previous version of “Pulp Science Fiction: A Student’s Guide,” as
“Teaching Pulp Science Fiction,” appeared in Teaching Science Fiction, edited
by Andy Sawyer and Peter Wright (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 86–101.
A previous version of “Beyond Logic and Literacy: The Strange Case of
Space Opera” appeared in Extrapolation35:3 (Fall 1994), 176–185.
ix