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Scientifictionist, v. 1, issue 1, September 1945

Page 10

WHO READS SCIENTIFICTION?
by Thomas S. Gardner

Who reads scientifiction?, many people have asked me.

Before one should answer such a question let us look a little into the history of the field. The Greeks probably invented scientifiction. For example they have an imaginary visit to the moon, also Plato's Atlantis myth, and even our sociological type of utopian story, Plato's Republic. But modern scientifiction should, in my humble opinion, be laid at the feet of H.G. Wells in England, and Jules Verne in France. They actually developed the scientifiction theme in an interesting manner without trying to paint a moral as the Greeks always tried to do. However, it was up to America to make scientifiction into a literature, a field, and a business. Of all the scientifiction written, printed and known, America has furnished about 90%; the remainder mainly being divided among England, France and Germany.  (pre-war II Germany)

So let us see  who reads it. There are about a thousand fans and near fans in the world. They are divided into three groups. An old-time line up that have been reading for years; a more recent group having two sub-heads, the Amazing clique, and the remainder who can stand the Amazing stuff; and the third group a queer group who bounce from pillar to post, getting into hot water because they insist that scientifiction must become a social force, to usher in every kind of ism from eating garlic before breakfast to communism. Many of this group are intelligent but lack emotional balance. The first group of fans revere Astounding, and tolerate most of the other magazines; the second group tend toward Planet and the Thrilling group but also read Astounding; while the Amazing and Fantastic Adventure fan clique are sold on those two mags only. I met several of this clique. They were in High School, had only the low grade American background of knowledge as given by our schools, planned to start skilled labor work as soon as out of High School, had no professional aspirations, and wanted action, love motifs, adventure, very little plot, but lots of action. They were evidently the Western story addict of twenty years ago.

Now here is one thing that is hard for many fans to understand. Scientifiction is not printed and published for their benefit. A magazine is put out because it makes money. Even though Astounding were to become the best scientifiction magazine ever, and it is tops now, if it ceased to make money Street & Smith would drop it. There are not enough fans in the world to support one full scale commercial publication! It has been estimated that about three hundred thousand people read scientifiction of which about one thousand are fans! Get the point! The fans write letters, sometimes away from the policies somewhat, but in the final analysis it is the general readers who are workmen, business men, housewives, clerks, storekeepers, high school children, comic book addicts, and a complete cross-section of America who are the readers of scientifiction.

Technical men wo are not fans read Astounding nearly altogether. The average pulp reader, housewife, clerk, business man, high school boy or girl, and the general reader may read Astounding, and undoubtedly do to a big extent, otherwise it could not continue to publish, but they also read Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Planet, Thrilling Wonder and Startling. A few of the average pulp reader group read Amazing and Fantastic Adventures, but the two Ziff-Davis readers are fans, and the general group such as workmen, clerks, etc. So it is easy to see there is quite a cross-section of the American public who read scientifiction.

During the past five years I have tried to estimate how the magazines are selling. Astounding and Amazing are the biggest sellers, with Amazing having a probably slight edge in most places because it requires more eduction to read

--(page 10)

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WHO READS SCIENTIFICTION? by Thomas S. Gardner Who reads scientifiction?, many people have asked me. Before one should answer such a question let us look a little into the history of the field. The Greeks probably invented scientifiction. For example they have an imaginary visit to the moon, also Plato's Atlantis myth, and even our sociological type of utopian story, Plato's Republic. But modern scientifiction should, in my humble opinion, be laid at the feet of H.G. Wells in England, and Jules Verne in France. They actually developed the scientifiction theme in an interesting manner without trying to paint a moral as the Greeks always tried to do. However, it was up to America to make scientifiction into a literature, a field, and a business. Of all the scientifiction written, printed and known, America has furnished about 90%; the remainder mainly being divided among England, France and Germany. (pre-war II Germany) So let us see who reads it. There are about a thousand fans and near fans in the world. They are divided into three groups. An old-time line up that have been reading for years; a more recent group having two sub-heads, the Amazing clique, and the remainder who can stand the Amazing stuff; and the third group a queer group who bounce from pillar to post, getting into hot water because they insist that scientifiction must become a social force, to usher in every kind of ism from eating garlic before breakfast to communism. Many of this group are intelligent but lack emotional balance. The first group of fans revere Astounding, and tolerate most of the other magazines; the second group tend toward Planet and the Thrilling group but also read Astounding; while the Amazing and Fantastic Adventure fan clique are sold on those two mags only. I met several of this clique. They were in High School, had only the low grade American background of knowledge as given by our schools, planned to start skilled labor work as soon as out of High School, had no professional aspirations, and wanted action, love motifs, adventure, very little plot, but lots of action. They were evidently the Western story addict of twenty years ago. Now here is one thing that is hard for many fans to understand. Scientifiction is not printed and published for their benefit. A magazine is put out because it makes money. Even though Astounding were to become the best scientifiction magazine ever, and it is tops now, if it ceased to make money Street & Smith would drop it. There are not enough fans in the world to support one full scale commercial publication! It has been estimated that about three hundred thousand people read scientifiction of which about one thousand are fans! Get the point! The fans write letters, sometimes away from the policies somewhat, but in the final analysis it is the general readers who are workmen, business men, housewives, clerks, storekeepers, high school children, comic book addicts, and a complete cross-section of America who are the readers of scientifiction. Technical men wo are not fans read Astounding nearly altogether. The average pulp reader, housewife, clerk, business man, high school boy or girl, and the general reader may read Astounding, and undoubtedly do to a big extent, otherwise it could not continue to publish, but they also read Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Planet, Thrilling Wonder and Startling. A few of the average pulp reader group read Amazing and Fantastic Adventures, but the two Ziff-Davis readers are fans, and the general group such as workmen, clerks, etc. So it is easy to see there is quite a cross-section of the American public who read scientifiction. During the past five years I have tried to estimate how the magazines are selling. Astounding and Amazing are the biggest sellers, with Amazing having a probably slight edge in most places because it requires more eduction to read --(page 10)