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From: Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Question about ISFDB statistic
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2025 16:41:03 -0400
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On 4/13/2025 2:44 PM, William Hyde wrote:
> Ahasuerus wrote:
>> On 4/13/2025 3:51 AM, Charles Packer wrote:
>>> Why the wide swing in the number of titles in the ISFDB
>>> by year of publication -- 50% jump -- from 1938 to 1939?
>>> It's hard to believe that it reflects a step function in public
>>> interest. The context is as follows:
>>>
>>> year 1936 count 4738
>>> 1937  4628
>>> 1938  4117
>>> 1939  6245
>>> 1940  6685
>>> 1941  5746
>>> 1942  5513
>>
>> There were only 3 stable science fiction monthlies between mid-1930 
>> and mid-1938, i.e. during the depths of the Great Depression: 
>> *Amazing*, *Astounding* and *Wonder* (*Thrilling Wonder* after 1936.) 
>> Things began to improve in mid-1938 with the launch of *Marvel* and 
>> then the Golden Age really took off in 1939: *Unknown*, *Planet 
>> Stories*, *Captain Future*, *Startling Stories*, *Dynamic*, *Famous 
>> Fantastic Mysteries*, *Science Fiction*/*Future Fiction*, *Strange 
>> Stories*, *Uncanny Tales*, *Marvel Science Stories*, *Fantastic 
>> Adventures*, *Science Fiction Quarterly*, *Super Science Stories*, 
>> *Astonishing Stories*, *Cosmic Stories*, *Fantastic Novels*, *Stirring 
>> Science Stories*. Many of them died or had to scale back in the 
>> aftermath of Pearl Harbor, but the ones that survived made a comeback 
>> after WWII.
> 
> Clearly I should have read farther in the thread before replying.
> 
> My hat's off to you.

<adds the hat to his collection of metaphorical hats>

As an aside, the sheer quantity of SF published during the Golden Age 
(1938/1939-1950) was a significant and often underestimated (see, e.g., 
https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/golden_age_of_sf) factor even though 
its quality outside of _Astounding_/_Unknown_ and, in the late 1940s, 
_Startling_/_Wonder_, was often abysmal. It helped future powerhouses 
like Bester and Pohl learn their craft.

I occasionally wonder if certain popular online niches like Web serials, 
"cultivation" novels and other translations, "isekai"/portal fantasy, 
"progression fantasy", etc may end up playing a similar role in the 21st 
century.