Editing Startling Stories (section)

==Publication history==
Although science fiction 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 booming.<ref>Edwards & Nicholls (1993), pp.&nbsp;1066–1068.</ref> Standard Magazines, a pulp publishing company owned by [[Ned Pines]], acquired its first science fiction magazine, ''[[Wonder Stories|Thrilling Wonder Stories]]'', from Gernsback in 1936.<ref name="TTM_91">Ashley (2000), p.&nbsp;91.</ref> [[Mort Weisinger]], the editor of ''Thrilling Wonder'', printed an editorial in February 1938 asking readers for suggestions for a companion magazine. Response was positive, and the new magazine, titled ''Startling Stories'', was duly launched, with a first issue (pulp-sized, rather than [[bedsheet|bedsheet-sized]], as many readers had requested), dated January 1939.<ref name="TTM_136-139">Ashley (2000), pp.&nbsp;136–139.</ref>  Initial pay rates were half a cent per word, lower than the leading magazines of the day.<ref>Williamson (1984), p. 116.</ref><ref>Ashley (2000), p. 107.</ref>

''Startling'' was launched on a bimonthly schedule, alternating months with ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'', though in 1940 ''Thrilling'' moved to a monthly schedule that lasted for over a year.<ref name=ESF_1156/><ref name="TTM_254">Ashley (2000), p.&nbsp;254.</ref>  The first editor was [[Mort Weisinger]], who had been an active fan in the early 1930s and had joined Standard Magazines in 1935, editing ''Thrilling Wonder'' from 1936.<ref name="ESF_1311">Edwards (1993c), p.&nbsp;1311.</ref>  Weisinger left in 1941 to take a new post as editor of ''[[Superman (comic book)|Superman]]'', and was replaced by [[Oscar Jerome Friend|Oscar J. Friend]], who was an established writer of pulp fiction, though his experience was in western fiction rather than sf.<ref name="TTM_183">Ashley (2000), p.&nbsp;123.</ref><ref name="TTM_187-8">Ashley (2000), pp.&nbsp;187–188.</ref><ref name=issues>See the individual issues.  For convenience, an online index is available at {{Cite web | url = http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Magazine:Startling_Stories | title = Magazine:Startling Stories&nbsp;— ISFDB | access-date = July 4, 2008 | publisher = [[Al von Ruff (Publisher)|Al von Ruff]] }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}  An index to the Canadian and British reprints is at {{Cite web | url = http://sfcovers.net/mainnav.htm | title = Visco navigation | access-date = July 11, 2008 | publisher = Terry Gibbons | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080709150231/http://www.sfcovers.net/mainnav.htm | archive-date = July 9, 2008 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> During Friend's tenure ''Startling'' slipped from bimonthly to quarterly publication.  Friend lasted for a little over two years, and was replaced by [[Sam Merwin Jr.]], as of the Winter 1945 issue.<ref name="TTM_250">Ashley (2000), p.&nbsp;250.</ref>

Merwin succeeded in making ''Startling'' popular and successful, and the bimonthly schedule was resumed in 1947.<ref name=TTM_250/><ref name="TA_343">Ashley, ''Transformations'', p.&nbsp;343.</ref> At the start of 1952 ''Startling'' switched to a monthly schedule; this was unusual in that ''Startling'' was notionally junior to ''Thrilling Wonder'', its sister magazine, which remained bimonthly.<ref name=Ewald/>{{#tag:ref|According to science fiction historian Robert Ewald, this is the only time the junior science fiction magazine at a publisher has become the more successful publication.<ref name=Ewald/>|group=note}} Merwin left shortly before this switch, in order to spend more time on his own writing. He was replaced by Samuel Mines, who had worked with Standard's Western magazines, though he was a science fiction aficionado.<ref name="T_12-16">Ashley (2005), p.&nbsp;12–16.</ref>

[[Street & Smith]], one of the longest established and most respected publishers, shut down all of their pulp magazines in the summer of 1949. The pulps were dying, partially as a result of the success of paperbacks. Standard continued with ''Startling'' and ''Thrilling'', but the end came only a few years later.<ref name="TTM_220-225">Ashley (2000), pp.&nbsp;220–225.</ref> In 1954, [[Fredric Wertham]] published ''[[Seduction of the Innocent]]'', a book in which he asserted that comics were inciting children to violence. A subsequent [[United States Senate|Senate]] subcommittee hearing led to a backlash against comics, and the publishers dropped titles in response. The financial impact spread to pulp magazines, since often a publisher would publish both. A 1955 strike by American News Corporation, the main distributor in the U.S., meant that magazines remained in warehouses and never made it to the newsstands; the unsold copies represented a significant financial blow and contributed to publishers' decisions to cancel magazines. ''Startling'' was one of the casualties. The schedule had already returned from monthly to bimonthly in 1953, and it became a quarterly in early 1954. ''Thrilling Wonder'' published its last issue in early 1955, and was then merged with ''Startling'', as was ''[[Fantastic Story Magazine]]'', another companion publication, but the combined magazine lasted only three more issues.<ref name=ESF_1156/><ref name="TA_343"/><ref name="T_69-73">Ashley (2005), pp.&nbsp;69–73.</ref> Mines left the magazine at the end of 1954; he was succeeded for two issues by Theron Raines, who was followed by Herbert D. Kastle for the last two. The final issue was dated Fall 1955.<ref name="TA_343"/>{{#tag:ref|Unusually, science fiction magazine references give multiple versions of the editorship for the last year.  The Tymn & Ashley ''Encyclopedia'' says that Alexander Samalman and Herbert D. Kastle edited the last four issues together, while Donald Tuck, in his ''Encyclopedia'', gives Samalman as the editor of the last four issues.  Both Malcolm Edwards and Mike Ashley (in the latest (online) edition of the Nicholls & Clute ''Encyclopedia'') and Ashley's ''Transformations'' agree, however, and as these are the latest sources their version is given here.<ref name=ESF3_SS/><ref name=Ewald/><ref name=Tuck_594-5/>|name = "editors"|group = note}}