Famous Fantastic Mysteries
Famous Fantastic Mysteries was a fantasy fiction magazine offering reprints of science fiction and fantasy classics from earlier decades. It ran from 1939 to 1953 for a total of 81 issues.
Published by the Frank A. Munsey Company, the publication began with an issue cover-dated September–October 1939, initially priced at 15 cents and edited by Mary Gnaedinger. The first issue, featuring A. Merritt's The Moon Pool and Ray Cummings' The Girl in the Golden Atom, was a success, and the schedule then went from bi-monthly to monthly. Virgil Finlay was the magazine's leading illustrator.
Spin-offs
Confronted with numerous requests for reprints, Gnaedinger launched a spinoff magazine, Fantastic Novels, in June 1940. Another spinoff was A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine (1949–50).
Some the material reprinted by Famous Fantastic Mysteries and its two companion magazines included the Lost World genre novels of Rider Haggard, A. Merritt, Talbot Mundy and E. C. Vivian. Other writers the magazines reprinted included Algernon Blackwood, G.K. Chesterton, Lord Dunsany, William Hope Hodgson, Franz Kafka, Jack London, Arthur Machen and Sax Rohmer.
Munsey continued as the publisher until December 1942. The All Fiction Field imprint of Popular Publications completed the run from the March 1943 issue to the final June–July 1953 issue. Most issues were 128 pages with some issues of 112 pages. In early 1951 it switched from a small pulp magazine size to a large digest size. Publication frequency alternated from bi-monthly, monthly and quarterly.
Reprints
A Canadian reprint edition was published during the 1940s. A hardcover collection, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, was edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert E. Weinberg and Martin H. Greenberg for Gramercy in 1991.
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root