Raymond A Palmer

Raymond A Palmer (1910-1977) was the influential editor of Amazing Stories from 1938 through 1949, when he left publisher Ziff-Davis to form his own company. Palmer was also a prolific author, publishing stories under many pseudonyms.

According to Bruce Lanier Wright, "Palmer was hit by a truck at age seven and suffered a broken back." An unsuccessful operation on Palmer's spine stunted his growth (he stood about four feet tall), and left him with a hunchback.

Raymond A Palmer found refuge in science fiction, which he read voraciously. He rose through the ranks of science fiction fandom and is credited with publishing the first fanzine, The Comet, in 1930. When Ziff-Davis moved its magazine production from New York to Chicago in 1938, it decided to replace the editor T. O'Conor Sloane. Since Palmer lived in nearby Milwaukee, he was offered the job.

His tenure at Amazing Stories is notable for his purchase of Isaac Asimov's first professional story, "Marooned Off Vesta", and for the controversial Shaver Mystery, which was based around a series of stories by Richard S. Shaver. In 1939, Palmer began a companion magazine to Amazing Stories entitled Fantastic Adventures, which lasted until 1953.

As an editor, Raymond A Palmer tended to favor adventurous, fast-moving, often poorly-written space opera-type stories. Lanier notes that "Much of this tired derring-do was churned out under house names by a shifting cast of hacks including Palmer himself. Hard-core SF fans were disappointed by the new Amazing, and most of its prose was fairly dire even by pulp standards, but it was lively and well-received by the casual newsstand readership, the one yardstick that interested its owners."

Raymond A Palmer also began his own ventures while working for Ziff-Davis, eventually leaving the company to form his own publishing house, which was responsible for his titles Imagination and Other Worlds, among others, although none of them lived up to the success of Amazing Stories during the Palmer years. He eventually published Space World magazine until his death.

Palmer's support of Shaver's stories (which maintained that the world is dominated by insane inhabitants of the hollow earth) caused him to be shunned by many in the science fiction community. It is unclear how much Palmer believed of his own propaganda, or to what extent he was just pandering to the desires of his readership.

Raymond A Palmer published Kenneth Arnold's reports of "flying discs," as well: he was instrumental in popularizing the beliefs in flying saucers. In 1948, Palmer started Fate Magazine, which ran many articles touting unpopular or paranormal beliefs, and one of his science fiction titles evolved into the magazine Flying Saucers.

Selected Bibliography

Editor

• Fantastic Adventures - 1943 (1943)
• Fantastic Adventures - 1944 (1944)
• Fantastic Adventures - 1945 (1945)
• Fantastic Adventures - 1946 (1946)
• Amazing Stories - 1946 (1946)
• Fantastic Adventures - 1947 (1947)
• Amazing Stories - 1947 (1947)
• Fantastic Adventures - 1948 (1948)
• Amazing Stories - 1948 (1948)
• Fantastic Adventures - 1949 (1949)
• Amazing Stories - 1949 (1949)

Shortfiction

• The Time Ray of Jandra (1930)
• The Time Tragedy (1934)
• The Symphony of Death (1935)
• Three from the Test-Tube (1935)
• Matter Is Conserved (1938)

Essay Series

• Stories of the Stars
  • Stories of the Stars: Rigel (1943) [as by Morris J. Steele ]
  • Stories of the Stars: The Great Nebula in Orion (1943) [as by Morris J. Steele ]
  • Stories of the Stars: Procyon, in Canis Minor (1943) [as by Morris J. Steele ]
  • Stories of the Stars: Vega, in Lyra, the Harp (1943) [as by Morris J. Steele ]
  • Stories of the Stars: Canis Major, the Great Dog (1943) [as by Morris J. Steele ]
  • Stories of the Stars: Great Nebula in Andromeda (1945) [as by Morris J. Steele ]

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