Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-22T19:50:49.944Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Science fiction and its editors

from Part 1 - The history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

Edward James
Affiliation:
University College Dublin
Farah Mendlesohn
Affiliation:
Middlesex University, London
Get access

Summary

More than in any other popular genre, and for that matter more than in most publishing in general, sf's editors and publishers have from the beginning played a highly visible and sometimes controversial role in the evolution and ideology of the field and its readership. While relatively few readers of other genres such as mystery and romance are even aware of the names of the magazine and book editors who select and sometimes shape the texts that collectively define those fields, sf editors have from the beginning played a more visible and sometimes even celebrated role; it is perhaps indicative of this that the leading American mystery award is named the Edgar, after Edgar Allan Poe, while the most publicized sf award, the Hugo, is named after an editor and publisher, Hugo Gernsback. By the same token, the Hugos (voted on by fans and awarded at the annual World Science Fiction Convention) have since 1973 included a category for 'Best Professional Editor,' while the Edgar Award includes no such category (although its Ellery Queen Award, originally intended for collaborations, has sometimes gone to editors and publishers instead). Science fiction editors are frequent guests at fan conventions, and a substantial number of readers can trace their first allegiance to the field by citing the work of anthologists from Judith Merril to Gardner Dozois, or (in an older generation) to the magazines of Gernsback, John W. Campbell, Jr, or Horace Gold. Equally important, the ongoing dialogue of ideas, and increasingly of styles and forms, that has defined the field's sometimes insular identity, is in large measure the result of quite deliberate editorial intervention, often accompanied by editorial position papers and even manifestoes. This is not to suggest that sf is or has been a 'managed literature', but it is a literature that has often and sometimes loudly proclaimed a sense of mission, and this mission has in large measure been articulated and promoted by the field's editors.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×