Scientifiction

Although Chapter One has shown that there was a profusion of science fiction in the magazines prior to 1926, it is questionable whether any person or persons believed they ‘owned’ it as a distinct field of fiction. By ‘owned’ I mean looking after and nurturing the field, seeking its positive development.

There was actually so much variety of fiction which has subsequently been classified as sf that it is arguable that no one could own it. One could put forward a case to say that Pierre Hetzel claimed some kind of ownership over the extraordinary voyage story when he took Jules Verne under his wing. One could perhaps make a similar case for H. Rider Haggard and the lost-race story, and possibly C. Arthur Pearson and the future war story. It is very doubtful whether Bob Davis as editor of All-Story claimed any guardianship over the fantastic fiction that he published, for all that he encouraged it for some years.

Yet the supposition that Hugo Gernsback ‘owned’ the gadget story would surprise no one and, through the development of such stories, he ‘owned’ his own embryonic version of science fiction. This is an important point to consider in the development of science fiction and is what lies behind the statement made by Sam Moskowitz and others that Hugo Gernsback was the ‘father of science fiction’. With a field that had so many antecedents no one could really claim to be its father. What Gernsback did was become a foster father to a variety of homeless children, with his favourite being the invention story. He subsequently acknowledged other forms of science fiction, though, as we shall see, he soon lost control of the medium. It is only by ‘owning’ the field at this stage that Gernsback could subsequently ‘disown’ much that masqueraded as science fiction. It is that rise and fall of Gernsbackian sf that is the subject of this section.

Whilst Weird Tales was struggling to make its mark, Hugo Gernsback was endeavouring to develop Science and Invention beyond the hobbyist base of The Electrical Experimenter to a magazine that broadened readers’ minds about the wider possibilities of science and technology.