Hugo Gernsback
Encyclopedia
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
publisher, best remembered for publications that included the first science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
magazine. His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
and Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
, he is sometimes popularly called "The Father of Science Fiction". In his honor, the annual Science Fiction Achievement awards are named the "Hugos
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
".
Biography
Born in the BonnevoieBonnevoie
Bonnevoie is an area of south-eastern Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It is divided between the quarters of North Bonnevoie-Verlorenkost and South Bonnevoie. It is the biggest neighbourhood in the city, with more than 15,000 inhabitants....
neighborhood of Luxembourg City, Gernsback emigrated to the United States in 1905 and later became a naturalized citizen. He married three times: to Rose Harvey in 1906, Dorothy Kantrowitz in 1921, and Mary Hancher in 1951. In 1925, Hugo founded radio station WRNY which broadcast from the 18th floor of The Roosevelt Hotel
Roosevelt Hotel (New York)
The Roosevelt Hotel is at Madison Avenue and 45th Street in midtown Manhattan, named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt. The New York City hotel opened on September 22, 1924. The hotel closed in 1995 and reopened in 1997 after a $65-million extensive renovation.-Guest rooms:There are a total...
in New York City and was involved in the first television broadcasts. He is also considered a pioneer in amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
.
Before helping to create science fiction, Gernsback was an entrepreneur in the electronics industry, importing radio parts from Europe to the United States and helping to popularize amateur "wireless." In April 1908 he founded Modern Electrics
Modern Electrics
Modern Electrics was a technical magazine for the amateur radio experimenter. It was created by Hugo Gernsback and began publication in April 1908. The magazine was initially intended to provide mail-order information for radio parts and to promote the amateur radio hobby, but it later became a...
, the world's first magazine about both electronics and radio, called "wireless" at the time. While the cover of the magazine itself contends it was a catalog, most historians note that it contained articles, features, and plotlines, qualifying it as a magazine. Under its auspices, in January 1909, he founded the Wireless Association of America, which had 10,000 members within a year. In 1912, Gernsback said that he estimated 400,000 people in the U.S. were involved in amateur radio. In 1913, he founded a similar magazine, The Electrical Experimenter, which became Science and Invention in 1920. It was in these magazines that he began including scientific fiction stories alongside science journalism.
He died at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City on August 19, 1967.
Science fiction
Gernsback started the modern genre of science fiction by founding the first magazine dedicated to it, Amazing StoriesAmazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
, in 1926. He said he became interested in the concept after reading a translation of the work of Percival Lowell
Percival Lowell
Percival Lawrence Lowell was a businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death...
as a child. His idea of a perfect science fiction story was "75 percent literature interwoven with 25 percent science". He also played a key role in starting science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
, by publishing the addresses of people who wrote letters to his magazines. So, the science fiction fans began to organize, and became aware of themselves as a movement, a social force; this was probably decisive for the subsequent history of the genre. He also created the term “science fiction”, though he preferred the term "scientifiction".
In 1929, he lost ownership
Experimenter Publishing bankruptcy
Experimenter Publishing was an American media company founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1915. The first magazine was The Electrical Experimenter and the most notable magazines were Radio News and Amazing Stories . Their radio station, WRNY, began broadcasting experimental television in 1928...
of his first magazines after a bankruptcy lawsuit. There is some debate about whether this process was genuine, manipulated by publisher Bernarr Macfadden
Bernarr Macfadden
Bernarr Macfadden was an influential American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories...
, or was a Gernsback scheme to begin another company. After losing control of Amazing Stories, Gernsback founded two new science fiction magazines, Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories. A year later, due to Depression-era financial troubles, the two were merged together into Wonder Stories
Wonder Stories
Wonder Stories was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, when his media company Experimenter Publishing went...
, which Gernsback continued to publish until 1936, when it was sold to Thrilling Publications
Thrilling Publications
Thrilling Publications, aka Beacon Magazines , Better Publications and Standard Magazines , was a pulp magazine publisher run by Ned Pines, publishing such titles as Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories.A native of Malden, Massachusetts, Pines became the president of Pines Publications...
and renamed Thrilling Wonder Stories. Gernsback returned in 1952-53 with Science-Fiction Plus
Science-Fiction Plus
Science-Fiction Plus was a science fiction magazine published from Philadelphia by Gernsback Publications, Inc. in 1952-53...
.
Gernsback was noted for sharp (and sometimes shady) business practices, and for paying his writers extremely low fees or not paying them at all. H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
and Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...
referred to him as "Hugo the Rat."
As Barry Malzberg has said,
"Gernsback's venality and corruption, his sleaziness and his utter disregard for the financial rights of authors, have been so well documented and discussed in critical and fan literature. That the founder of genre science fiction who gave his name to the field's most prestigious award and who was the Guest of Honor at the 1952 Worldcon10th World Science Fiction ConventionThe 10th World Science Fiction Convention was held on Labor Day weekend from August 30 - September 1, 1952 at the Morrison Hotel in Chicago, Illinois...
was pretty much a crook (and a contemptuous crook who stiffed his writers but paid himself $100K a year as President of Gernsback Publications) has been clearly established."
Fiction
Gernsback wrote fiction, including the novel Ralph 124C 41+Ralph 124C 41+
Ralph 124C 41+, by Hugo Gernsback, is an early science fiction novel, written as a twelve-part serial in Modern Electrics magazine beginning in April 1911. It was later compiled into a novel/book form in 1925. While one of the most influential science fiction stories of all time, modern critics...
in 1911; the title is a pun on the phrase "one to foresee for many"("one plus"). Even though Ralph 124C 41+ is one of the most influential science fiction stories of all time, and filled with numerous science fiction ideas, few people still read the story. Brian Aldiss
Brian Aldiss
Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE is an English author of both general fiction and science fiction. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss. Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society...
has called the story a "tawdry illiterate tale" and a "sorry concoction" while Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.-Birth...
called it "simply dreadful." While most other modern critics have little positive to say about the story's writing, Ralph 124C 41+ is still considered an "essential text for all studies of science fiction."
Gernsback's second (and final) novel, written c.1958, was not published until 1971. Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.-Birth...
described it simply as "a bad book," marked more by routine social commentary than by scientific insight or extrapolation.
Gernsback combined his fiction and science into Everyday Science and Mechanics magazine, serving as the editor in the 1930s.
Legacy
The Science Fiction Achievement awards, given to various works each year by vote of the members of the World Science Fiction Society, are named the "HugoHugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
s." He was one of 1996's inaugural inductees into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
In 1960 he received a special Hugo Award as "The Father of Magazine Science Fiction."
Broadcasting Influence
Gernsback made significant contributions to the growth of early broadcasting, mostly through his efforts as a publisher. He originated the industry of specialized publications for radio with Modern Electrics and the Electrical Experimenter first. Later on, and more influentially, he published Radio News, which would have the largest readership among radio magazines in radio broadcasting’s formative years. Gernsback, who edited Radio News until 1929, made use of the magazine to promote his own interests, including having his radio station’s call letters on the cover starting in 1925. WRNY and Radio NewsRadio News
Radio News was an American monthly technology magazine published from 1919 to 1971. The magazine was started by Hugo Gernsback as a magazine for amateur radio enthusiasts, but it evolved to cover all the technical aspects to radio and electronics. In 1929 a bankruptcy forced the sale of Gernsback's...
were used to cross-promote each other, with programs on his station often used to discuss articles he had published, and articles in the magazine often covering program activities at WRNY. But he also advocated for future directions in innovation and regulation of radio. The magazine contained many drawings and diagrams, encouraging radio listeners of the 1920s to experiment themselves to improve the technology. WRNY, was often used as a laboratory to see if various radio inventions were worthwhile. Articles that were published about television were also tested in this manner when the radio station was used to send pictures to experimental television receivers in August 1928. The technology, however, was primitive and required sending the sight and sound one after the other rather than sending both at the same time. Such experiments were expensive, and eventually contributed to Gernsback’s Experimenter Publishing Company going into bankruptcy in 1929.
List of magazines edited/published by Gernsback
- Air Wonder Stories
- Amazing Detective Stories
- Amazing Stories
- Aviation Mechanics
- Electrical Experimenter — 1913 to 1920; became Science and Invention
- Everyday Mechanics — from 1929; changed to Everyday Science and Mechanics as of October 1931 issue
- Everyday Science and Mechanics — see Science and Mechanics
- The Experimenter — originally Practical Electrics, the first issue under this title was November 1924; merged into Science and Invention in 1926
- Facts of Life
- Flight
- Fotocraft
- French Humor — became Tidbits
- Gadgets
- High Seas Adventures
- Know Yourself
- Life Guide
- Light
- Luz
- Milady
- Modern Electrics — 1908 to 1914 (sold in 1913; new owners merged it with Electrician and Mechanic)
- Moneymaking
- Motor Camper & Tourist
- New Ideas for Everybody
- Pirate Stories
- Popular Medicine
- Practical Electrics — Dec. 1921 to Oct. 1924 — became The Experimenter
- Radio Amateur News — July 1919 to July 1920 — dropped the word "amateur" and became just Radio News
- Radio and Television
- Radio-Craft — July 1929 to June 1948 — became Radio-Electronics
- Radio Electronics — July 1948 to January 2003
- Radio Electronics Weekly Business Letter
- Radio Listeners Guide and Call Book [title varies]
- Radio News — July 1919 (as Radio Amateur News) to July 1948
- Radio Program Weekly
- Radio Review
- Science and Invention — formerly Electrical Experimenter; published August 1920 to August 1931
- Science and Mechanics — originally Everyday Mechanics; changed to Everyday Science and Mechanics in 1931. "Everyday" dropped as March 1937 issue, and published as Science and Mechanics until 1976
- Science Fiction Plus
- Science Wonder Stories
- Scientific Detective Monthly
- Sexologia
- Sexology
- Short-Wave and Television
- Short-Wave Craft — merged into Radio-Craft
- Short-Wave Listener
- Superworld Comics
- Technocracy Review
- Television
- Television News
- Tidbits, originally French Humor
- Woman's Digest
- Wonder Stories
- Your Body
- Your Dreams
External links
- Gernsback image at Life magazine
Biography and criticism
- "Boys of Wireless" at American Experience (PBS) —Contains information about Gernsback's role in early amateur radio
- Hugo Gernsback, Publisher Discussion of Gernsback as a magazine publisher, with links to cover images of most of his technical and other non-fiction magazines
Bibliography and works
- Hugo Gernsback Papers Description of his papers in the Special Collections Research Center of the Syracuse UniversitySyracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
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