How to Collect Science Fiction Pulps
Back when there was no television or Internet and radio was a fledgling medium, people were entertained largely by the written word in low-cost pulp magazines. There were all kinds of pulps—named as such for the low-quality, acid-based paper upon which they were printed—from Western and Romance pulps, to detective, true crime and railroad pulps. And then there were the science fiction pulps. The first one, "Amazing Stories," made its debut in April 1926 when science fiction didn’t even have a name. The editor, Hugo Gernsbeck, coined the term scientifiction that later became science fiction.SF, as those in the field call it—not sci-fi, not ever—was a ghetto, a place where only “weird” people dwelled. Those “weird” people grew up with the kinds of imaginations that put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon a few decades later.Back then, in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, the universe opened with garish-colored covers and science and adventure that took readers across space, across time. Despite the passing of years and the pour quality of the pulp paper, many of those old magazines still exist and are sought by collectors. Some are more sought after than others. It can depend on the cover artist, the quality of the magazine—both art and writing—or specific authors who appear in particular issues.
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Instructions
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Decide why you want to collect science fiction pulps. It could be for the cover artists. It could be for particular writers. It could be to read the editorials, articles and letters of what people in a time past thought the future would be like. It could be the desire to have an entire run, a 10 or 20 or 60-year periodical history of SF. This choice will determine how you collect.
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Decide what you want to collect. "Amazing Stories" was the first SF pulp. It ran nearly unbroken from 1926 to 1995, then had several rebirths. It only was on pulp paper until 1953—when most of the magazines shifted to better paper stock and smaller dimensions—but it continued on broken for 69 years. The first issue, usually the most expensive of any pulp, featured reprints of stories by H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Allen Poe. Despite all that, the most revered SF magazine was Astounding Stories. It started in 1930 and still is published, now as Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact. It was the birthplace of the Golden Age of SF in the late 1930s and gave the world writers like Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, A.E. van Vogt, L. Ron Hubbard and many others. There other magazines with shorter spans that are treasured for their particular “feel.” These include "Planet Stories," "Startling Stories" and "Unknown Worlds."
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Get a full checklist of the magazines you want to collect. There are some for specific authors, too, like Heinlein and Hubbard. A place to start is The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. This website has an accurate checklist of most of the magazines that include date, editor, story titles, authors and issue. These magazine often were published with very little money, so it was common for them to go from monthly to bimonthly to quarterly to irregularly and back up again. The checklist helps because it can be frustrating to be searching for the July or August 1932 issue of Astounding only to find out there weren’t any published those months.
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It is rare to find all the issues of a pulp at once. Usually, they are available at random, depending on who is selling a collection and who got to the dealer before you. And, unless you are collecting Dynamic Science Fiction—only five issues—you won’t remember which issues you need. The solution is to make up a small notebook that fits in a pocket with all the issues in a grid. This way, they can be marked off as purchased. A personal digital assistant probably could be programed to keep the same list.
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Start searching. If there’s an old bookstore in town, or a science fiction store, try them first. If you build a relationship with local store owners, they can help you build your collection.
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If there is no local bookstore, try online shopping. Two general websites that usually have pulps for sale are eBay and AbeBooks.com.
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Pulps also are available at many science fiction conventions that take place around the world each year. Try to attend any near you.
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Pulps can be brittle, especially if they aren’t kept well. Once you have pulps, buy the appropriately sized plastic bags to keep them in. There are many sources, particularly with a search of keywords like collectibles, paper ephemera, pulps and magazines. Some pulp dealers also sell them.
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Tips & Warnings
Check prices in two or three places before making a pulp purchase. The cost can fluctuate from dealer to dealer.
- Photo Credit Shawn M. Tomlinson
