After several earlier attempts to launch a companion magazine to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, the project was revived in early 1949. Publisher Lawrence E. Spivak and Mercury Publications moved toward a test issue, with editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas shaping a more “literary” alternative to pulp-style genre magazines.
The first issue appeared in fall 1949 under the title The Magazine of Fantasy. It stood out in design and presentation: no interior illustrations, no letter column, and a single-column layout that resembled a “slick” literary magazine more than a typical science fiction pulp.
On October 6, 1949, Spivak, Boucher, and McComas hosted a luncheon in New York City to publicize the new periodical. The event helped position the magazine as a prestige publication and signaled that the editors aimed for high-quality fantasy writing rather than mass-market pulp formulas.
With the second issue, the magazine changed its name to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction to reflect a broader mix of content. The shift mattered because it placed fantasy and science fiction side by side in a single, steady venue, influencing how readers and writers thought about the field.
By August 1954, the founding co-editors’ joint tenure concluded, marking the end of the magazine’s initial editorial partnership. This transition mattered because the early identity—literary tone, careful story selection, and a broad definition of speculative fiction—had been set in place and would now be maintained by new leadership structures.
Walter M. Miller Jr.’s post-apocalyptic story “A Canticle for Leibowitz” appeared in the April 1955 issue, beginning a sequence that later became the celebrated novel. Its publication showed F&SF’s role as a place for serious, idea-driven science fiction that could grow beyond magazine format.
In January 1957, publisher Joseph W. Ferman launched Venture Science Fiction as a sister magazine to F&SF, aiming for more action-oriented stories. The experiment highlighted both F&SF’s strong market position and the publisher’s effort to broaden offerings during a competitive period for genre magazines.
In 1958, F&SF won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine, confirming its status as a leading venue for speculative fiction. The award reflected both editorial reputation and the magazine’s influence on what readers and writers considered “top tier” science fiction and fantasy.
In September 1958, Robert P. Mills took over as editor, after having served as managing editor since the magazine’s start. Under Mills, F&SF continued to balance fantasy and science fiction while keeping high editorial standards that helped the magazine remain a consistent award contender.
Daniel Keyes’s “Flowers for Algernon” first appeared in the April 1959 issue as a novelette. Its later fame—as an expanded novel and frequent classroom text—made it one of the clearest examples of how F&SF could introduce work that crossed into wider mainstream recognition.
Avram Davidson’s name first appeared as editor with the April 1962 issue. His tenure is often remembered for stylistic variety and a distinctive editorial personality, as the magazine navigated a changing 1960s science fiction scene while keeping its established identity.
By the May 1965 issue, Edward L. Ferman was effectively running the magazine editorially, even though masthead credits lagged behind. This behind-the-scenes shift mattered because it set up a long, stable era in which F&SF would remain a central publication through major genre changes.
In January 1966, Edward L. Ferman was formally listed as editor, beginning a tenure that would last into the early 1990s. Under Ferman, the magazine maintained a reliable schedule and broadened its mix—publishing both established names and newer voices as the field diversified.
In 1968, the magazine sponsored a novel-writing contest won by Piers Anthony with Sos the Rope, serialized from July to September 1968. The contest showed F&SF using its platform not just to publish stories, but also to actively develop new long-form work and new talent.
F&SF won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine four years in a row from 1969 through 1972. This streak is a useful “closing signal” for the magazine’s formative decades: by the early 1970s, it had clearly consolidated its reputation as a top-tier, long-running home for both fantasy and science fiction.
With the creation of the Locus Awards in 1971, F&SF began a long winning streak as Locus’s Best Magazine. Alongside Hugo recognition, this reflected strong ongoing reader support and reinforced F&SF’s role as a stable “center of gravity” for the genre magazine ecosystem.
During the 1970s, F&SF published widely discussed work by major authors, including influential stories by Harlan Ellison and James Tiptree Jr. This decade is often treated as the payoff of earlier editorial choices: a magazine built for quality and variety proved able to reflect (and shape) the field’s most creative period.
For its 30th anniversary issue in October 1979, F&SF reprinted the original “Flowers for Algernon” novelette. The anniversary reprint connected the magazine’s early breakthrough publications to its later standing, underscoring a legacy of launching stories with long afterlives beyond the newsstand.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction — formative decades (1949–1979)