Astounding Stories of Super-Science, Vol I, No. 1, January 1930, is the first title in Project Gutenberg’s Science Fiction section.
The magazine was published by W. M Clayton, whose standards are listed boldly in its pages.
The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees:
“That the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid; by leading writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by the Authors’ League of America;
“That such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American workmen;
“That each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit;
“That an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages.”
In the magazine’s first editorial, Astounding Stories editor, Harry Bates, wrote:
“What are “astounding” stories?
“Well, if you lived in Europe in 1490, and someone told you the earth was round and moved around the sun—that would have been an “astounding” story.
“Or if you lived in 1840, and were told that some day men a thousand miles apart would be able to talk to each other through a little wire—or without any wire at all—that would have been another.
“Or if, in 1900, they predicted ocean-crossing airplanes and submarines, world-girdling Zeppelins, sixty-story buildings, radio, metal that can be made to resist gravity and float in the air—these would have been other “astounding” stories.
“To-day, time has gone by, and all these things are commonplace. That is the only real difference between the astounding and the commonplace—Time.
“To-morrow, more astounding things are going to happen. Your children—or their children—are going to take a trip to the moon. They will be able to render themselves invisible—a problem that has already been partly solved. They will be able to disintegrate their bodies in New York and reintegrate them in China—and in a matter of seconds.
“Astounding? Indeed, yes.
“Impossible? Well—television would have been impossible, almost unthinkable, ten years ago.
“Now you will see the kind of magazine that it is our pleasure to offer you beginning with this, the first number of Astounding Stories.
“It is a magazine whose stories will anticipate the super-scientific achievements of To-morrow—whose stories will not only be strictly accurate in their science but will be vividly, dramatically and thrillingly told.
“Already we have secured stories by some of the finest writers of fantasy in the world—men such as Ray Cummings, Murray Leinster, Captain S. P. Meek, Harl Vincent, R. F. Starzl and Victor Rousseau.
“So—order your next month’s copy of Astounding Stories in advance!—The Editor.”
The optimism of these two men, their enthusiasm for the success of a new magazine that describes the fantastic wonders that awaited us in our world’s future, was palpable.
I want that back.
John Racette