[SKRIVA] Notes on early sf/f magazines

I found an interesting site with an article about an early Austrian sf/fantasy 
magazine, Der Orchideergarten.
  So I'd like to say a few words about different "contenders" for being the 
earliest sf/fantasy magazine, or we could say a magazine of "the fantastic". 
I'll refer to my own research last, covering a contender from...1682! (This 
goes to a couple Swedish sf-oriented lists too - but I'll use English.)
  I'll try to be brief:

 

* Sweden's sf writer, publisher etc Sam J Lundwall has at a number of instances 
in his Jules Verne Magasinet proposed a possible Swedish magazine (or rather 
magazine supplement) named Stella, four issues claimed 1886-1888, as the first 
sf magazine in the world. The problem is that no independent researcher has, 
despite extensive searches in Sweden's National Library or university 
libraries, found any traces of it. Lundwall is the only one who has seen it.
  Hans Persson has written a long article about the search for Stella, but it 
is unfortunately only available in Swedish (you find it here: 
http://vetsaga.se/?p) ). His conclusion is "I won't say for sure that Stella 
hasn't existed, but right now I'm skeptical." Sam J has also written about a 
youth Swedish youth movement magazine named Kamraten (from 1893 and a few years 
on) that had some sf oriented material.

 

* There's a long standing claim (one of the first instances must be from Sam 
J's book SF - What's It All About, 1971) about that Sweden's Otto Witt's Hugin 
(1916-1920) was the first sf magazine in the world. I have this magazine on 
microfiche and have read significant parts of it, and here it is me who is 
skeptical.
  The contents is more some sort of "youth education" and naive popular 
science, than what you would call a magazine for sf stories. But of course, the 
standards of the contents could always be debated.

 

* However, when you go to the site mentioned first below, dealing with the 
Austrian Der Orchideengarten (The Orchid Garden) published 1919-1921 and edited 
by one Karl Hans Strobl, you really get some fantastic story vibes!
  You can see the first 14 covers of the magazine, and to me they seem to deal 
with fantasy, horror and to a lesser degree perhaps science fiction. It was 
definitely earlier than eg Weird Tales, started in 1923.
  Franz Rottensteiner's Fantasy Book (1978) is quoted and he mentions many 
familiar names as contributors: Poe, Hawthorne, Wells, Capek, etc. "Although 
two issues of Der Orchideengarten were devoted to detective stories, and one to 
erotic stories about cuckolds, it was a genuine fantasy magazine," we learn. 
There is more info here:

 

http://ajourneyroundmyskull.blogspot.com/2009/07/worlds-first-fantasy-magazine-der.html
http://dieschwarzesonne.blogspot.com/2006/08/garden-of-orchids.html
http://tinyurl.com/ndwtbl

 

* And now for the final blow. What do you give me for a magazine of fantastic 
tales from - 1682! This was the magazine Relationes Curiosae (approx "Curious 
news") published in Hamburg, Germany, in 1682 and translated to Swedish and 
re-published in Stockholm the same year. (Sweden had tight connections to 
Germany at that time, eg having territories in Northern Germany; this was a 
period when Sweden was a major European power.)
  The Swedish edition of this magazine, in German having the alternate title 
"Gröste Denckwürdigkeiten der Welt", exists with 48 issues in the Royal Library 
(national library) in Stockholm. I have photocopies of selected issues, 
illustrations, covers etc. It seems the German edition, edited by one E W 
Happel, also exists in German libraries. Google gives several hits. The editor 
and translator of the Swedish edition is unknown, but in an unsigned editorial 
comment describes himself as an elderly man.
  I wrote an article about Relationes Curiosae in Foundation No 72 (1998), 
which seems to be off-line: "A Magazine of the Fantastic from 1682". I have 
also covered the subject in alternate articles in Swedish publications and 
on-line. My English article isn't available to me right now (on a presently 
disconnected and stored hard drive, unfortunately) but a Swedish text, more 
extensive than the Foundation article, is here:

 

http://www.freelists.org/post/skriva/Presshistorien-och-protofantastiken
http://en.scientificcommons.org/34679699 

 

The last is something called "Scientific Commons" which has a reference to my 
English article. (It is hinted that you could "download" it - year is stated as 
"2008" for some reason - but I can't reach it. Maybe you can if you're an 
academic reasearcher, have a subscription or something.)
  When it comes to the contents of Relationes Curiosae, it is fantastic stories 
virtually all the way through. Stories about dragons, mermaids, people living 
on the Moon, self-propulsion carriages, people living and coming from the 
underground, eternal fires, etc, etc. The stylistics of those times are that 
much of it is told "as if" it were some sort of short stories or fairy tales. 
(Things like "it is told that in England at that time, people were amazed as 
some strange creatures emerged from the underground... The elders decided... 
And the creatues were taught the language and lived with them..." Or "Once upon 
a time brave knights confronted a vicious dragon..." From memory, and not exact 
quotes, just to give you an idea.)
  Relationes Curiosae is some sort of popular science, popular myth magazine of 
its time. As for fictional qualities or definitions, that is something that 
always could be debated.

  But it wouldn't be totally out of the question to call Relationes Curiosae 
the world's first science-fiction magazine! And it came 327 years ago.

 

--Ahrvid Engholm

 

Ps. http://ajourneyroundmyskull.blogspot.com/ also has a lot of other 
interesting stuff about old magazines and publications!


Pps. And up to now I haven't even mentioned Amazing Stories.


--
ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx / Gå med i SKRIVA - för författande, sf, fantasy, kultur 
(skriva-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, subj: subscribe) YXSKAFTBUD, GE VÅR WCZONMÖ 
IQ-HJÄLP! (DN NoN 00.02.07)


                                          
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