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. Before Amazing, science fiction stories had made regular appearances in other magazines, including some published by Gernsback, but Amazing helped define and launch a new genre of pulp fiction.

Amazing was published, with some interruptions, for almost eighty years. The title first changed hands in 1929, when Gernsback was forced into bankruptcy and lost control of the magazine. In 1931, Bernarr Macfadden purchased the assets of the Mackinnon-Fly magazine publishers, (in Canada) which gave him the pioneering sci-fi pulp "Amazing Stories", and several other titles; they were published under the Teck Publications imprint. Amazing became unprofitable during the 1930s and in 1938 was purchased by Ziff-Davis, who hired Raymond A. Palmer as editor. Palmer made the magazine successful though it was not regarded as a quality magazine within the science fiction community. In the late 1940s Amazing began to print stories about the Shaver Mystery, a lurid mythos which explained accidents and disaster as the work of robots named "deros"; the stories were presented as fact, and led to dramatically increased circulation but also widespread ridicule. Palmer was replaced by Howard Browne in 1949, who briefly entertained plans of taking Amazing upmarket. These plans came to nothing, though Amazing did switch to a digest format in 1953, shortly before the end of the pulp-magazine era. A brief period under the editorship of Paul W. Fairman was followed, at the end of 1958, by the leadership of Cele Goldsmith. Despite her lack of experience she was able to bring new life to the magazine, and her years are regarded as one of Amazing's most creative eras. She was unable to arrest the declining circulation, though, and the magazine was sold to Sol Cohen's Universal Publishing Company in 1965.

Under Cohen Amazing was filled almost entirely with reprinted stories. Cohen did not pay a reprint fee to the authors of these stories, and this brought him into conflict with the newly formed Science Fiction Writers of America. The conflict cost Amazing two successive editors (Harry Harrison and Barry N. Malzberg) in a short period at the end of the 1960s. Ted White took over as editor after Malzberg, eliminated the reprints and made the magazine a respected name again: Amazing was nominated for the prestigious Hugo award three times during his tenure. White left at the end of the 1970s. The 1980s saw Amazing pass into the hands of TSR in 1983 and Wizards of the Coast (who purchased TSR in 1997), who made intermittent attempts over the next twenty years to create a successful modern incarnation of the magazine. A last attempt was made by Paizo Publishing at the end of 2004, but publication was suspended after the March 2005 issue and never resumed.

Gernsback's initial editorial approach was to blend instruction with entertainment; he believed science fiction could educate readers. His audience rapidly showed a preference for implausible adventures, however, and the movement away from Gernsback's idealism accelerated when the magazine changed hands in 1929. Despite this, Gernsback had an enormous impact on the field: the creation of a specialist magazine for science fiction spawned an entire genre publishing industry. The letter columns in Amazing, where fans could make contact with each other, led to the formation of science fiction fandom, which in turn had a strong influence on the development of the field. Writers whose first story was published in the magazine include Isaac Asimov, Howard Fast, Ursula K. Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, and Thomas M. Disch. Overall, though, Amazing itself was rarely an influential magazine within the genre. Some critics have commented that by "ghettoizing" science fiction, Gernsback in fact did harm to its literary growth, but this viewpoint has been countered by the argument that science fiction needed an independent market in which to develop if it were to reach its potential.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Publishing history 2.1 Early years 2.2 1940s 2.3 1950s 2.4 1960s 2.5 1970s 2.6 1980s to 2000s 3 Contents and reception 3.1 Gernsback's Amazing 3.2 Sloane, Palmer, Browne and Fairman 3.3 Cele Goldsmith 3.4 Reprint era and Ted White 3.5 After Ted White 3.6 Influence on the field 4 Publication details 4.1 Editors 4.2 Other bibliographic details 4.3 Media crossovers 5 Notes 6 Footnotes 7 References 8 External links

Origins[link]

By the end of the 19th century, stories centered on scientific inventions, and stories set in the future, were appearing regularly in popular fiction magazines. The market for short stories lent itself to tales of invention in the tradition of Jules Verne.^[1] Magazines such as Munsey's Magazine and The Argosy, launched in 1889 and 1896 respectively, carried a few science fiction stories each year. Some upmarket "slick" magazines such as McClure's, which paid well and were aimed at a more literary audience, also carried scientific stories, but by the early years of the 20th century, science fiction (though it was not yet called that) was appearing more often in the pulp magazines than in the slicks.^[2][3][4]

In 1908, Hugo Gernsback published the first issue of Modern Electrics, a magazine aimed at the scientific hobbyist. It was an immediate success, and Gernsback began to include articles on imaginative uses of science, such as "Wireless on Saturn" (December 1908).^[5] In April 1911, Gernsback began the serialization of his science fiction novel, Ralph 124C 41+, but in 1913 he sold his interest in the magazine to his partner and launched a new magazine, Electrical Experimenter, which soon began to publish scientific fiction. In 1920 Gernsback retitled the magazine Science and Invention, and through the early 1920s he published much scientific fiction in its pages, along with non-fiction scientific articles.^[6]

Gernsback had started another magazine called Practical Electrics in 1921. In 1924, he changed its name to The Experimenter,^[7] and sent a letter to 25,000 people to gauge interest in the possibility of a magazine devoted to scientific fiction; in his words, "the response was such that the idea was given up for two years."^[8] However, in 1926 he decided to go ahead, and ceased publication of The Experimenter to make room in his publishing schedule for a new magazine. The editor of The Experimenter, T. O'Conor Sloane, became the editor of Amazing Stories. The first issue appeared on 10 March 1926, with a cover date of April 1926.^[7]

Publishing history[link]

Early years[link]

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1926				1/1	1/2	1/3	1/4	1/5	1/6	1/7	1/8	1/9
1927	1/10	1/11	1/12	2/1	2/2	2/3	2/4	2/5	2/6	2/7	2/8	2/9
1928	2/10	2/11	2/12	3/1	3/2	3/3	3/4	3/5	3/6	3/7	3/8	3/9
1929	3/10	3/11	3/12	4/1	4/2	4/3	4/4	4/5	4/6	4/7	4/8	4/9
1930	4/10	4/11	4/12	5/1	5/2	5/3	5/4	5/5	5/6	5/7	5/8	5/9
1931	5/10	5/11	5/12	6/1	6/2	6/3	6/4	6/5	6/6	6/7	6/8	6/9
1932	6/10	6/11	6/12	7/1	7/2	7/3	7/4	7/5	7/6	7/7	7/8	7/9
1933	7/10	7/11	7/12	8/1	8/2	8/3	8/4	8/5		8/6	8/7	8/8
1934	8/9	8/10	8/11	8/12	9/1	9/2	9/3	9/4	9/5	9/6	9/7	9/8
1935	9/9	9/10	9/11	10/1	10/2	10/3	10/4	10/5		10/6		10/7
1936		10/8		10/9		10/10		10/11		10/12		10/13
1937		11/1		11/2		11/3		11/4		11/5		11/6
1938		12/1		12/2		12/3		12/4		12/5	12/6	12/7
1939	13/1	13/2	13/3	13/4	13/5	13/6	13/7	13/8	13/9	13/10	13/11	13/12
Issues of Amazing to 1939, identifying volume and issue numbers, and indicating editors: Gernsback (yellow), Lynch (red), Sloane (blue), and Palmer (purple)

The editorial work was largely done by Sloane, but Gernsback retained final say over the fiction content. Two consultants, Conrad A. Brandt and Wilbur C. Whitehead, were hired to help find fiction to reprint. Frank R. Paul, who had worked with Gernsback as early as 1914, became the cover artist; Paul had produced many illustrations for the fiction in The Electrical Experimenter. Amazing was issued in the large bedsheet format, 8.5 × 11.75 in (216 × 298 mm), the same size as the technical magazines.^[7] It was an immediate success and soon reached a very respectable circulation of 100,000. Gernsback saw there was an enthusiastic readership for "scientifiction" (the term "science fiction" had not yet been coined), and in 1927 he issued Amazing Stories Annual. The annual sold out, and in January 1928, Gernsback launched a quarterly magazine, Amazing Stories Quarterly, as a regular companion to Amazing. It continued on a fairly regular schedule for 22 issues.^[9][10]

Gernsback was slow to pay his authors and creditors; the extent of his investments limited his liquidity. On 20 February 1929 his printer and paper supplier opened bankruptcy proceedings against him.^[11][12] It has been suggested that Bernarr Macfadden, another magazine publisher, maneuvered to force the bankruptcy because Gernsback would not sell his titles to Macfadden, but this is unproven.^[13][14] Experimenter Publishing was declared bankrupt in days; Amazing survived with its existing staff, but Hugo and his brother, Sidney, were forced out as directors. Arthur H. Lynch took over as editor-in-chief, though Sloane continued to have effective control of the magazine's contents. The receivers, Irving Trust, soon sold the magazine to B.A. Mackinnon,^[12][15][16] and in August 1931, Amazing was acquired by Teck Publications, a subsidiary of Bernarr Macfadden's Macfadden Publishing.^[17][18] Macfadden's deep pockets helped insulate Amazing from the financial strain caused by the Great Depression.^[19] The schedule of Amazing Stories Quarterly began to slip, but Amazing did not miss an issue in the early 1930s.^[10] However, it became unprofitable to publish over the next few years. Circulation dropped to little more than 25,000 in 1934, and in October 1935 it switched to a bimonthly schedule.^[20][21]

By 1938, with Amazing's circulation down to only 15,000, Teck Publications was having financial problems.^[20] In January 1938 Ziff-Davis took over the magazine;^[22] the April issue was assembled by Sloane but published by Ziff-Davis. Bernard Davis, who ran Ziff-Davis's editorial department, attempted to hire Roger Sherman Hoar as editor; Hoar turned down the job but suggested Raymond A. Palmer, an active local science fiction fan. Palmer was hired that February, taking over editorial duties with the June 1938 issue.^[20] Ziff-Davis launched Fantastic Adventures, a fantasy companion to Amazing, in May 1939, also under Palmer's editorship.^[23] Palmer quickly managed to improve Amazing's circulation, and in November 1938, the magazine went monthly again, though this did not last throughout Palmer's tenure: between 1944 and 1946 the magazine was bimonthly and then quarterly for a while before returning to a longer-lasting monthly schedule.^[10][24]

1940s[link]

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1940	14/1	14/2	14/3	14/4	14/5	14/6	14/7	14/8	14/9	14/10	14/11	14/12
1941	15/1	15/2	15/3	15/4	15/5	15/6	15/7	15/8	15/9	15/10	15/11	15/12
1942	16/1	16/2	16/3	16/4	16/5	16/6	16/7	16/8	16/9	16/10	16/11	16/12
1943	17/1	17/2	17/3	17/4	17/5	17/6	17/7	17/8	17/9		17/10
1944	18/1		18/2		18/3				18/4			18/5
1945			19/1			19/2			19/3			19/4
1946		20/1			20/2	20/3	20/4	20/5	20/6	20/7	20/8	20/9
1947	21/1	21/2	21/3	21/4	21/5	21/6	21/7	21/8	21/9	21/10	21/11	21/12
1948	22/1	22/2	22/3	22/4	22/5	22/6	22/7	22/8	22/9	22/10	22/11	22/12
1949	23/1	23/2	23/3	23/4	23/5	23/6	23/7	23/8	23/9	23/10	23/11	23/12
Issues of Amazing in the 1940s, with the volume/issue number identified. Ray Palmer was editor throughout the 1940s so only a single color is used.

In September 1943 Richard Shaver, an Amazing reader, began to correspond with Palmer, who soon asked him to write stories for the magazine. Shaver responded with a story called "I Remember Lemuria", published in the March 1945 issue, which was presented by Palmer as a mixture of truth and fiction. The story, about prehistoric civilizations, dramatically boosted Amazing's circulation, and Palmer ran a new Shaver story in every issue, culminating in a special issue in June 1947 devoted entirely to the Shaver Mystery, as it was called.^{[notes 1][26]} Amazing soon drew ridicule for these stories. A derisive article by William S. Baring-Gould in the September 1946 issue of Harper's prompted William Ziff to tell Palmer to limit the amount of Shaver-related material in the magazine; Palmer complied, but his interest (and possibly belief) in this sort of material was now significant, and he soon began planning to leave Ziff-Davis. In 1947 he formed Clark Publications, launching Fate the following year, and in 1949 he resigned from Ziff-Davis to edit that and other magazines.^[27]

Howard Browne, who had been on a leave of absence from Ziff-Davis to write fiction, took over as editor and began by throwing away 300,000 words of inventory that Palmer had acquired before he left.^[27] Browne had ambitions of moving Amazing upmarket, and his argument was strengthened by Street & Smith, one of the longest established and most respected publishers, who shut down all of their pulp magazines in the summer of 1949. The pulps were dying, largely as a result of the success of pocketbooks, and Street & Smith decided to concentrate on their slick magazines. Some pulps struggled on for a few more years, but Browne was able to persuade Ziff and Davis that the future was in the slicks, and they raised his fiction budget from one cent to a ceiling of five cents per word. Browne managed to get promises of new stories from many well-known authors, including Isaac Asimov and Theodore Sturgeon. He produced a dummy issue^[28] in April 1950, and planned to launch the new incarnation of Amazing in April 1951, the 25th anniversary of the first issue. However, the economic impact of the Korean War, which broke out in June 1950, led to budget cuts. The plans were cancelled, and Ziff-Davis never revived the idea.^[29]

1950s[link]

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1950	24/1	24/2	24/3	24/4	24/5	24/6	24/7	24/8	24/9	24/10	24/11	24/12
1951	25/1	25/2	25/3	25/4	25/5	25/6	25/7	25/8	25/9	25/10	25/11	25/12
1952	26/1	26/2	26/3	26/4	26/5	26/6	26/7	26/8	26/9	26/10	26/11	26/12
1953	27/1	27/2	27/3	27/4		27/5		27/6		27/7		27/8
1954	27/8		28/1		28/2		28/3		28/4		28/5
1955	29/1		29/2		29/3		29/4		29/5		29/6	29/7
1956	30/1	30/2	30/3	30/4	30/5	30/6	30/7	30/8	30/9	30/10	30/11	30/12
1957	31/1	31/2	31/3	31/4	31/5	31/6	31/7	31/8	31/9	31/10	31/11	31/12
1958	32/1	32/2	32/3	32/4	32/5	32/6	32/7	32/8	32/9	32/10	32/11	32/12
1959	33/1	33/2	33/3	33/4	33/5	33/6	33/7	33/8	33/9	33/10	33/11	33/12
Issues of Amazing in the 1950s, identifying volume and issue numbers, and indicating editors: Browne (green), Fairman (dark yellow), and Goldsmith (orange)

Browne's interest in Amazing declined when the project to turn it into a slick magazine was derailed. Although he stayed involved with Fantastic Adventures, another Ziff-Davis magazine, he left the editing work on Amazing to William Hamling and Lila Shaffer. In December 1950, when Ziff-Davis moved their offices from Chicago to New York, Hamling stayed behind in Chicago, and Browne revived his involvement with the magazine.^[30]

In 1952, Browne convinced Ziff-Davis to try a high-quality digest fantasy magazine. Fantastic, which appeared in the summer of that year, focused on fantasy rather than science fiction and was so successful that it persuaded Ziff-Davis to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest in early 1953 (while also switching to a bimonthly schedule). Circulation fell, however, and subsequent budget cuts limited the story quality in both Amazing and Fantastic. Fantastic began to print science fiction as well as fantasy. Circulation increased as a result, but Browne, who was not a science fiction aficionado, once again lost interest in the magazines.^[31]

Paul W. Fairman replaced Browne as editor in September 1956.^[32][33] Early in Fairman's tenure, Bernard Davis decided to try issuing a companion series of novels, titled Amazing Stories Science Fiction Novels. Readers' letters in Amazing had indicated a desire for novels, which Amazing did not have room to run. The novel series did not last; only one, Henry Slesar's 20 Million Miles to Earth, appeared. However, in response to readers' interest in longer fiction, Ziff-Davis expanded Amazing by 16 pages, starting with the March 1958 issue, and the magazine began to run complete novels.^[32]

Fairman left to edit Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine at the end of 1958, and his place was taken by Cele Goldsmith. Goldsmith had been hired in 1955 as a secretary and became assistant editor to help cope with the additional work created when Ziff-Davis launched two short-lived magazines, Dream World and Pen Pals, in 1956. Ziff-Davis were not confident of Goldsmith's abilities as an editor, so when Fairman left, a consultant, Norman Lobsenz, was hired to work with her. She performed well, however, and Lobsenz's involvement soon became minimal.^[34]

1960s[link]

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1960	34/1	34/2	34/3	34/4	34/5	34/6	34/7	34/8	34/9	34/10	34/11	34/12
1961	35/1	35/2	35/3	35/4	35/5	35/6	35/7	35/8	35/9	35/10	35/11	35/12
1962	36/1	36/2	36/3	36/4	36/5	36/6	36/7	36/8	36/9	36/10	36/11	36/12
1963	37/1	37/2	37/3	37/4	37/5	37/6	37/7	37/8	37/9	37/10	37/11	37/12
1964	38/1	38/2	38/3	38/4	38/5	38/6	38/7	38/8	38/9	38/10	38/11	38/12
1965	39/1	39/2	39/3	39/4	39/5	39/6		40/1		40/2		40/3
1966		40/4		40/5		40/6		40/7		40/8		40/9
1967		40/10		41/1		41/2		41/3		41/4		41/5
1968		41/6		42/1			42/2		42/3		42/4
1969	42/5		42/6		43/1		43/2		43/3		43/4
Issues of Amazing in the 1960s, identifying volume and issue numbers, and indicating editors: Goldsmith (Lalli) (orange), Wrzos (purple), Harrison (green), Malzberg (yellow), and White (blue)

Goldsmith is well regarded by science fiction historians for her innovation, and the impact she had on the early careers of writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Roger Zelazny,^[34] but circulation lagged during her tenure. By 1964 Fantastic's circulation was down to 27,000, with Amazing doing little better. The following March both magazines were sold to Ultimate Publishing Company, run by Sol Cohen and Arthur Bernhard.^[35][36] Goldsmith was given the choice of going with the magazines or staying with Ziff-Davis; she stayed, and Cohen hired Joseph Wrzos to edit the magazines, starting with the August and September 1965 issues of Amazing and Fantastic, respectively. Wrzos used the name "Joseph Ross" on the mastheads to avoid mis-spellings.^[36] Both magazines immediately moved to a bi-monthly schedule.^[37][38]

Cohen had acquired reprint rights to the magazines' back issues, although Wrzos did get Cohen to agree to print one new story every issue. Cohen was also producing reprint magazines such as Great Science Fiction and Science Fiction Classics, but no payment was made to authors for any of these reprints. This brought Cohen into conflict with the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), a professional writers' organization formed in 1965. Soon SFWA called for a boycott of Ultimate's magazines until Cohen agreed to make payments. Cohen agreed to pay a flat fee for all stories, and then in August 1967 this was changed to a graduated rate, depending on the length of the story.^[39] Harry Harrison had acted as an intermediary in Cohen's negotiations with SFWA, and when Wrzos left in 1967, Cohen asked Harrison to take over. SF Impulse, which Harrison had been editing, had folded in February 1967, so Harrison was available. He secured Cohen's agreement that the policy of printing almost nothing but reprinted stories would be phased out by the end of the year, and took over as editor with the September 1967 issue.^[39]

By February 1968 Harrison decided to leave, as Cohen was showing no signs of abandoning the reprints. He resigned, and suggested Barry Malzberg to Cohen as a possible successor. Cohen knew Malzberg from his work at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, and thought that he might be more amenable than Harrison to continuing the reprint policy. Malzberg took over in April 1968, but immediately came into conflict with Cohen over the reprints, and then threatened to resign in October 1968 over a disagreement about artwork Malzberg had commissioned for a cover. Cohen contacted Robert Silverberg, then the president of SFWA, and told him (falsely) that Malzberg had actually resigned. Silverberg recommended Ted White as a replacement. Cohen secured White's agreement and then fired Malzberg; White assumed control with the May 1969 issue.^[39]

1970s[link]

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1970	43/5		43/6		44/1		44/2		44/3		44/4
1971	44/5		44/6		45/1		45/2		45/3		45/4
1972	45/5		45/6		46/1		46/2		46/3		46/4
1973	46/5		46/6			47/1		47/2		47/3		47/4
1974		47/5		47/6		48/1		48/2		48/3		48/4
1975			48/5		48/6		49/1		49/2		49/3
1976	49/4		49/5			50/1			50/2			50/3
1977			50/4				50/5			51/1
1978	51/2				51/3			51/4			52/1
1979		52/2			52/3			52/4			27/5
Issues of Amazing in the 1970s, identifying volume and issue numbers, and indicating editors: White (blue) and Mavor (pink). The apparently erroneous volume numbering for the November 1979 issue is in fact shown correctly.

When White took over as editor, Amazing's circulation was about 38,500, only about 4% of which were subscribers (as opposed to newsstand sales). This was a very low ebb for subscriptions; Analog, by comparison, sold about 35% of its circulation through subscriptions. Cohen's wife mailed out the subscription copies from home, and Cohen had never tried to increase the subscriber base as this would have increased the burden on his wife.^[40] White worked hard to increase the circulation despite Cohen's lack of support, but met with limited success. One of his first changes was to reduce the typeface to increase the amount of fiction in the magazine. To pay for this he increased the price of both Fantastic and Amazing to 60 cents, but this had a strong negative effect on circulation, which fell about 10% from 1969 to 1970.^[41][42]

In 1972, White changed the title to Amazing Science Fiction, distancing the magazine slightly from some of the pulp connotations of "Amazing Stories".^[41] White worked at a low wage, and his friends often read manuscripts for free, but despite his efforts the circulation continued to fall. From near 40,000 when White joined the magazine, the circulation fell to about 23,000 in October 1975. White was unwilling to continue with the very limited financial backing that Cohen provided, and he resigned in 1975. Cohen was able to convince White to remain; White promised to stay for one more year, but in the event remained as editor until late 1978.^[43]

Amazing raised its price from 75 cents to $1.00 with the November 1975 issue. The schedule switched to quarterly beginning with the March 1976 issue; as a result, the 50th anniversary issue had a cover date of June 1976. In 1977, Cohen announced that Amazing and Fantastic had lost $15,000, though Amazing's circulation (at nearly 26,000) was as good as it had been for several years. Cohen looked for a new publisher to buy the magazines, but in September of the following year sold his half-share in the company to his partner, Arthur Bernhard.^[42][44] White had occasionally suggested to Cohen that Amazing would benefit from a redesign and investment; he made the same suggestions to Bernhard in early October. According to White, Bernhard not only said no, but told him he would not receive a salary until the next issue was turned in. White resigned, and returned all manuscripts in his possession to their authors, even those which had been copy-edited and were ready for publication. White claimed that he had been instructed to do this by Bernhard, though Bernhard denied it.^[45]

1980s to 2000s[link]

		Spring			Summer			Fall			Winter
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1980		27/6			27/7			27/8			27/9
1981	27/10		27/11		27/12		28/1		28/2		28/3
1982	28/4		28/5			28/6			28/7		28/8
1983	28/9		56/5		57/1		57/2		57/3		57/4
1984	57/5		57/6		58/1		58/2		58/3		58/4
1985	58/5		58/6		59/1		59/2		59/3		60/1
1986	60/2		60/3		61/1		61/2		61/3		61/4
1987	61/5		61/6		62/1		62/2		62/3		62/4
1988	62/5		62/6		63/1		63/2		63/3		63/4
1989	63/5		63/6		64/1		64/2		64/3		64/4
1990	64/5		64/6		65/1		65/2		65/3		65/4
1991	65/5		65/6		66/1	66/2	66/3	66/4	66/5	66/6	66/7	66/8
1992	66/9	66/10	66/11	67/1	67/2	67/3	67/4	67/5	67/6	67/7	67/8	67/9
1993	67/10	67/11	67/12	68/1	68/2	68/3	68/4	68/5	68/6	68/7	68/8
1994	68/9			69/1					69/2
1995	69/3
1998							70/1			70/2
1999	70/3			71/1			71/2			71/3
2000	71/4		71/5	72/1			72/2
2004									73/1	73/2	73/3	73/4
2005	74/1	74/2	74/3
Issues of Amazing from the 1980s onwards, identifying volume and issue numbers, and indicating editors: Mavor (pink), Scithers (green), Price (orange), Mohan (purple), Gross (olive), and Berkwits (yellow). The odd volume numbering in 1983 is correctly shown. Issue 71/5 was labelled "Special Edition" and was not dated with a month or season.

Elinor Mavor took over as editor in early 1979. She had worked for Bernhard as an illustrator and in the production department of several of his magazines, though not for Amazing. She had also been an editor at Bill of Fare, a restaurant trade magazine. Mavor had read a good deal of science fiction but knew nothing about the world of science fiction magazines when she took over. She was not confident that a woman would be accepted as the editor of a science fiction magazine, so she initially used the pseudonym "Omar Gohagen" for both Amazing and Fantastic, dropping it late in 1980. Circulation continued to fall, and Bernhard refused to consider Mavor's request to undertake a subscription drive, which might have helped. Instead, in late 1980, Bernhard decided to merge the two magazines. Fantastic's last independent issue was October 1980; thereafter the combined magazine returned to a bimonthly schedule. At the same time the title was changed to Amazing Science Fiction Stories. Bernhard cut Mavor's salary after the merger, as she was editing only one magazine. Despite this, she stayed with Amazing, but was unable to prevent circulation from dropping again, down to only 11,000 newsstand sales in 1982.^[46]

Shortly after the merger, Bernhard decided to retire, and approached Edward Ferman, the editor of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Joel Davis, at Ziff-Davis, among others, about a possible sale of Amazing. Jonathan Post, of Emerald City Publishing, believed he had concluded a deal with Bernhard, and began to advertise for submissions, but the negotiations failed. Bernhard also approached George H. Scithers, who declined, but was able to put Bernhard in touch with Gary Gygax of TSR. On 27 May 1982 the sale was finalized, and TSR acquired the trademarks and copyrights of Amazing Stories.^[47] Scithers was taken on by TSR as editor beginning with the November 1982 issue.^[46] He was replaced by Patrick Lucien Price in September 1986, and then by Kim Mohan in May 1991. TSR ceased publication of Amazing with the Winter 1995 issue,^[48] but shortly after they were acquired by Wizards of the Coast in 1997,^[49] the magazine was relaunched, again with Mohan as editor. This version only lasted for ten issues, though it did include a special celebratory 600th issue in early 2000. The science fiction trade journal Locus commented in an early review that distribution of the magazine seemed to be weak.^[50] It proved unable to survive: the last issue of this version was dated Summer 2000. The title was then acquired by Paizo Publishing, who launched a new monthly version in September 2004. The February 2005 issue was the last one printed;^[48][51] a March 2005 issue was released in PDF format, and in March 2006 Paizo announced that it would no longer publish Amazing.^[52] In September, 2011, the trademark for Amazing Stories was acquired by Steve Davidson, and he announced plans to publish an online magazine version.^{[53] [54]} Davidson has created an editorial advisory board which includes four former Amazing Stories editors.^[55]

Contents and reception[link]

[edit] Gernsback's Amazing

Gernsback's editorial in the first issue asserted that "Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are also always instructive".^[56] He had always believed that "scientifiction", as he called these stories, had educational power, but he now understood that the fiction had to entertain as well as to instruct.^[57] His continued belief in the instructional value of science fiction was not in keeping with the general attitude of the public towards pulp magazines, which was that they were "trash".^[58]

The first issue of Amazing contained only reprints, beginning with a serialization of Off on a Comet, by Jules Verne. In keeping with Gernsback's new approach, this was one of Verne's least scientifically plausible novels. Also included were H. G. Wells's "The New Accelerator", and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"; Gernsback put the names of all three authors on the cover. He also reprinted three more recent stories. Two came from his own magazine, Science and Invention; these were "The Man from the Atom" by G. Peyton Wertenbacker and "The Thing from—'Outside'" by George Allan England. The third was Austin Hall's "The Man Who Saved the Earth", which had appeared in All-Story Weekly.^[59]

In the June 1926 issue Gernsback announced a competition to write a short story around a cover drawn by illustrator Frank R. Paul, with a first prize of $250. The competition drew over 360 entries, seven of which were eventually printed in Amazing. The winner was Cyril G. Wates, who sold three more stories to Gernsback in the late 1920s. Two other entrants went on to become successful writers: one was Clare Winger Harris, whose story, "The Fate of the Poseidonia", took third place in the competition, and was published in the June 1927 issue as by "Mrs. F.C. Harris". The other notable entrant was A. Hyatt Verrill, with "The Voice from the Inner World", which appeared in July 1927.^[9][48]

A letter column, titled "Discussions", soon appeared, and became a regular feature with the January 1927 issue. Many science fiction readers were isolated in small communities, knowing nobody else who liked the same fiction. Gernsback's habit of publishing the full address of all his correspondents meant that the letter column allowed fans to correspond with each other directly. Science fiction fandom traces its beginnings to the letter column in Amazing and its competitors,^[9][48] and one historian of the field, author Lester del Rey, has commented that the introduction of this letter column "may have been one of the most important events in the history of science fiction".^{[60][notes 2]}

For the first year, Amazing contained primarily reprinted material. It was proving difficult to attract new, high-quality material, and Gernsback's slowness at paying his authors did not help. Writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, and Murray Leinster all avoided Amazing because Gernsback took so long to pay for the stories he printed. The slow payments were probably known to many of the other active pulp writers, which would have further limited the volume of submissions. New writers did appear, but the quality of their stories was often weak.^[62]

Gernsback discovered that the audience he had attracted was less interested in scientific invention stories than in fantastical adventures. A. Merritt's The Moon Pool, which began serialization in May 1927, was an early success; there was little or no scientific basis to the story, but it was very popular with Amazing's readers.^[62] The covers, all of which were painted by Paul, were garish and juvenile, leading some readers to complain. Raymond Palmer, later to become an editor of the magazine, wrote that a friend of his was forced to stop buying Amazing "by reason of his parents' dislike of the cover illustrations".^[63] Gernsback experimented with a more sober cover for the September 1928 issue, but it sold poorly, and so the lurid covers continued.^[62] The combination of poor quality fiction with garish artwork has led some critics to comment that Gernsback created a "ghetto" for science fiction,^[64] though it has also been argued that the creation of a specialized market allowed science fiction to develop and mature as a genre.^[65]

Among the regular writers for Amazing by the end of the 1920s were several who were influential and popular at the time, such as David H. Keller and Stanton Coblentz, and some who would continue to be successful for much longer, most notably Edward E. Smith and Jack Williamson. Smith's The Skylark of Space, which had been written between 1915 and 1920, was a seminal space opera which found no ready market when Argosy stopped printing science fiction.^[66] When Smith saw a copy of the April 1927 issue of Amazing, he submitted it to Sloane, and it appeared in the August–October 1928 issues.^[67] It was such a success that Sloane requested a sequel before the second installment had been published.^[68] It was also in the August 1928 issue that "Armageddon – 2419 AD", by Philip Francis Nowlan, appeared; this was the first appearance of Buck Rogers in print.^[69]

Sloane, Palmer, Browne and Fairman[link]

Sloane took over full control of the content of Amazing when Gernsback left in 1929.^[70] He was infamous for his slow response to manuscripts, and when Astounding Stories was launched in January 1930, with better rates and faster editorial response, some of Sloane's writers quickly defected.^[71] Nevertheless, he published first stories by luminaries such as Jack Williamson, John W. Campbell, Jr., Clifford D. Simak, and E.E. "Doc" Smith. Little more of quality appeared in Amazing during Sloane's tenure,^[72] though Howard Fast's first story appeared in the October 1932 issue, and "The Lost Machine", an early story by John Wyndham, appeared in April 1932, under Wyndham's real name of John Beynon Harris.^[73]

Raymond Palmer, who took over in 1938, was less interested in the educational possibilities of science fiction than Sloane had been. He wanted the magazine to provide escapist entertainment, and had no interest in scientific accuracy. His terse instructions—"Gimme Bang-Bang"—to one pulp writer sum up his approach. Palmer disposed of almost all of Sloane's accumulated inventory, instead acquiring stories from local Chicago writers he knew through his connections with science fiction fandom.^[74][75][76] He also added features such as a "Correspondence Corner" and a "Collectors' Corner" to appeal to fans, and introduced a "Meet the Authors" feature, though on at least one occasion the featured author was a pseudonym, and the biographical details were invented. An illustrated back cover was tried, and soon became standard.^[74][77] In 1939 Palmer acquired Isaac Asimov's first sale, "Marooned off Vesta".^[78]

In the 1940s, several writers established themselves as a stable of reliable contributors to Amazing. These included David Wright O'Brien and William P. McGivern, both of whom wrote an immense amount for Ziff-Davis, much of it under house names such as Alexander Blade. John Russell Fearn became a prolific contributor, using the pseudonyms "Thornton Ayre" and "Polton Cross".^[79] Palmer also encouraged long-time science fiction writers to return, publishing pulp authors such as Ed Earl Repp and Eando Binder. This policy did not always meet with approval from Amazing's readers, who, despite a clear preference for action and adventure stories, could not stomach the work of some of the early pulp writers such as Harry Bates.^[80]

The first Shaver Mystery story, "I Remember Lemuria", by Richard S. Shaver, appeared in the March 1945 issue. Shaver claimed that all the world's accidents and disasters were caused by an ancient race of "detrimental robots" who lived in underground cities. This explanation for the world's ills, coming towards the end of World War II, struck a chord with Amazing's readership. Palmer received over 2,500 letters, instead of the usual 40 or 50, and proceeded to print a Shaver story in every issue. The June 1947 issue was given over entirely to the Shaver Mystery.^[81] From March 1948 the Shaver Mystery was dropped as a regular feature of the magazine, at Ziff's insistence. Palmer left the following year, and Browne, his successor, "was determined to make sure that the lunatics were no longer in charge of the asylum", in the words of science fiction historian Mike Ashley.^[82]

Browne had acquired some good-quality material in the process of planning the launch of a new slick version of Amazing, and when the plan was abandoned this material appeared in the continuing pulp version. This included "Operation RSVP" by H. Beam Piper, and "Satisfaction Guaranteed", by Isaac Asimov. Despite the cancellation of the planned change to a slick format, news had reached the writing community of Amazing's new approach, and Browne began to receive much better material than Palmer had been able to publish. The existing stable of Amazing writers, such as Rog Phillips and Chester S. Geier, were replaced by writers such as Fritz Leiber, Fredric Brown, and Clifford D. Simak. Browne also discovered several writers who went on to success in the field, publishing first stories by Walter M. Miller, Mack Reynolds, John Jakes, Milton Lesser and Charles Beaumont, all within the space of nine months in late 1950 and early 1951.^[83] Browne was disappointed by the cancellation of the planned slick version, however, and to some extent reverted to Palmer's policy of publishing sensational fiction. In 1952, for example, he serialized the anonymous Master of the Universe, which purported to be a history of the future from 1975 to 2575.^[7]

With the change to digest size in 1953, Browne once again attempted to use higher-quality fiction. The first digest issue, dated April–May 1953, included stories by Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Richard Matheson, Theodore Sturgeon, and Murray Leinster. Further well-regarded stories appeared over the course of 1953, including Arthur C. Clarke's "Encounter in the Dawn", and Henry Kuttner's "Or Else".^[57] Subsequent budget cuts meant that Browne was unable to sustain this level.^[59] As in the 1940s, Amazing gained a stable of writers who appeared frequently, though this time the quality of the writers was rather higher—it included Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, and Randall Garrett—and the regular writers were not appearing only in Ziff-Davis magazines. This remained the situation after Browne's departure in 1956 and through Paul Fairman's tenure.^[34]

Cele Goldsmith[link]

Cele Goldsmith's tenure as editor began with the opportunity to showcase two very well-established writers: E.E. Smith and Isaac Asimov. Smith's The Galaxy Primes began serialization in March 1959. Asimov's first published story, "Marooned Off Vesta", had appeared in the March 1939 issue of Amazing, and Goldsmith reprinted it in March 1959 along with a sequel and Asimov's comments on the story. She soon began to publish some of the better new writers. Cordwainer Smith's "Golden the Ship Was—Oh! Oh! Oh!" appeared in April; and by the middle of the following year she had managed to attract stories from Robert Sheckley, Alan E. Nourse, Fritz Leiber, Gordon R. Dickson, Robert Bloch, and James Blish. The changes she made were enough to bring Robert Heinlein back as a subscriber; Heinlein read a copy of the June 1961 issue which, he said, "caused me to think I had been missing something".^[84]

In September 1960 Amazing began to carry Sam Moskowitz's series of author profiles, which had begun in Fantastic, the sister magazine. The following month the cover and logo were redesigned. In April 1961, the 35th anniversary of the first issue, Goldsmith ran several reprints, including stories by Ray Bradbury and Edgar Rice Burroughs.^[34] Goldsmith had little previous experience with science fiction, and bought what she liked, rather than trying to conform to a notion of what science fiction should be. The result was the debut of more significant writers in her magazines than anywhere else at that time. She published the first stories of Ursula K. Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, Piers Anthony and Thomas M. Disch, among many others. Award-winning stories published during Goldsmith's editorship include Zelazny's "He Who Shapes", a story about the use of dream therapy to cure phobias. It was serialized in the January and February 1965 issues, and won a Nebula Award, an annual award voted on by science fiction writers. Goldsmith often wrote long, helpful letters to her authors: Zelazny commented in a letter to her that "Most of anything I have learned was stimulated by those first sales, and then I learned, and possibly even learned more, from some of the later rejections". Disch and Le Guin have also acknowledged the influence Goldsmith had on their early careers.^[85]

The cover art for Amazing had been largely supplied by Ed Valigursky during the late fifties, but during the early sixties a much wider variety of artists appeared, including Alex Schomburg, Leo Summers and Ed Emshwiller. Frank Paul, who had painted all the covers for the first few years of Amazing, contributed a wraparound cover for the April 1961 35th anniversary issue; this was his last cover art for a science fiction magazine.^[34]

Goldsmith's open-minded approach meant that Amazing and Fantastic published some writers who did not fit into the other magazines. Philip K. Dick's sales to magazines had dropped, but his work began to appear in Amazing, and Goldsmith also regularly published David R. Bunch's stories of Moderan, a world whose inhabitants were part human and part metal. Bunch, whose stories were "bewildering, exotic word pictures" according to Mike Ashley, had been unable to sell regularly elsewhere.^[34]

Reprint era and Ted White[link]

When Sol Cohen bought both Amazing and Fantastic in early 1965, he decided to maximize profits by filling the magazines almost entirely with reprints. Cohen had acquired second serial rights from Ziff-Davis to all stories that had been printed in both magazines, and also in the companion magazines such as Fantastic Adventures. Joseph Wrzos, the new editor, persuaded Cohen that at least one new story should appear in each issue; there was sufficient inventory left over from Goldsmith's tenure for this to be done without acquiring new material. Readers initially approved of the policy, since it made available some well-loved stories from earlier decades that had not been reprinted elsewhere.^[86] Both of Wrzos's successors, Harry Harrison and Barry Malzberg, were unable to persuade Cohen to use more new fiction.^[87]

When Ted White took over, it was on condition that the reprints be phased out. This took some time: for a while both Amazing and Fantastic continued to include one reprint every issue. With the May 1972 issue, however, the transformation was complete, and all stories were new. In addition to eliminating the reprints, White introduced several new features such as a letter column, a fan column, and book reviews, as well as a series of science articles by Gregory Benford. He also redesigned the look of the magazine, making it, in science fiction historian Mike Ashley's words, "far more modern and sophisticated".^[88]

White was willing to print a variety of fiction, with traditional stories side-by-side with more experimental material that was influenced by the British New Wave or by 1960s psychedelia. In 1971 he serialized Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven, about a man whose dreams can modify reality. One writer who was influenced by this was James Tiptree, Jr., who later wrote that "after first plowing into the first pulpy pages of the 1971 Amazing in which Lathe came out, my toe-nails began to curl under and my spine hair stood up."^[89] White's willingness to experiment led to Amazing running more stories with sexual content than other magazines. One such story, White's own "Growing Up Fast in the City", was criticized as pornographic by some of Amazing's readers. Other stories, such as Rich Brown's "Two of a Kind", about the violent rape of a black woman and the subsequent death of her rapists, also led to controversy. White also printed more conventional fiction, however, much of it of high quality. The magazine was nominated for the Hugo award (a readers' award, named for Hugo Gernsback) for best editor three times during his tenure (1970, 1971 and 1972), finishing third each time.^[90]

White's ability to attract new writers suffered because of the low rates he paid: one cent per word, as compared to three or five cents per word at the leading competitive magazines. To compensate, White cultivated new writers whose experimental work was not selling elsewhere. White made a deal in 1971 with Gordon Eklund, who was hesitating to become a full-time writer because of the financial risks. White agreed to buy anything Eklund wrote, on condition that Eklund himself believed it was a good story. The result was that much of Eklund's fiction appeared in Amazing and Fantastic over the next few years.^[91]

Amazing's reputation had been for formulaic science fiction almost since it began, but White was able to bring the magazine to a higher standard than any other editor except Cele Goldsmith,^[92] and gave Amazing a respectable position in the field.^[93] His successors were not able to maintain the level of quality that he achieved.^[92]

After Ted White[link]

When Elinor Mavor took over, in early 1979, she had no experience with science fiction magazines, and was unaware of the history of bad feeling within the science fiction community about the poor payments for reprinted stories. She was given an extremely limited budget to work with, and had few stories on hand to work with initially, and as a result her first issues contained several reprints. Mavor experimented in her first year with some new ideas, such as starting a story on the back cover in order to hook readers into buying the magazine to finish the story. She also began a serial story in graphic format which used reader input to continue its plot; it was not a success and "thankfully", according to Mike Ashley, the experiment was terminated after only three episodes.^[46]

Over time Mavor was to some extent able to reverse the negative perceptions of Amazing among established authors, but she was initially forced to work primarily with newer writers. Early discoveries of hers include Michael P. Kube-McDowell, John E. Stith and Richard Paul Russo. In a notice published in her first issue, she asked readers for help in assembling news, reviews and fan information, and soon added columns that covered these areas. In 1981 Robert Silverberg began a series of opinion columns. The artwork was of high quality, including work by Stephen Fabian, and later by David Mattingly.^[46]

After the merger with Fantastic, Mavor continued to draw well-known writers to the magazine, including Orson Scott Card, George R. R. Martin, and Roger Zelazny. Brad Linaweaver's "Moon of Ice", which appeared in March 1982, was nominated for a Nebula award; Martin's "Unsound Variations", which had appeared the issue before, was nominated for both a Nebula and a Hugo award.^[46]

Historian James Gunn's assessment of Amazing in the 1980s is that Mavor, Scithers and Price, who between them edited Amazing for a decade, were unable to sustain the standards established by Ted White in the 1970s.^[92] Brian Stableford, by contrast, comments that both Scithers and Price made efforts to publish good material, and that the packaging, from 1991 onwards, was perhaps the best presented of any science fiction magazine.^[14]

With the Wizards of the Coast relaunch in 1998 the contents, under editor Kim Mohan, became more media-focused. The initial plan was to have two or three stories per issue based on films, TV, and games.^[50][94] The 600th issue, in early 2000, included a Harlan Ellison story, as well as a story from the 100th issue, the 200th issue, and so on, up to the 500th issue. Pamela Sargent also contributed a story.^[95] The Paizo publishing relaunch, in 2004, was even more focused on media content than the Wizards of the Coast version had been, with much more movie and comics-related material than science fiction. Several well-known authors appeared in the first issue, including Harlan Ellison, Bruce Sterling, and Gene Wolfe. Paizo also ran a blog for the magazine.^[96][97] The fiction received positive reviews,^[98] but Paizo soon put the magazine on temporary hold, and canceled it permanently the following year.^[52]

Influence on the field[link]

Amazing Stories was influential simply by being the first of its kind. In the words of science fiction writer and critic Damon Knight, the magazine was "a snag in the stream of history, from which a V-shape spread out in dozens and then in hundreds of altered lives".^[99] Many early fans of the field began to communicate with each other through the letter column, and to publish fanzines—amateur fan publications that helped establish connections among fans across the country. Many of these fans in turn became successful writers; and the existence of an organized science fiction fandom, and of writers such as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov, who came to writing directly from fandom, can be dated to the creation of Amazing Stories.^[99] After the first few years, when there was little or no competition, Amazing Stories never again led the field in the eyes of critics or fans. Despite its long history, the magazine rarely contributed much to science fiction beyond the initial creation of the genre,^[100] though Gernsback himself is commemorated in the name "Hugo", which is the almost universally used term for the World Science Fiction Society's annually presented Science Fiction Achievement Awards.^[101][102] Gernsback has also been called the "Father of Science Fiction" for his role in creating Amazing Stories.^[103]

Publication details [link]

Editors [link]

Bibliographers do not always agree who should be listed as editor of any given issue of Amazing. For example, Gernsback was in control for the first three years, but Sloane performed all the editorial duties related to fiction, and he is sometimes described as the editor. Similarly, later editors were sometimes under the supervision of editorial directors. The table below, and the charts above, generally follow the mastheads in the magazines, with short notes added. More details are given in the publishing history section, above, which focuses on when the editors involved actually obtained control of the magazine contents, instead of when their names appeared on the masthead.

• Hugo Gernsback (April 1926 – April 1929). Sloane performed almost all the editorial duties related to fiction.^[7]
• Arthur Lynch (May 1929 – October 1929). As under Gernsback, Sloane was essentially the editor during Lynch's tenure.^[70]
• T. O'Conor Sloane (November 1929 – May 1938)
• Raymond A. Palmer (June 1938 – December 1949)
• Howard Browne (January 1950 – August 1956). Fairman actually took over editorial duties with the May or June 1956 issue.^[104]
• Paul W. Fairman (September 1956 – November 1958)
• Cele Goldsmith Lalli (December 1958 – June 1965). Norman Lobsenz was introduced as editor, but in fact Cele Goldsmith did all the editorial work. When she married she used her married name of Cele Lalli.^[105]
• Joseph Ross (August 1965 – October 1967). A pseudonym for Joseph Wrzos.
• Harry Harrison (December 1967 – September 1968)
• Barry N. Malzberg (November 1968 – January 1969)
• Ted White (March 1969 – February 1979)
• Elinor Mavor (May 1979 – September 1982). From May 1979 – August 1981 Mavor used the pseudonym Omar Gohagen; subsequently she used her real name.
• George H. Scithers (November 1982 – July 1986)
• Patrick Lucien Price (September 1986 – March 1991)
• Kim Mohan (May 1991 – Winter 1995 and Summer 1998 – Summer 2000)
• David Gross (September 2004 – December 2004)
• Jeff Berkwits (January 2005 – March 2005)

Other bibliographic details[link]

Amazing began as a bedsheet format magazine; this lasted until October 1933, which saw a switch to pulp size. With the April–May 1953 issue Amazing became a digest.^[106] Seven issues in the early 1980s, from November 1980 to November 1981, were a half-inch taller than the regular digest size, but thereafter the magazine reverted to the standard digest format.^[48] In May 1991 the magazine returned to a large format,^[14] but this only lasted until the Winter 1994 issue, and the next three issues were digest-sized once again. When the magazine reappeared in 1998 it was in bedsheet format and it remained that size until the very end.^[48] The last issue, March 2005, was only distributed as a PDF download, never as a physical magazine.^[52] The volume numbering contained some irregularities: the numbering given in the tables above appears to be in error for the period from 1979 to 1983, but in fact it is given correctly in the table. Note also that vol. 27 no. 8 was a single issue, not two, as it seems to be from the table; it was dated Dec 1953/Jan 1954.^[48]

The following table shows which issues appeared from which publisher.^{[48][107][108][109][110]}

Dates	Publisher
April 1926 – June 1929	Experimenter Publishing, New York
July 1929 – October 1930	Experimenter Publications, New York
November 1930 – September 1931	Radio-Science Publications, New York
October 1931 – February 1938	Teck Publishing Corporation, New York
April 1938 – February 1951	Ziff-Davis, Chicago
March 1951 – June 1965	Ziff-Davis, New York
August 1965 – February 1979	Ultimate Publishing, New York
May 1979 – June 1982	Ultimate Publishing, Scottsdale, Arizona
September 1982 – May 1985	Dragon Publishing, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
July 1985 – Winter 1995	TSR, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
September 2004 – March 2005	Paizo Publishing, Bellevue, Washington

The title of the magazine changed several times:^[48][51]

Dates	Title
April 1926 – February 1958	Amazing Stories
March 1958 – April 1958	Amazing Science Fiction
May 1958 – September 1960	Amazing Science Fiction Stories
October 1960 – July 1970	Amazing Stories
September 1970 – February 1979	Amazing Science Fiction Stories
May 1979 – August 1980	Amazing Stories
November 1980 – November 1984	Amazing Science Fiction Stories Combined with Fantastic
January 1985 – March 1985	Amazing Science Fiction Stories Combined with Fantastic Stories
May 1985 – January 1986	Amazing Science Fiction Stories
March 1986 – March 2005	Amazing Stories

Two different series of reprints of Amazing appeared in the United Kingdom. First came a single undated issue from Ziff-Davis, in November 1946. In June 1950, Thorpe & Porter began a second series that lasted until 1954, and totalled 32 issues. The Ziff-Davis issue and the first 24 issues from Thorpe & Porter were pulp-sized; the last eight were digests.^[14][106] The Thorpe & Porter issues were undated, but the pulp issues were numbered from 1 to 24, and were initially bimonthly. The March 1951 issue was followed by April and November, however, and in 1952 issues appeared in February, March, April, June, July, September and November. 1953 saw nine pulp issues, omitting only March and May; and with December came the change to digest-size and a perfectly regular bimonthly schedule which lasted until February 1955. These last eight issues were numbered volume 1, numbers 1 to 8.^[106] There was also a Canadian edition which lasted for 24 issues from September 1933 to August 1935, from Teck Publications; these were identical to the US editions except that the front covers were overprinted with "Printed in Canada on Canadian Paper". A Japanese edition ran for seven issues in mid-1950, selecting stories from Fantastic Adventures as well as from Amazing.^[106]

Several anthologies of stories from Amazing have been published, including:^[14][111]

Year	Editor	Title
1967	Joseph Ross	The Best of Amazing
1973	Ted White	The Best from Amazing Stories
1985	Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg	Amazing Stories: 60 Years of the Best Science Fiction
1986	Martin H. Greenberg	Amazing Stories: Vision of Other Worlds
1987	Martin H. Greenberg	Amazing Science Fiction Anthology: The Wonderful Years, 1926–1935
1987	Martin H. Greenberg	Amazing Science Fiction Anthology: The War Years, 1936–1945
1987	Martin H. Greenberg	Amazing Science Fiction Anthology: The Wild Years, 1946–1955

Media crossovers[link]

Director Steven Spielberg licensed the title for use on an American television show called Amazing Stories that ran from 1985 to 1987.^[112] Between 1998 and 2000, Amazing Stories published a series of short stories based upon the Star Trek franchise. In 2002, these stories were reissued by Pocket Books in the collection Star Trek: The Amazing Stories.^[113]

Notes[link]

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amazing Stories

• Amazing Stories issue checklist, with cover scans.
• University of Wisconsin-Parkside Archives, contains 73 of the over 300 issues printed between 1926 to 1951.

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John Williams
Williams at the Avery Fisher Hall in 2007
Background information
Birth name	John Towner Williams
Born	(1932-02-08) February 8, 1932 (age 80)
Origin	Flushing, Queens, New York, United States of America
Genres	Film score, Contemporary classical music, Jazz
Occupations	Composer, pianist, conductor
Years active	1952–present

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, War Horse, Home Alone and the first three Harry Potter films. He has had a long association with director Steven Spielberg, composing the music for all but two (Duel and The Color Purple) of Spielberg's major feature films.

Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, the NBC Nightly News, the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, and the television series Lost in Space. Williams has also composed numerous classical concerti, and he served as the principal conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980 to 1993; he is now the orchestra's conductor laureate.

Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. With 47 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most nominated person, after Walt Disney.^[1] John Williams was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music.^[2] Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

Contents 1 Early life and family 2 Film and television scoring 3 Conducting and performing 4 Awards 4.1 AFI 4.2 List of awards 5 Discography 6 Charting hits (U.S., Billboard) 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

Early life and family[link]

John Williams was born on February 8, 1932 on Long Island, New York, the son of Esther (née Towner) and Johnny Williams.^[3] His father was a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet.

In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950. He later attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and studied privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.^[4] In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Band as part of his assignments.

After his Air Force service ended in 1955, Williams moved to New York City and entered the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne.^[4] During this time, Williams worked as a jazz pianist in New York's many clubs and eventually studios, most notably for composer Henry Mancini. His fellow session musicians included Rolly Bundock on bass, Jack Sperling on drums, and Bob Bain on guitar—the same lineup featured on the Mr. Lucky television series. Williams was known as "Little Johnny Love" Williams during the early 1960s, and he served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singer Frankie Laine.

Williams was married to actress Barbara Ruick from 1956 until her death on March 3, 1974. The Williamses had three children: Jennifer (born 1956), Mark (born 1958), and Joseph (born 1960). Williams' younger son (Joseph) is one of the various lead singers the band Toto. John Williams married his second wife, Samantha Winslow, on July 21, 1980.

John Williams is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national fraternity for college band members.

Film and television scoring[link]

While skilled in a variety of 20th century compositional idioms, Williams' most familiar style may be described as a form of neoromanticism,^[5] inspired by the same large-scale orchestral music of the late 19th century—especially the compositions of Richard Wagner and its concept of leitmotif—that inspired his film music predecessors.^[6]

After his studies at Juilliard, Williams returned to Los Angeles, where he began working as an orchestrator at film studios. Among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and also with his fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn.^[7] Williams was also a studio pianist, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, and Henry Mancini. Williams recorded with Henry Mancini on the film scores of Peter Gunn (1959), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), and Charade (1963). (Williams actually played the well-recognized opening riff to Mancini's Peter Gunn theme.^[8][9]) Williams (often credited as "Johnny Williams") also composed the music for various TV programs in the 1960s: The pilot episode of Gilligan's Island,^[10] Bachelor Father (1959-1960), the Kraft Suspense Theatre, Lost in Space (1965–68), The Time Tunnel (1966–67), and Land of the Giants (the last three created by the prolific TV producer, Irwin Allen).

Working at Universal Studios, Williams shared music credit on a number of films, the most notable being The Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954. Williams's first major film composition was for the B movie Daddy-O in 1958, and his first screen credit came two years later in Because They're Young. He soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic music. Williams received his first nomination for an Academy Award for his film score for Valley of the Dolls (1967), and then was nominated again for his score for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969). Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his adapted score for the film Fiddler on the Roof (1971). In 1972 he composed the score for the Robert Altman psychological thriller Images (recorded in collaboration with noted percussionist Stomu Yamashta) which earned him another nomination in the category 'Best Music, Original Dramatic Score' at the 1973 Academy Awards. During the early 1970s, Williams' prominence grew thanks to his work for now–film producer Irwin Allen's disaster films, composing the scores for The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974). In addition, he scored Universal's Earthquake (1974) for director Mark Robson, completing a "trinity" of scores for the highest grossing "disaster films" of the decade. He also wrote a very memorable score to The Cowboys (1972), a western starring John Wayne and directed by Mark Rydell.

In 1974, Williams was approached by director Steven Spielberg to compose the music for his feature directorial debut, The Sugarland Express. The young director had been impressed with Williams's score for the movie The Reivers (1969), and Spielberg was convinced that Williams could compose the musical sound that he desired for any of his films. They teamed up again a year later for Spielberg's second film, Jaws. Widely considered to be a classic suspense film, its film score's ominous two-note motif has become synonymous with sharks and approaching danger. The score for Jaws earned Williams his second Academy Award, his first one for an original composition.

Shortly thereafter, Williams and Spielberg began a long collaboration for their next feature film together, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE3K, 1977). In an unusual step for a Hollywood film, Spielberg and Williams developed their script and musical concepts simultaneously, as in the film these entwine very closely together. During their two-year-long collaboration, they crafted its distinctive five-note figure that functions both in the background music and as the communications signal of the film's extraterrestrials. Williams also used a system of musical hand signals in CE3K that were based on hand signs created by John Curwen and refined by Zoltan Kodaly.

During the same period, Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas, who needed a composer to score his ambitious space epic, Star Wars (1977). Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the fashion of Richard Strauss and Golden Age Hollywood composers Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Its main theme, "Luke's Theme" is among the most widely recognized in motion picture history, and the "Force Theme" and "Princess Leia's Theme" are well-known examples of leitmotif. Both the film and its soundtrack were immensely successful—it remains the highest grossing non-popular music recording of all-time—and Williams won another Academy Award for Best Original Score. In 1980, Williams returned to score The Empire Strikes Back, where he introduced "The Imperial March" as the theme for Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire. The original Star Wars trilogy concluded with the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, for which Williams's score provided most notably the "Emperor's Theme," "Parade of the Ewoks," and "Luke and Leia." Both scores earned Williams Academy Award nominations.

Williams worked with director Richard Donner to score the 1978 film Superman. The score's heroic and romantic themes, particularly the main march, the Superman fanfare and the love theme, known as "Can You Read My Mind," would appear in the four sequel films. For the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, created and directed by Lucas and Spielberg, Williams wrote a rousing main theme known as "The Raiders March" to accompany the film's hero, Indiana Jones. He also composed separate themes to represent the Ark of the Covenant, the character Marion, and the Nazi villains of the story. Additional themes were featured in his scores to the sequel films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Williams composed an emotional and sensitive score to Spielberg's 1982 fantasy film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The music conveys the film's benign, childlike sense of innocence, particularly with a spirited theme for the freedom of flight, and a soft string-based, harp-featured theme for the friendship between characters E.T. and Elliott. The film's final chase and farewell sequence marks a rare instance in film history in which the on-screen action was re-edited to conform to the composer's musical interpretation. Williams was awarded a fourth Academy Award for this score.

The 1985 film The Color Purple is the only theatrical feature directed by Steven Spielberg for which John Williams did not serve as composer. The film's producer, Quincy Jones, wanted to personally arrange and compose the music for the project. Williams also did not score Twilight Zone: The Movie, but Spielberg had directed only one of the four segments in that film; the lead director and producer of the film, John Landis, selected Jerry Goldsmith as composer. The Williams-Spielberg collaboration resumed with the director's 1987 film Empire of the Sun, and has continued to the present, spanning genres from science fiction thrillers (1993's Jurassic Park), to somber tragedies (1993's Schindler's List, 2005's Munich), to Eastern-tinged melodramas (2005's Memoirs of a Geisha, directed by Rob Marshall). Spielberg has said, "I call it an honorable privilege to regard John Williams as a friend."^[11]

In 1999 George Lucas launched the first of a series of prequels to the original Star Wars trilogy. Williams was asked to score all three films, starting with The Phantom Menace. Along with themes from the previous movies, Williams created new themes to be used as leitmotifs in Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). Most notable of these was "Duel of the Fates," an aggressive choral movement utilizing harsh Sanskrit lyrics that broadened the style of music used in the Star Wars films. Also of note was "Anakin's Theme," which begins as an innocent childlike melody and morphs insidiously into a quote of the sinister "Imperial March" of the prior trilogy. For Episode II, Williams composed "Across the Stars," a love theme for Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker (mirroring the love theme composed for the second film of the previous trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back). The final installment combined many of the themes created for the series' previous movies, including "The Emperor's Theme," "The Imperial March," "Across the Stars," "Duel of the Fates," "The Force Theme," "Rebel Fanfare," "Luke's Theme," and "Princess Leia's Theme," as well as new themes for General Grievous and the film's climax, entitled "Battle of the Heroes." Few composers have scored an entire series of this magnitude: The combined scores of all six Star Wars films add up to more than 14 hours of orchestral music.

In the new millennium, Williams was asked to score the film adaptations of the widely successful book series, Harry Potter. He went on to score the first three installments of the film franchise. As with his Superman theme, the most important theme from Williams's scores for the adaptations of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, dubbed Hedwig's Theme, has been used in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth films (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2), scored by Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper and Alexandre Desplat respectively. Like the main themes from Star Wars, Jaws, Superman, and Indiana Jones, fans have come to identify the Harry Potter films with Williams's original compositions. Williams was asked to return to the film franchise to score the final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, but director David Yates stated that "their schedules simply did not align" as he would have had to provide Williams with a rough cut of the film sooner than was possible.

In 2006 Superman Returns was completed under the direction of Bryan Singer, best known for directing the first two movies in the X-Men series. Although Singer did not request Williams to compose a score for the intentionally Donner-esque film, he employed the skills of X2 composer John Ottman to incorporate Williams's original Superman theme, as well as those for Lois Lane, Krypton and Smallville. Don Davis performed a similar role for Jurassic Park III, recommended to the producers by Williams himself. (Film scores by Ottman and to a lesser extent Davis are often compared to those of Williams, as both use similar styles of composition.)

In 2008 Williams returned to the Indiana Jones series to score the fourth film—The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. He received a Grammy nomination for his work on the film. During 2008, he also composed music for two documentaries, Warner at War,^[12] and A Timeless Call,^[13] the latter of which was directed by Steven Spielberg.

After a three year absence from film scoring, Williams composed the scores for Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn and War Horse in 2011. Both scores received overwhelmingly positive reviews,^{[14][15][16][17][18][19]} with both scores earning Oscar nominations,^[20] and the latter being nominated for a Golden Globe.^[21] The Oscar nominations are Williams' 46th and 47th, making him the most nominated musician in Academy Awards history (having previously been tied with Alfred Newman's 45 nominations), and the second most nominated overall, following Walt Disney. Williams won an Annie Award for his score for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in 2012.

Williams is next scheduled to score Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln.

Conducting and performing[link]

From 1980 to 1993, Williams succeeded Arthur Fiedler as Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Williams never met Fiedler in person but spoke with him by telephone. His arrival as the new leader of the Pops in the spring of 1980 allowed him to devote part of the Pops' first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for The Empire Strikes Back, in addition to conducting many Fiedler audience favorites.

Williams almost ended his tenure with the Pops in 1984.^[22] Considered a customary practice of opinion, some players hissed while sight-reading a new Williams composition in rehearsal; Williams abruptly left the session and turned in his resignation. He initially cited mounting conflicts with his film composing schedule, but later admitted a perceived lack of discipline in and respect from the Pops' ranks, culminating in this latest instance. After entreaties by the management and personal apologies from the musicians, Williams withdrew his resignation and continued as principal conductor for nine more years.^[23] In 1995 he was succeeded by Keith Lockhart, the former associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Williams is now the Laureate Conductor of the Pops, thus maintaining his affiliation with its parent, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Williams leads the Pops on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and typically for a week of concerts in May. He conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, where he frequently enlists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, official chorus of the BSO....

Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony; a Concerto for Horn written for Dale Clevenger, principal hornist of the Chicago Symphony; a Concerto for Clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky (Principal Clarinetist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) in 1991;^[24] a sinfonietta for wind ensemble; a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994; concertos for the flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra; and a trumpet concerto, which was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra and their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996. His bassoon concerto, "The Five Sacred Trees", which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and principal bassoon player Judith LeClair in 1995, was recorded for Sony Classical by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also an accomplished pianist, as can be heard in various scores in which he provides solos, as well as a handful of European classical music recordings.

Williams was the subject of an hour-long documentary for the BBC in 1980, and was featured in a story for ABC's newsmagazine 20/20 in 1983.^[25]

In 1985, Williams was commissioned by NBC to compose a television news music package for various network news spots. The package, which Williams named "The Mission", consists of four movements, two of which are still used heavily by NBC today for The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and Meet the Press. Williams also composed the "Liberty Fanfare" for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, "We're Lookin' Good!" for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and themes for the 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2002 Olympic games. His most recent concert work, "Seven for Luck", for soprano and orchestra, is a seven-piece song cycle based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. "Seven for Luck" was given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony under Williams with soprano Cynthia Haymon.

Williams makes annual appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and took part as conductor and composer in the orchestra's opening gala concerts for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003.

In 2004, Williams both served as the Grand Marshall for the Rose Parade, and directed the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the Rose Bowl.

In April 2005, Williams and the Boston Pops performed "The Force Theme" from Star Wars at opening day in Fenway Park as the Boston Red Sox, having won their first World Series championship since 1918, received their championship rings. For Game 1 of the 2007 World Series, Williams conducted a brass-and-drum ensemble through a new dissonant arrangement of the "Star Spangled Banner."^[25]

In April 2004, February 2006, and September 2007, he conducted the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The initial program was intended to be a one-time special event, and featured Williams's medley of Oscar-winning film scores first performed at the previous year's Academy Awards.^[26] Its unprecedented popularity led to two concerts in 2006: fundraising gala events featuring personal recollections by film directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.^[27] Continuing demand fueled three more concerts in 2007, which all sold out. These featured a tribute to the musicals of film director Stanley Donen, and had the distinction of serving as the opening event of the New York Philharmonic season.^[28] After a four-season absence, Williams conducted the Philharmonic once again in October 2011.^[29]

Awards[link]

John Williams has won five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. He has also been nominated for 22 Golden Globes, winning four, and 59 Grammys, winning 20. With 47 Oscar nominations, Williams currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person,^[30][31] and is the second most nominated person in the history of the Academy Awards behind only Walt Disney's 59. Forty-two of Williams' Oscar nominations are for Best Original Score and five are for Best Original Song. He won four Oscars for Best Original Score and one for Best Adapted Score (Fiddler on the Roof).

Williams has received three Emmy Awards and five nominations, seven BAFTAs, twenty Grammy Awards, and has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. In 2004 he received a Kennedy Center Honor. He won a Classical Brit award in 2005 for his soundtrack work of the previous year.

Notably, Williams has won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for his scores for Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, The Empire Strikes Back, E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Angela's Ashes (1999), Munich (2005), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The competition includes not only composers of film scores, but also composers of instrumental music of any genre, including composers of classical fare such as symphonies and chamber music.

In 2003, the International Olympic Committee accorded Mr. Williams its highest individual honor, the Olympic Order.^[32]

In 2009, Williams received the National Medal of Arts in the White House in Washington for his achievements in symphonic music for motion pictures, and "as a pre-eminent composer and conductor [whose] scores have defined and inspired modern movie-going for decades."^[33]

John Williams was made an honorary brother of Kappa Kappa Psi at Boston University in the late 80's. ^[34]

AFI[link]

Williams's richly thematic and highly popular 1977 score to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was selected in 2005 by the American Film Institute as the greatest American movie score of all time. His scores for Jaws and E.T. also appeared on the list, at No. 6 and No. 14, respectively.^[35] He is the only composer to have three scores on the list. Williams' scores for the following films were nominated for the list:

• A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• The Cowboys (1972)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Schindler's List (1993)
• Superman (1978)
• The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

List of awards[link]

Award	Year	Project	Category	Outcome
Academy Award	1967	Valley of the Dolls	Best Score Adaptation	Nominated
	1969	Goodbye, Mr Chips	Best Score Adaptation	Nominated
		The Reivers	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1971	Fiddler on the Roof	Best Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score	Won
	1972	Images	Best Original Dramatic Score	Nominated
		The Poseidon Adventure	Best Original Dramatic Score	Nominated
	1973	Cinderella Liberty	Best Original Dramatic Score	Nominated
		"Nice to Be Around" (from Cinderella Liberty)	Best Original Song	Nominated
		Tom Sawyer	Best Score Adaptation	Nominated
	1974	The Towering Inferno	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1975	Jaws	Best Original Dramatic Score	Won
	1977	Star Wars	Best Original Score	Won
		Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1978	Superman	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1980	The Empire Strikes Back	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1981	Raiders of the Lost Ark	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1982	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	Best Original Score	Won
		"If We Were in Love" (from Yes, Giorgio)	Best Original Song	Nominated
	1983	Return of the Jedi	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1984	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom	Best Original Score	Nominated
		The River	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1987	Empire of the Sun	Best Original Score	Nominated
		The Witches of Eastwick	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1988	The Accidental Tourist	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1989	Born on the Fourth of July	Best Original Score	Nominated
		Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1990	Home Alone	Best Original Score	Nominated
		"Somewhere in My Memory" (from Home Alone)	Best Original Song	Nominated
	1991	JFK	Best Original Score	Nominated
		"When You're Alone" (from Hook)	Best Original Song	Nominated
	1993	Schindler's List	Best Original Score	Won
	1995	Nixon	Best Original Dramatic Score	Nominated
		Sabrina	Best Original Musical or Comedy Score	Nominated
		"Moonlight" (from Sabrina)	Best Original Song	Nominated
	1996	Sleepers	Best Original Dramatic Score	Nominated
	1997	Amistad	Best Original Dramatic Score	Nominated
	1998	Saving Private Ryan	Best Original Dramatic Score	Nominated
	1999	Angela's Ashes	Best Original Score	Nominated
	2000	The Patriot	Best Original Score	Nominated
	2001	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	Best Original Score	Nominated
		Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	Best Original Score	Nominated
	2002	Catch Me If You Can	Best Original Score	Nominated
	2004	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Best Original Score	Nominated
	2005	Memoirs of a Geisha	Best Original Score	Nominated
		Munich	Best Original Score	Nominated
	2011	The Adventures of Tintin	Best Original Score	Nominated
		War Horse	Best Original Score	Nominated
Annie Award	2012	The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn	Music in a Feature Production	Won
BAFTA Award	1975	Jaws	Best Film Music	Won
	1978	Star Wars	Best Film Music	Won
		Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Best Film Music	Nominated
	1980	The Empire Strikes Back	Best Film Music	Won
	1981	Raiders of the Lost Ark	Best Film Music	Nominated
	1982	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	Best Film Music	Won
	1988	Empire of the Sun	Best Film Music	Won
	1993	Schindler's List	Best Film Music	Won
	1998	Saving Private Ryan	Best Film Music	Nominated
	2002	Catch Me If You Can	Best Film Music	Nominated
	2005	Memoirs of a Geisha	Best Film Music	Won
	2011	War Horse	Best Film Music	Nominated
Emmy Award	1962	Alcoa Premiere	Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composed for Television	Nominated
	1963	Alcoa Premiere	Outstanding Achievement in Composing Original Music	Nominated
	1968	Heidi	Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition	Won
	1971	Jane Eyre	Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition	Won
	2002	The 74th Academy Awards	Outstanding Music Direction	Nominated
	2009	Great Performances	Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music	Won
Golden Globe Award	1973	The Poseidon Adventure	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1974	Cinderella Liberty	Best Original Score	Nominated
		Tom Sawyer (with Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman)	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1975	Earthquake	Best Original Score	Nominated
		Jaws	Best Original Score	Won
	1977	Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope	Best Original Score	Won
	1978	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1979	Superman	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1981	Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1982	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	Best Original Score	Won
	1983	"If We Were In Love" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from Yes, Giorgio	Best Original Song	Nominated
	1985	The River	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1988	Empire of the Sun	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1989	The Accidental Tourist	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1990	Born on the Fourth of July	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1994	Schindler's List	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1996	"Moonlight" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from Sabrina	Best Original Song	Nominated
	1998	Seven Years in Tibet	Best Original Score	Nominated
	1999	Saving Private Ryan	Best Original Score	Nominated
	2000	Angela's Ashes	Best Original Score	Nominated
	2002	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	Best Original Score	Nominated
	2005	Memoirs of a Geisha	Best Original Score	Won
	2011	War Horse	Best Original Score	Nominated
Grammy Award	1962	Checkmate	Best Soundtrack Album or Recording or Score from Motion Picture or Television	Nominated
	1975	Jaws	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture	Won
	1977	Star Wars	Best Pop Instrumental Performance	Won
		"Main Title" from Star Wars	Best Instrumental Composition	Won
		Star Wars	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture	Won
	1978	"Theme" from Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Best Instrumental Composition	Won
		Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture	Won
	1979	"Main Title Theme from Superman"	Best Instrumental Composition	Won
		Superman	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture	Won
	1980	Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back	Best Instrumental Composition	Won
		Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture	Won
	1981	Raiders of the Lost Ark	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture	Won
	1982	"Flying" (Theme from E.T.)	Best Instrumental Composition	Won
		E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture	Won
		"Flying" (Theme from E.T.)	Best Arrangement on an Instrumental Recording	Won
	1984	Olympic Fanfare and Theme	Best Instrumental Composition	Won
		Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
	1988	The Witches of Eastwick	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
	1989	Empire of the Sun	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
	1990	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
	1992	"Somewhere in My Memory" (with Leslie Bricusse) from Home Alone	Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
	1993	Schindler's List	Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture or Television	Won
		Hook	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
	1994	Jurassic Park	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
	1997	"Moonlight" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from Sabrina	Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
	1998	Seven Years in Tibet	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
		The Lost World: Jurassic Park	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
	1999	Saving Private Ryan	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	Won
		Amistad	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television	Nominated
	2000	"Theme" from Angela's Ashes	Best Instrumental Composition	Won
		Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	Nominated
	2002	Artificial Intelligence: A.I.	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	Nominated
	2003	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	Nominated
	2004	Catch Me If You Can	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	Nominated
		Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	Nominated
	2005	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	Nominated
	2006	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	Nominated
	2007	Memoirs of a Geisha	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	Won
		Munich	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	Nominated
		"A Prayer For Peace" (Theme from Munich)	Best Instrumental Composition	Won
	2009	"The Adventures of Mutt" from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	Best Instrumental Composition	Won
		Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	Nominated

Discography[link]

Charting hits (U.S., Billboard)[link]

• 1975 - "Theme From Jaws", #32
• 1977 - "Star Wars Theme - Main Title", #10
• 1978 - "Theme From Close Encounters Of The Third Kind", #13
• 1979 - "Theme From Superman", #81

See also[link]

• List of compositions by John Williams
• Star Wars music
• Superman music
• Harry Potter music

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Moormann, Peter (2010) (in German). Spielberg-Variationen: die Filmmusik von John Williams. Baden-Baden: Nomos, Edition Reinhard Fischer. p. 797. ISBN 978-3-8329-5355-3. 
• Aschieri, Roberto (1999) (in Spanish). Over The Moon: La Mứsica de John Williams Para El Cine. Santigo, Chile: Función Privada, sponsored by Universidad Diego Portales. p. 400. ISBN 978-4-89799-246-4. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Williams

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Williams

• John Williams at the Internet Movie Database
• John Williams Fan Network
• Music by John Williams
• The John Towner Touch (1957) (First solo album)
• The John Williams Web Pages
• Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame
• John Williams Music Network
• John Williams discography at MusicBrainz
• John Williams at Soundtrackguide.net
• John Williams on SoundtrackNet
• John Williams Discography at SoundtrackCollector.com
• The John Williams Collection
• John Williams Sheet Music and Scores
• Timelines John Williams (Article Part 1 of 6)
• Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
• Critical review of Williams's career by Anthony Tommasini at New York Times (2005)
• John Williams Fan Site (Chinese language)
• John Williams on Pandora

Preceded by Arthur Fiedler	Conductor, Boston Pops Orchestra 1980–1993	Succeeded by Keith Lockhart
Preceded by	Laureate Conductor, Boston Pops Orchestra 1993–present	Succeeded by Incumbent

Awards for John Williams v t e Academy Award for Best Original Score (1961–1980) Henry Mancini/Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal (1961) Maurice Jarre/Ray Heindorf (1962) John Addison/Andre Previn (1963) Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman/Andre Previn (1964) Maurice Jarre/Irwin Kostal (1965) John Barry/Ken Thorne (1966) Elmer Bernstein/Alfred Newman and Ken Darby (1967) John Barry/Johnny Green (1968) Burt Bacharach/Lennie Hayton and Lionel Newman (1969) Francis Lai/The Beatles (1970) Michel Legrand/John Williams (1971) Charlie Chaplin, Raymond Rasch and Larry Russell/Ralph Burns (1972) Marvin Hamlisch/Marvin Hamlisch (1973) Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola/Nelson Riddle (1974) John Williams/Leonard Rosenman (1975) Jerry Goldsmith/Leonard Rosenman (1976) John Williams/Jonathan Tunick (1977) Giorgio Moroder/Joe Renzetti (1978) Georges Delerue/Ralph Burns (1979) Michael Gore (1980) Complete list (1934–1940) (1941–1960) (1961–1980) (1981–2000) (2001–2020) v t e Academy Award for Best Original Score (1981–2000) Vangelis (1981) John Williams/Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse (1982) Bill Conti/Michel Legrand, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman (1983) Maurice Jarre/Prince (1984) John Barry (1985) Herbie Hancock (1986) Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne and Cong Su (1987) Dave Grusin (1988) Alan Menken (1989) John Barry (1990) Alan Menken (1991) Alan Menken (1992) John Williams (1993) Hans Zimmer (1994) Luis Enríquez Bacalov/Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz (1995) Gabriel Yared/Rachel Portman (1996) James Horner/Anne Dudley (1997) Nicola Piovani/Stephen Warbeck (1998) John Corigliano (1999) Tan Dun (2000) Complete list (1934–1940) (1941–1960) (1961–1980) (1981–2000) (2001–2020) v t e BAFTA Award for Best Film Music (1968–1979) John Barry (1968) Mikis Theodorakis (1969) Burt Bacharach (1970) Michel Legrand (1971) Nino Rota (1972) Alan Price (1973) Richard Rodney Bennett (1974) John Williams(1975) Bernard Herrmann (1976) John Addison (1977) John Williams (1978) Ennio Morricone (1979) Complete list (1968–1979) (1980–1999) (2000–2019) v t e BAFTA Award for Best Film Music (1980–1999) John Williams (1980) Carl Davis (1981) John Williams (1982) Ryuichi Sakamoto (1983) Ennio Morricone (1984) Maurice Jarre (1985) Ennio Morricone (1986) Ennio Morricone (1987) John Williams (1988) Maurice Jarre (1989) Andrea and Ennio Morricone (1990) Jean-Claude Petit (1991) David Hirschfelder (1992) John Williams (1993) Don Was (1994) Luis Bacalov (1995) Gabriel Yared (1996) Nellee Hooper (1997) David Hirschfelder (1998) Thomas Newman (1999) Complete list (1968–1979) (1980–1999) (2000–2019) v t e BAFTA Award for Best Film Music (2000–2019) Tan Dun (2000) Craig Armstrong and Marius de Vries (2001) Philip Glass (2002) T-Bone Burnett and Gabriel Yared (2003) Gustavo Santaolalla (2004) John Williams (2005) Gustavo Santaolalla (2006) Christopher Gunning (2007) A. R. Rahman (2008) Michael Giacchino (2009) Alexandre Desplat (2010) Ludovic Bource (2011) Complete list (1968–1979) (1980–1999) (2000–2019) v t e Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (1970–1989) Love Story - Francis Lai (1970) Shaft - Isaac Hayes (1971) The Godfather - Nino Rota (1972) Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Neil Diamond (1973) The Little Prince - Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe (1974) Jaws - John Williams (1975) A Star is Born - Kenneth Ascher, Paul Williams (1976) Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope - John Williams (1977) Midnight Express - Giorgio Moroder (1978) Apocalypse Now - Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola (1979) The Stunt Man - Dominic Frontiere (1980) (1981) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - John Williams (1982) Flashdance - Giorgio Moroder (1983) A Passage to India - Maurice Jarre (1984) Out of Africa - John Barry (1985) The Mission - Ennio Morricone (1986) The Last Emperor - David Byrne, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cong Su (1987) Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey - Maurice Jarre (1988) The Little Mermaid - Alan Menken (1989) Complete List (1947–1969) (1970–1989) (1990–2009) (2010–2029) v t e Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (1990–2009) The Sheltering Sky - Richard Horowitz, Ryuichi Sakamoto (1990) Beauty and the Beast - Alan Menken (1991) Aladdin - Alan Menken (1992) Heaven & Earth - Kitarō (1993) The Lion King - Hans Zimmer (1994) A Walk in the Clouds - Maurice Jarre (1995) The English Patient - Gabriel Yared (1996) Titanic - James Horner (1997) The Truman Show - Burkhard Dallwitz, Philip Glass (1998) The Legend of 1900 - Ennio Morricone (1999) Gladiator - Lisa Gerrard, Hans Zimmer (2000) Moulin Rouge! - Craig Armstrong (2001) Frida - Elliot Goldenthal (2002) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Howard Shore (2003) The Aviator - Howard Shore (2004) Memoirs of a Geisha - John Williams (2005) The Painted Veil - Alexandre Desplat (2006) Atonement - Dario Marianelli (2007) Slumdog Millionaire - A. R. Rahman (2008) Up- Michael Giacchino (2009) Complete List (1947–1969) (1970–1989) (1990–2009) (2010–2029) v t e Saturn Award for Best Music (1973–1990) Bernard Herrmann (1973) Miklós Rózsa (1974/75) David Raksin (1976) John Williams/John Williams (1977) John Williams (1978) Miklós Rózsa (1979) John Barry (1980) John Williams (1981) John Williams (1982) James Horner (1983) Jerry Goldsmith (1984) Bruce Broughton (1985) Alan Menken (1986) Alan Silvestri (1987) Christopher Young (1988) Alan Silvestri (1989/90) Complete list (1973–1990) (1991–2010) (2011–present) v t e Saturn Award for Best Music (1991–2010) Loek Dikker (1991) Angelo Badalamenti (1992) Danny Elfman (1993) Howard Shore (1994) John Ottman (1995) Danny Elfman (1996) Danny Elfman (1997) John Carpenter (1998) Danny Elfman (1999) James Horner (2000) John Williams (2001) Danny Elfman (2002) Howard Shore (2003) Alan Silvestri (2004) John Williams (2005) John Ottman (2006) Alan Menken (2007) James Newton Howard & Hans Zimmer (2008) James Horner (2009) Hans Zimmer (2010) Complete list (1973–1990) (1991–2010) (2011–present) v t e Kennedy Center Honorees (2000s) 2000 Mikhail Baryshnikov Chuck Berry Plácido Domingo Clint Eastwood Angela Lansbury 2001 Julie Andrews Van Cliburn Quincy Jones Jack Nicholson Luciano Pavarotti 2002 James Earl Jones James Levine Chita Rivera Paul Simon Elizabeth Taylor 2003 James Brown Carol Burnett Loretta Lynn Mike Nichols Itzhak Perlman 2004 Warren Beatty Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee Elton John Joan Sutherland John Williams 2005 Tony Bennett Suzanne Farrell Julie Harris Robert Redford Tina Turner 2006 Zubin Mehta Dolly Parton Smokey Robinson Steven Spielberg Andrew Lloyd Webber 2007 Leon Fleisher Steve Martin Diana Ross Martin Scorsese Brian Wilson 2008 Morgan Freeman George Jones Barbra Streisand Twyla Tharp Pete Townshend & Roger Daltrey 2009 Mel Brooks Dave Brubeck Grace Bumbry Robert De Niro Bruce Springsteen complete list 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

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Persondata
Name	Williams, John
Alternative names
Short description	American composer
Date of birth	February 8, 1932
Place of birth	Long Island, New York
Date of death	F
Place of death