Famous Fantastic Mysteries
Frequently reprinted authors included George Allan England, A. Merritt, and Austin Hall; the artwork was also a major reason for the success of the magazine, with artists such as Virgil Finlay and Lawrence Stevens contributing some of their best work.
In late 1942, Popular Publications acquired the title from Munsey, and Famous Fantastic Mysteries stopped reprinting short stories from the earlier magazines.
Original short fiction also began to appear, including Arthur C. Clarke's "Guardian Angel", which would later form the first section of his novel Childhood's End.
[2] Munsey continued to print sf in Argosy during the 1930s, including stories such as Murray Leinster's The War of the Purple Gas and Arthur Leo Zagat's "Tomorrow", though they owned no magazines that specialized in science fiction.
Demand for reprints of old favorites was so strong that Munsey decided to launch an additional magazine, Fantastic Novels, in July 1940.
"[3] The first issue included Ray Cummings' "The Girl in the Golden Atom" and A. Merritt's "The Moon Pool", both popular stories by well-known authors.
[5] Gnaedinger commented that "Everyone seems to have realized that although [the] set-up of five to seven stories with two serials running, was highly satisfactory, that the long list of novels would have to be speeded up somehow".
[3] When Munsey sold Famous Fantastic Mysteries to Popular, the editorial policy changed again, to exclude reprints of short fiction that had previously appeared in magazine form.
The reprinted novels included G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday, H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau, H. Rider Haggard's The Ancient Allan, and works by Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, and Arthur Machen.
Contributors who published original stories in Famous Fantastic Mysteries included Henry Kuttner, Ray Bradbury, and C. L.
[13] Arthur C. Clarke's story "Guardian Angel" appeared in the April 1950 issue; it was later turned into the first section of his novel Childhood's End.
[3] Famous Fantastic Mysteries began as a pulp, and remained in that format throughout its run except for a brief experiment in 1951 in which it was reduced to large digest size.
[16] A Mexican magazine, Los Cuentos Fantasticos, which published 44 issues between 1948 and 1953, reprinted stories from both Famous Fantastic Mysteries and Astounding Science Fiction, mostly (though not entirely) without obtaining permission first.
