Wonder Stories - Publication Details

Publication Details

The editorial duties at Wonder Stories and its related magazines were not always performed by the person who bore the title of "editor" in the magazine's masthead. From the beginning until the sale to Beacon Publications, Gernsback was listed as editor-in-chief; Lasser was variously listed as "literary editor" and "managing editor", while Hornig was always listed as "managing editor". Similarly, under Beacon Publications, the nominal editor (initially Leo Margulies) was not always the one to work on the magazine. The following list shows who actually performed the editorial duties. 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.

Air Wonder Stories

• David Lasser (July 1929 – May 1930)

Science Wonder Stories

• David Lasser (June 1929 – May 1930)

Science Wonder Quarterly

• David Lasser (Fall 1929 – Spring 1930)

Wonder Stories

• David Lasser (June 1930 – October 1933)
• Charles Hornig (November 1933 – March–April 1936)

Wonder Stories Quarterly

• David Lasser (Summer 1930 – Winter 1933)

Thrilling Wonder Stories

• Mort Weisinger (August 1936 – April 1941)
• Oscar Friend (August 1941 – Fall 1944)
• Sam Merwin (Winter 1945 – October 1951)
• Samuel Mines (December 1951 – Summer 1954)
• Alexander Samalman (Fall 1954 – Winter 1955)

The publisher only changed once through the lifetime of the magazine, when Gernsback sold Wonder Stories in 1936. However, Gernsback changed the name of his company from Stellar Publishing Corporation to Continental Publications, Incorporated, with effect from December 1933. Thrilling Wonder's publisher went by three names: Beacon Publications initially, then Better Publications from the August 1937 issue, and finally, starting with the Fall 1943 issue, Standard Magazines.

Gernsback experimented with the price and format, looking for a profitable combination. Both Air Wonder and Science Wonder were bedsheet-sized (8.5 × 11.75 in, or 216 × 298 mm) and priced at 25 cents, as were the first issues of Wonder Stories. With the November 1930 issue Wonder Stories changed to pulp format, 6.75 × 9.9 in (171 × 251 mm). It reverted to bedsheet after a year, and then in November 1933 became a pulp magazine for good. The pulp issues all had 144 pages; the bedsheet issues generally had 96 pages, though five issues from November 1932 to March 1933 had only 64 pages. Those five issues coincided with a price cut to 15 cents, which was reversed with the April 1933 issue. Gernsback cut the price to 15 cents again from June 1935 until the sale to Beacon Publications in 1936, though this time he did not reduce the page count. The short duration of these price cuts suggests Gernsback rapidly realized that the additional circulation they gained him cost too much in lost revenue. Under Beacon Publications Thrilling Wonder remained pulp-sized throughout.

There were two British reprint editions of Thrilling Wonder. The earlier edition, from Atlas Publishing, produced three numbered issues from 1949 to 1950, and a further seven from 1952 to 1953. Another four issues appeared from Pemberton between 1953 and 1954; these were numbered from 101 to 104. There were Canadian editions in 1945–1946 and 1948–1951.