Other Worlds, Universe Science Fiction, and Science Stories

In 1945, Raymond Palmer, the editor of Amazing Stories, published "I Remember Lemuria", by Richard Shaver, in the March 1945 issue. The story, about prehistoric civilizations, explained all the disasters on Earth as the work of evil robots. Palmer presented the story as a mixture of truth and fiction, and the response from readers was strong enough that he bought more stories from Shaver, and promoted what he called the "Shaver Mystery". Circulation grew dramatically, but the publisher, Ziff-Davis, became alarmed at the ridicule the stories were drawing in the press, and ordered Palmer to tone down the material. Palmer complied, but planned to leave. He formed his own publishing company, Clark Publications, in 1947, and launched Fate in 1948. In 1949 Palmer left Ziff-Davis, and launched Other Worlds Science Stories in digest format; the editor was listed as Robert N. Webster, a pseudonym Palmer used to conceal his activities since he was still working at Ziff-Davis when the first issue appeared. He also met, and immediately hired, Bea Mahaffey, a Cleveland fan, as his managing editor, starting with the fourth issue, dated May 1950. but in June, he suffered a serious accident and was temporarily paralyzed, and Mahaffey took over in his absence. Palmer was able to help with editing both magazines even while in the hospital, but by September he decided to sell Imagination to William Hamling, and keep Other Worlds. Both were very successful, with higher budgets than Palmer was able to afford, and Other Worlds suffered as a result. but Palmer's finances eventually worsened to the point that he was unable to pay his printer. Palmer was contacted by a Chicago businessman interested in starting a sf magazine, and took the opportunity to resolve his financial problems by forming a new company, Bell Publications, in partnership with the businessman (whose name was never revealed), and starting two magazines: Universe Science Fiction and Science Stories. Science Stories followed in October, also edited by Palmer and Mahaffey as "George Bell", and published by Bell Publications; this was effectively the same magazine as Other Worlds Science Stories, with "Other Worlds" dropped from the title. Subscribers to Other Worlds were given the option to continue their subscription with whichever of the two magazines they preferred. He launched Mystic Magazine, which, like Fate, published occult material, both fact and fiction. Science Stories failed to sell well, and ceased to appear after the April 1954 issue, but Universe continued, going bimonthly after the March 1954 issue. The new version of Other Worlds initially carried both Universe's numbering and the issue numbering from the original run of Other Worlds. The following year Palmer switched the magazine's focus to flying saucers. To try to maintain the existing readership while attracting new readers, Palmer emphasized sf and flying saucers in alternate issues: for example, the June 1957 issue was titled FLYING SAUCERS from Other Worlds, and the July issue was Flying Saucers from OTHER WORLDS. He also hoped that each issue would be kept longer on newsstands if the distributors thought they were dealing with two magazines. The experiment did not last; from the July/August 1958 issue the title was shortened to Flying Saucers, and the magazine ceased to carry fiction. Palmer retired to Amherst, Wisconsin, and took over its printing. ==Contents and reception==

Palmer's interest in the Shaver Mystery did not abate when he left Amazing Stories, and the lead story for the first issue of Other Worlds was Shaver's "The Fall of Lemuria", still presented as truth in the guise of fiction. The cover illustration was by Malcolm Smith, a frequent artist for Amazing. Unlike almost every other sf magazine on the market, Other Worlds was edited and published by the same person, which meant there were no constraints on Palmer's editorial policy. He attempted to find new and daring material, and in the early years of the magazine, he obtained some of the better stories being published. Mike Ashley, a historian of science fiction, cites Eric Frank Russell's "Dear Devil"; "Portrait of a Narcissus" by Raymond F. Jones; "Way in the Middle of the Air", one of Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles" stories; and two stories by A.E. van Vogt: "Enchanted Village", one of van Vogt's best-liked stories, and "War of Nerves", part of his Voyage of the Space Beagle series. Fritz Leiber contributed "The Seven Black Priests", one of his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, and E.E. Smith, who had become famous for his space operas, switched to fantasy with "Tedric", which appeared in the March 1953 issue. Ashley comments that the stigma of the Shaver Mystery clung to Palmer and damaged the magazine; A high point of the non-fiction pieces was a series of articles by L. Sprague de Camp, abridged from his book Lost Continents: The Atlantis Theme in History, which ran from 1952 to 1953. The covers were attractive, often with artwork on both covers, by well-known artists such as Malcolm Smith, Robert Gibson Jones, Harold McCauley, and Hannes Bok. Science Stories was visually attractive but lacked memorable fiction. Universe Science Fiction took the opposite approach, with uninteresting covers and poor interior artwork, but it had some good stories in the first two issues, which sf historian E.F. Casebeer attributes to Mahaffey's influence. Murray Leinster, Mark Clifton and Mack Reynolds contributed to the early issues, with Robert Bloch, providing "Constant Reader", Theodore Sturgeon, and "The World Well Lost"; a treatment of homosexuality controversial for the 1950s. Once Palmer became more involved with the magazine again the artwork improved, with Finlay, Lawrence Stevens, and Edd Cartier contributing good interior illustrations. In Casebeer's view the Finlay and Lawrence illustrations were the best the magazine had to offer, and he considers the quality of the fiction to have gone downhill after a fairly promising start. In the last three issues the artwork was also weak, with poor quality black-and-white covers and little interior art. The first issue of the revived Other Worlds, in May 1955, had a black-and-white cover picture; later issues returned to colour, though until 1956 these were all reprints of covers from the first incarnation of the magazine. St. John's artwork had saved another Palmer magazine, Fantastic Adventures, from cancellation in 1939. Palmer had long been interested in UFOs, and ran an article in Other Worlds in 1951 titled "I Flew in a Flying Saucer", bylined "Captain A.V.G.", though Lester del Rey reports in his history of sf magazines that it may have been written by Palmer himself. Eventually Palmer decided to drop science fiction; from June 1957 only three issues—June, July and September—included fiction; thereafter it was a nonfiction magazine about UFOs. In 1965 Palmer published an article by Delmar H. Bryant that debunked the idea that the earth was hollow, but the following year again suggested that the earth might be donut shaped. On the June 1970 issue, the cover picture showed a donut-shaped earth from space; Palmer claimed this was evidence from a satellite photograph. == Bibliographic details ==

Other Worlds was edited by Raymond Palmer and published by Clark Publications from November 1949 to July 1953, and by Palmer Publications from May 1955 until at least November 1957. After it became a non-fiction magazine, the title changed to Flying Saucers, The Magazine of Space Conquest with the July/August 1958 issue. In 1961 the title changed twice more, first to Flying Saucers, The Magazine of Space Mysteries, and finally to Flying Saucers, Mysteries of the Space Age, which it retained until it ceased publication in 1976. == References ==