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''Beyond Fantasy Fiction'' was a US fantasy fiction magazine edited by H. L. Gold, with only ten issues published from 1953 to 1955. The last two issues carried the cover title of ''Beyond Fiction'', but the publication's name for copyright purposes remained as before.〔See the individual issues, and also the index at (【引用サイトリンク】 ISFDB: Beyond Fantasy Fiction )〕 Although not a commercial success, it included several significant short stories by distinguished authors, such as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick.〔Asimov's "Kid Stuff" and Dick's "The King of the Elves" appeared in the September 1953 issue: Bradbury's "The Watchful Poker Chip" appeared in the March 1954 issue: . These and more may be found via an online index: (【引用サイトリンク】 ISFDB: Beyond Fantasy Fiction )〕 The publication has been described by critics as a successor to the tradition of ''Unknown'', a fantasy magazine that ceased publication in 1943. It was noted for printing fantasy with a rational basis such as werewolf stories that included scientific explanations. A selection of stories from ''Beyond'' was published in paperback form in 1963, also under the title ''Beyond''. James Gunn, a historian of science fiction, regarded the magazine as the best of the fantasy magazines launched in the early 1950s, and science fiction encyclopedist Donald H. Tuck contended it printed very good material. Not every critic viewed ''Beyond'' as completely successful, however; P. Schuyler Miller, in a 1963 review, commented that the stories were most successful when they did not try to emulate ''Unknown''. ==History and significance== ''Beyond Fantasy Fiction'' was a fantasy-oriented companion to the more successful ''Galaxy Science Fiction'', which launched in 1950; ''Beyond'' had been planned by editor H. L. Gold from the time ''Galaxy'' was launched, but it had to wait until ''Galaxy'' was firmly established.〔Michael Ashley, ''Transformations'', pp. 65–66.〕 ''Beyonds first issue, dated July 1953, included an editorial by Gold in which he laid out the magazine's scope, excluding (in his words) only "the probably possible" and "the unentertaining".〔H.L. Gold, "Beyond", in ''Beyond Fantasy Fiction'', July 1953, p. 2.〕 Gold recruited Sam Merwin, who had recently quit as editor of ''Fantastic Universe,'' to help in editing, though the masthead of both magazines listed Gold as editor.〔 A typical issue of ''Beyond'' included several stories that were long enough to be listed as novellas or novelettes, with the contents augmented with shorter works, usually for a total of at least seven stories.〔 The first issue featured Theodore Sturgeon, Damon Knight, Frank M. Robinson, and Richard Matheson. Other writers who appeared in the magazine included Jerome Bixby, John Wyndham, James E. Gunn, Fredric Brown, Frederik Pohl (both under his own name and with Lester del Rey under the joint pseudonym "Charles Satterfield"), Philip José Farmer, Randall Garrett, Zenna Henderson, and Algis Budrys.〔 Five of the ten covers were surrealist, which was an unusual artistic choice for a genre magazine. The cover painting for the first issue was by Richard M. Powers; Gold was one of the very few American magazine editors to use his work, though Powers was prolific in providing artwork for paperback covers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Richard Powers: Summary Bibliography ) The Nicholls ''Encyclopedia of SF'' states that Powers' Surrealist style was "unique in sf" and notes that he did few magazine covers, working mainly for book publishers. Jon Gustafson and Peter Nicholls, "Powers, Richard M.", in Peter Nicholls and John Clute, eds, ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993; ISBN 0-312-09618-6), p.952.〕 In addition to Powers, René Vidmer and Arthur Krusz (among others) contributed cover art. The magazine also carried interior artwork, usually multiple illustrations, for almost every story; in addition, each story included a facsimile of the author's signature, set at the end of the text. The best-known interior artist ''Beyond'' used was Ed Emshwiller, though there were several other regular artists. The magazine carried almost no non-fiction, though there were occasional "filler" pieces to occupy spaces at the end of stories.〔For example, the January 1954 issue has a half-page filler entitled "Feline Facts", about the habits of cats. 〕 The publication contained no book reviews, and only the first issue carried an editorial.〔 The magazine was not commercially successful: at that time circulation figures were not required to be published annually, as they were later,〔See for example the statement of circulation in "Statement Required by the Act of October 23, 1962", ''Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact'' vol. 76, no 4 (December 1965), p.161.〕 so the actual circulation figures are not known. Its demise after less than two years can be attributed in part to the decreasing popularity of fantasy and horror fiction.〔 In a 1958 advertisement in ''Galaxy'' for complete sets of the magazine for $3.50, the publisher described ''Beyond'' as "a princely experiment to determine whether there were enough readers to support a truly handsome, fantastically high-quality fantasy fiction magazine. There weren't", "as the rest of the country seemed to be ... out of town at the time and missed it on the newsstands". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Beyond Fantasy Fiction」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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