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''Imagination'' was an American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in October 1950 by Raymond Palmer's Clark Publishing Company. The magazine was sold almost immediately to Greenleaf Publishing Company, owned by William Hamling, who published and edited it from the third issue, February 1951, for the rest of the magazine's life. Hamling launched a sister magazine, ''Imaginative Tales'', in 1954; both ceased publication at the end of 1958 in the aftermath of major changes in US magazine distribution due to the liquidation of American News Company. The magazine was more successful than most of the numerous science fiction titles launched in the late 1940s and early 1950s, lasting a total of 63 issues. Despite this success, the magazine had a reputation for low-quality space opera and adventure fiction, and modern literary historians refer to it in dismissive terms. Hamling consciously adopted an editorial policy oriented toward entertainment, asserting in an early issue that "science fiction was never meant to be an educational ''tour de force''".〔Hamling, "The Editorial", in ''Imagination'', November 1951, pp. 146–147.〕 Few of the stories from ''Imagination'' have received recognition, but it did publish Robert Sheckley's first professional sale, "Final Examination", in the May 1952 issue, and also printed fiction by Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein and John Wyndham. ==History== American science fiction magazines first appeared in the 1920s with the appearance of ''Amazing Stories'', a pulp magazine published by Hugo Gernsback. The beginnings of science fiction as a separately marketed genre can be traced to this time, and by the end of the 1930s the field was undergoing its first boom,〔Nicholls & Clute, "Genre SF"; Edwards & Nicholls, "Astounding Science-Fiction"; Stableford, "Amazing Stories"; Edwards & Nicholls, "SF Magazines", all in Nicholls & Clute, "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction".〕 but World War II and its attendant paper shortages led to the demise of several titles. By the late 1940s the market began to recover again.〔Edwards & Nicholls, "SF Magazines", in Nicholls & Clute, ''Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', p. 1068.〕 From a low of eight active magazines in 1946, the field expanded to 20 in 1950, and a further 22 had commenced publication by 1954.〔Magazine publishing dates for the period are tabulated in Ashley, ''History of the Science Fiction Magazine Vol. 3'', pp. 323–325.〕 ''Imagination'' was launched in the middle of this publishing boom. The groundwork was laid in 1947, when Clark Publishing, the company that would publish the first issue of ''Imagination'', was incorporated in Evanston, Illinois, by Raymond Palmer. He worked for Ziff-Davis as the editor of ''Amazing Stories'' and did not leave until the end of 1949, but he launched two magazines under the Clark name before that date: ''Fate'', in the spring of 1948, and ''Other Worlds'', the first issue of which was dated November 1949.〔Mike Ashley, ''Transformations'', pp. 7–10.〕 Both of these magazines listed their editor as "Robert N. Webster", a pseudonym Palmer adopted while he was still at Ziff-Davis because of the conflict of interest. The second issue of ''Other Worlds'' reported that Webster and Palmer were going to edit together; by the third issue, dated March 1950, the pretense had been dropped and although there was no masthead listing the editor, the editorial was simply signed "Rap" (for "Raymond A. Palmer"). At the 1949 World Science Fiction Convention in Cincinnati, held over the weekend of 3–5 September, Palmer announced that he had left Ziff-Davis and described his plans for Clark Publishing. He also met and hired Bea Mahaffey, a 21-year-old science fiction fan attending her first convention, as his assistant editor.〔Ashley, ''History of SF Magazine Vol. 3'', pp. 45–46.〕〔See the individual issues of ''Other Worlds''. An online index is available at (【引用サイトリンク】title=ISFDB: Other Worlds Science Stories )〕 With ''Fate'' and ''Other Worlds'' launched, Palmer began to plan for a new magazine, to be called ''Imagination''. Material for the first two issues had been assembled by mid-1950, but in the early summer Palmer fell down his basement stairs and was left paralyzed from the waist down. While he was hospitalized, much of the work of editing both ''Other Worlds'' and ''Imagination'' was done by Mahaffey, who coped well, despite her inexperience. An assistant, Marge Budwig Saunder, was hired to read the slush pile and help out. The magazine's first issue, dated October 1950 on a planned bi-monthly schedule, appeared on news stands 1 August 1950. However, in September that year, Ziff-Davis made the decision to move to New York from Chicago; Palmer promptly contacted William Hamling, who did not want to relocate and suggested that Hamling take over ''Imagination''. Like Palmer, Hamling had made preparations to leave Ziff-Davis by establishing a separate publishing company, Greenleaf Publishing, and in November 1950 Hamling left Ziff-Davis and became ''Imaginations editor and publisher.〔〔Ashley, ''History of SF Magazine Vol. 3'', pp. 48–49.〕 In 1954 Hamling started a companion magazine, ''Imaginative Tales''; in addition, his company Greenleaf Publishing was the publisher of ''Rogue'', a men's magazine modelled after ''Playboy''. In 1957 the liquidation of American News Company, a major distributor, meant that many magazines had to scramble to find new distributors. Independent distributors often required that the magazines be monthly, and that they be in a larger format than the digest-size common in science fiction magazines. The larger format required higher revenue to be profitable, but in many cases it proved impossible to attract the additional advertising income that would have kept the magazines afloat. By the end of 1958, many titles had disappeared as a result, with ''Imagination'' one of the victims; Hamling closed down both ''Imagination'' and its sister magazine to invest the money in ''Rogue'' instead. The last issue of ''Imagination'' was October 1958, the 63rd issue, while ''Imaginative Tales'', retitled ''Space Travel'', ceased with the November 1958 issue.〔Michael Ashley, ''Transformations'', pp. 190–193.〕 There was no indication in either magazine that the end had come, though the last issue of ''Imagination'' omitted its letter, book review and pen-pal columns, all of which had appeared regularly in prior issues.〔See the individual issues. Online indices are available at (【引用サイトリンク】title=ISFDB: Imagination ) and (【引用サイトリンク】Imagination Science Fiction: Fiction Index )〕 Circulation figures were not required to be published annually until the 1960s,〔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. For comparison, the more successful ''Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', which had been launched the previous year, is known to have had a circulation of just under 60,000 copies for its first issue, dated Fall 1949.〔Mike Ashley, ''Transformations'', p. 22.〕 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「Imagination (magazine)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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