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''Scientific Detective Monthly'' (also known as ''Amazing Detective Tales'' and ''Amazing Detective Stories'') was a pulp magazine which published fifteen issues beginning in January 1930. It was launched by Hugo Gernsback as part of his second venture into science fiction magazine publishing, and was intended to focus on detective and mystery stories with a scientific element. Many of the stories involved contemporary science without any imaginative elements—for example, a story in the first issue turned on the use of a bolometer to detect a black girl blushing—but there were also one or two science fiction stories in every issue. The title was changed to ''Amazing Detective Tales'' with the June 1930 issue, perhaps to avoid the word "scientific", which may have given readers the impression of "a sort of scientific periodical",〔 in Gernsback's words, rather than a magazine intended to entertain. At the same time, the editor—Hector Grey—was replaced by David Lasser, who was already editing Gernsback's other science fiction magazines. The title change apparently did not make the magazine a success, and Gernsback closed it down with the October issue. He sold the title to publisher Wallace Bamber, who produced at least five more issues in 1931 under the title ''Amazing Detective Stories''. == Publication history == By the end of the 19th century, stories that were centered on scientific inventions and set in the future, in the tradition of Jules Verne, were appearing regularly in popular fiction magazines.〔Ashley (2000), pp. 6−27.〕 The first science fiction (sf) magazine, ''Amazing Stories'', was launched in 1926 by Hugo Gernsback at the height of the pulp magazine era.〔Clareson (1985), p. xxiii.〕 It was successful, and helped to form science fiction as a separately marketed genre, but in February 1929 Gernsback lost control of the publisher when it went bankrupt.〔Ashley (2000), pp. 58−59.〕〔Bleiler (1998), p. 548.〕 By April he had formed a new company, Gernsback Publications Incorporated, and created two subsidiaries: Techni-Craft Publishing Corporation and Stellar Publishing Corporation. In the middle of the year he launched three new magazines: a non-sf magazine titled ''Radio Craft'', and two sf pulps titled ''Science Wonder Stories'' and ''Air Wonder Stories''.〔Bleiler (1998), p. 579.〕 These were followed in September 1929 by the first issue of ''Science Wonder Quarterly'', and in October Gernsback sent a letter to some of the writers he had already bought material from, letting them know that he was seeing more demand for "detective or criminal mystery stories with a good ''scientific'' background". He named Arthur B. Reeve's "Craig Kennedy" stories as an example, and also mentioned S.S. Van Dine's "Philo Vance" stories, which were very popular at the time.〔Ashley (2004), pp. 158–159.〕 In the January 1930 issue of both the sf magazines, Gernsback advertised the new magazine that he hoped to populate with these stories: ''Scientific Detective Monthly''.〔〔 Gernsback believed that science fiction was educational, claiming, for example, that "teachers encourage the reading of this fiction because they know that it gives the pupil a fundamental knowledge of science and aviation".〔Bleiler (1998), p. 542.〕 He intended ''Scientific Detective Monthly'' to be a detective magazine in which the stories had a scientific background; it would entertain, but also instruct.〔 The subgenre of scientific detective fiction was not new; it had first become popular in the U.S. between 1909 and 1919, and the appearance of Gernsback's magazine was part of a resurgence of popularity in the subgenre at the end of the 1920s. The first issue was dated January 1930 (meaning it would have been on the newsstands in mid-December 1929). Gernsback was editor-in-chief, and had final say on the choice of stories, but the editorial work was done by his deputy, Hector Grey.〔 In February 1930, an article by Gernsback appeared in ''Writers' Digest'' titled "How to Write 'Science' Stories". In it, Gernsback offered advice on how to write stories for his new magazine, claiming that scientific detective stories represented the future of the genre, and that "the ordinary gangster and detective story will be relegated into the background in a very few years". Science fiction historian Gary Westfahl comments that the article also serves as a guide to writing science fiction in general, and that the article is the first "how to" article published for the new genre of science fiction.〔 With the June issue, the title was changed to ''Amazing Detective Tales''. Gernsback merged ''Science Wonder Stories'' and ''Air Wonder Stories'' into ''Wonder Stories'' at the same time; he was concerned that the word "Science" was putting off some potential readers, who assumed that the magazine was, in his words, "a sort of scientific periodical".〔〔Ashley (2000), p. 71.〕 It is likely that the same reasoning motivated ''Scientific Detective Monthly''s new title. In the following issue, Grey was replaced as editor by David Lasser, who was already editing Gernsback's other sf titles, and an attempt was made to include more stories with science fiction elements. Gernsback continued the magazine for five issues under the new title; the last issue was dated October 1930. The decision to cease publication was apparently taken suddenly, as the October issue included the announcement that the format would change in November from large to standard pulp size, and listed two stories planned for the November issue.〔〔Ashley (2000), p. 66.〕 Gernsback sold the title to Wallace Bamber, who published at least five more issues, starting in February 1931; no issues are known for June or July 1931, or after August.〔 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「Scientific Detective Monthly」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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