Checklists
Home Indexes Magazines

Future Science Fiction/Science Fiction Stories

The story of Future (Science) Fiction and Science Fiction (Stories) is one of the more complex among SF magazines, and started with the launch in March 1939 of Science Fiction followed eight months later by its sister magazine Future Fiction. The two magazines ran in parallel until late 1941 when they merged as Future Combined with Science Fiction. This ran for a further two years, although it changed its name twice - to Future Fantasy and Science Fiction in October 1942 and to Science Fiction Stories in April 1943 for its last two issues.

During this period there was a short-lived British reprint edition of Science Fiction and a single issue of Future Fantasy and Science Fiction was reprinted as part of the Swan American Magazines series. There was also a short-lived Canadian magazine called Science Fiction which mainly reprinted from Science Fiction and Future Fiction, but also included some stories from elsewhere.

After the war, the two magazines were revived under the combined title of Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories, starting the numbering over at volume 1 #1 and ran under that title for two years before changing to Future Science Fiction Stories in January 1952 and to Future Science Fiction two issues later. For most of this period a British reprint edition was also published.

During 1953, Science Fiction Stories had been separated from Future Science Fiction and had published two trial issues to test the market for a conversion to digest size. The results were apparently encouraging and shortly afterwards Future Science Fiction changed to digest size. However, after three issues the publisher apparently decided that Science Fiction Stories was the stronger title so Future Science Fiction was discontinued with the October 1954 issue and replaced with Science Fiction Stories, with Future Science Fiction's numbering continued in the new series of Science Fiction Stories. This latter again had a parallel British reprint edition.

Ordinarily this would be considered a simple title change but, to further confuse things, about a year after the title change the publisher revived Future Science Fiction again as a separate title, with a parallel numbering that was also derived from the October 1954 issue of Future Science Fiction. This also had a parallel British reprint edition.

Note that, from Sep-1955, Science Fiction Stories introduced the phrase "The Original ... " giving the impression that the title was The Original Science Fiction Stories. After it folded James Taurasi bought the rights to the title and put out three issues as a fanzine with the title The Original Science Fiction Stories as a result of this common misreading.

There was also an Australian magazine called Future Science Fiction which reprinted from a number of American magazines.

Science Fiction

1939    
v1 #1
Mar
   
v1 #2
Jun
 
v1 #3
Aug
 
v1 #4
Oct
 
v1 #5
Dec
1940    
v1 #6
Mar
   
v2 #1
Jun
     
v2 #2
Oct
   
1941
v2 #3
Jan
 
v2 #4
Mar
   
v2 #5
Jun
   
v2 #6
Sep
     

Future Fiction

1939                    
v1 #1
Nov
 
1940    
v1 #2
Mar
     
v1 #3
Jul
     
v1 #4
Nov
 
1941      
v1 #5
Apr
     
v1 #6
Aug
       

Future Combined with Science Fiction (1941)

1941                  
v2 #1
Oct
 
v2 #2
Dec
1942  
v2 #3
Feb
 
v2 #4
Apr
 
v2 #5
Jun
 
v2 #6
Aug
 
v3 #1
Oct
 
v3 #2
Dec
1943  
v3 #3
Feb
 
v3 #4
Apr
   
v3 #5
Jul
         

Science Fiction (UK)

1939                  
Oct
 
Dec

Science Fiction (Canada)

1941                  
v1 #1
Oct

v1 #2
Nov
 
1942
v2 #1
Jan

v2 #2
Feb

v2 #3
Mar
   
v2 #4
Jun
           

Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories (1950)

1950        
v1 #1
May/Jun

v1 #2
Jul/Aug

v1 #3
Sep/Oct

v1 #4
Nov
 
1951
v1 #5
Jan
 
v1 #6
Mar
 
v2 #1
May
 
v2 #2
Jul
 
v2 #3
Sep
 
v2 #4
Nov
 
1952
v2 #5
Jan
 
v2 #6
Mar
 
v3 #1
May
 
v3 #2
Jul
 
v3 #3
Sep
 
v3 #4
Nov
 
1953
v3 #5
Jan
 
v3 #6
Mar
 
v4 #1
May
 
v4 #2
Jul
 
v4 #3
Sep
 
v4 #4
Nov
 
1954
v4 #5
Jan
 
v4 #6
Mar
   
v5 #1
Jun
 
v5 #2
Aug
 
v5 #3
Oct
   

Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories (1950) (UK)

1951                    
#1

#2
1952
#3
       
#4

#5
 
#6
 
#7
 
1953
#8
     
#9
       
#10
 
#11
1954  
#12
 
#13
 
#14
           

Science Fiction Stories (digest trial)

1953
#1
1954
#2

Science Fiction Stories (1955)

1955
v5 #4
Jan
 
v5 #5
Mar
 
v5 #6
May
 
v6 #1
Jul
 
v6 #2
Sep
 
v6 #3
Nov
 
1956
v6 #4
Jan
 
v6 #5
Mar
 
v6 #6
May
 
v7 #1
Jul
 
v7 #2
Sep
 
v7 #3
Nov
 
1957
v7 #4
Jan
 
v7 #5
Mar
 
v7 #6
May
 
v8 #1
Jul
 
v8 #2
Sep
 
v8 #3
Nov
 
1958
v8 #4
Jan
 
v8 #5
Mar
 
v8 #6
May

v8 #7
Jun

v9 #1
Jul

v9 #2
Aug

v9 #3
Sep
 
v9 #4
Nov
 
1959
v9 #5
Jan

v9 #6
Feb

v10 #1
Mar
 
v10 #2
May
 
v10 #3
Jul
 
v10 #4
Sep
 
v10 #5
Nov
 
1960
v10 #6
Jan
 
v11 #1
Mar
 
v11 #2
May
             

Science Fiction Stories (1957) (UK)

1957                  
#1
   
1958    
#2
   
#3
   
#4
   
#5
1959  
#6
 
#7
 
#8
   
#9
 
#10
 
1960  
#11
   
#12
             

Future Science Fiction (1955)

1955      
#28
1956
#29

#30
 
#31
Winter
1957
#32
Spring

#33
Summer

#34
Fall
 
1958  
#35
Feb
 
#36
Apr
 
#37
Jun
 
#38
Aug
 
#39
Oct
 
#40
Dec
1959  
#41
Feb
 
#42
Apr
 
#43
Jun
 
#44
Aug
 
#45
Oct
 
#46
Dec
1960  
#47
Feb
 
#48
Apr
                 

Future Science Fiction (1957) (UK)

1957                    
#1
 
1958    
#2
   
#3
   
#4
   
#5
1959  
#6
 
#7
 
#8
   
#9
 
#10
 
1960  
#11
                   

The Original Science Fiction Stories

1961                      
v11 #2A
Dec
1962      
v11 #3
Winter
1963      
v11 #4
Winter