References
Home Magazines Indexes Authors

The Adventure House Guide to the Pulps

Compiled by Doug Ellis, John Locke & John Gunnison

Adventure House, Silver Spring, 2000

A massive undertaking that attempts to provide a checklist to all the issues of all pulp magazines published (apart for some fringe areas such as the "saucy" magazines) accompanied by thousands of cover image thumbnails (sadly in black and white) of the magazines represented. While one might regret the over-emphasis on the checklist tick-boxes at the expense of more detailed information on the magazines themselves, this is still a volume that no serious collector or enthusiast should be without.

It is currently in print and is available from www.adventurehouse.com.

The Age of the StoryTellers: British Popular Fiction Magazines: 1880-1950

By Mike Ashley

The British Library and Oak Knoll Press, 2006

A perfect complement to the forthcoming British Popular Fiction Magazine Index (albeit with a somewhat different scope), this excellent volume is concerned with a discussion of the history and evolution of each magazine, rather than with the contents thereof.  It is the best reference source available for information on why certain titles were created, and what happened to them during their lifetime.

Australian Crime Fiction: A Bibliography 1857-1993

By John Loder

D.W. Thorpe, Melbourne, 1994

A detailed bibliography of Australian Crime Fiction, including a discussion of several Australian crime magazines that are not listed anywhere else.

British Literary Magazines:

Volume 1: The Augustan Age and the Age of Johnson, 1698-1788
Volume 2: The Romantic Age, 1789-1836
Volume 3: The Victorian and Edwardian Age, 1837-1913
Volume 4: The Modern Age, 1914-1984

Edited by Alvin Sullivan

Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1983-1986

Four-part reference guide profiling 369 magazines and treating over 400 others in appendices.

Bookery Fantasy's Ultimate Guide to the Pulps

Compiled by Tim Cottrill

Bookery Press, Fairborn, Ohio, 2001

Another attempt to identify all issues of all pulp magazines published, although this time the emphasis is on a price guide rather than a checklist. While this overlaps much of the material in the Adventure House Guide there is also a lot of original material here (such as in its coverage of the "saucy" magazines).

It is currently in print and is available from www.bookeryfantasy.com.

Directory of Literary Magazines 1999

Compiled by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses

Asphodel Press, Wakefield, Rhode Island & London, 1999

The 1999 edition of an annual directory of "U.S. and Foreign Magazines that publish Poetry, Fiction and Essay".

The directory is now online at www.clmp.org/readers/directory/.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Through 1968

Compiled by Donald H. Tuck

Advent: Publishers, Chicago, 1974-1982 (3 volumes)

The first serious encyclopedia of SF and fantasy and, despite it's age, still unsurpassed in many areas.  Although the first two volumes are devoted to individual authors, the third volume contains a fascinating miscellany of material particularly, in the context of this website, entries on all key genre (and related) magazines up to 1968, including details on non-US editions that are rarely covered anywhere else.

It's a Man's World

By Adam Parfrey

Feral House, Los Angeles, 2003

Subtitled "Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps", this is primarily an art book reproducing some 500 covers from 100 or so different men's magazines, but also contains an excellent checklist of the magazines, their publishers and editors, by Bill Devine.

The book is no longer in print but used copies are available from the usual places.

The Locus Index to Science Fiction

Compiled by Charles N. Brown & William G. Contento

on-line

This index is created from the monthly Books Received column in Locus Magazine, edited by Charles N. Brown. The contents of anthologies, single-author collections, and magazines are added by William G. Contento, who also wrote the programs used to generate the pages. Annual printed indexes were published for the years 1984 through 1991 and the data from those indexes, along with the data from 1992 to the present, thus providing a fairly comprehensive listing for all science fiction, fantasy and horror authors since 1984 (although coverage of some small presses is incomplete).

Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Magazines

Edited by Michael L. Cook

Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1983

A perfect complement to the Crime, Mystery and Gangster Fiction Magazine Index (albeit with a somewhat different scope), this excellent volume is concerned with a discussion of the history and evolution of each magazine, rather than with the contents thereof.  It is the best reference source available for information on why certain titles were created, and what happened to them during their lifetime.

Notes on Australian Science Fiction

By Graham Stone

Graham Stone, Sydney, 2001

As the title implies, a collection of fairly random notes on Australian Science Fiction, including a brief discussion of some magazines not described elsewhere.

O. Henry Awards Website Magazine List

Every year, when the O. Henry Awards are announced, an "Index of Literary Magazines" is published on the associated website. Although it contains little information on each magazine, it is a useful guide to which magazines have started up, or faded away, during the previous year.

Originally, rather than maintain a single list that was updated each year, a completely new list was published each year, with all previous lists also remaining online, which provided an interesting historical trace. The following annual lists are current available:

        1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

 

while more recent lists are held in a single list here.

Our Own Voices

Canadian Gay Archives, 1991

Subtitled "a Directory of Lesbian and Gay Periodicals, 1890–1990: Including the Complete Holdings of the Canadian Gay Archives".

The Pulpster #11, 2001

Issue of a pulp fanzine produced for Pulpcon 30 in 2001, containing an article and brief bibliography of Canadian pulps by Tony Davis.

The Pulp Western

By John A. Dinan

The Borgo Press, San Bernadino, California, 1983

Subtitled "a Popular History of the Western Fiction Magazine in America", this contains a selection of essays by Dinan and by some Western pulp writers. Of particular interest is a list of all "periodicals devoted primarily to the Western theme", although it appears that some of the titles listed may be phantom.

Reference Guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

Compiled by Michael Burgess

Libraries Unlimited, Englewood, California, 1992

An extensive guide to "all the major (and most minor) SF reference volumes published through the fall of 1991, plus some items from 1992", compiled by the indefatigable Michael Burgess (aka Robert Reginald), himself the author of several of them.  Most of the entries in the other parts of this site have detailed entries in this volume.

The one flaw with the volume, which some might consider to be fatal, is that it lists as published a number of volumes from Burgess' own press (The Borgo Press) that never actually appeared, thus undermining the credibility of the entire volume.

Sports in the Pulp Magazines

By John A. Dinan

McFarland & Co., Jefferson, North Carolina, 1998

Book-length study of pulp magazines that concentrated on sports magazines. Of particular interest is a brief bibliography of sports pulp titles, although some of the data appears unreliable.

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines

Edited by Marshall B. Tymn & Mike Ashley

Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1985

A perfect complement to the Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Weird Fiction Magazine Index (albeit with a somewhat different scope), this excellent volume is concerned with a discussion of the history and evolution of each magazine, rather than with the contents thereof.  It is the best reference source available for information on why certain titles were created, and what happened to them during their lifetime.

The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines:

Transformations: to 1950
The Time Machines: 1950 to 1970
Gateways to Forever: 1970 to 1980

by Mike Ashley, Liverpool University Press, 2000-2007

First three volumes of a detailed four-volume study of the science-fiction magazines.

Uncovered: The Hidden Art of Girlie Pulps

By Douglas Ellis

Adventure House, Silver Spring, 2003

Primarily an art book reproducing some 400 covers from 100 different "girlie" pulps, this excellent volume nevertheless contains much information on editors and publishers of the magazines that is not currently available elsewhere.

It is currently in print and is available from www.adventurehouse.com.