The next task is more difficult: the question of back numbers of the
current magazines. Some back issues are almost impossible to secure.
However, be sure to try the magazine publishers. If this fails, scour
the second-hand book and magazine stores. If they haven't the issues,
leave a standing order with them. (They're eager for business and
they'll make an honest attempt to secure the desired issues for you.)
Scan the discussions columns. Readers often offer to sell or trade
back numbers. Then try the large second-hand magazine dealers, such as
Carl Swanson, Washburn, North Dakota and the Smith Book Co., Box 661,
Lawrence, Massachusetts.
As a last resort advertise.
That takes care of all magazines that are now being published. Now we
have to contend with real difficulties. We're going to trail down
fantasy stories that were published in magazines no longer sold at
newsstands! Chief among these defunct magazines is Astounding Stories,
Strange Tales, and Wonder Stories Quarterly. (More details are needed
with these out-of-print magazines, so it'll be given whenever definite
information is known concerning them.) This periodical (Astounding
Stories), a science fiction magazine, first appeared on the newsstands
with its January, 1930 issue and was discontinued but a short time
ago, in March 1933. Its companion magazine, Strange Tales, published
weird, fantastic fiction. Dates: September, 1931 to January, 1933.
Wonder Stories Quarterly, science fiction, ran from Fall, 1929 to
Winter, 1933, publishing only inter-planetary tales in the last two
years.
(Next month Mr. Schwartz describes the less known fantasy magazines.)
* * * * *
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