Wonder Stories was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, when his media company Experimenter Publishing went bankrupt. Within a few months of the bankruptcy, Gernsback launched three new magazines: Air Wonder Stories, Science Wonder Stories, and Science Wonder Quarterly.
Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories were merged in 1930 as Wonder Stories, and the quarterly was renamed Wonder Stories Quarterly. The magazines were not financially successful, and in 1936 Gernsback sold Wonder Stories to Ned Pines at Beacon Publications, where, retitled Thrilling Wonder Stories, it continued for nearly 20 years. The last issue was dated Winter 1955, and the title was then merged with Startling Stories, another of Pines’ science fiction magazines. Startling itself lasted only to the end of 1955 before finally succumbing to the decline of the pulp magazine industry.
The editors under Gernsback’s ownership were David Lasser, who worked hard to improve the quality of the fiction, and, from mid-1933, Charles Hornig. Both Lasser and Hornig published some well-received fiction, such as Stanley Weinbaum’s “A Martian Odyssey”, but Hornig’s efforts in particular were overshadowed by the success of Astounding Stories, which had become the leading magazine in the new field of science fiction. Under its new title, Thrilling Wonder Stories was initially unable to improve its quality. For a period in the early 1940s it was aimed at younger readers, with a juvenile editorial tone and covers that depicted beautiful women in implausibly revealing spacesuits. Later editors began to improve the fiction, and by the end of the 1940s, in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley, the magazine briefly rivaled Astounding.
Earle Bergey, TWS 47-10, illustrating Donovan Had a Dream by James MacCreigh (Frederik Pohl. Nice rocket boat! Contains Exit the Professor (Hogben series) by Henry Kuttner.Earle Bergey, TWS 45-Summer, illustrating Things Pass By by Murray Leinster. The World-Thinker is Jack Vance’s first published story.Earle Bergey, TWS 47-02. Beware of the bends! The thing with pincers looks a lot like yohoia, a Cambrian lifeform found in the Burgess shale, but the cover illustrates Trouble on Titan by Henry Kuttner.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 49-10.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 41-04, Who Was Thomas Morrow by Robert Moore Williams.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 42-04, The Plastic Genie by Arthur T. Harris.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 42-06, British Thermal Units by Oscar J Friend.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 43-04.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 43-08, The Lotos Eaters by Bolling Branham.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 43-Fall.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 48-04, The Faceless Men by Arthur Leo Zagat.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 43-02. Contains Ray Bradbury’s first published story, The Piper.Bergey’s last cover for TWS (52-10).Earle Bergey, TWS, 52-06.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 49-04.Earle Bergey, TWS 52-02.Earle Bergey, TWS 50-08.Earle Bergey, TWS 52-05 (UK edition). Same cover art as US TWS 50-02 but one fewer cover story.Earle Bergey, TWS 47-06, illustrating The Boomerang Circuit. Murray Leinster and Wm. FitzGerald were one and the same person, William FitzGerald Jenkins.Earle Bergey, TWS 50-05 (UK edition). Same as TWS 49-12 cover (US edition).Earle Bergey, TWS 49-08.Earle Bergey, TWS 51-04, The Continent Makers, one of de Camp’s Viagens Interplanetarias stories and the title story of a de Camp collection.Earle Bergey, TWS 43-06. Goofy-looking alien!Earle Bergey, TWS 46-Fall. Keith Hammond is the pseudonym of husband and wife team, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 45-Winter.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories, 47-04, illustrating The Way of the Gods.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories, 48-06, The Transgalactic Twins by George O. Smith.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 47-04, Way of the Gods by Henry Kuttner.Earle Bergey, TWS 50-06 (UK edition). Same as TWS 49-10 cover (US edition).Earle BergeyThrilling Wonder Stories 47-12, illustrating The Timeless Tomorrow by Manly Wade Wellman.Earle Bergey, Thrilling Wonder Stories 48-02.Earle Bergey, TWS 48-12. Illustrates Fruits of the Agathon by Charles L. Harness.Earle Bergey, TWS 50-02. The Voice of the Lobster by Henry Kuttner.Earle Bergey, TWS 50-12.
