Take a sf journey back to 1941

2016 marks the 75th anniversary of the 1941 World Science Fiction Convention. And that means it’s time for a new round of Retrospective Hugo Awards.

If you’re a pulp science-fiction fan, then this might be your lucky day. (More on that shortly. In the meantime…)

The Hugo Awards, named for the “father of science fiction,” Hugo Gernsback, were first presented at the 1953 Worldcon. Beginning in 1955, the awards have been presented annually in a variety of categories, such as best novel, best novella, best short story, best graphic story, best editor (long and short form), best professional/fan artists, best fanzine, etc.

Gernsback, as you probably already know, was instrumental in popularizing what he called “scientifiction,” first in Electrical Experimenter (Science and Invention), and more importantly in the pulp magazine Amazing Stories.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, Retro-Hugo Awards started to be given for sf works that were published before the Hugo Awards were created. The year of the Retro-Hugos is determined by anniversary, specifically 50th, 75th or 100th anniversary of a given year.

So far, Retro-Hugos have been awarded for 1939, 1946, 1951 and 1954. This year’s voting will include fiction from 1941.

If you’re curious to see what’s eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugos, check out these lists at Nicholas Whyte‘s blog From the Heart of Europe of novels and short fiction originally published in 1940.

So about that lucky day I mentioned at the start…

Over at File 770, commenter Norbert von Dimpleheimer has amassed a collection of, by my calculations, 176 pieces of short science fiction from 1940 that are eligible for the Retro-Hugos this year. No small portion of that list originally comes from the pulp magazines.

He’s divided it into seven parts, which are available in epub, Kindle, and Adobe Digital Editions formats for e-readers. You’ll find links to the different formats on these pages:

• First volume of 1941 Retro-Hugo stories, includes Robert Bloch‘s “Queen of the Metal Men” (Fantastic Adventures, April 1940), Ross Rocklynne‘s “The Tantalus Death” (Planet Stories, Spring 1940), and R.R. Winterbotham‘s “Captives of the Void” (Fantastic Adventures, January 1940)
• Second volume of 1941 Retro-Hugo stories, includes Manly Wade Wellman‘s “Bratton’s Idea” (Comet, December 1940), “Emergency Landing” by Ralph Williams (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1940), and “Mind Over Matter” by Oscar J. Friend (Startling Stories, January 1940)
• Third volume of 1941 Retro-Hugo stories, includes multiple stories by Ray Cummings and Henry Kuttner
• Fourth volume of 1941 Retro-Hugo stories, includes “The Ultimate Salient” by Nelson S. Bond (Planet Stories, Fall 1940), “But Without Horns” by Norvell W. Page (Unknown, June 1940), and Ray Palmer‘s “Black World” (Amazing Stories, March and April 1940)
• Fifth volume of 1941 Retro-Hugo stories, includes multiple stories by Nelson S. Bond, Malcolm Jameson, and Dorothy Quick, as well as “Wind in the Moonlight” by Gretchen Ruediger (Weird Tales, May 1940) and “Steller Legion” by Leigh Brackett (Planet Stories, Winter 1940)
• Sixth volume of 1941 Retro-Hugo stories, includes multiple stories by H. Bedford-Jones, Edmond Hamilton, David Wright O’Brien, Nat Schachner, and Robert Moore Williams
• Seventh volume of 1941 Retro-Hugo stories, includes Seabury Quinn‘s “The Last Waltz” (Weird Tales, November 1940), “The African Trick” by Howard Wandrei (Unknown, April 1940), and “The Planet That Time Forgot” by Donald A. Wollheim (Planet Stories, Fall 1940)

You’ll find complete lists of contents at each File 770 page.

Those should give you hours of reading pleasure.