The Annotated Guide to Unknown & Unknown Worlds

Unknown (later re-titled Unknown Worlds) was unique among pulp fantasy fiction magazines. Begun in 1939 as a companion to Street and Smith's Astounding Science-Fiction, it quickly developed a reputation for publishing witty and sophisticated stories that differed markedly from those found in other weird fiction magazines of the time. Under the editorship of John W. Campbell, Unknown served as an important market for early work by L. SPrague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, Theodor Sturgeon, L. Ron Hubbard, Robert A. Heinlein, Henry Kuttner, Lester del Rey and artist Edd Cartier. The Annotated Guide to Unknown & Unknown Worlds provides stor-by-story annotations for all 39 issues published between 1939 and 1943, as well as a history of the magazine and an analysis of its impact upon modern fantasy fiction. The book's several appendices include information drawn from the Street and Smith archives on stories purchased for Unknown that were transferred to other magazines or left in inventory when the magazine suspended publication. A comprehensive list of reprint sources up through 1988 is supplied. * Starmont Studies in Literary Criticism #13 Cover art by Edd Cartier