Re: Question about ISFDB statistic

On Sun, 13 Apr 2025 14:42:33 -0400, William Hyde wrote:

Charles Packer wrote:

Why the wide swing in the number of titles in the ISFDB by year of
publication -- 50% jump -- from 1938 to 1939?
It's hard to believe that it reflects a step function in public
interest. The context is as follows:
 
year 1936 count 4738 1937  4628 1938  4117 1939  6245 1940  6685 1941
5746 1942  5513
 
 

There was a bit of a boom in SF magazines about this time.  Unknown, for
example, was launched in 1939 as were Startling Stories and Planet
Stories.  I presume there were others I don't know about.
 
Secondary publication and reprints became more popular, as I mentioned
elsewhere.
 
Pohl's two magazines at this time were launched in 1940, too late to
account for the step function, but part of the 39-41 boom which came to
an end due to wartime paper shortages.
 
William Hyde

A dip into the newpaper archives confirms what you're saying.
First, there's a lot of writing about writing in those days.
And I found easily comments about the increasing audience for
SF. I also noticed that the postwar boom coincided with the
1947 flying saucer frenzy. I suspect it's not a coincidence.