Re: (ReacTor) When Did SFF Get Too Big?

On Thu, 26 Sep 2024 20:02:52 -0400, Ahasuerus wrote:

 
On a more serious note, Earl Kemp's comment:
 
 > I knew everything that was being published and read everything up
 > until the 1940s
 
makes a good deal of sense. As I wrote back in March, there were only 3
stable science fiction monthlies between mid-1930 and mid-1938:
*Amazing*, *Astounding* and *Wonder* (*Thrilling Wonder* after 1936.)
 
Things began to change in mid-1938 with the launch of *Marvel* and then
the Golden Age started in 1939: *Planet Stories*, *Captain Future*,
*Startling Stories*, *Dynamic*, *Famous Fantastic Mysteries*, *Science
Fiction*/*Future Fiction*, *Strange Stories*, *Uncanny Tales*, *Marvel
Science Stories*, *Fantastic Adventures*, *Science Fiction Quarterly*,
*Super Science Stories*, *Astonishing Stories*, *Cosmic Stories*,
*Fantastic Novels*, *Stirring Science Stories*, *Unknown*.
 
Even if you skipped the reprints (some magazines specialized in
reprints), there was a significant amount of SF content being published
every month.

Looking at the Google Ngram for the category English Fiction
(using "planet" as a proxy for SF) I see a distinct bump at 1940.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?
content=planet&year_start=1900&year_end=2019&corpus=en-
fiction&smoothing=0&case_insensitive=false

Shortened: https://tinyurl.com/c67kwdj2

Could that be explained by what you have listed? Then I wonder
what the bump at 1930 is.