Living as we do in 2024’s golden age of science fiction, it would seem bizarre to ask, “who killed SF in 1960?” We know how the story played out! Earl Kemp did not. However, rather than accept at face value the widespread melancholy about the state of the field 64 years ago, Kemp embraced a more ambitious approach. Kemp sought out answers for five questions from a broad cross-section of SF luminaries. The five questions were:
- Do you feel that magazine science fiction is dead?
- Do you feel that any single person, action, incident, etc., is responsible for the present situation? If not, what is responsible?
- What can we do to correct it?
- Should we look to the original paperback as a point of salvation?
- What additional remarks, pertinent to the study, would you like to contribute?
The result was Who Killed Science Fiction? Many of the contributors didn’t agree with the eye-catching title thesis, nor did those who did have an opinion on the cause of SF’s doldrums. What they did have was firmly-held, often contradictory, views about the state of the field, coupled with a burning desire to share those views. Thus, Who Killed Science Fiction? runs about twice the word count of the SF novels of the time.
Who Killed Science Fiction? is an entertaining tour of science fiction’s backstage in the era between the sudden decline of print magazines (triggered by the abrupt departure of American News, responsible for about half the magazine distribution in the United States) and the impending age of mass market paperbacks.
In retrospect, Kemp’s work is unintentionally inspirational. If there’s a running thread in publishing, it is the frequency of authentically alarming disruptions. Near-monopolies arise, then vanish, new technologies undermine established markets, risk aversion drives editorial stagnation. Some modern Kemp could well recapitulate Kemp’s work. Who Killed Science Fiction? is a reminder that science fiction has faced near-extinction events in the past… and survived them
Who Killed Science Fiction? is available for free online and in dead tree from Merry Blacksmith Press via your preferred book pusher.
James Davis Nicoll is a book reviewer and five-time Hugo finalist, four-time Aurora finalist, and CSFFA Hall of Fame nominee. His work can be found at James Nicoll Reviews.
I always have a difficult time wrapping my head around a topic like this because I remember when I read things, not when they were published. A friend of my father’s gave me his book collection when he moved. It was the late 70s, but the books were from a decade earlier. Always yesterday or tomorrow, never today.