The year was 1909 and Garrett Putnam Serviss was already a respected science writer for the Hearst newspaper group. Serviss’ reputation was such that his articles appeared in almost every major American magazine.
Beginning in January of that year Frank Munsey’s All-Story magazine began the serialization of Serviss’ epic science fiction adventure A Columbus of Space. Just three months earlier the visionary rocket pioneer, Robert Goddard, had submitted an article to Popular Science magazine about the possibilities of nuclear propulsion for space travel.
Goddard’s article was rejected, but Serviss had no such problem with his science-fiction adventure story. In August of 1926 Serviss’ story was resurrected in the pages of Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories magazine.
In fact Serviss was featured in eight of the first eleven issues of Amazing. A Columbus of Space is an adventure thriller written at a time when Venus was still believed to only show one hemisphere to the sun and Venusian life was still thought to be possible.

In 1915 the father of modern science fiction contributed to the long list of adventures of the 18th century super-hero, Baron Münchausen.
Hugo Gernsback used his magazine Electrical Experimenter as a proving ground for his theory that science fiction could be used to teach science. Never before published as a book, and complete with the original illustrations, this is early 20th century science fiction by the man who made science fiction famous. Hugo Gernsback is often called the father of science-fiction. In 1926 he created the world’s first regular science fiction periodical, Amazing Stories but long before that he tested the market for science fiction within the pages of his science magazines. Between 1912 and 1929 Gernsback was the unchallenged champion of fiction with a scientific edge. In the 1950’s the highest award in science fiction was named after him.

In 1894 the most famous science fiction writer in England was George Griffith. His stories introduced an extraordinary array of technological marvels to an appreciative British audience but his novels were almost never published in America. Griffith is rarely considered to be in the same league as H.G. Wells but Wells admired Griffith for his ability to write great high adventure stories while packing them with plausible science and prophetic invention. In 1897 Griffith wrote The Great Crellin Comet, a short story that introduced the concept that technology could stave off Armageddon and could save humanity from suffering the ignominious fate of the dinosaurs. In the process Griffith invented the countdown, an eminently practical and dramatic tool that is still used today for space launches. In 1905 Griffith expanded this tale into a full fledged novel of science and romance, changing its name to The World Peril of 1910. For the first time in over a hundred years these two stories or reproduced here complete and unabridged.

    Mankind’s love affair with the planet Mars is certainly not new. It has long been recognized that Mars is the only other planet in our solar system that could possibly support life. Until the 1970s, the existence of life on Mars remained an open question. We know today that there are no civilizations on Mars, but in 1949, when this story was written, the possibility had not yet been ruled out. In this story by Wernher von Braun, Mars has an underground civilization which is more or less on par with our own. And it is a peaceful civilization, neither bent on conquest nor paranoid about being attacked. In this story of man’s first human mission to Mars, ten space ships make the journey. This edition is a limited print run made especially for the 64th world science-fiction convention. It is different from the main release of this book. Click here or on the cover to view the larger version of this title.

     In 1897 H.G. Wells created one of the greatest science fiction masterpieces ever written-The War Of The Worlds. The story was serialized in newspapers across America and proved to be so popular that the Hearst newspaper group commissioned a sequel, to be written by their own science editor - Garrett Putnam Serviss. This sequel appeared in February of 1898 and quickly entered into the annals of science fiction history. It is one of the rarest and possibly one of the most important stories ever to appear in the genre..... (read more)