Dive into an Archive of Vintage Pulp Magazines

I spend a lot of time at the Internet Archive. Why wouldn’t I? They have music, podcasts, newspapers, magazines, video games and so much more. Recently, my attention has turned to their vast collection of literature in the public domain, especially their The Pulp Magazine Archive.

Pulp magazines (often referred to as “the pulps”), also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s.

Filled with thousands of magazines, all of which you can read online or download and put on your Kindle or another e-reader, The Pulp Magazine Archive has become my one-stop-shop for bedtime reading fun. Especially great is their collection of “IF Magazine”, which has become an obsession lately. It is filled with gems from amazing writers, most of which I had never heard of before. Not familiar with “IF?”

If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. The magazine was moderately successful, though it was never regarded as one of the first rank of science fiction magazines. It achieved its greatest success under editor Frederik Pohl, winning the Hugo Award for best professional magazine three years running from 1966 to 1968. If was merged into Galaxy Science Fiction after the December 1974 issue, its 175th issue overall.

So if you are a fan of the Pulp genre and especially enjoy Science Fiction, drop by The Pulp Magazine Archive.

Note for Kindle readers. Reading it online gives you a richer “pulpier” experience, but you can download all of these files in .mobi format, which will work on your Kindle, although the formatting does not always hold up. I do not have any other E-Paper readers, but I imagine the experience will be similar.