I picked up an interesting lot in a recent Heritage auction: 12 of the 18 volumes in the Stellar Publishing Corporation Science Fiction Series. SF pioneer Hugo Gernsback formed Stellar Publishing Corporation in 1929, and I’m given to understand that many volumes were available for sale for decades in the back of various science fiction magazines.
Alas, there seems to be a dearth of information about Stellar Publishing itself out on the Internet. Fortunately, I have the very first science fiction bibliography ever published, Science Fiction Bibliography, VOL 1, NO 1 (and only), published by the “Science Fiction Syndicate” right here in Austin, Texas in 1935. Let’s see what it has to say about the series:
The titles and authors of these eighteen booklets are too well known to enumerate.
Well, thanks a lot, long-dead dumbasses!
All of these (except the Manly Wade Wellman volume) can only be considered VG (at best) because the previous owner punched a set of small binding holes near the spine, presumably to store them all in one binder. Still, I only paid $38 for the entire set.
All of these have browned pages due to the paper used, but the scanner slightly exaggerates the shading variation. List numbers are the number each volume comes in the series.
- Michelmore, Reg. An Adventure in Venus. Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1929. First edition chapbook original, VG, with punch holes and usual page browning.
- Stone, Leslie F. When the Sun Went Out. Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1929. First edition chapbook original, VG, with punch holes and usual page browning.
- Lorraine, Lilith. The Brain of the Planet. Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1929. First edition chapbook original, VG-, with punch holes and usual page browning, and a few stray black marks to cover.
- Colladay, Morrison. When the Moon Fell. Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1929. First edition chapbook original, VG, with punch holes and usual page browning.
- Bourne, Frank/Long, Amelia Reynolds. The Thought Stealer (Bourne) and The Mechanical Man (Long). Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1930. First edition chapbook original, VG, with punch holes and usual page browning.
- Bradley, Jack. The Torch of Ra. Stellar Publishing Corporation, no date (1930). First edition chapbook original, VG, with punch holes and usual page browning.
- Eberle, Merab/Mitchell, Milton. The Thought Translator (Eberle) and The Creation (Mitchell). Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1930. First edition chapbook original, VG, with punch holes and usual page browning.
- Higginson, H. W. The Elixir. Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1930. First edition chapbook original, VG, with punch holes and usual page browning.
- Black, Pansy E. The Valley of the Great Ray. Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1930. First edition chapbook original, VG, with punch holes and usual page browning.
- Farrar, Clyde/Sharp, D.D. The Life Vapor (Farrar) and Thirty Miles Down. Stellar Publishing Corporation, no date (1930). First edition chapbook original, VG-, with punch holes and usual page browning, slight staining to top back corner near spine, and initials to very bottom of cover.
- Wellman, Manly Wade. The Invading Asteroid. Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1932. First edition chapbook original, a Near Fine copy with usual page browning (and unlike the above, no side hole punching).
Generally, the Wellman is (along with Clark Ashton Smith’s The Immortals of Mercury and Jack Williamson and Dr. Miles J. Breuer’s The Girl From Mars, neither of which I’ve picked up yet) considered among the more desirable titles in the series. But the Lorraine and Bourne/Long titles are also getting somewhat hard to find as well.