Why was Amazing Stories named as such?

Hugo Gernsback enlightens us in "Editorially Speaking" in Amazing Stories, September 1926 (download):

'Several years ago, when I first conceived the idea of publishing a scientifiction magazine, a circular letter was sent to some 25,000 people, informing them that a new magazine by the name "Scientifiction" was shortly to be launched. The response was such that this idea was given up for two years. The plain truth is that the word "Scientifiction" while admittedly a good one, scares off many people who would otherwise read the magazine."

Junk mail to 25,000 people in 1926? Spam obviously wasn't invented recently.

More:
'anything that smacks of science seems to be too "deep" for the average type of reader.'

A Tribute to Hugo Gernsback

Matthew Lasar's "The man who foresaw science fiction" in ars technica.

[via Edward M Lerner]

"Amazing Stories", Vol 1 No 1 (April 1926) (ed Hugo Gernsback) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine in CBZ format are online as part of a larger package.

This inaugural issue of Amazing Stories also happens to be the inaugural issue of the first magazine ever, dedicated exclusively to science fiction. I suppose that makes it a collector's item!

It includes at least a few reprints. I'm not sure if there is at least some original fiction here; ToC page doesn't enlighten on the subject in an obvious way.

Where I'm aware of alternate download links for individual stories, I include that too.

Table of contents.

1. [reprint, translation] [serial - part 1/2] Jules Verne's "Off on a Comet - or Hector Servadac"; download: "The scientific probabilities of the universe beyond our earth".
   
   Not read.
2. H G Wells' "The New Accelerator"; download collection that includes this story.
   
   Not read.
3. G Peyton Wertenbaker's "The Man from the Atom"; download: "the growth of a man to cosmic dimensions... his strange sensations... the picture of his emotions & despair."
   
   Not read.
4. George Allen England's "The Thing from - Outside": "If we can take insects & put them upon the dissecting table in order to study their anatomy, is there a good reason why some super-Intelligence cannot do the same thing with us humans?"
   
   Did this story inspire William Tenn's "Of Men & Monsters"?
   
   Not read.
5. Austin Hall's "The Man Who Saved the Earth": "his horror at the Frankenstein which he had unloosed, & ... his wild efforts to save humanity, & of the loss of the cosmic discoveries of the little newsboy grown up to be a great scientist."
   
   Not read.
6. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Facts in the Case of Mr Valdemar"; download: "gruesome story" involving "the higher philosophy & the future world."
   
   Not read.

Related.

1. Fiction from Amazing Stories.
2. Works of or about Hugo Gernsback (including fiction he wrote).
3. Fiction originally published during 1920s.
   
4. "pulp" magazines.

Note: I normally update list-posts like this when I read a story, discover new download links, etc. This page was last updated 22 January 2010.

Free fiction: Scans of 3 issues of "Wonder Stories" magazine (edited by Hugo Gernsback) + a Wonder Story anthology

Hugo Gernsback is the man after whom Hugo Awards are named.

Each issue is available at Crosseyed Cyclops as a CBR or CBZ file containing JPG files of individual pages.
Note for readers unfamiliar with these formats: I personally append ".rar" extension to these files, & extract the contained JPEGs with WinRAR. Extracted JPG files are named in a way that IrfanView can read them in original page order. There are also CBR & CBZ viewers out there (but I have never used any).

Neither the name nor publishing frequency appears to have been stable for this magazine - a fact reflected in individual issue titles blow. Stories appear to be mostly planetary adventures.

Links labeled "Download" below go to page containing the scans. Links on a specific issue go to my page that opens up its table of contents.

1. Download Wonder Stories, Vol 2 No 4 (September 1930) & Wonder Stories Quarterly, Vol 3 No 4 (Summer 1932).
2. Download Wonder Stories, Vol 4 No 3 (August 1932).

Download anthology: "Wonder Story Annual", Vol 2 No 1 (1953 Edition), edited by Samuel Mines. Includes fiction by big guns - Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, Henry Kuttner, Jack Williamson, & Fredric Brown.

Forgot mentioning this with Hugo Awards 2009 posts of yesterday

A few online stories of & about Hugo Gernsback - the man after whom Hugo Awards are named.

Hugo Gernsback's "The Killing Flash" (flash fiction, science fiction, free): An ingenious murder weapon backfires

---

Fact sheet.

First published: Science Wonder Stories, November 1929.
Rating: A
Download full text (from PulpGen).

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First science fiction story at flash fiction length (even if we won't usually call a 1400 word story "flash fiction" today), according to editor's note attached to story. That alone should make it important. It also happens to be a good story.

Story summary.

John Bernard, the narrator, is going to kill Henry Lindenfeld who has "eloped with" John's fiancée. Long distance, & with an ingenious murder weapon.

Idea is this: "I will gradually assemble my high-tension apparatus, a 5-kilowatt generator, a 350,000-volt step-up transformer, condensers, and various other electrical paraphernalia... I will attach the output of the 350,000-volt up Lindenfeld on the telephone... when he answers me, I have but to step back from my phone and press a switch which controls the 350,000-volt high-tension current. The deadly current will leap over the telephone wire to Lindenfeld’s house. A long spark will jump between the receiver and the transmitter, and as Lindenfeld’s head is between them he will be electrocuted instantly—not, however, without first having heard my voice."
(I recall similar discharges used for murder in one of the Asimov's Foundation prequels set in Trantor - probably written by someone else. It didn't have a telephone; a pair mobile wireless bots could be made to settle near your ears, & discharge!)

There is only one problem - high tension discharges usually don't travel very far on telephone lines - they're quickly grounded. As luck would have it, the rented place John was using for his plans had "200 lbs. of high explosives stored on the floor above—no doubt set off by the high-tension discharge traveling along the joint telephone cable to the next floor"!

* Ashley Arnold's "Gernsback's Monkeys" (flash fiction, humor)

Genetically engineered monkey slaves of Mr Gernsback wish freedom.

Story itself appears to be a take on Hugo Gernsback, the famous founder of one of the earliest sf pulp magazines (Amazing). Or may be a satire of all sf authors.

Note: Hugo Awards are named after Hugo Gernsback.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #116 (January/February 2008).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?