[Ads-l] Antedating of Modern Sense of "Science Fiction"

[Shapiro, Fred]

science fiction (OED, 3., 1927)

1911 _Inter Ocean_ (Chicago, Ill.) 5/5 (Newspapers.com)  A COLUMBUS OF SPACE (by Garrett P. Serviss.  D. Appleton & Co., New York.  Illustrated, $1.50) -- This is a science-fiction tale for boys, written in Jules Verne's fashion.  He who is the hero of the story, by the power of "inter-atomic energy," sails into space in a queer airship he's constructed, and with his companion lands on Venus.  Then there is enough of lively action.  Fierce giants with white saucer eyes and most beautiful Amazons, and monsters of the prehistoric sort, and dangers of several varieties, provide it.  Boys will enjoy the story, which has four full page pictures in colors.

NOTE:  The OED has several earlier, mostly obsolete senses of "science fiction," but the citation above is an improvement of 16 years over the OED's oldest citation for the central, comprehensive modern meaning of the phrase: "Fiction in which the setting and story feature hypothetical scientific or technological advances, the existence of alien life, space or time travel, etc."  This 1911 occurrence takes away Hugo Gernsback's terminological priority.  (Let me add that I believe the earliest citations for senses 1. and 3. in the current OED entry were originally contributed by me.)

Fred Shapiro








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