[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Sci-Fi"

Wed Dec 25 14:58:34 UTC 2024

Jesse: When one visits the wonderful Historical Dictionary of Science
Fiction website and attempts to use the headword search slot to look
for "sci-fi" or "sci-fic" there are no matches. Yet, there are entries
for "sci-fi" and "sci-fic".
Apparently, the "-" symbol is not being treated properly by the search engine..

Garson

On Wed, Dec 25, 2024 at 9:25 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The Internet Archive has a page for Cue magazine which was created on
> November 25, 2020. The page states that the collection was obtained
> via microfilm. Unfortunately, none of the issues are publicly visible
> now. So access apparently has been disabled, and the content may have
> been removed (or perhaps the content was never present).
>
> Here is some extracted data from the beginning of the Cue review for
> the movie "The Magnetic Monster".
>
> [Begin excerpt based on snippets]
> THE MAGNETIC MONSTER -- (United)
> At the Globe. Scifiads (science fiction ad-
> dicts to the uninitiated) will find them-
> selves in the seventh heaven of their
> even-expanding universe with their latest
> contribution to hair-raising science-fiction
> thrillers. It's a first class entertainment
> [End excerpt based on snippets]
>
> Garson
>
> On Wed, Dec 25, 2024 at 9:14 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Excellent work. Here is some additional information extracted from
> > snippets which may be inaccurate.
> >
> > The match apparently occurs within a review of the movie "The Magnetic
> > Monster". Wikipedia states that the release date was February 18,
> > 1953. This is consistent with the year 1953. So the month in Cue is
> > probably in February or later.
> >
> > It seems that the reviewer was Jesse Zunser (Executive Editor,
> > Screen). The following bold headline appears near the top of the page:
> > France Sends Over A Seven-Fold Winner
> >
> > The first review on the target page seems to be for the film "The
> > Seven Deadly Sins".
> >
> > The top of the target page probably says "Reviews of New Films" but I
> > cannot get Google Books to show me this headline in a snippet for page
> > 15. So I am not sure.
> >
> > The line "Reviews of New Films   Jesse Zunser    15" does appear in
> > snippets that show the table of contents. But the line seems to occur
> > in at least two different issues.
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 25, 2024 at 8:53 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > It appears to me that the Yale library has only very scattered holdings of Cue magazine.
> > >
> > > I assume that the author of the 1953 citation is, interestingly, named Jesse.
> > >
> > > Fred Shapiro
> > >
> > > ________________________________
> > > From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> > > Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2024 8:27 AM
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Subject: Re: Further Antedating of "Sci-Fi"
> > >
> > > Thanks, Fred. These are terrific discoveries! Hathi Trust also has this text, and while it's not viewable, it supported the 1953 date.
> > >
> > > Yale seems to have holdings of Cue, I notice.... If not that, I can try to make my way (or find a volunteer to to make their way) to one of the other libraries that has this. It's worth a trip, this is an important one!
> > >
> > > Jesse Sheidlower
> > >
> > > On Wed, Dec 25, 2024 at 12:02:52PM +0000, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> > > > sci-fi (OED 1954, Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction 1954)
> > > >
> > > > 1953 Cue [Volume 22, Issues 1-26, Page 15] (Google Books)
> > > >
> > > > This is the kind of fantastic problem scifiads love, and its solution provides a fine scifi-drama, a considerable cut above the usual.  I found it an interesting experience in the too rarely developed field of cerebral thrillers.
> > > >
> > > > NOTE: I discovered this in a Google Books snippet.  The snippet does not indicate the exact date or exact issue number, but this is clearly a 1953 citation.
> > > >
> > > > Fred Shapiro
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
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