During the 1940s, Donald A Wollheim approached Albing Publications with an iconoclastic magazine strategy. To start with, Stirring Science-Fiction and Stirring Fantasy-Fiction pretended to be two magazines published under the name Stirring Science Stories. This title was derived from one of Albing's other magazines, Stirring Detective And Western Stories, and was published on an alternating bimonthly schedule with Cosmic Stories.
Both magazines drew from the same crowd of friends and science-fiction writers that Wollheim knew from going to conventions. The authors submitted their stories with the understanding that they wouldn't be paid.* Wollheim himself agreed to do the editing with the understanding that he would only be paid after the third issue because he needed to gain more experience as an editor.
Neither magazine sold very well. Like many others of "the Golden Age of Science Fiction", it came out cheaply and failed because the small publishing company couldn't afford to compete with the larger publishers and their broader distribution. Seven issues were published in total, not even lasting an entire year. The most prolific author of the series was Cyril M. Kornbluth, granting use of multiple stories under different Pen Names.
Pulp Tales Press was able to obtain permission to republish the March 1941 issue of Cosmic Stories online in an electronic format, making it easier for modern Science Fiction fans to read early pulp stories.
These magazines provide examples of:
- Advertising by Association:
- "Biped" was published referencing "Rebirth Of Man" and "Winged Warriors", previous works by Basil Wells.
- "Crystal Worlds" was published referencing "Lunar Gun" and "Anothers Eyes", previous works by John L Chapman.
- "The Last Viking" was published referencing "He Wasn't There" and "The Vanguard", previous works by Hugh Raymond.
- "The Man From The Future" was published referencing "Planet Of Illusion" and "Bones", previous works by Donald A Wollheim.
- "The Martians Are Coming" was published referencing "A Green Cloud Came" and "The Abyss", previous works by Robert W Lowndes.
- "Mecanica" was published referencing "City Of Machines" and "The Twilight People" as previous works by Frank Edward Arnold.
- "Planet Leave" was published referencing "The Incredible Visitor" and "The Battle of Chang-Da", previous works by Clifton B Kruse.
- "Return From M 15" was published referencing "Dead Center" and "Nova Midplane", previous works by SD Gottesman.
- "The Reversible Revolutions" was published referencing "Thirteen O'Clock" and "The Fly-By-Nights", previous works by Cecil Corwin.
- "The Secret Sense" was published referencing "Homo Sol" and "Trends" as previous stories by Dr Asimov.
- Apocalypse How: Frederik Pohl's "Worlds in Exile" is a sonnet about how entropy will lead to universal total extinction.[...]Other forms knew life than men
On their broad bosoms; other forms that scorned
Man's puny will . . . . And e'en their Titan spark
Of years is through, nor may we comprehend
The Cyclopean meaning of the end. - Artificial Gravity: The Non-Fiction essay, "Gravity Reversed", describes four ways to send humans to space; self-propelled rockets, projectiles, centrifugal force, and manipulating gravity. It describes recent vacuum-room tests where liquid helium that was cooled to near absolute zero started to flow upwards, defying gravity.
- Fan Convention: Donald A Wollheim's "The Man From The Future": The two protagonists are fans of Science Fiction, and convince a dwarf they meet to go to a convention and pretend to be a Time Traveller from the far future. During their panel, a heckler interrupts the game and the dwarf shoots him with a flashlight to quiet him so that they can resume the panel.
- Genuine Imposter: Donald A Wollheim's "The Man From The Future": The two protagonists convince a dwarf that they met on the subway to go to a Science Fiction Fan Convention where they will pretend to be a human from the far future. The punchline of this story is that they identified a real Time Traveller who happily played along (only revealing himself by shooting a heckler with a futuristic weapon).
- Holding Both Sides of the Conversation: Due to the early issues of these magazines not having a fanbase yet, Donald A Wollheim used a number of Pen Names for submissions, pretending that they were different from himself as editor. This includes the letter-to-the-editor section, called "The Cosmoscope". For the first issue of Cosmic Stories, he pretended to be Graham Conway from Indiana and responded to the letter as the editor (DAW).
- Letters to the Editor: Because the magazine was so new, Chief Editor Donald A Wollheim would write and reply to the first few issues, using Pen Names to pretend they were from actual fans.
- Lucky Charms Title: Donald A Wollheim wrote a story under the Pen Name of X, titled "!!!".
- Pen Name: Many stories have been published in Stirring Science Stories under pen names.
- Cyril M. Kornbluth:
- "Thirteen O'Clock", "The City In The Sofa", "The Golden Road", "Mr Packer Goes To Hell", "The Reversible Revolutions", "The Rocket Of 1955", and "What Sorghum Says" were all published under the name Cecil Corwin.
- "Forgotten Tongue" and "Interference" were both published under the name Walter C. Davies.
- "Masquerade" and "The Words Of Guru" were both published under the name Kenneth Falconer.
- "Dead Center", "Dimension Of Darkness", "Fire Power", "Kazam Collects", "The Perfect Invasion", and "Return from M-15" were all published under the name S.D. Gottesman.
- "The Castle On Outerplanet" was co-written by Cyril M. Kornbluth, Robert W Lowndes, and Frederik Pohl, and published under the name S.D. Gottesman.
- "No Place To Go" was published under the name Edward J. Bellin.
- Henry Kuttner: "The Touching Point" was published under the name Edward J. Bellin.
- Robert W Lowndes
- "Ambition", "The Burrowers Beneath", "Forbidden Books", and "The Long Wall" were published under the name Wilfred Owen Morley
- "The Wind from the River" was published under the name Richard Morrison.
- "The Doll Master" was published under the name Paul Dennis Lavond.
- John B Michel: "The Goblins Will Get You", "The Last Viking", "Power", "Rebirth Of Tomorrow", "Spokesman For Terra", and "When Half Worlds Meet" were all published under the name Hugh Raymond.
- Frederik Pohl: "Worlds in Exile" was published under the name Elton V. Andrews.
- Donald A Wollheim:
- "Blind Flight", "Cosmophobia", and "Purple Dandelions" were all published under the name Millard Verne Gordon.
- "The Unfinished City" was published under the name Martin Pearson.
- "Strange Return" was published under the name Lawrence Woods.
- "Black Flames" and "The Colossus Of Maia" were co-written by Robert W Lowndes and Donald A Wollheim, and published under the name Lawrence Woods.
- "!!!" was published under the name X.
- Cyril M. Kornbluth:
- One-Word Title:
- "Ambition", poem by Wilfred Owen Morley (Pen Name of Robert W Lowndes)
- "Biped", by Basil Wells
- "Blueprint", by Donald A Wollheim
- "Bones", by Donald A Wollheim
- "Cosmophobia", by Millard Verne Gordon (Pen Name of Donald A Wollheim)
- "Interference", by Walter C Davies (Pen Name of Cyril M. Kornbluth)
- "Jitterbug", by RR Winterbotham
- "Mecanica", by Frank Edward Arnold
- "Power", by Hugh Raymond (Pen Name of John B Michel)
- "Resilience", by Damon Knight
- Rhyming with Itself: Damon Knight's "The Rocket" is a five-stanza poem that ends each stanza on "rocket".
- Spell My Name With An S: When publishing "The Riddle Of Tanye", WP Cockcroft's name was misspelled as "W. P. Cockroft.
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Frederik Pohl's "Worlds in Exile" is a sonnet where the tenth line ends with "men" and the twelfth line ends with "spark", which breaks the normal convention of even lines rhyming in pairs.
- Title by Number:
- "Thirteen O'Clock", by Cecil Corwin (Pen Name of Cyril M. Kornbluth).
- "Return from M-15", by SD Gottesman (Pen Name of Cyril M. Kornbluth).
- "The Rocket Of 1955", by Cecil Corwin (Pen Name of Cyril M. Kornbluth).
