Nebula Science Fiction was the first Scottish science fiction magazine.
It was published from 1952 to 1959, and was edited by Peter Hamilton, a
young Scot who was able to take advantage of spare capacity at his
parents' printing company, Crownpoint, to launch the magazine. Nebula's
circulation was international, with only a quarter of the sales in the
United Kingdom: this led to disaster when both South Africa and
Australia imposed import controls on foreign periodicals at the end of
the 1950s. Excise duties imposed in the UK added to Hamilton's
financial burdens, and he was rapidly forced to close the magazine
down. The last issue was dated June 1959. The magazine was popular with
writers, partly because Hamilton went to great lengths to encourage new
writers, and partly because he paid better rates per word than much of
his competition. Initially he could not compete with the American
market, but he offered a bonus for the most popular story in the issue,
and eventually was able to match the leading American magazines. He
published the first stories of several well-known writers, including
Robert Silverberg, Brian Aldiss, and Bob Shaw. Nebula was also a fan
favourite: author Ken Bulmer recalls that it became "what many fans
regard as the best-loved British SF magazine". (more...)
Recently featured: Australian Cattle Dog – Warkworth Castle –
Thurisind
Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Science_Fiction>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
447:
An earthquake destroyed large sections of the Walls of Constantinople .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walls_of_Constantinople>
1868:
Boshin War: The Battle of Toba-Fushimi, where pro-Imperial forces
defeated those of the Tokugawa shogunate and which was a catalyst for
the Meiji Restoration, began in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Toba-Fushimi>
1888:
Two weeks after a group of over thirty explorers and scientists met in
Washington, D.C., to organize "a society for the increase and diffusion
of geographical knowledge," the National Geographic Society, publisher
of the National Geographic Magazine, was incorporated.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geographic_Society>
1980:
With the assistance of Canadian government officials, six American
diplomats who had avoided capture in the Iran hostage crisis escaped to
Zurich, Switzerland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Caper>
2002:
An explosion at a military storage facility in Lagos, Nigeria, killed
at least 1,100 people and displaced over 20,000 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagos_Armoury_Explosion>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dubitation (n):
1. The process of doubting or the state of being in doubt; hesitation,
uncertainty.
2. A pang or expression of doubt
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dubitation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I suppose every child has a world of his own — and every man, too, for
the matter of that. I wonder if that's the cause for all the
misunderstanding there is in Life?
--Lewis Carroll
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll>