Fantasy and science fiction, broadly defined, were staples of the pulps from the very beginning. Probably the most influential -- and certainly the most successful -- pulp fantasist was Edgar Rice Burroughs. His first two stories -- Under the Moons of Mars and Tarzan of the Apes -- appeared in All-Story in 1912, and they established him as one of the most popular writers of the era. His Mars books, in particular, were particularly influential in the fantasy and science-fiction fields.

Surprisingly, despite Burrough's success, relatively few pulp magazines were devoted purely to fantasy, and even fewer were financially successful. The greatest fantasy pulp -- and the longest lived -- was Weird Tales. Weird Tales was a pioneer not only in fantasy, but in horror and science-fiction as well, and it was the primary market for a number of accomplished authors (including, of all people, a young Tennessee Williams). Among its many discoveries were H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, whose Cthulhu Mythos stories and Conan tales, respectively, have been profoundly influential in the horror and fantasy fields.

One possible reason for the financial problems of Weird Tales, and other fantasy magazines, was that fantasy faced competition from a new and very popular genre: Science Fiction. Hugo Gernsback, a Luxembourg inventor and businessman, began publication of the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, in 1926. Gernsback dreamed of teaching readers science -- hard science -- through the stories in his magazine. Most of the "science" in Amazing Stories was pretty laughable by today's standards, but this pioneering magazine did offer a few good stories, including E.E. "Doc" Smith's larger than life space-operas, the Skylark novels.

A number of science fiction magazines followed Amazing Stories -- Wonder Stories, Planet Stories, Startling Stories, Captain Future and others. Most of them specialized in space opera and otherworldly romance in the Burroughs tradition. But one magazine, Astounding Stories, stood out from the competition. Astounding's editor, John W. Campbell, demanded high-quality fiction with believable science. Under his guidance, Astounding published much of the best science-fiction of this period, by many of its most esteemed authors (Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and others). It would define science fiction for the decades to come.

Bibliography

There are innumerable books on the history of science fiction: Explorers of the Infinite, by Sam Moskowitz, is the classic text. You can also turn to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Robert Holstack. Weird Tales, by Alistair Durie, is a history of that esteemed magazine, while Rivals of Weird Tales, by Weinberg, Dziemianowicz & Greenberg, discusses other horror and fantasy magazines of the period.

Other Sites

I am not, by any means, an expert in fantasy or science fiction. If you want to learn more, the following sources may be of interested to you:

• This page is devoted to Weird Menace Pulps and Supernatural Detection.
• Here's a site devoted to Edgar Rice Burroughs, while this is a site devoted to his most famous creation: Tarzan of the Internet, which includes a few pulp resources.
• You can also read the Literary Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, which are currently on-line.
• Here's a site devoted to Weird Tales - The Unique Magazine.
• There are an amazing number of web sites devoted to H.P. Lovecraft.  You can turn to The H.P. Lovecraft Archive, or you can see other sites on any of the following three (three!) Web Rings: the Cthulhu Web Ring, the Mythos Web Ring and Jade Idol Web Ring.
• Cthulhu and H.P. Lovecraft -- This is another Lovecraft site (one of many, actually).
• The Robert E. Howard Archive -- All about the man behind Conan. You can also turn to JDrobin's Personal Home Page for more on Robert E. Howard.  (If you want to read specifically about Conan, turn to the sites in the Conan Web Ring.)
• The Shrine of Clark Ashton Smith is devoted to the third member of the "holy trinity" at Weird Tales:
• Here's a page devoted to a later pulp fantasy writer, Fritz Leiber.
• The William Hero Collection -- SF pulp material from Virginia Tech. It comes with covers and complete reprints of several Science Fiction pulps.
• You can read about the most famous hero of the science fiction pulps at Century 25: Buck Rogers.
• Here's another page devoted to a hero in the sceince fiction pulps: Edmond Hamilton's Captain Future.
• Turn to these checklists for the great science-fiction magazines: Amazing Stories Listings, Astounding Stories Listings and Unknown Listings.
• '50's Sci-Fi Pulp Covers -- These are provided by the pulp dealer "Level 7."
• Sci-Fi Art Home Page
• Paskow Science Fiction Collection
• Time Tunnel -- The company sells Golden Age science fiction covers on CD-ROM.
• Science Fiction Resource Guide -- Just about any information you need about science-fiction.
• Finally, I quite like Arron Allston's page, Elements of a Popular Science Future.