PulpFest 2026 will celebrate the centennials of Amazing Stories and Ghost Stories, plus a great deal more at this year’s convention. Hugo Gernsback’s groundbreaking science-fiction pulp and Bernarr Macfadden’s purportedly “true” magazine concerning the spirit world both debuted one hundred years ago.
Founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1926, Amazing Stories was thrown into the deal when Ziff-Davis, publisher of Popular Aviation, Popular Photography, and other magazines, purchased Radio News from Teck Publications in 1938. Milwaukee science fiction fan and writer, Raymond A. Palmer, hired to edit Amazing Stories for its new owners, was instructed to boost circulation or see Amazing shuttered.
Targeting the youth market by publishing the thrilling type of science fiction that he had enjoyed as a kid, Palmer not only increased circulation but was soon outselling his rivals. Ziff-Davis responded by adding other pulp magazines, including Fantastic Adventures, Mammoth Detective, South Sea Stories, and other titles.
In 1943, Amazing Stories received a letter from Richard Sharpe Shaver, who claimed to have discovered an ancient language he called “Mantong.” It was the language of an advanced prehistoric race that had built cavern cities under the Earth’s crust before abandoning the planet due to harmful radiation. Some of their offspring remained behind, living underground and toying with the human race by projecting evil thoughts into people’s minds. Shaver had been imprisoned by these detrimental beings, finally escaping to warn humanity about the evil he had discovered underground.
Sensing more sales, editor Palmer rewrote Shaver’s “A Warning to Future Man,” turning it into a novella that he called “I Remember Lemuria.” Published in the March 1945 issue of Amazing, Shaver’s story generated a substantial response. The issue sold out and, according to Palmer, the Ziff-Davis offices were flooded with letters attesting to the truth of the story’s claims.
Similar stories followed, both by Shaver and other writers, and Amazing‘s circulation continued to climb.
We hope you’ll join PulpFest on Thursday, July 30, at 9:30 pm as we welcome Jeff Shanks to our programming stage for “The Shaver Mystery,” a look at the phenomenon that was launched after Ray Palmer retrieved Richard Shaver’s letter from the trash.
Jeffrey Shanks is an archaeologist and cultural historian specializing in early 20th-century popular culture and speculative fiction. He is the co-editor of The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales, which was nominated for a 2016 Bram Stoker Award. He is also a managing editor of Skelos: The Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy, currently on hiatus. Jeff served as co-chair of Pulp Studies for the Popular Culture Association. He has also published several popular and academic articles on comics history and on pulp writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard. He has received numerous Robert E. Howard Foundation Awards for his scholarship on the celebrated writer.
PulpFest 2026 begins on July 30 and runs through August 2 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. In addition to honoring the centennials of Amazing Stories and Ghost Stories, we’ll also be celebrating the sesquicentennial of writer Jack London’s birth, the centennial of the birth of artist Robert Kennedy Abbett, and more at this year’s convention.
The general public is welcome to attend our programming free of charge. To learn more about our presentations, please click the 2026 Schedule link found on our website.
For those who also want to enjoy our dealers’ room, you can join PulpFest by clicking the register link found on our website. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree. They’re going fast!
Remember, in addition to your membership in PulpFest 2026, you’ll also be a member of Doc Con 2026, FarmerCon XXI, and The Shadow Con 2026. That’s four conventions for one price! You can’t beat that deal.
If you’re interested in selling at PulpFest, all of our wall and foyer tables have been reserved. A few island tables are remaining for $110 per table. Please click the “register” link on our website to learn how to join the convention as a dealer.
Our featured image was excerpted from Robert Gibson Jones‘ original cover art for the June 1947 issue of Amazing Stories, a special “Shaver Mystery” issue of the magazine. Jones’ work also serves as our lead image, adapted by William Lampkin from the cover art for the March 1945 issue of Amazing Stories, the issue where “I Remember Lemuria” appeared.
In 1948, Ziff-Davis stopped publication of Shaver’s stories, most likely due to decreasing sales. Ray Palmer claimed it resulted from “sinister outside forces.” After Palmer left the company at the end of 1949, he resumed publishing the stories of Richard Shaver. The author’s “The Fall of Lemuria,” was featured in the first issue of Other Worlds Science Stories. It was dated November 1949 and featured a front cover by Malcolm H. Smith, illustrating Shaver’s story.
Ziff-Davis editor Paul W. Fairman followed in the footsteps of Ray Palmer in the pages of Fantastic for July 1958. Featuring front cover art by Leo R. Summers, the issue was yet another special “Shaver Mystery” number.
