Ted White, the former editor of Amazing Stories and Fantastic, passed away on Sunday, May 24. He had been in and out of the hospital over the last month, after a fall at home.
Born in February 1938, Ted grew up on a steady diet of science fiction. Shortly after winning the Hugo Award as Best Fan Writer in 1968, he assumed the editor’s chair at Amazing and Fantastic. As Mike Ashley wrote, “One would have to go back to Raymond Palmer in the 1940s to find another editor of the magazine who was rooted in sf fandom.”
Thanks to Ted’s heroic efforts, both Amazing Stories and Fantastic reached new heights during his 10 years as the magazines’ editor.
It was the era of science fiction’s “New Wave.” In his May 1969 editorial for Amazing, White likened this development to the 1960s revolution in rock music and the emergence of heavy metal and acid rock. He pointed out that this music was able to coexist beside the more melodic rhythms of the Beach Boys and others. He also recognized that heavy rock was drawing upon its roots, in rhythm and blues, to express its new voice.
White saw no reason why science fiction should not follow the same pattern. Not only could all forms of science fiction exist side by side — the traditional alongside the modern — but the modern had itself developed from science fiction’s roots. By publishing both forms of science fiction in Amazing, White could make it possible for the old and the new to influence each other.
Ted strove to attract good fiction and new writers to his magazines. However, because he was paying the lowest rates in the field, he knew he wouldn’t have first shot at the best fiction around, but he might have a chance at some of the best experimental fiction, which had no ready market elsewhere, and thereby attract those writers who didn’t otherwise click with the establishment. Piers Anthony, David R. Bunch, F. M. Busby, Jack Dann, Avram Davidson, George Alec Effinger, Gordon Eklund, Philip José Farmer, R. A. Lafferty, Richard A. Lupoff, Barry N. Malzberg, Thomas Monteleone, Alexei Panshin, Christopher Priest, John Shirley, Robert Silverberg, James Tiptree, Jr., George Zebrowski, and others all found a home in Ted White’s Amazing. They were joined by some of science fiction’s most exciting artists: Dan Adkins, Vaughn Bode, Doug Chaffee, Jeff Jones, Mike Kaluta, John Pederson, Jr., Joe Staton, and most significantly Mike Hinge.
In addition to his achievements as editor of Amazing Stories and Fantastic (he was nominated as Best Professional Editor or for Best Professional Magazine throughout most of the 1970s), Theodore Edwin White was also an accomplished author, fanzine publisher, musician, music critic, and a leading collector of science fiction and pulps. Despite his considerable professional credits, White maintained that his achievements in fandom meant more to him than anything else he had done. He remained active in science fiction and pulp fandom to his last days.
If you’d like to hear a one-hour talk by Ted White about his career as an author and editor and his years at Amazing Stories and Fantastic, please click here or visit the Pulp Tales Podcast at ThePulp.Net or via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and other services.
Our featured image was excerpted from Mike Hinge’s original art for the August 1973 issue of Amazing Stories. Our lead image of Ted White during his guest-of-honor talk at PulpFest 2016 was taken by William Lampkin.
