{"688368":{"#nid":"688368","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Beyond the Pulps: Georgia Tech Faculty and Students Help Redefine the History of Science Fiction","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn 1930, a newspaper syndicate published a serialized science fiction story set on Mars. A seminal early space opera written in a style that might have been familiar to contemporary readers of H.G. Wells,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003E\u201c100 Years Hence\u201d\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;may have been seen by more than half a million people. That\u2019s an astonishing number in an era when the audience for the most popular science fiction pulp magazines\u0026nbsp;\u2014\u0026nbsp; and even many early sci-fi novels\u0026nbsp; \u2014\u0026nbsp;was only a fraction of that size.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStill, the story quickly faded into obscurity \u2014 the victim of the perishable nature of its medium, a mysterious writer\u2019s voice that suddenly went silent just a few years later, and the earliest curators of a burgeoning genre who, it turns out, were looking elsewhere for their rising stars.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInstead of becoming a cornerstone in a genre that has dominated pop culture for generations, author John P. Moore\u2019s story remained unseen for nearly a century in the archives of the Illustrated Features Section, a weekly cultural supplement bundled with prominent Black newspapers such as the\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EPittsburgh Courier\u003C\/em\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EChicago Defender\u003C\/em\u003E, and the\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAfro-American.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt took a new generation of scholars \u2014 faculty and students from Georgia Tech\u2019s Science Fiction Lab located in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/lmc.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 title=\u0022(opens in a new window)\u0022\u003ESchool of Literature, Media, and Communication\u003C\/a\u003E \u2014 and a partnership with the legendary genre outlet\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/amazingstories.com\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 title=\u0022(opens in a new window)\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EAmazing Stories\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;to help recover and reintroduce Moore\u2019s writings to contemporary audiences, highlighting that early Black science fiction of that era wasn\u2019t only a response to the political and cultural climate of the day. It was also a smash commercial success.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe significance of this recovery to the genre lies in the fact that we can no longer say modern Black science fiction arose solely as a response to white science fiction,\u201d said\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAmazing Stories\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;publisher emeritus Steve Davidson, who has published the stories as a book called\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/amazingstories.com\/2025\/11\/the-martian-trilogy-john-p-moore-amazing-stories-black-science-fiction-and-the-illustrated-feature-section-is-now-available\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 title=\u0022(opens in a new window)\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe Martian Trilogy\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt offers the opportunity to say that Black science fiction existed all along in parallel. It was addressing the same issues and, in some cases, had a better circulation than the white publications.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/featured-news\/2026\/02\/the-martian-trilogy?utm_source=newsletter\u0026amp;utm_medium=email\u0026amp;utm_content=Redefining%20the%20History%20of%20Science%20Fiction\u0026amp;utm_campaign=Daily%20Digest%20-%20Feb.%2016%2C%202026%20\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERead more \u00bb\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe recovery of the long-lost \u003Cem\u003EThe Martian Trilogy \u003C\/em\u003Eexpands the historical record by demonstrating that Black speculative fiction flourished in the commercial mainstream long before the 1960s.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The recovery of the long-lost The Martian Trilogy expands the historical record by demonstrating that Black speculative fiction flourished in the commercial mainstream long before the 1960s."}],"uid":"34760","created_gmt":"2026-02-18 18:45:37","changed_gmt":"2026-02-18 18:57:44","author":"Laurie Haigh","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-02-11T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2026-02-11T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679352":{"id":"679352","type":"image","title":"Line drawings 16x9","body":null,"created":"1771440261","gmt_created":"2026-02-18 18:44:21","changed":"1771440315","gmt_changed":"2026-02-18 18:45:15","alt":"Original illustrations from the 1930 serialized publication of the stories that would eventually be published as The Martian Trilogy following their recovery by School of Literature, Media, and Communication researchers. Hugo Award winning graphic novelist and illustrator John Jennings enhanced the illustrations for the book.","file":{"fid":"263502","name":"line-drawings-16x9-2560.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/02\/18\/line-drawings-16x9-2560.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/02\/18\/line-drawings-16x9-2560.png","mime":"image\/png","size":769867,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/02\/18\/line-drawings-16x9-2560.png?itok=6KE9H6Sw"}}},"media_ids":["679352"],"groups":[{"id":"660370","name":"Space"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193657","name":"Space Research Initiative"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}