(CC: to SKRIVA too.)
This is a somewhat shortened version a piece recently posted on (you may try
Google Translate or something)
http://www.freelists.org/post/skriva/Allersbilagan-Mellan-fantasi-och-verklighet
There's been a long time controversy about a claimed early magazine supplement
named Stella, which Sam J Lundwall says came with Svenska Familj-Journalen Svea
1886-1888. Searches by several people on the Royal Library (national library)
and university libraries have come up totally empty. Stella is believed to be a
hoax. Here's an article about it by one Hans Persson (try Google Translate
again): http://vetsaga.se/?p=29
However, Yours Truly has found another magazine supplement of some genre
interest! Beginning in 1903 and continuing to at least 1913, the popular weekly
magazine Allers Familj-Journal (Allers is a leading publisher of weeklies,
started in Denmark in the mid-1870's and it still exists) published a
supplement named Mellan fantasi och verklighet, which means "Between Fantasy
and Reality".
One source is a history about Allers (En kulturhistoria: Allers förlag 100 år
1894-1994 - 1994 was when their Swedish office began), which says that the
supplement wants to "bring the readers away from the colourless areas of
everyday thougths" and it is "a series of illustrated fantastic and romantic
stories, where the fantastic and real, the existing and seemingly unreal meet,
where the authors unleash their fantasy" (that is from promotional text from
1913).
("Between Fantasy and Reality" was incidentally also the heading for the
series of sf short stories Sture Lönnerstrand wrote for the magazine Levande
Livet in the 1940's!)
Through Surf-Googling on the Mighty Inter-Web there's another substantial
trace to be found. The royal Library has a long term project in scanning
Swedish newspapers. Allers has a big advert in the paper Kalmar, Dec 1st 1905
(to be found here
http://magasin.kb.se:8080/searchinterface/page.jsp?issue_id=kb:121635&sequence_number=6&recordNumber=&totalRecordNumber=
) where Allers Familj-Journal mentions its many supplements. (It was common
that those weeklies had often several supplements which came with the main
magazine, as a way to promote circulation.) I translate parts:
"Between antasy and Reality
Illustrated fantastic and romantic tales
With this supplement, which now for a couple of years has found joy in the
readers' pronounced satisfaction, we have made a long-time idea real: to be
able to entertain the readership with richly illustrated, always finished
stories from the world of fantasy, reality, romance and history ... subjects
have been rich and varied, going from happiness to sorrow, from light to
darkness. They have told about the Iron Maiden, the terrible instrument of
torture from mediaval times, about the glowing beauty of the Orient, about the
'Magic Flower' that blinds the eye but kills he who seeks its protection."
The supplement is said to come with Allers every two weeks. The examples
indicates that it's not all sf or fantasy, more general though exotic adventure
stories - but fantasy is included. There's an illustration in the ad to another
story, "The Four White Days of London", called a "scientiic fantasy", with the
caption: "A hotel in flames, no water to put it out, all has become ice." Later
in the ad we learn that Between Fantasy and Reality will shortly publish "The
Hidden Treasure - a young man looked for a hidden treasure in an old castle,
but found something even more valuable". And in the mentioned Allers history
book we learn about the story "The Secret of the Delaware Palace" which is said
to be about how Napoleon escapes from Saint Helena to Delaware (it seems) and
lives there as a count under an assumed name (today we'd call that an Alternate
History).
It's worth noting that the weeklies like Allers in those days were far from
cosy magaziens for elderly ladies, with reports about celebs and royalties,
stiching diagrams and cookie recipes. They were broader with reports from
exotic countries, popular science etc. Allers Familj-Journal eg had a
correspondent who every week around the turn of 1800/1900 reported "From the
World of Science and Inventions". From another advert we learn they had
supplements about inventors, astronomy and space, flying and aircrafts. Allers
later even had "Allers Flight Club", offering readers discounted sightseeing
trips in the air and even lessons to get a private pilot licence. (And as late
as into the 1970's my friend Eugen Semitjov wrote about space and science in
Allers, receiving the Grand Journalist Award for such writings in 1972.)
--Ahrvid
EXTRA: Not related but interesting from the book En kulturhistoria: Allers
förlag 100 år
1894-1994. We learn that Allers publishing house in 1971 began investing in
the publishing house Askild & Kärnekull (A&K), and finally in1973 bought it and
took over. It so happens that the time they began investing was also when A&K
hired Sam J Lundwall, took over the recenly relaunched Jules Verne Magasinet
(first issue in1972) and started their sf book series. And more: in 1973 when
Allers became full owners of A&K, was also the time when Sam J left them (took
JVM with him) and was replaced with John-Henri Holmberg...
I'm not sure how to to interpret this, but first Allers begins stepping in
and something happens, and then they take over and something else happens.
Could it be for instance that it was extra money from Allers in 1971 that gave
A&K funds to go into sf, and that later in 1973 there was a conflict between
Lundwall and the then new owners? John-Henri Holmberg might have commens (but
he hasn't previously AFAIK said anything about Allers meddlin with A&K)
--
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