The Thrill Book (Magazine)

 

The Thrill Book was a short-lived, semi-monthly, American pulp magazine published by the New York-based publishing house Street and Smith. The inaugural issue was released 1 March 1919, and the last issue was published 15 October of the same year. The first eight magazines were edited by Harold Hersey, with Ronald Oliphant taking over the reins for the issues printed between 1 July and 15 October.

The Thrill Book was created to provide readers with unusual and “different” stories. Many of those chosen for publication were works of fantasy or science fiction. Issues also contained adventure stories and weird tales, with the magazine showing a shift towards more fantasy and science fiction after Oliphant took over as editor.

The most famous Thrill Book story is The Heads of Cerberus, a novel that was serialized over the final five issues of the magazine (August 15 – October 15). Writing for Galaxy Science Fiction, the science fiction anthologist Geoff Conklin stated The Heads of Cerberus was “perhaps the first science fantasy to use the alternate time-track, or parallel worlds, idea.” [1]

During it’s limited print run, The Thrill Book also published several horror stories, with Edward Lucas White’s “The House of the Nightmare” standing out as one of the best choices.

It’s unclear why Street and Smith decided to discontinue the magazine. It has been speculated that poor sales may have been the reason. However, a printers’ strike around the same time may have been a contributing factor.

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1. “Galaxy’s 5 Star Shelf”, Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1952, p.124