The company was formed in 1930 by 

Henry "Harry" Steeger.[3] It was the time of the Great

Depression, and Steeger had just read The Hound of the Baskervilles. Steeger realized that
people wanted escapist fiction, allowing them to forget the difficulties of daily life. Steeger
wrote "I realised that a great deal of money could be made with that kind of material. It was not
long before I was at it, inventing one pulp magazine after another, until my firm had originated
over 300 of them."
In the late 1930s Steeger was under pressure to lower his rate of pay to below one cent a
word, which he felt was the minimum decent rate he could offer. He didn't want to have
Popular pay less than one cent per word, so a new company, Fictioneers, was started; it was
essentially a fictional company, with an address (205 East 42nd St) that corresponded to the
rear entrance of Popular's offices at 210 East 43rd St. It was given a separate phone number,
and the switchboard girl was instructed to put calls through to staff working on Fictioneers titles
only if the calls came to the Fictioneers number. Many staff were working on magazines for
both companies at the same time, which made it difficult to maintain the pretense of
separation. Science fiction writer Frederik Pohl, on the other hand, was hired specifically to edit
two Fictioneers titles: Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories.[4]
The company was formed in 1930 by Henry "Harry" Steeger.[3] It was the time of the Great
Depression, and Steeger had just read The Hound of the Baskervilles. Steeger realized that
people wanted escapist fiction, allowing them to forget the difficulties of daily life. Steeger
wrote "I realised that a great deal of money could be made with that kind of material. It was not
long before I was at it, inventing one pulp magazine after another, until my firm had originated
over 300 of them."
In the late 1930s Steeger was under pressure to lower his rate of pay to below one cent a
word, which he felt was the minimum decent rate he could offer. He didn't want to have
Popular pay less than one cent per word, so a new company, Fictioneers, was started; it was
essentially a fictional company, with an address (205 East 42nd St) that corresponded to the
rear entrance of Popular's offices at 210 East 43rd St. It was given a separate phone number,
and the switchboard girl was instructed to put calls through to staff working on Fictioneers titles
only if the calls came to the Fictioneers number. Many staff were working on magazines for
both companies at the same time, which made it difficult to maintain the pretense of
separation. Science fiction writer Frederik Pohl, on the other hand, was hired specifically to edit
two Fictioneers titles: Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories.[4]
The company was formed in 1930 by Henry "Harry" Steeger.[3] It was the time of the Great
Depression, and Steeger had just read The Hound of the Baskervilles. Steeger realized that
people wanted escapist fiction, allowing them to forget the difficulties of daily life. Steeger
wrote "I realised that a great deal of money could be made with that kind of material. It was not
long before I was at it, inventing one pulp magazine after another, until my firm had originated
over 300 of them."
In the late 1930s Steeger was under pressure to lower his rate of pay to below one cent a
word, which he felt was the minimum decent rate he could offer. He didn't want to have
Popular pay less than one cent per word, so a new company, Fictioneers, was started; it was
essentially a fictional company, with an address (205 East 42nd St) that corresponded to the
rear entrance of Popular's offices at 210 East 43rd St. It was given a separate phone number,
and the switchboard girl was instructed to put calls through to staff working on Fictioneers titles
only if the calls came to the Fictioneers number. Many staff were working on magazines for
both companies at the same time, which made it difficult to maintain the pretense of
separation. Science fiction writer Frederik Pohl, on the other hand, was hired specifically to edit
two Fictioneers titles: Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories.[4]
The company was formed in 1930 by Henry "Harry" Steeger.[3] It was the time of the Great
Depression, and Steeger had just read The Hound of the Baskervilles. Steeger realized that
people wanted escapist fiction, allowing them to forget the difficulties of daily life. Steeger
wrote "I realised that a great deal of money could be made with that kind of material. It was not
long before I was at it, inventing one pulp magazine after another, until my firm had originated
over 300 of them."
In the late 1930s Steeger was under pressure to lower his rate of pay to below one cent a
word, which he felt was the minimum decent rate he could offer. He didn't want to have
Popular pay less than one cent per word, so a new company, Fictioneers, was started; it was
essentially a fictional company, with an address (205 East 42nd St) that corresponded to the
rear entrance of Popular's offices at 210 East 43rd St. It was given a separate phone number,
and the switchboard girl was instructed to put calls through to staff working on Fictioneers titles
only if the calls came to the Fictioneers number. Many staff were working on magazines for
both companies at the same time, which made it difficult to maintain the pretense of
separation. Science fiction writer Frederik Pohl, on the other hand, was hired specifically to edit
two Fictioneers titles: Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories.[4]
The company was formed in 1930 by Henry "Harry" Steeger.[3] It was the time of the Great
Depression, and Steeger had just read The Hound of the Baskervilles. Steeger realized that
people wanted escapist fiction, allowing them to forget the difficulties of daily life. Steeger
wrote "I realised that a great deal of money could be made with that kind of material. It was not
long before I was at it, inventing one pulp magazine after another, until my firm had originated
over 300 of them."
In the late 1930s Steeger was under pressure to lower his rate of pay to below one cent a
word, which he felt was the minimum decent rate he could offer. He didn't want to have
Popular pay less than one cent per word, so a new company, Fictioneers, was started; it was
essentially a fictional company, with an address (205 East 42nd St) that corresponded to the
rear entrance of Popular's offices at 210 East 43rd St. It was given a separate phone number,
and the switchboard girl was instructed to put calls through to staff working on Fictioneers titles
only if the calls came to the Fictioneers number. Many staff were working on magazines for
both companies at the same time, which made it difficult to maintain the pretense of
separation. Science fiction writer Frederik Pohl, on the other hand, was hired specifically to edit
two Fictioneers titles: Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories.[4]