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[hobblygobbly]

You can access them here! Thanks to Internet Archive.

The scan quality is all good but I've heard that the epub/kindle versions don't display correctly but the PDFs display fine, it'll most likely be fixed.

Available formats:

• ABBYY GZ
• DAISY
• EPUB
• FULL TEXT (Plain-text)
• KINDLE
• PDF
• SINGLE PAGE PROCESSED JP2 ZIP

Some history of If magazine:

• Wikipedia
• Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn.

The magazine was moderately successful, though it was never regarded as one of the first rank of science fiction magazines. It achieved its greatest success under editor Frederik Pohl, winning the Hugo Award for best professional magazine three years running from 1966 to 1968. If published many award-winning stories over its 22 years, including Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". Several well-known writers sold their first story to If; the most successful was Larry Niven, whose story "The Coldest Place" appeared in the December 1964 issue.

If was merged into Galaxy Science Fiction after the December 1974 issue, its 175th issue overall.

This magazine also paved the way for great science fiction writers with their work and also has the first publications of short stories by authors such as Arthur C. Clarke such as "Jupiter Five" in the May 1953 issue.

Will be spending the weekend reading some of these. I own a couple of the physical issues, my grandfather gave some to me (he owns quite a few but nowhere the whole collection) so I will enjoy reading a lot of these.

There is also cool art work in them and also the covers, I know a lot of people love that retro science fiction art style.

Thought I'd share, haven't seen much mention of it, it was only uploaded in the last day and the only articles I can find are boingboing

Included in the collection are all of the issues edited by Frederik Pohl from 1966-68, three years that netted him three consecutive Best Editor Hugo awards. If's Pohl run included signficant stories by Larry Niven, Harlan Ellison, Samuel Delany, Alexei Panshin and Gene Wolfe; it was the serialized home of such Heinlein novels as The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, as well as Laumer's Retief stories and Saberhagen's Berserker stories.

and arstechnica

... What’s really interesting about If, however, is how its content parallels the optimism of the era. At the time, science was exciting, not dystopian—a gateway into new possibilities. Even as Russia and the United States rushed to be the first to put a man on the Moon, the world dreamt in unison of a better tomorrow. The stories in If reflected this sensibility to some extent, being very much action-packed and sometimes even geared towards a younger audience. ...

 

[besada]

Thanks for the post. This is great. Going to spend the weekend drowning in old science fiction.

 

[Octavianus]

Oh wow. I've heard a lot about this stuff but I've never actually read it.
I guess I no longer have an excuse not to.

 

[besada]

These are amazing. I just flipped through the 1967 Hugo edition, and holy cow, what a treasure for people who haven't read some of this work. And the illustrations throughout are great. So excited.

 

[Baliis]

Wow that's awesome. Any particular issues that are recommended or should I just go wild.

 

[androvsky]

... What’s really interesting about If, however, is how its content parallels the optimism of the era.

and Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream"

Just kidding, I'm sure it's an exception. Sounds like a fascinating collection, thanks for posting this.

 

[hobblygobbly]

Glad you guys/girls like it, I wanted to give more exposure to it because for me I think it's a very important part of the history of science fiction literature and I am happy that Internet Archive and those involved are preserving it this way.

Wow that's awesome. Any particular issues that are recommended or should I just go wild.

You can go wild really, find something that peeks your interest, open up the contents page and find what novelette or short story finds your interest. There are also serials which can pan 2 or 3 issues, so if you find that and it says conclusion/part 2, etc, you can go to the previous issue to read the start of that serial.

Other than that, there are parts of it like the editorials that may be about something relevant to the history of the time like Cold War events, or features such as interviews with (now famous or then famous) science fiction authors, etc.

Also, wildly considered the best run is the 1960s, specifically the three years it won the Hugo Award consecutively 1966-1968 so you could particularly have a look at all the issues during that range if you want.

I love science fiction of this era that the magazine spans, and I love short stories, novelettes, and novellas in general which science fiction has a whole lot of amazing works. It's great for when you want to digest something that is is fulfilling/rewarding in a good reading time by finding whatever short story/novelette in it finds your interest

 

[Palette Swap]

Amazing find, thanks. I'm dumping this into my kindle.

 

[AlexMogil]

That pulp cover art is fantastic. Thanks for the link!

 

[OniBarubary]

That's fucking awesome

 

[FullMetaltech]

Going to try to read them in order by year. IIm on the first story and and really liking it so far.