Cavalier, The
Entry updated 25 March 2024. Tagged: Publication.
1. US general-fiction Pulp magazine published by the Frank A Munsey Company, edited by Robert H Davis. It evolved from The Scrap Book and appeared monthly October 1908-January 1912, became The Cavalier Weekly, 6 January 1912 to 9 May 1914, then merged with All-Story Weekly to form All Story Cavalier Weekly (see The All-Story). Although comparatively short-lived, The Cavalier published several celebrated sf works: Garrett P Serviss's Disaster novel The Second Deluge (July 1911-January 1912; 1912) and George Allan England's Darkness and Dawn trilogy, "Darkness and Dawn" (January-20 January 1912), "Beyond the Great Oblivion" (4 January-8 February 1913) and "The Afterglow" (14 June-5 July 1913), published as Darkness and Dawn (fixup 1914), which uses the Sleeper Awakes motif to explore a post-catastrophe New York a millennium hence. George Allan England contributed two other serials: "The Elixir of Hate" (August-November 1911) about the rejuvenating (see Rejuvenation) effects of an elixir of life and The Golden Blight (18 May-22 June 1912; 1916) a master-of-the-world style novel with the threat of destroying the world's supply of gold (see Transmutation). By comparison, the novella "World Wreckers" (November 1908) by Frank Lillie Pollock shows how the world economy may be ruined by a method to create gold. Other serials of interest include H Rider Haggard's historical fantasy set in Ancient Egypt, Morning Star (November 1909-June 1910; 1910); James Francis Dwyer's Lost Race fantasy The White Waterfall (13 April-4 May 1912; 1912); the first English translation of Gaston Leroux's Balaoo (23 November-21 December 1912; 1913) about a human ape (see Apes as Human); and J U Giesy's Future War novel All for His Country (21 February-14 March 1914; 1915). Among the numerous short stories were several humorous Invention stories by Edgar Franklin, and an interesting experiment with "In 2112" (10 August 1912) by J U Giesy and Junius B Smith, which was presented in both English and Esperanto. Several stories from The Cavalier were reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries and Fantastic Novels. Munsey's revived the magazine briefly as Cavalier Classics, for just three issues, July-November 1940, primarily to reprint the Zorro adventures by Johnston McCulley and ran nothing of sf interest. [MA/JE]
2. The unrelated US Slick magazine Cavalier (November 1952-?March 1992) was launched by Fawcett Publications as a fiction showcase for authors appearing in the Fawcett Gold Medal book imprint, with work by John D MacDonald, Wade Miller, Richard S Prather and Mickey Spillane. It soon developed into a men's glossy magazine, with a title change to Cavalier for Men from June 1953 to December 1955, along the lines of Argosy and Blue Book before steadily shifting towards imitating Playboy by the early 1960s, with a more sophisticated, less macho image. During the 1950s it used to run a "complete" novel per issue, usually hard-boiled thrillers, war or spy stories or Westerns, but it also ran features on the progress of science, unusual inventions, UFOs and unexplained mysteries. Starting in 1959 it began to run the occasional horror sf story, usually reprints of stories by Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Henry Kuttner and Manly Wade Wellman, mostly from Weird Tales, alongside occasional new works by Gerald Kersh, George Langelaan and Henry Slesar. By 1965 Cavalier had become an overt Playboy lookalike and Fawcett sold the magazine for fear its image would harm their big-selling Woman's Day. Under the editorship of Frank M Robinson and Robert J Shea it ran some new sf and fantasy stories by Arthur C Clarke, Bruce Jay Friedman and Isaac Bashevis Singer, and articles by Isaac Asimov. During the 1970s it published the "Deadbone" erotica cartoons by Vaughn Bodē and several horror stories by Stephen King, including his first sale "Graveyard Shift" (October 1970) and the more science-fictional "Trucks" (June 1973) in which an unknown force takes control over vehicles and other electronic devices. Cavalier was revived in 2008 as an online magazine but carried no fiction. [MA/DRL]
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