Leo Margulies, editor, Thrilling wonder stories, vol 15, no 2, New York, Better Publications, February 1940, Rare Books collection

The modern genre of science fiction was born in the 1920s, but the tradition of speculative literature reaches back to ancient epics that blend fantasy and heroism, such as The epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100 BCE). The 19th century heralded a new wave of 'scientific romance' by Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, HG Wells and others. In the 1920s, the hugely popular genre of 'scientifiction' (a term coined by writer and editor Hugo Gernsback) evolved into modern 'science fiction'.