The early days of a better genre

The standard potted history of science fiction begins with Jules Verne (or maybe Mary Shelley), moves on to H.G. Wells, nods at Edgar Rice Burroughs -- all of these in the "forefathers" category -- and then pronounces the birth of the contemporary genre with the advent of Amazing Stories in 1926 when suddenly there was a burst of new writers in the field. After reading Garrett P. Serviss' Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898) and the first half, so far, of Edwin L. Arnold's Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation on Mars (1905), I've been reading about SF before 1926 and have discovered, perhaps not surprisingly, that there was lot more going on than the thumbnail history indicates.

( A bigger thumbnail, but not much bigger )