Otto Witt

{{Short description|Swedish author}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Refimprove|date=December 2009}} '''Otto Witt''' (1875–1923) was a Swedish writer. He was one of the prominent figures in early Swedish science fiction. He did, among other things, publish ''Hugin'', a science magazine "which was also filled with speculative articles and fiction".<ref name="ma">{{Cite book |last=Ashley |first=Mike |author-link=Mike Ashley (writer) |title=A Companion to Science Fiction |date=2005 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-79701-3 |editor-last=Seed |editor-first=David |editor-link= |pages=62 |language=en |chapter=Science Fiction Magazines: The Crucibles of Change |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PiphRocVYRwC&pg=PA62}}</ref> ''Hugin'' was one of the first magazines to regularly carry science fiction in the world, although it appears to have had little influence outside Sweden.<ref name="ma" />

==''Hugin''== ''Hugin'' was published between 7 April 1916 and 15 January 1920.<ref name="TuckHugin">{{Cite book |last=Tuck |first=Donald H. |author-link=Donald H. Tuck |title=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1968: A Bibliographic Survey of the Fields of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction through 1968 |date=1982 |publisher=Advent:Publishers |isbn=978-0-911682-20-5 |volume=3: Miscellaneous |pages=569 |language=en |chapter=''Hugin'' |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofsc0003tuck/page/568/mode/2up}}</ref> The schedule was in theory fortnightly, though it was in practice plagued by delays and published irregularly.<ref name="TuckHugin" /><ref name="SFESweden" /> It ran for 85 issues, though many were double- or triple-numbered, making for a total of 65 individual issues.<ref name="SFESweden">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2024 |title=Sweden |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/sweden |access-date=2025-06-08 |edition=4th |author1-last=Holmberg |author1-first=John-Henri |author1-link=John-Henri Holmberg |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref><ref name="SFEOttoWitt">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2024 |title=Witt, Otto |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/witt_otto |access-date=2025-06-08 |edition=4th |author1-last=Holmberg |author1-first=John-Henri |author1-link=John-Henri Holmberg |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref> ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' describes it as a "popular science magazine [...] which included some short sf".<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2014 |title=Hugin |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hugin |access-date=2025-06-08 |edition=4th |author1-last=[unsigned] |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref> It has been described as an early science fiction magazine, for instance by Swedish science fiction critic Sam J. Lundwall; US science fiction scholar Sam Moskowitz rejects this characterization, writing that the proportion of science fiction to non-fiction content was so low (some issues containing no fiction at all) that it does not even count as a fiction magazine.<ref name="SFEOttoWitt" /><ref name="Moskowitz1986SettingTheRecordStraight">{{cite magazine |last=Moskowitz |first=Sam |author-link=Sam Moskowitz |date=Summer 1986 |title=Setting the Record Straight: A Response to Lundwall's 'Adventures in the Pulp Jungle' |url=https://fanac.org/fanzines//Foundation/foundation_36_pringle_1986-su.pdf#page=59 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240920111723/https://fanac.org/fanzines//Foundation/foundation_36_pringle_1986-su.pdf#page=59 |archive-date=2024-09-20 |access-date=2025-06-08 |magazine=Foundation |publisher=Science Fiction Foundation |pages=57–67 |issue=36 |issn=0306-4964}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Moskowitz |first=Sam |author-link=Sam Moskowitz |title=Science/Fiction Collections: Fantasy, Supernatural and Weird Tales |date=1983 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-75469-4 |editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Hal W. |pages=90–91 |language=en |chapter=Anatomy of a Collection: The Sam Moskowitz Collection |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sdl_AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA90}}</ref> Swedish science fiction critic John-Henri Holmberg, in ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', similarly writes that describing ''Hugin'' as a science fiction magazine "is greatly overstating the truth" as the bulk of the magazine's content consisted of non-fiction.<ref name="SFEOttoWitt" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Gutenberg author | id=Witt,+Otto | name=Otto Witt}} * [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/witt_otto Otto Witt] author presentation at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Otto Witt}} * {{Librivox author |id=3474}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Witt, Otto}} Category:1875 births Category:1923 deaths Category:Swedish science fiction writers Category:Swedish-language writers