The Space Merchants is a 1952 science fiction novel by American writers Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth. Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine as a serial entitled Gravy Planet, the novel was first published as a single volume in 1953, and has sold heavily since. It deals satirically with a hyper-developed consumerism, seen through the eyes of an advertising executive. In 1984, Pohl published a sequel, The Merchants' War. In 2012, it was included in the Library of America omnibus American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1953–1956. Pohl revised the original novel in 2011 with added material and more contemporary references.
It was rated the 24th "all-time best novel" in a 1975 Locus poll, jointly with The Martian Chronicles and The War of the Worlds. The novel was also included in David Pringle's list of 100 best science fiction novels.
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Spanning nearly three-quarters of a century as an editor, literary agent, fan advocate, and novelist, American speculative fiction contributed foundational satirical and social science fiction to the genre, most notably the award-winning Heechee Saga beginning with Gateway. Frederik Pohl stood among the central architects of twentieth-century science fiction, crafting trenchant critiques that examined commercialism, technology, and humanity's place in the cosmos.
From his foundational leadership in fan communities to his decades spent shaping major magazines and paperback lines, Pohl maintained an enduring presence in American science fiction from the late 1930s into the early 2010s. His legacy encompasses milestone novels such as The Space Merchants (co-authored with C. M. Kornbluth), Man Plus, and Jem, alongside influential editorial tenures that brought pioneering authors to public attention.
Frederik George Pohl Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 26, 1919. His father held a number of jobs, causing the family to move many times in his early childhood before settling in Brooklyn when he was about seven years old. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School, but dropped out and took a job to help support his family. As a teenager in the late 1930s, he founded the New York science fiction writers' group The Futurians. In 1936, he joined the Young Communist League and became President of the Brooklyn branch, leaving the organization in 1939 after the Stalin-Hitler pact. His first publication, the poem "Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna", appeared in Amazing Stories in 1937 under the pseudonym Elton V. Andrews when he was 18 years old. In 1939, at the age of 21, he became the editor of both Super Science Stories and Astonishing Stories, regularly publishing his own stories in both magazines.
Pohl married his first wife in 1940. In 1943, both of the magazines he was editing folded, and he began working as a literary agent. During World War II, he served with the Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1945. He divorced his first wife during this period and married his second wife in 1945. In 1948, he married his third wife, author and editor Judith Merril, whom he divorced in 1953, the same year he married his fourth wife, Carol Metcal Ulf. In the early 1950s, his literary agency business failed, prompting his return to editing as an assistant editor at Galaxy Science Fiction and later If magazine. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy and If; under his leadership, If won three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Professional Magazine in 1966, 1967, and 1968. In the 1970s, he acquired and edited novels for the "Frederik Pohl Selections" series at Bantam Books and contributed to major anthologies like Foundation's Friends.
Pohl emerged as an award-winning novelist in the late 1970s, winning Nebula Awards for fiction in 1976 for Man Plus and in 1977 for Gateway. His 1977 novel Gateway achieved remarkable acclaim, winning four major year's best novel honors: the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1978, the Locus Award, the Nebula Award, and the juried John W. Campbell Memorial Award. For his 1979 novel Jem, Pohl won a U.S. National Book Award for Science Fiction while being named a finalist for three other best-novel awards. He married science fiction editor and academic Elizabeth Anne Hull, PhD, in 1984, maintaining his residence in Palatine, Illinois. In 1984, he won his second Campbell Memorial Award for his novella collection Years of the City. The Science Fiction Writers of America named him its 12th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in 1993, and he was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2010, he won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer for his blog, "The Way the Future Blogs". His active career spanned nearly 75 years, concluding with the 2011 novel All the Lives He Led and essays published in 2012.
Pohl's signature writing style combined sharp sociological satire with realistic economic extrapolation. Writing during eras that often praised unchecked technological progress, he examined the absurdities of consumer culture, corporate dominance, and government overreach. In collaborations like The Space Merchants, co-written with C. M. Kornbluth, he depicted dystopias ruled by advertising agencies where consumer behavior was methodically manipulated. His prose remained pragmatic, grounded, and focused on working-class struggles, reflecting his early years during the Great Depression and his acute observation of political systems.
In addition to economic satire, Pohl explored psychological vulnerability and the human response to technological trauma. In Man Plus, he detailed the horrific physical and emotional sacrifices required to cyborgize an astronaut for Martian survival. In Gateway and its sequel Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, he paired high-concept alien archaeology with deep psychological introspection, focusing on guilt, trauma, and survivor anxiety. Whether analyzing Cold War invasion fears in Not This August or planetary imperialism in Jem, Pohl examined how flawed human institutions react to overwhelming power and cosmic discovery.
The Space Merchants
