FATE Magazine

History

FATE Magazine's first issue appeared in the spring of 1948, less than a year after Kenneth Arnold's sighting over Mount Rainier launched the modern UFO era. The magazine was co-founded by Raymond Palmer and Curtis Fuller. Palmer, who had edited the science fiction pulp Amazing Stories throughout the 1940s, brought publishing experience and a flair for promotion. Fuller brought journalistic standards and editorial discipline. The partnership would shape how the American public encountered the flying saucer phenomenon.

That first issue carried Kenneth Arnold's own account of his 24 June 1947 sighting, written in Arnold's own words. It was the first time the full narrative had been published outside newspaper reports. The issue sold out. Palmer and Fuller had identified an audience that had no outlet: people who wanted to read about anomalous phenomena without either the debunking tone of the scientific establishment or the fictional framing of science fiction pulps.

Palmer left FATE after the first year to launch his own publications (Flying Saucers from Other Worlds, The Hidden World), but Fuller continued as editor and publisher for decades. Under Fuller's stewardship, FATE broadened its scope beyond flying saucers to encompass the full range of anomalous phenomena: ghosts, psychic experiences, cryptozoology, ancient mysteries, dowsing, and unexplained events of every kind. This broader scope was deliberate. Fuller positioned FATE as the magazine of the strange and unknown, not as a UFO-only publication.

The magazine published monthly, eventually moving to bimonthly, and maintained a mass-market newsstand presence for over 60 years. Unlike the specialist newsletters of NICAP, APRO, and MUFON, FATE reached readers who would never subscribe to a UFO journal. Its readership at peak ran into the tens of thousands. This meant FATE shaped how ordinary Americans, not researchers, understood and discussed anomalous phenomena.

The magazine changed hands several times after Fuller's death, and its publication schedule became irregular in the 2000s. The final print issue appeared in 2009. A digital-only revival followed but the magazine's era as a mass-market newsstand publication was over. By then, FATE had published continuously for over 60 years and had introduced more Americans to anomalous phenomena than any specialist research journal.