Felix Martí-Ibáñez (1911-1972)

Psychiatrist, Lecturer, Teacher, Publisher, Editor, Historian, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Government Minister
Born December 26, 1911, Cartagena, Spain
Died May 24, 1972, presumably in New York, New York

Felix Martí-Ibáñez was born on December 26, 1911, in Cartagena, Spain. His father, Félix Martí Alpera (1875-1946), was a teacher, director of education, and prolific author of more than 500 books. His mother, Josefina Ibáñez Sánchez De Marti, was a teacher of music. Martí-Ibáñez received his medical degree from the University of Madrid, then practiced psychiatry; lectured on medical, historical, and cultural topics; edited medical and literary journals; and wrote novels and histories of medicine and psychology. He was appointed a government minster in his native Spain in 1937 and fled to the United States in 1939 at the close of the Spanish Civil War. He continued in his writing and lecturing in the United States. The New York Times noted that Martí-Ibáñez at one time "held the chair of the history of medicine at New York Medical College of Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals." In 1957, he launched the medical magazine MD. His books include the following:

• The Centaur (1958)
• Ariel (1962)
• All the Wonders We Seek (1963)
• The Crystal Arrow (1964)
• Waltz and Other Stories (1965)
• The Ship in the Bottle and Other Essays (1967)

All the Wonders We Seek is a collection of thirteen science fiction and fantasy stories. Martí-Ibáñez's works in those genres, listed on the Speculative Fiction Database, are as follows:

• "Between Two Dreams" in Weird Tales (May 1953)
• "A Tomb in Malacor" in Weird Tales (Sept. 1954)
• "Senhor Zumbeira's Leg" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Dec. 1962)
• "Amigo Heliotropo" (1963)
• "The Seekers of Dreams" (1963)
• "Riquiqui, I Love You!" (1963)
• "Niña Sol" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (May 1963)
• "The Buried Paradise" in Weird Tales (Sept. 1973)

Martí-Ibáñez was one of few writers to be published in the original Weird Tales and in the revival of 1973-1974. (His second story was in the last issue of the original run.) Martí-Ibáñez died on May 24, 1972, presumably in Manhattan, where he had lived for many years. Editor Sam Moskowitz wrote a remembrance of him in the Fall 1973 issue of Weird Tales, calling MD "one of the most financially as well as artistically successful special interest journals ever published."

Felix Martí-Ibáñez's Stories in Weird Tales

"Between Two Dreams" (May 1953)
"A Tomb in Malacor" (Sept. 1954)
"The Buried Paradise" (Sept. 1973)

Further Reading

"Dr. Felix Marti-Ibanez Is Dead; Psychiatrist and Publisher, 60" in the New York Times, May 25, 1972, p. 48.

"Felix Marti-Ibanez, M.D." by Sam Moskowitz in Weird Tales, Fall 1973, p. 83.

A medallion to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the magazine MD by Felix Martí-Ibáñez. The designer was J. Kiselewsky.

Revised on March 4, 2018.
Text and captions copyright 2013, 2023 Terence E. Hanley