ARTHUR C. tI NI CE. CLARKE on NI Spoceships A of Fiction V F -,

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FORREST J. ACKERMAN oN .DESTI NATION MOON' Hollywood Puts Space-Flight on the Screen

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THOMAS SHERIDAN on HUGO GERNSBACK Pioneer of Scientifiction

ONB SHILLING fn Canada, & U.S,A.: 25 CENTS a F0RREST J. ACKERMAN reports on . DESTINATION MOON '

Hollywood. soles of spacemen's boots, suction cups The cinemagicians of Celluloid City were employed. The spacs.suits they have completed a 240,000-mile trip on a wore'! weighed about 100 lbs. And to Hohman orbit to the crater Harpalus, show the effect on the passengers of a a pock-mark on the forehead of the rocket in free fall, a giant gimbal rep- man in the Moon- In semi-documen- resenting the vessel's interior. was built tary style, and in Technicolor, this for' $25,000 and so operated that walls space-flight of 1960 has been filmed for and ceiling could become floor'. Hein- audiences of 1950-and the greatest lein took particulal care with the miracle of all is that Hollywood seems weightless sequences; he wants no to have done the job right. There is wlong-moment laughs from the audi- no girl stowaway, no sabotaging villain, ence when they see them. "If, in spite no bug-eyed monsters on the Moon- of all our precautions to keep the pic- and no atmosphere there either! ture serlous and sober, they still The picture is "Destination Moon," snicker," he said, "I'm leavinE for the adapted by the author and Fl,ip van Moon-on foot !" R,cnkel from the boy's book, "Rocket Another clever trick tvas worked out Slip Galileo," by Robert A. Heinlein to give an illusion of the spacemen (Scribner's: '48). The juvenile element labouring under six gravibies. Trans- has been completely eliminated from parent gauze was placed across the the film, for which Heinlein himself actors' mouths, then pulled taut with was engaged as technical adviser. He invisible thread, thus distorting their kept cigarette smoke out of empty features to give the efiect of strain. But space and candy wrappers ofi the sur- the best illusion of all, to my mind, is face of the Moon; tre also designed the the use of midgets for perspective pur- rocket-ship, one beautiful l5-foot model pos€s; in duplicate, smaller-sized space- of which took ten days to construct ab suits, and carrying equipment to scale, a cost close to $600. For more than they subsritute at times for the normal- nine hours a day, six days a week for size actors to give the appearance of six weeks, he kept a watchful eye on the Moon explorers at great distances. the scientific accuracy of the enterprise. Eventually the figures were reduced to puppets on table-tops; but if George When the white stars in the back- producer, cloth of space (miniatu-re bulbs PaI, the famous for his wrapped in cellophane and strung on Puppetoons, has nsed his skill suffi- net) photographed with a red halation, ciently, the transition from live action they were covered with green so as to to animation will never be noticed. shine white. To simulate the magnetic MOONSCAPE BY BONESTELL Chesley Bonestell, the astronomical artist whose painted products antici- pate the effects of the camera's lens, SCIENCE.FANTASY rvas secured to create the Lunar. land- scape. He first made a lemarkable model, thirteen feet long, aftel which REVIEW stndio technicians reproduced his work QUARTERLY: ONE SHILLING on a grand scale-l?3 feet long, 120 feel across and 25 feeb high. Bonestell is a Editorial, Advertising and Pub- kindly, modest, grey-haired man who lishing Ofrce: 115 Wanstead Park Road. Ilford, Essex. * To make them more easilv dis- tinguishable againsL the Lunar landscape, EDITOR: WALTER, GILLINGS the suits are of different colours. The cowr photo shows Tom Powers as Gen- eral f[pyer (lefl,) and Warner Anderson Vol. 4, No, lE SPRING '50 as Dr: Charles Cargraves, leading atomic physicist of 1960, inside the Moon rocket. 3

was olten to be foirnd on the sets of the fllm. Viewers were also intrro- duling the trlming of the live action; duced to producer Pal, director Irving and he gave me some interesting side- Pichel, Heinlein and Bonestell, whose lights on his part of the book, "The book was well in sight; while Heinlein Conquest of Space," which has caused had something to say, in authoritative such a stir both within and without tones, about the imminence of space- astronautical circles in two countriesi. flight. '"I began my work as a hobby, to amuse Veteran director Pichel, too. takes the ^children. Now a netv encyclopedia. film and its subject quite seriously, 'wants to buy some of it. My wife helps though he expressed to me Lris private me by making models, which are opinion that "aU of us will get to the photographed and then painted," Moon-simultaneousiy and in a million Naturally, all the science f,ctionists pieces, propelled by an atomic explosion in the vicinity ',vanted to take a look at of the Earth-befor€ a rccket-ship gets the film in the making, and Heinlein there." -was able to arrange for many visitors Producer PaI, who years ago made 'Kuttner,to the nominally closed sets. Henry "The Ship of the Ether" in Holland, has his wife Catherine Moore, A. said that he intends to make a whole E. van Vogt, and several members of series of scientifilms, and has indicated 'both the Los Angeles Fantasy Society that he will consider the perennially 'and local rocketry organisations were popular Gernsback novel, "Ralph- admitted. Photographers came from l24O4l+":i. His attention has also Life and Mechanix lllustrated, and on been called to other stories which may one occasion William Cameron Menzies, prove suitable for fllming, including 'director of "Things to Come," was there Heinlein's "Space Cadet" (FR, Feb-Mar. to watch tlle rescue-in-space takes. '49). Meanwhile, the release of "Des- The television feature, "The City at tination Moon" will be rushed, "to keep Night," also visited the sets to make a ahead of reality," and its successful plogramme which was broaclcast over reception will result in the early fllm- EILA and lasted the whole of an hour. ing of the Balmer-Wylie classic "When ft opened with a view of the Earth fail- Worlds Collide." Thele is a possibility 'ing away beneath the spaceship, that this wiII be given a four: followed by a shot of the Moon as the dimensional climax, thanks to a pro- vessel nears the satellite preparatory to cess being perfected by a Los Ang€les ,landing. In this case, the visitors were inventor well-known to iocal s-f fans: the man-and-wife interviewing team of and, again, it will be in Technicolour. the programme, who on arrival (with- At last, science fiction will beCln to 'out spacesuits) m€t the four explorers fulfiI its destiny on the screen. i See Walter Gillings' "Fantasia," this See page i$sue. i L -And GE0FFREY GILES sees SPACE.FLIGHT ON THE STAGE Although Hollywood has risen to the of the former Teddington Cosmos Club ,occasion at last, to expect the stage to who has written science fiction and a 'utilise the dramatic possibiiities of few one-act plays, it was not too space-flight rvould seem like crying for formidable a task to write a three-act the Moon. So far, no established drama which would put the idea of a 'dramatist has dared to exploit the journey into space on the stage for the idea, probably because no producer in flrst time. Thr€e years ago, while on tfs right mind would take kindly to a the way over to America on a business theme which not only bristles with trip, he settled down to "Goodbye To- dificulties of presentation but de- morrow," which he finally completed rnands very careful treatment if it is after eighteen months of sparetime to be taken seriously bv an audience industry. Nor did he trave to look far which naturally associates it with for a compeLent group of players ''Flash Goldon" and "Super.rnan" wiUing and able to present it, once they movie ser'ials. were sold on the idea. Although not But to F" Fh'ank Pal.ker, a member one of them had evel encountered the 4 subject outside of the comic strips' his TheaLre CIub fellows of the Teddington SKYTARKS SPACE were prepared to take a chance. OF In facb, their Producer, Edward Sin- The world's flrst interplanetary clair. became quite enthusiastic; soon travel bureau has been started by comrirunicated his enthusiasm to the a New York business man, accord- cast, and got them rehearsing fhe "in- ing to facetious accounts which triguing new play" with as much gusto appeared in London newspapers. in Said the Evening Standard: "AI- as they had shown over "Alice ready more than 200 atom-age Wonderland," their fufthest previous flight pioneers have rushed to book departure from tradition. With the passages (on) spacs'cruisers when result that the three perforrnances they go to the Moon. The bureau they gave at RonaYne Hall, Hampton has time-tables worked out for the Wick, marked one of their biggest suc- rocket ships Lunarian, Martian, cesses in twentY-three seasons, of Saturnia and Solar Queen (which) which their supporters, no less than will leave every day, except Sun- many days and holidays, from the New themselves, will be talking for York'space port' in central Park, more seasons to come. starting in March 1975," The drama, of course, was noc Prices, said another report, wiII gr€atly concemed with bhe technical be announced 'later.' The time- niceties of rocket-flight, nor even tables include a provision that the with a particular destination for the spaceline 'cannot be responsible spaceship in whose control-room all for delays caused by meteor show- the action took place. Yet it presented ers.' But, said an "ofrcial": "Fly- novel angle on ttre as yet incalculable ing to the Moon wiII be as safe as a a transcontinental flight some contingencies of astronautics with day." - enough conviction to make the climax efiective rather than merely baffiing. As it turns out, the eight voyagers, shouts down to the Professor. at the trapped in the "tiny metal cocoon" control levers, to "give her a side over which tJley have no control (due blast." The Professor, anxious enough to a bit of deviltry by a discharged already, seeks elucidation: "Confound manservant). flnd on returning safely you! Which side?" Comes ttre answer, to Earth that they have completed a pa,t: "The side away from the doors!" circuit of the System which, though it But the principal business of seems only to trave lasted days, has "Goodbye Tomorrow" is to depict the actually taken "more than a lifetime." gfiects on a mixed bunch of humans Without going into the mathematics of (most unlikely candidates for such a the subject, Parker contrives to venture, under any other circum- account for this denouement by some stances) of an unexpected trip into the clever dialogue between a man of the void; and rn this it succeeds only too future who greets them in the last well, with many emotional outbursts scene and the expiring scientist- as violent as rocket explosions. Con- abductor, who realises dimly that the ducting his "social experiment" with- speed at which the vessel has been out asking anybody's permission, the travelling for most of its hectic flight, elderly scientist takes ofi with a motley having exceeded that of light, must crew: his cantankerous sister, a jobless have played sorne devastating tricks. ex-Army major, a couple on the verge The shocks and sensations of the of separation, a simple soul with journey were more than adequately religious mania, a young scientist on conveyed by the players, in spite of the flddle, and a selfish minx. But their never leaving the safety of the after their terror and indignation have boards upon which they wele required passed, they pass the time playing to throw themse.lves violentlv several parlour games, their personal problems times during each evening. The plausi- solved bv-and the remoteness of their bility of the setiing had, too, been position; wlren they find them- ensured by careful labour on the part selves returning to Earth they scarcely of the scenic arbist, even if there were relish the prospect. How they even- points which no BIS technician would tualiy adapt themselves to the world of pass and the dialogue indicated a sur- 2030 A.D. or- thereabouts, dramatist prising laxness in the ticklish operation Parker leaves to the imagination. Or, of landing a rocket-ship on Earth. His perhaps, for due consideration on a" assistant in the observation room future trip to America. wa,tter Gilrings' FAITTASIA Daily Express ran three-day feature based on "The Conquest of Space," by Chesley Bonestell and Willy Ley (reviewed last issue), due to see British publication by Chapman ,& HalI. BIS Journal reviewer Arthur C. Clarke decided: "No better introduction to astronautics could possibly be imagined" . Boys' Own Paper took up the subject in articles by BIS Councillor II. E. Ross; while, in Tit-Bits, Atlantis Researcher Egerton Sykes predicted "Flockets to Moon in Seven Years" . . Coronet featured axtist Bonestell's latest notions on "tr{r. Smith Goes to venus" . . . Roberb A. Ileinlein turned up in American Legion Magazine with new tale of "Rebellion on the Moon" Ray Bradbury sent "Ttre ve]dt" to Satevepost; seven days later got cheque for $1,000 . . . Doubleday will issue volume of "Lancelot Biggs, Spaceman" stories by Nelson Bond, whose "Conqueror's IsIe" was on Radio City's Playhouse . . ceorge O. Smith wrote of flctional villains, or "Flends in Huma,n Form" in Writer's Dig:est, which reported: "Science and fantasy continue to be popular reading trends, with open markets in the pulps . . . Give them some real science background. It is not enough to take an old detective or Western plot and stick it up in the stars" . . . Latest pocket-book collection of s-f, "Shot in the Dark" (Bantam, New York: 25c.), including ta.les by Sturgeon, Heinlein, Padgett, Leinster, Asimov. etc., edited by Judith Menil . Collection of S. Fowler wright "phantasies" published during past thirty years reasseslbled in "The Throne of Saturn," now available from Arkham Ilouse, whence $'ill come volume of M.P. Shiel reprints titled "Xelucha and Others" .. . Pellegrini to publish "conjure Wife," by FYitz Leiber, Jr., tale of modern witch-" craft from Unknown Worlds . Avon Fantasy Reader's Donald A. Wollheim is editor of "Flight into Space," new Fe]l anthology of gYeat interplanetary stories . Another unpublished novelette by John w. Campbell, Jr., "Ftozen HeIl," to appear from Fantasy Press in volume lncluding some of his Thrilling wonder stories . , . Former AstoundinE editor F. Orlin Tremaine's "Short Story writing" adopted by University of Vermont as official textbook . . . University of California, Los Angeles, formed flrst campus s-f club, heaxd agent Forrest J. Ackerrnan talk of bearding "Editors in Their Lairs." New Yorker went to annual party of New York Hydra Club, "outflt composed of writers of the Buck Rogers school," found "crowd consisted largely of men in need of haircuts and ladies in dresses no more strearnlined than the frocks tlat were in fashion long before the invention of the gas mantle. Sprinkled among them were a couple of dozen autograph hunters . . . Two s-f writers beside us were agxeeing heartily that cosrnic ra,ys, crystalline mutations and space warps have been done to death" . Also mourned: 116-year-old New York Sun, originator of ll,ichard Adam Locke's "Moon Hoax," and London's Strand Magazine, promoter of Wells and Conan Doyle . In John o' Irondon's, Fluddick \{illar recalled "The Crack of Doom," by RobertCromie,whichinlS95"foretold...theatomicbomb,...indicated...thab with it the whole Earth might be destroyed, and that the explosion might even wreck the entire Solar System" Astronomer Royal H. Spencer Jones reassured Star readers concerni.ng an "Explosion on Mars," coinciding with scary headlines on the H-bomb . In spite of declaration by Tru€ magauine that "for past 175 years . Earth has been under systematic close-range observation by living, intelligent observeis from another planet," U.S. Army Air Force abandoned Lwo-year Project Saucer, concluding that flying discs are no more than "(1) a misinterpretation of various conventior-ral objects, (2) a mild form of mass hysteria, or (3) hoaxes', . . . Murray Leinster"s Astounding story, "I'irst Contact," being adapted for U.S.A. radio . . "The Angry Planet," by John Keir Cross, presented by BBC as children's serial George Ornvell, author "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (S-FR, Autumn '49), died at 46 after iong illness . "Progress," Evening News short story by Lord Dunsany, told of atomic catastrophe in far universe . Daily Mirror's "Man of To-morrow," Ronald Bedford, predicting life "I'ifty Years On," foresaw "Interstellar Problem . . . much like Cold rJi/ar of '48," ending when discovery of life on Mars forces .,squabbling Earth Powers (to) co-operate against the threaL of possible invasion,' . Beverley Nichols, interviewing Professor A. M. Low for Sunday Chronicle ,'Diary of a Nobody in A.D. 2000," reported: "Low talks at top speed; ideas seethe and bubble in his brain; his conversation is lit with strange volcanic flashes" . . . Roalbook also featured "What the World Will be Like in the Year 2000," according to Aldous Huxley, philip wylie and others please turrr to page 25 THOMAS SHERIDAN teintroduGes

HUGO GERNSBACK

who som€ may remember as the Pioneer of Scientifiction

Ttre latest, Campbell-worshipping magazine to feabure s-f, nor even to generation of science flcLion fans will devote itself entirely to the fantastic hardly have heard of Hugo Gernsback, story: Street & Srnith's Thrill Book rmless they happen also to be radio- had starbed to work the vein in eamest television hams who read Radio- in '19, but gave up after 16 issues. Electronics. The story goes that a Weird Tales, too, had commenced in '23 devoted reader of that highly technical to cultivate the interest of lovers of journal, in which Editor-Publisher fantasy-fiction to the point of life-long Gernsback still indulges the flair for addiction. However, having played fantastic prophecy which has been his qrith it since ihe days of his earliesb speciality for 40 years, once wrote in technical publications, Gernsback was suggesting that the Pr€sident of Rad- the flrst to realise the possibilities craft Publications had missed his which the science story ofiered for vocation. "Why," he asked, "do you further high-pressure developmento, waste yotr time editing a radio trade During the early '20's, his Science and magazine when you could make a for- lnvention carried almost as much tune writing science fiction for Amaz' science-fantasy of the fictional sort as ing Stories, Astounding Science Fiction it did of the factual kind, in a special or Fentastic Adventures?" rotagravure section which went down The query brought a smile oi fond so well that a "Scientifiction Issue" reminiscence to Gernsback's saturrline eventnally presented half-a-dozen such countenance. He had been through all tales. ttr.at long ago-between 1908 and '36, to Soon afterwards, Gernsback circu- be exact. Alihough he hadn't made a lalised his science-and-radio hobbyist fortune, and had spent most of his time readers concerning a proposed story encouraging others to write (and read) magazine to be called ScientifiGtion; s-f, he had had a lot of fun. It was he but the response was hardly encourag- who, in '26, actually started the flrst ing enough to justify the venture, magazine to develop "scientifi.ction" (his own word for it) as a specialised ,* In his "History of Science Fiction form of popular literature-Amazlng Fandom" (Fantasy Commentator, FaIl, Stories. Three years later, when he '45), Sa,m Moskowitz recorded that seceded from that pioneering publica- Gernsback also "did something for the tion, he launched the rival Science s-f fans that had never been attempted Wonde'r Stories and its companion before: he gave them self-respect. He magazines, and continu€d through the preached that those who followed this times build up an sort of reading matter avidly were not vicissitudes of the to queer enthusiastic following for such stories, possessed of a taste, but actually persuade publishing represented a higher tJpe of intellect. sufficient to other And he tried to lay down rules for s-f. houses to stake their claims in the new Primary among these was plausibility: territory ("The Story of Wonder"! nothing was to appear in the stories Fantasy Review Dec. '48-Autumn '49). . . . that could not be given a logical, Amazing was not the first American scientiflc explanation,'r ?

which he abandoned-until a less mention a Sclence Fiction Series. frightening title suggested itseH. Ama& This recovery, it would app€ar, was ing Stories-why not? "With the ever- the direct result of some more of the increasing demands on us for this sort renowned Gernsback circulals to pros- of story," he wrote in his nrst editorial, pective readers, 20,000 of whom were "there was only one thing to do--pub- said to have rallied to the cause of lish a magazine in'which . . . scientiflc Everyday Mechanics with enough ad- flction (would) hold forth exclusively. vance subscriptions to get him back in Towards the end we laid elaborate business. Similarly with Wonder, whose plans, sparing neither time nor title his well-wishers selected while they money . . ." placed their dough on the line. Said Since it could not go on indeflnitely Gernsback, overwhelmed: "I never ex- reprinting Wells, Verne, Ga.rrett P. perienced the like in my 25 years of Servlss and others of the old American publishing experienen." Of such was school, some of the money he spent the faith and enthusiasm of the armv subsequently went in prizes to the of followers he had amassed, and out oi authors tre persuaded to write for the which the fanatic conLigent known as new magazine thlough hls now-famous science flction fandom was to coalesee cover contests. By constantly solicit- and flourish through such movements ing the efforts of untried writers, he as the Science Fiction League. It was gave many of the leading exponents of understandable that when, in '36, he modern science fiction their fi::st oppor- surrendered the fading Wonder and tunity; among them Edward E. Smith, retired into obscurity as far as they Dr. David H. Keller, Jack Williamson. were concerned, the thousands to whom But although Amazing caughL on ("We s-f had become something inseparable are printing 150,000 copies," Gernsback from the name of Hugo Gernsback leported within a year) and gave birth should feel a twinge of genuine regret, to a bigger Quarterly edition, it did not do well enough to keep its enterprising .THE OLD BUZZARD' publisher out of trouble. After three But "Gernsback the Anazing" (as years, at the same time that he relin- Time called him in devoting a page to quished his older magazines and the his triumphs in '44) has no cause to ladio station from which he had broad- regret his decision to abandon science cast regular talks on science, his name fi.ction for the science-fantasy which disappeared flom "The Magazine of flrst made him famous and in which he Scientifi.ction," which for the next is stiU adept. Among the readel's of his nine yeals was conducted by his prosperous Radio-Electronics, which former h€lpmate, the late Dr. T. grew out of Radio-Craft and Television O'Conor Sloane. News, are many who learned their radio Nfagazine publishing is a precarious among his magazines of earlier days business; and new.ideas, as Dr. Sloane and who stiU pay careful heed io his sagely observed on taking over Gerns- prophecies in this field-because they back's chair, are "very dangerous." Ever have seen so many of his bold predic- blessed with mole imagination than tions come true. As Time related: cautiousness, trowever, the Pioneer One of the most fertile of U.S. inventors miraculously recovered himself, formed . . . , Hugo Gernsback is widely and afiec- the Stellar Publishing Corpot'ation to tionately known among (them) as a launch Science Wonder, and proceeded bottomiess well of incredible notions. Fbr to pull it through by much the same more than 30 years fantasies have come methods he had used to build up in such profusion from his brain tlrat Amazing, while at the same time re- there is hardly a modern invention he placing his lost technical mags. with cannot claim to have anticipated. The father of pseudo-scientific flction, . . . he new ones and adding to them with has given laboratory workers some sug- others. Substituting for Radio News, gestive ideas . . . Alurnni of (his) numer- which had run for 20 years, came ous pubiisations today hold many impor- Radio-Craft and Television News; in- tant positions in the U.S. radio industry. stead of Science & Invention it was They fondl-y call Gernsback "the old Everyday Mechanlcs (later Science and buzzard" Mechanics), while Aviation Mechanics Of some 80 inventions of his own he made a flying start. In the flction has patented, Time slightingly obserred department, Air Wonder Storieg Scien. that "none of them, his admirers are tifio Detective Monthly and Wonder proud to say, has ever proved of the ouartorly were not far behind; not to slightest practical use." At least, his 8

he was always making, with particular reference to radio-and something he called "television," back in'09. In that year, a decade before the U.S. had a iinele commercial ladio station, he puulished a map envisaging a network of them spreading right across the continent; in '20, he Printed all the dope on how to build a walkie-talkie. And in '46, when the U.S. Signal Corps estabiished radar contact with the Moon, he reprinted a Radio News article of '27 in which he had predicted the achievement, even to the wave- length used. Though his remarkably accurate con- ception of radar was by then 16 years old. In 19U, in Modern Electrics' he had considered the use of a "pulsating polarised ether wave to locate a machine thousands of miles distant from tLre Earth, speeding in an un- known direction," by means of a "para- bolic wave reflector (and an) actino- scope . . which records the reflected rrr'aves." The speeding machine was, of course, a space-flyer; and this flrst authentic record of radar, as he claims Gernsback's 1911 version of television, it, was but one of many fantastic as drawn by artist Paul. notions he crammed into his memorable serial story+, "Ralph 124C41+ i L Flomance of the Year 2660." One of the first invention---{f a new-type electric most ambitions science flction pieces battery-seemed practical enough to ever attempted up to that time; it was a bring him, at the age of 20, from his full-blooded interplanetary adventure, native Luxembour"g to seek fame and futl of anti-gravity flyers, disintegrator- fortune in the U.SA. A year after his rays, televisors, a solar power plant, a arrival. in 1905. he found himself a gadget to produce invisibility, and a partner, formed the Electro-Importing pigeon-chested Martian villain (named Co. to bring from Europe the soft of Liysanorh'CK 1618) to boot. gadgets which appealed to the new The title was a Pun on the name and American hobbyist, the amateur elec- serial number of the scientist hero. who trician. The next year he was ofiering woced his Swiss sweetheafi by "tele- for sale at $?.50 what he claims was the phot." When her life was threatened first commercial radio set, capable of bv an avalanche because the "meteoro- sending dot-and-dash signals or ringing tower" operators were on strike, leaving a bell a quarter-mile arvay. the weather to its own devices, he sent A few years later he had founded the out electronic waves from his New Wireless Association of America, and York laboratory and melted the menac- the "Te1imco" catalogue had evolved ing snow, saving the situation. He also into the flrst radio magazine, Modern performed the miraculous feat of re- Electrics, which pr.oved so successful viving a dog, three years after it had that Gernsback turned frorn selling been placed in suspended animation, to editing and publishing. So followed by replacing its blood with "R.adium-I( The Electrical Experimenter ('13), bromide," thus anticipating Russian Radio News ('19) and Science and biologists' experiments of later years; Invention ('20), in ail of which he con- and ttre "menograph" rvhich trans- tinued to experiment with science cribed his thoughts as he sat meditat- fi.ction, much of it his own work. For ing was not far short of the electro- s-f had fascinated him since he was enceplralograph which records brain- eight years old, and was obviously the * Later published in volume form (Strat- most convenient vehicle for the half- ford, Boston: '25), and reprinted in humorous, half-serious prognostications Amazing Stories Quarterly, Winter '29. 9 .,hypnobioscope," impulses today. The unfil he died was constanily claiming too, which enabled students to learn to be on the verge of intetplanetarf.- while they slept, had materialised ,23. in communication. In 4g years of pub_ experimental forrn by lishing, Gernsback has-experimented The use of rockets in warfare, and lvith a score of publications, some their development for extra-terrestrial which of flight, have departed from his cus_ were other Ger-nsback visions tomary ield of science-fantasv and which have corne true. The A-bomb? gadgetry to embrace such subjects During the second year as of World War I beautycraft and sexology. In 'B? he he wrote a piece in The Electrical produced .Neu, ldeas as ,,the first Experimenter in which he visualised scented magazine": rvhat ,.when as thev riffied might happen the scien- through it, a pleasant odour wafted into tists of 100 years hence begin making readers' nostrils from the perfumed lyar on each other. Suppose that by qlinter's ink of its pages. The smell that time our scientisti have solved didn't last longer the puzzle than four issues_ of the atom and have suc_ bnt the idea was taken up, years later, ceeded in liberating its prodigious in newspaper adverts. for jcent. lolces The results Hd will be over_ had pioneered again . . . whelmingly astounding .,' And he Perhaps his fecundity painted gruesome ,,Atom in respect of a picture of an ideas_ which eventually surpris-e even Gun" in the hands of a would-be hrm by proving practical is due to the Emperor of the World, of a fleet of lich sense ,,setting of fun which gives-A rise to ''I,adium Destloyers" which, by the more fanciful of them. pet'sistent off .spontaneously the dormant energ! impishness has pervaded his writinEs of atom," -oi -th-e, might dissipate a city since the days when Electricat Exper-i- 300,000 souls (population of Hiroshima menter readers gufiawed .,Baron when ,,a over the Bomb fe[: 320,000) in Munchh^ausen's New Scientific Adven_ titanic vapour cloud, 0eaving) only a tures" (reprinted in Amazing, Feb._Jul. vast crater - in the ground . Aiter '28), rvhich nevertheless contained some this demonstration the enemy sues for interesting notions regarding peace; resistance the Mar_ would be folly." In trans. Now, he takes time off from the '15, he agreed that all this might seem serious business producing "very fantastical," .,not of Radio- but thought it Electronics to indulge in a bfu leg_ gnly very possible but hightyprobable." of P-u_iling in the shape of an article, blr Thirty years later the lvorld was dulv "Mohammed Ulysses Fips" (he wai astounded-and overwhelmed. always fond preposterous of ,,new pen_ PROFITLESS names), describing a invention" PROPHET which exists Of unerring only in his own imagina- this facility for scientific tion-but is almost certain to solidiflv crystal-gazing, Dr. Lee de Forest, inven_ as sober fact tor the vacuum-tube, before many years havL of told Gerns_ passed. Thus it was with the radio back; "You may take justifiable that could be held palm pride in the farSightedness in the of one of manv of hand, and the ,,fountain-pen radio" to J'our startling suggestions." In anoiher wrrte-up, ,,the lre clipped inside the pocket, ',vhich the Coronet referred to . "rice-grain" modern Leonardo tube made possible almost de Vinci,', and fur_ before the_laughter induced by the gag nished an answer- to the question had subsided. which always occurs people to in res_ And. as Christmas approaches every pect of his inventive capacities, and year, t-hich Gernsback really has fun-produi_ -he-actually keeps hanging on lng a unrque greeting card to send to the wall of his offce: If you,re so smart his subscribers. why aren't you This takes the form of rich? Gernsback him- a. miniature magazine which guys, in self supplied the answer: ,,I have neither title, make-up and contents-including the time nor the patience to advertisements-a. well-known Ameri-- translate my ideas into money. people gan publication. ,,Harpy's of my type at'e never good Hence business_ Bizarre,', "Joilier's-The N o t i o ri a I men." Weakly," "Like" (Look),,,popular Now aged Neck_ - 66, Uncle Hugo (as s_f fans anics" ,'wlitten so you can,t under- have dubbed himr presides over an old_ stand it'), (which fashioned office "Radiocracy,' bur- in Manhattan, on an_ Iesqued his own journal for a changer, other wall of which hangs a death_ and mask his others that have appeared througli of friend Nikola Tesla, v/ho lecent years. Sometimes they have lplease turn to page l? 10

ARTHUR C. CLARKE examines the SPACESHIPS OF FICTION

Years before he became one of second, those in which dreams, super- Britain's leading protagonists of astro. normal intervention, psychic forces and nautics, Arthur C. Clarke (FR' APr- the like were invoked. Although most May '47) was an assiduous student of of the very earliesL works (e.9., Kepler's science flction, and particularly of "Somnium") fell into the second cats' interplanetary stories. Smith's "Sky- gory, he found that some of the best lark" series, John W. Campbell's stories of our age did likewise. Ttle Amazing guarterly novels, Wonder's notion that a mind or even a body Interplanetary Issues, aU helped to might travel to other worlds faster quicken his vast enthusiasm for the than the speed of light is fo be idea of space-travel. Now, in between found, for instance in Stapledon's his voluntary work as a Councillor and "Star Maker" ('3?), C. S. Lewis' "Pere- lectwer for the British Interplanetary landra" &D, David Lindsay's "A Society, his duties as an assistant Voyage to Arcturus" ('20), and the ex- editor of Soience Abstracts, and his ploits of John Carter as related by contributions to various technical Edgar Rice Burroughs. magazines, he writes an occasional Before the age of science, such science f,ction story, and tells his paraphysical means of conveyance friends all about it long before it seemed as plausible as any ottrer: an appears in print. (Not so manY of air-borne broomstick would have been them know about the astronautical less surprising to onlookers than a, text-book he recently completed, which Tiger Moth chugging across the sky. will be published shortlY.) When a modern writer uses such On April lst-he was the flrst to see means, he is not being lazy; he may the joke-he made a handsome con- have good reason for his choice, cession to those BIS members who mix especially in a story of cosmic scope their study of astronautics with science in which the speed of light must still flction reading (most of them do, but hold good. Some of the most thought- not all rviU admit it), by lecturing in ful of recent authors have suggested his usual light-hearted style on the fact that in the long run the mechanical and fiction of space-travel. Having methods will be superseded by the first made acknowledgments to Pro' paraphysical, as in Jack Williamson's fessor J. O. Bailey, author of "Pilgrims "The Humanoids" (S-FR, Winter '49- Through Space and Time" (FR, Ocl.- 50). If Dr. Rhine's latest work is any Nov. '47), and to Miss Marjorie Nicol- indication of possible developments in son, studious coilector of "Voyages to the field of astronautics, Kepler and his the Moon" (S'FR, Autumn '49), as well demon carriers may have the last as to various friends whose libraries he laugh. had invaded, he proceeded to trace the CYRANO'S RAM.JET origins of the spaceship in its various Among natural, as distinct from literary forms back to the daYs of supernatural, forces usd bY other Lucian (A.D. 160). while he illustrated space-voyagers were: wind (Lucian's them with a colourful ar-ray of slides "True History"), birds (Godwin's "Man he had prepared, largelY from a in the Moone"), evaporation (Cyrano treasured collection of fantasy maga- de Bergerac's vials of dew), and an zines. Earth-grazing comet (Verne's "Hector Avoiding any attempt at h.istorical Servadac"). With the development of sequence, isiince he was mainly con- the scientiflc method, trowever, writers cerned with techniques, Clarke divided went to greater Pains to introduce his specimens into two main groups: plausibility and the flrst primitive mechanistic and non-mectranistic. In spaceships began to appear in Utera- the first group he placed stories in ture. To Cyrano goes the credit for which some engine or other technical flrst applying the rocket to space-travel device was used to bridge space; in the and for inventing the ram-jet. Having 11 got no further than Canada on hls myself in the Middle of ten woden bottles of dew. he took off for the Moon Vessels, placed one within another. in a flying chariot festooned with fire- with the Outer-most strongly crackers, hooped withoub regard for mass- with fron, to prevent its breaking . . , ratios and exha,usb velocities. But his which I know will raise me to the Top last attempt at inLerplanetary flight, in of the Atmosphere But before i a box propelled by air heated with the blgw myself up, I'U provide myself aid of burning glasses, in spite of his with a-large pair of Wings . . . Ui tne misunderstanding the principles ln- help of which I will fly down t6 the volved showed that he at least realised Earth." the thrust would fall off with altitude So much of Verne's .,From Earth With the discovery of the non- to the Moon" (186b) is facetiouslv mechanical forces of electricitv and writLen that it is difficutt to judge ho# magnetism, new possibilities were seriously he took the idea of his mam- opened up, but few wrlters took advan- moth cannon; though he went to much tage of them-apart from Cyrano, rvho trouble to check his facts and the bal- tried everything once, including a listics of the projectile were worked out lodestone which attracted an iron by his brother-in-law, a professor of chariot. Swift's flying island of mathematics. probably he believed Laputa, four and a haU miles in dia- that if such a gun coirld be built, it meter, was also propelled by an enor- might be capable of getting the pro- mouse lodesbone, although forever jectile to its destinalion, but, it is Ea*h-bound. And if "The Conquest of doubtful that he seriously imagined the Moon," by Andre Laurie (1894), in the occupants surviving the shock of which an iron mountain was turned take-off. Willy Ley, in his ,.R.ockets into a vast electro-magnet for the pur- and Space-Trave1," shows that pose puUing not onlv of the Moon down to would the initial acceleration of 40,00b Earth, hardly ranks as an interr gravities have converted the occupants planetary voyage, it is certainly a to a nasty smear in a few microseconds. spectacular case of the mountain but the plojectile itself would have coming to Mahomet. been destroyed before leavinE the Towa.rds the end of the 18th century, barrel owing to the air in its path. writers became more cautious in des- None the less, Verne,s ranks as the cribing their subtle devices for space- first space-vessel to be scientiflcallv flight, partly because the public was conceived; it had hydraulic shocti- educated enough to see through their absorbers, air-conditioning pla n t, proposals, and partly because the in- padded walls with deep-set windows, vention of the balloon had turned and similar arrangements now abtention towards navigation of the commonplace in any well-ordered atmosphere rather than remoter spaceship. regions. The 19th century was well _ Scarcely less famous is the space-gun under way before the interplanetarl' devised by Wells for his film, ,'Things story got into its stride again; but it to Come"; but a much more plausible has steadily proliferated until, now, use of the device, in conjunction with few corners of the cosmos remain un- rockeb propulsion, was made in the explored. In the last century, too, the book, "Zero to Eighty" ('B?), written types of propulsion still used in fiction by electrical engineer- E. F. Northrup. began to establish themselves. These under the improbable name of Akkad fall into three main classes: the pro. Pseudoman. jectile, Although disguised as anti-gravity, and the rocket. flction, this was a serious attemnt to The idea of the space-gun did not, demonstrate the possibility of sbace- as so many believe, originate with flight-and the only interplanetary Jules Verne in his famous story of the romance ever to include a 4O-page Baltimore Gun Club's lunar project. mathematical appendix. A practical T'he conception first appeared in print scientist, the author realised that as early as 1728 in "A T?ip to the human beings could only survive the Moon," by Murtagh McDermot, who ordeal of being shot from a gun if the travelled outwalds bv rocket after the barrel was immensely long and the style of Cyrano but iame back in true acceleration sustained foi a muctr Verne fashion after inducing the longer period. His gun, therefore, was Selenites to dig a gr.eat hole contain- an electro-magnetic one, stretching for ing seven thousand barrels of gun- powder. 200 kilometres along Mt. Popocatepeil. In this he designed ',to place Even this didn't give the full escape L2 velocity lequired, so the final impulse as would be required to lift an equiva- was provided by rockets. lent mass of normal matter to the same Actually, travelling at flve gra,vities altitude. Thus, the only way the acceleration, one would tlave to cover a travellers could return to Earth or land disLance of over 1,000 kilometres to on another planet wottld be to iettison reach escape velocity, and since any their anti-gravity matcrial. An anli- reasonable launching device could gravity screen can also be ruled out of never measure more than a fraction of court on the ground that, if it could this length, the space-gun is recognised exist and was employed in the manner as impracticable in these enlightened described by so many fictionists, one days. But it does not follow that it wiU need only place it under a heavy object, never be used. under ideal conditions. It let it rise to a considerable height, re- may come into its own for the projec- move bhe screen and let the object fall tion of fuel frorn a lunar base to space- obtain a source of Perpetual ships orbiting the Moon or the Earth, -andenergy. Or, as Willy Ley has put it, to where the required initial velocity is step on to a sheet of such material relatively small and no restrictions fastened to the floor would require iust would be set by ail Iesistance or accel- as much effort as jumping clean off eration. the Earth! But an anti-gravity device which is DEFIERS OF GRAVITY driven by some appropriate source of Anti-gravity has long been a popular energy, and does not therefore produce method of propulsion, dating back at something fof nothing, is not beyond least as far as 182? and the publication the bounds of practicality. Those of "A Voyage to the Moon," by Joseph stories in which the releas€ of atomie Atterley-tlle pen-name of Professor energy provides propulsion through an George Tucker, under whom Edgar unspecified "space-drive" are not, con- Allen Poe. creator of "Hans Pfaal" sequently, implausible: the cfrances (1835), studied at Virginia University. are that, one day, it will. For the Atterley's hero was fortunate enougtr to mornen|, however, the rocket-drive discover a metal with a tendancY to hotds sway, having gained in favoul' fly away from Earth (how it managed since Verne used the PrinciPle in to stay here, no-one ever explained), "Fuound the Moon" (1870) to alter the and by coating a vessel with it was orbit of his projectile. He clearly able to make his voyage without fur- understood that the rocket was the ther effort. In much the same way' only means of propulsion that would the hero of Wells' "The First Men in opeiate in space, but it never occurred the Moon" (1901) emp oyed "cavorite"' to him to use it for the whole voyage- a substance impenetrable to gxavify as As the work of Oberth and other Ger- a sheet of metal is to light*. man rocket experimenters became Of course, anti-gravitY won't work known, a new class of stories of pains- either-at least, in the waY that the taking accuracy evolved, some being no little more than fictionised text-books. fiction writers make it. There is (Max fundamental objection to a substance The German writers-wilIi themselves which is repelled by gravity, and such Valier, Otto GaiI, etc.) were a boon could be emPloYed to lift a adept at this; and although their spaceship-but ib would take work to works, some of which appeared in pull it down again, to the same extent translation in Wonder Stories, were of slight Iiterary merit, they are still tfs- * If he never encountered Professor tortcally valuable. An instance of a' Tucker's book, it is po-ssible that Wells storv which had both entertainment knew of l{urb Lasswitz's "Auf Zwei back- popular in value and convincing technical Planeten," which has been ground: Laurence Manning's ' The Gernany since 1897 and was recently (Wonder' One fureck of the Asleroid" Dec. reprinted in an illustrated edition. mem- of- the most important of all inter- '32-Feb. '33). Manning, an early American InterPlanetary -addition-toplanetary romtlnces, it includes' in ber of the anti-gravity, the idea of ex- Society, once introduced the rocket propulsion ("repuisors"' root -asDlosive systems exhaust equation, complete with the Verein ftir Raumschiffahrt called siEns and awkward exPonents, into a its own early rockets), and-more sur- the great annoy- the story-doubtless to orisinslv---of space-stations. all ance of the comPositor. iechnical details being worked out with acceptance of great care bY tlee author, who was a The almost universal irotessor of mathematics at Jena. the rocket traving left writers little 13 room for ingenuity, one spaceship is now very much that the brick moon, in which the like another; but verv workmen constructing it had th;ir lew of them bear much resemblance tb lodgings. the vessels broke loose too soon and was which will have to G 6uilt cast into space for-the first space-voyage. w.ith them as unwillirs Mass_raLios passengers complete with their owi lnq similar inconveniences do not atmosphere! bother the science fiction writer, muct less the-fantasy_ artist, .Whar will happen to the inter_ wtro gaiiy iuni pranet_ary- story when space_travel a. row- of porrholes the whole-len-gth of ac[uauy hegins? Will the hull and depicts tfrousifra_ton it become ex_ rockets racing iow linct?. A test.case, Clarke points oui, over exotic land_ nas alt'eady risen in connection with scapes without visible means of sun_ port. probably, atomic power. Five years ago, the More Clarke ilrink!, first release of lne space-ships of the nuclear energy was still next century lvill being in flction, where be so.unlike our popular conCeitioni yet ,anticipated it-is oI to-day ,vouldn.t a familiar subject. Similarly, when that we recognise space-travel is achieved, one if we saw iL. If orbital the irontier refue-llinE will merely shift outwards, and we ca; t-echniqucs are developed us eipuctual tely tne vessels designed on the ingenuity of the science for true- interj fictron writer to keep ahvays planetaly flight rvill never land on a few world any Junrps ahead of hisrory, especialty with or even entel an atmosptreid, so mucn more material on and so will have no streamlini?rg oi which to contTol base his forecasts. Without some foun_ surJaces. Their naturat sfrap- dation of reaUty be.sphcricai; but thc science nction wouiA 1oul4 if necesiiiy be impossible: therefore, exact know_ Lor shielding rutes rhis ouu, ; ledge. oumb-rlcll?tgqlc shape is the friend, not the urru*y, of _ might be adopted, lmagrnatron. enaotmg the radio_active It was only possible to plant tb be write stories about the Mb,rtians placgd well away from tne when quarrcrsl. irew.s iiving science had discovered that a certain moving point of iight was a world. the By THE MAN.MADE MOON time science has proved or dii proved the existence of the Martians, it The idea of the space-station has will have provided l_rrrndreds attr€cted.. ttl oilier very Jew writers, probably interesting and less accessible world.s because it is still comparativeiy novei. for authors to base their speculations t:tut we may expect increasing attention upon. paid to be to this theme in the near Even if a time should come at last future; and when the first orbital when all the cosmos has been explored rockets-are set up it may well become, and there are no more univeries to ror a wnlle, one of the main preoccupa_ beckon men across inflnity, our remote !i91s of contemporary science flctibn. descendants may still enjoy the inter- AlLnough the idea was flrst advanced, planetary theme-by looking. back wist_ as a ploposition, by von pirquet fully to_ the splendid, dan[erous and -s,erioys ages Noordung in the '20's, at least bne when the frontiers were driven oi:.t- story i^roached !!e subject as long ago wards across space. when no-one knew as l8?0. In Edward Everett ltai6's wtrat marvel or tenor the returning 'lqe- !r!ck Moon," some young men ship_,might bring, and when, for good decided that it would be of greafassis_ or ill, the barriers set between the tance to navigation if the Earth had a peoples of the Universe lvere irrevoc- second moon, and so they set about to ably breached. With all thines construct onel:. The artiflcial satellite acNeved. aiI knoivledge safely ha-r- was !9 be projected upwards by the vested, rvhat more will there be for expedient of releasing it at the required them to do than to go back into history speed from the rim of an enofmons and iive again the great adventures of rotating wheel. Ttre tale derived its ttreir remote and legendary past? excitement from the unfortunate event Yet we have the better bargain--all tSee,"The_Shape.of these things lie ahead of us. Some of Ships to Come." blr them, at least, rve shall A_rchur C. Clarke, B.Sc. New Worldi, live to see. No. 4. ;This also is a surprisingly modem idea. Corning in SCIEME-FANTASY rt was put forward quite recenUy by Dr. Sadler, Superintend6nt of ttre ltJriticai OLAF STAPLEDON, Almanac Ofice, in an address to tt; Master Iioyal 6*l"otromical Association. of Fantasy 14

MASTERS OF FANTASY The Spell of Merritt By ARTHUR F. HlttMAN

Cast over the years like the thr ds classics through Famous Fantastic of a glittering web, the exotic fantasies Mysteries and Fantastic Noyels, it was of Abraham Merritt now span a whole Merritt's work on wNch they drew generation of readers. ft was in 191? most generously to lure and hold ttre that the appearance of his short story, seeker after such treasures as "Ttre "Through the Dragon Glass," in All' Moon PooI" and "The Metal Monster." Story We€kly opened his career as a And, the advance of story technique fantasv writer: yet time has not notwithslanding, his work still proved lessen6d his spell. Rather, it would as enthralling as it had done twenty seem to have strengthened it; for the years before. continued demand among new devotees The flrst short tales that preceded for his noted "classics," all of which his most successful novels gave evi- have been reprinted several times dence of an exceptional ability to weave already*, has resulted in the launching the eerie atmosptrere which has capti- of a bi-monthly publication bearing his vated so many lovers of fantastic f.c- name to cater specially for those who tion. Following "Through the Dragon have not yet enjoyed fhe whole of his Glass" (AlFstoty 24/llll7), which in- outputf. A coUection of his surviving fused all the legendary colour of Iiterary fragments, recently published ancient China in an account of a in a popular pocket-book seriesi, and magical mirror, came "The People of, a Memorial Edition of "The ShiP of the Pit" (5/1/18), q/hich in spite of its Ishtar," are other indications of his brevity achieved a tremendous effect. having acquired an increasing post- The picture of a man padding on bleed- humous following, much as Lovecraft ing hands and feet up a gigantic stair- has done of recent years. way, winding mile after mile, relent- And, just as the name of Lovecraft is lessly pursued by the nightmarish associated with Welrd Tales, so is that remnants of an ancient race. is one of Merritt inseparably linked with that has remained indelible in the Argosy of the early '20's, and the memory of Merritt fans. Conveyed in Munsev magazines. Among the circle a style of writing that wasted not a of notible fantasy writers of that era single word, its impact on the un- (including such as Edgar R'ice Bur- initiated reader is breathtaking. roughs, Ilay Cummings, J. U. Giesy, It was in his next and most famous, Homer Eon Flint), A. Meritt was not work that he reached the height of his only the most popular at the time but imaginative power. "'Ih€ Moon Pool" has continued to find favour long after Q2/6/18), which ranks as one of the others have been forgo'tten. All through flnest weird tales ever written. tells of the '30's, fresh converts to science- a strange Dweller in the depth of an fantasy who sampled tris tales con- island pool which rises to the surface stantly clamottred for more; and when' when the moon's rays pour down upon in '39-40, the Munsey organisation gave it; and the somnolent splendour and a new lease of life to the time-honoured brooding mystery of the ancient South Seas locale are skilfully transmltted to +Notablv in bound book form (see sub- a story which, artistically, is perfect. seouenl footnotes). ln Famous Fantastic the sequel and in It is hardly surprising that Mvsterles and Fanta^stic Novels, which succeeded it, "The Conquest of th-e Avon Murder Mystery and Pocket (com- Book Sexies. the Moon Pool," a six-part sedal iA. Merritt's Fantasy lvlagazine (see mencing l5l2ll9), was received with "Among the Magazines." conflicbing feelings by his most ardent *"Ttre Fox Womar and Other Stories" readers; for although he had continued (Avon, New York). the theme of "The Moon Pool," the ex- 15 tended narrative passed beyond the boundari€s of rveird fiction into the realrn of strict fantasy. One of the canons of a good weird story is tha,t tbe atmosphere-which includes any alien enbities it features- should dominate the situation, rattrer than the human characters it involves. Merritt violated this principle in his sequel by etching his human charac- ters, Larry O'Keefe, the slightly sac- charine Lakla, and the evilly fascinat- ing Yolara, with as much force as their' almost incredible surroundings; and the mysterious character of the Dweller receded somewhat into the background. This caused the weird-tale coterie among his foliowers to rate the sequel as inferior to the original: for example, H. P. Lovecraft, in a list of his favourite weird stories in The Fantasy Fan (Oct. '34), stipu.lated the original novelette version of "The Moon Pool" as one of them+. Yet "The Conquest of the Moon Pool" represented a great step forward for A. MERRITT-from a sketch by Neil Merritt. The longer form allowed room Austin for Famous Fantastic Mysteries. for sustained splendour of settings and A descendant of Fenimore Cooper, Mer- swift clash of action, while still retain- ritt was born at Beverly, New Jersey, in ing the imaginative conception and January 1884, his parents being Quaker' convincing treatment which had been folk who later moved to Philadelphia. shorter pieces, resulting After studying law he became, at 18, a evident in his newspaper reporter; then he spent a year in a fantasy novel whose characters and in Central America, where he hunted btzarre creations lived. Since their treasure in Yucatan and penetrated the first printing "The Moon Pool" and its ancient Mayan city of Tuluum. Ileturn- sequel have seen frequent publication ing home, he resumed his newspaper through the years, with no diminution career on the Phila.delphia, Inquirer, run- of popularity, their combined qualities ning the gamut of murders, executions of utter strangeness and plausibility, and politics until he became Night City plus human interest, flnding favour Editor. At 28 he moved to New York general reader and the to become Assistant Editor of The alike with the American Weekly, and in '37 he succe€ded inveterate fantasv fan. Morriil Goddard as Editor, It was during The last Merribt piece to appear in that period he wrote the short stories and AlFStory before it merged with Argosy novels which made him famous, weaving was "Three Lines of Old French" into them much of what he had learned (9,'8119), a delicate tale of an idyllic on periodical jaunts into Central America romance that spurned the barriers of of archeology and folklore, and drawing time, The welding of the magazine on his store of reference books on demon- with Argosy brought fresh impetus to ology and magic, astronomy and botany. pen, He kept a strange garden of rare plants, his and the opening of an eight- and a key of twenty acres on the West part serial entitled "The Metal Mon- Coast of Florida, where tre died of a heart ster" g/8/20). The author himself attack ip August '43, leaving a n'ife and confessed that this story contained danghter. "some of my best and some of my worst writing." Certainly, concerned as it is with an isolated race of metallic peror, its appeal is more limited than intelligences governed by a Metal Em- his earlier work; it is fantasy reduced *Ttre to its rarest, most potent ingredients, book version of "The Moon PooI" too heady a draught for some. Again, (Putnam, New York, '19) comprises the two stories made lnto one. Like other Merrift splashes his colour with a Menltt novels, lt is a slightly abbre- lavish hand, and as the reader turns viated re-write of the original serial the pages he plunges from one gorgeous sLory. panorama to another. 16

Merritt was never a proliflc or con- descriptive and eerie atmosphere lifted sistent writer, and it was three years if into the category of a best-seltrer before his next story appeared. "fire which Hollywood later transferred to Face in the Abyss" (819123)i was the screen. With "Tlre Snake Mother," actually the prelude to a later novel" a seven-part serial, (Argosy, comm. "The Snake Mother"; but the novelette 25110130), he returned to the fleld of itself, with its account of a lost civilisa- pure fantasy, and to the strange tion and strange alien gods, proved a legends he had only hinted at in "The fascinating story. Here, too, were signs Face in the Abyss." Packed into these of a fresh trend in Merritt's writing, effulgent pages are facets of imagery Where before his styie had an easy, perhaps more amazing than anything flowing rhythm, it began now to he had attempted before. Kon the tighten up, become concentrated. The Spider-Man; the Dream Makers, with beautiful descriptive remained, but his their webs of unearthly beauty; the imagery became clear-cut; instead of Lord of Focls and the Lord of Evil; following the old, relaxed school, he the all-wise, inhuman Snahe Mother drew his pictures with a knife-edged herself-all are rare tools from which sharpness. And with "The Ship of Merritt fashioned a novel of startling fshtar" (comm. Slll/zDi he reached depth and uncanny lustre. the culminating point of his talents as "Dwellers in the Mirage," another a writer. six-part serial (comm. 23/1/32)1, is re- Succeeding novels, such as "The garded by his admirers as the last of Snake Mother" and "Dwellers in the the tmly colourful canvases which have Mirage," seliously challenge it for pride made him great as a fanlasy writer. It of place; but to me ttris six-part serial is, truly, not one of the leasi. In his remains the flnest example of Meritt's picturesque descriptions of the Lake of artistry. Its plot is not as complex as Ghosts, the Little People and the octo- in other cases, but its strands are pus-like Khalk'ru the same fertile woven with superb delicacy; the story imagination is evident; in the unfold- of the strange ship sailing on a timeless ing of the tale of another lost race, the sea, a tiny craft whose web of enchant- writing has not lessened in efiect. The ment enmeshes a present-day adven- characterisations are unusualy strong, turer, ls alive with vivid action. The particularly thal of Lur the Wibch- ctraracters of Kenton, the lovelY Woman; and with its fast, adventurous Sharane and the menacing black priest, sweep, the story is one which appeals I{laneth, are among the best ttrat Mer- even to the non-fanlasy leader. For its ritt has created; while the setfing of flrst appearance, a happy ending 'Ir'as the Ship, manned by slaves and over- substituted for his own against the seer, priests and maids, forever on its autho,r's rvishes, but later printings had voyage to an unknown destination, the original tragic conclusion wtrich forms a perfect background. The gives it an added porver of melancholy. briefer style is used rvith telllng efiect: Two more Merritt novels had their each scene is a polished cameo, a word- original, serial presentation in Argosy picture photoglaphed with Technicolor before the demand for his work started precision. The result is an adventwe this magazine on the reprinting process novel transmuted by Merritt's un- coniinued by FFM and FN. "Burn, rivatled gift of imagination into fan- Witch, Burn!" (comm. 22170/32)t, an tasv of the highest order. intriguing tale of modern witchcraft in "The Woman of the Wood," his onlY which the souls of the gross Madame conbribution to Weird Tales (Aug. '26), Mandilip's victims are imprisoned in was a short story whlch caused a minor tiny, lifelike dolls, was also turned into sensation even among the case - a film, "The Devil DoIl," starring Lionel hardened initiates of this magazine; Barrymore. "Creep, Shadow!" @19/341 after which, in Argosy-All'Story' came **, another story of present-day sorcery. "Seven Footprints to Satan" (comm. is hardly as successful, but both con- 217127)8. A rneiodramatic tale of a tain some of the most powerful ele- master criminal, this does not properly rank as fantasy, yet Merritt's flair for .iliveright, New York, '32; Skefflngton, London, '33. New York, Methuen, New York, '31. *Liveright, '33; tliveright, London. '34. iPutnam, New York, '26' .'+Published in book form as "Creep. rBoni and Liveright, New York, '28; Shadow, Creep!" (DoubledaY, New Richards, London. York, '34; Methuen, '35. t7 ments of Merritt's writing, although macy as a master of fantasy, it is as not invested with the soaring fantasy ',r'ell to exarnine his faults as a writer: of his earlier novels. for it must be conceded that many His original touch was also evident readers are repelled by his stories. Tlxe in two other short stories which, Iichness oi his colourful style is more appearing originally in Fantasy Maga. than some can stomach, and the free- zine, were presented by Thrilling Y\lon- dom of his vision has been held as dis- der Stories: "The Drone Man" (Aug. tracting to those who are more con- '36), and "Rhythm of the Spheres" cerned with plot. IIis plots are, in fact, (Oct. '36), otherwise "T'he Last Poet noticeably repetitious in their funda- and the Robots." Apart from a few un- mentals: the battle bet'treen good and flnished pieces, two of which-"The Fox evil, personifled by gods or goddesses, Woman" and "The Black Wheel"-have rs a constant theme; and the idea of been extended and completed by his dual identity, especially in the person disciple, Hannes Bok (FB Oct.-Nov. '4?; of the hero, is present more than once. Aug.-Sep. '48), nothing more of fantasy His style, too, is often curt to the point came from his pen; nor could we ex- of brusqueness, contrasting uneasily pect more. Nevel a hasty wliter, his with adja,cent passeges of vivid descrip- workaday duties encroached increas- tive. Yet these defects fail to dim the ingly upon his lime, and no economic glory of his genius as a narrator of necessities drove the spur to his imagi- marvellous tales of alien places and nation. So it is ttrat practically the peoples; and so long as ttrere are read- rvhole of his wolk shows the care and els who revel in such stories there will tl".ought of a true literary craftsm"n. be no end bo the adulation of A. Mer- However, while admiiting his supre- ritt, Lord of Fantasy.

HUGO GERNSBACK-continued from poge 9 been full of his prophecies; for Number" which revived memories of example, "Tame-The Weekly News- halcyon Amazing Stories days and the gabazine" presented "a feeble preview creations of the "world-famous" Paul of the next 100 years-the first atom! (FR Feb.-Mar'. '49). It ga,ve a 48-page cent"ury." Dated 2045, it put the first account of the exploration of the planet atom-powered rocket to the Moon in Mars by "Grego Banshuck" and his 1972, World War IIf in '?5, to be crew, and of the life of the Martians, as followed by world government. (The depicted by Gernsback's long-service $'ar, waged by Asia against the Western artist once beloved of s-f fans. One of world, 'i,i'as won in six weeks by the the peculiar featu,res of life on Mars: Americans turning their giant Lunar "There is, of course, no money, no such mirrors on Hyderabad and vaporising vicious, cancel'ous outgrowth as interest ihe city.) By 2040, man had reached on money, no taxes. Consequently there Venus. is no such thing as business, as we Most of his forecasts, in this instance, know the term, because on Mars no one Gernsback asked to be taken seriously. can make a proflf WhateDer is since "many of them are certain of prod,uced belongs to the raceJ' realisation. If," he added, "in hun- In this flight of fancy, as in others in dreds of (past) predictions I have re- the past, Hugo Gernsback revealed corded a . . . fair score of hits, I do not some of tris og'n idealistic philosophy. take any special deglee of pride in the Nor is it tco fantastic a dream for him achievement. As a scientist, I should to make it work himself, when the spirit know how to evaluate the future . . . of gaodwill is abroad. "QUIP," he re- T'he only difference between (other minded Lhe reader elsewtrere, "is an scientists) and me is that I have never annual Christmas card of Hugo Gems- besitated to stick out my neck." back's. Over 5,000 copies have been Last Chdstmas, he was able to con- printed for the publisher's friends in gratulate himself on having pioneered and out of the radio, electronic and tele- once more-this time, in the format he vision industry. Please do not send has adopted for his little 'gagazines.' money for extra copies-the booklet is On the strength of Quick, the new vest- NOT for sale. Requests for single pocket-size news magazine, he produced copies . . . will be flIled as long as the "Quip," in the sbyle of a "Special Mars supply lasts." 18

Among the Mogozines with GEOFFREY GILES AND ST'LI THEY COI4E OId Toles for New Reoders Latest news to hearten British fans again be by Clothier, illustratlng is that in consequence of the increasing Brody's novelette. success of New Worlds Nova Publica- Meanwhile, the issue of British re- tions is to launch a second magazine, plints of the American magazines con- to be edited by Walter Gillings (see tinues. Latest to appear here, at least special announcement on pp. 20-21). up to the time this column went to This publication will presenb the press, is Fantastic Novels: a complete material which would have appeared but undated reprint of the original in Fantasy, as edited by Gillings, if it U.S. edition of last November, featur- had been abie to continue beyond the ing Charles B. Stilson's "Minos of Sar- three issues which sel a new standard danes," is on sale at 1/-. Published by for British science fiction, and which Thorpe & Porter, of Leicester, it comes for the past two years has been lying from the same source as the British idle awaiting a possible revival of the editions of Super Science Stories and magazine. This includes stories by Weird Tales, of which the latter con- Arthur C. Clarke, J, M. Walsh, P. E' tinues to make its appearance at inter- Cleator, John Russell Fearn, F. G. vals. The Atlas reprint of Thrilling Rayer, Norman Lazenby, E. R. James, Wonder has also reached its second and several other authors whose inter- issue, dated May '50; and the publishers est in fhe field is certain to quicken in now anticipaie regular publication for the light of this development, even if it. With prospects of Startling also it has languished of late, continuing, and rumours of Amazing Science-Fantasy, which will also de- and Fantastic Adventures being re- rive much interest from the best printed here again shortly, there seems features of this Review, will therefore no cause for British s-f readers to com- be tantamount to the revival of Fan' plain-at least on the score of quantity. tasy for which fans have been hoping NO MORE NOSTALGIA since its enforced suspension. It was But we are still way behind Amedca,, just such a resumption that the where the continued glut of material sponsors of Nova Publications had in in the book field seems to have given mind, when the project was flrst con- another fi.llip to the production of mag- ceived, as a possible follow-up to the azines vying for the fantasy fan's afiec- revival of New Worlds (FR, Feb.-Mar. iions. There are still more new publica- '49). With the t\Mo magazines being tions to report. First, Fantastio Story edited separately and issued by the 0uarterly, which plans to draw on the same organisation, it should be inter- early issues of Thrilling Wonder and esting to ."vatch their progress. In fact, the earlier Gernsback prlblications, long the publishers themselves anticipate since acquired by Standard Magazines, some lively cornpeiition between thern! to bring to the new generation of s-f Ttre flrst issue of the new Nova readers the stories whose titles older magazine will appear following the devotees associate with "the good old seventh issue of New Worlds, due at days"---or, at least, the latter part of the end of May, which in addition to thai halcyon period. For instance, the the sequel to John Brody's "World in flrst (Spring '50) issue features Edmond Shadow" (No. 4), "The Dawn Breaks Hamilton's "The Hidden World," from Red," will feature a new story by Peter the flrst (FaU '29) issue of Science Phillips, "Plagiarist"; "Quest," a tale of Wonder ouarterly, along with two nerv a derelict spaceship by F. G. Rayer; a stories. The cover and illustrations are highly original piece by J. W. Groves also new, and there are 160 pages for entitled "Iiobots Don't Bleed." and 25c. something quite out of the ordinary- T'Jre magazine, according to Editor even for him-"Martian's Fancy," by Sam Merwin, is an experiment, de- William F. Temple. Ttre cover will signed to ascertain if there are sufn- 19 cient readers to whom such material bf interplanetary travel on our own, will prove as acceptable as it did in the will be the keynote. No. I will carry a days of its fusb presentation. If the suc- cover sbory specially writien by Ftay cess of Famous Fantastic and Fantastic Cummings, "The Planet Smashers," Novels is an indicator, there seems no wiih other tales by van Vogt, del R€y, doubt about it-until one considers William Tenn, and our owr! A. Bertram the iimits imposed by questions of copy- Chandler. Avon are also launching a right, which will exclude many of cartoon magazine featuring s-f strips, the nnest of the time-honoured pieces vrith the title Out ot This World . . . which appeared, for example, in AmaP ing, However, as an earnest of their ON TFIE HIGHER PLANE confldence in the nostalgic power of To turn to finer tNngs, it's good to the Gernsback products, the same pub- see that The Magazine of Fantasy, lishers have also produced Wonder announced in this column two issues Story Annual, which appeared in Feb- ago, is to be a regular quarterly pupli- ruary featuring more rePrints from cation-one which has already digni- them, at fled the field with contents that bear early Wondelg-196 Pages of general the same price. This, apparently' is to little lesemblance to the run a regular publication: if so, it will be of fantasy pulps. Following the first be trial (Auiumn '49) issue, whieh fully the flrst Annual in the fleld ever to see justifled more than a single issue. pnblisher Lawrence Spivak's Early in March, from Columbia' Pub' claim to presenting "a superb cross- Fiction combined section of fantasy rvriting" by old and lications came Future new masters, the second (Winter- with Scienoe Fiction .w.Stories, under the editorship of Robert Lowndes. This Spring '50) number has appeared; and is a revival of two wartime magazines it continues to s€t an almost un- which, after starting separately in '39, believably high standard with new were combined in '41, to revert to the pieces by Bradbury, de Camp and title Science Fiction before disap- Pratt, Margaret St. Clair and Damon of well reprints writers Ilearing altogethef in '43. First (May- Knight, as as by June) issue of the new magazine better known to Collier's, New Yorker features stories by George O. Smith, and Harper's than to the s-f field, not Murray Leinster, Frank B. Long, to mention such oldsters as Anthony Lester del Rey, and others. With a Hope and W. L. Alden. The tiUe, too, cover by Earle Bergey, it has 96 pages has now been extended to The Maga- and sells for only 15c. zine of Fantasy and Scienoe Fiction; And, having safely launchecl Other and sub,scriptions are being taken, ai Worlds, Editor'-Publisher Raymond A. $4.00 for twelve issues. You should do Palmer (S-FR, Winter, '49-50) now pro- somebhing about ib . . . mlses to introduce, in June, a com- Ray Palmer's Other Worlds also con- panion mag. called lmagination-for tinues to forge ahead, and to make which tiUe he gives thanks to Forrest amusing reading. The fourttr (May'50) J. Ackerman and his former fan-maE. issue features a cover story by Eric Tentative contents of No. 1. at the time Frank Russell, "Dear Devil"; a novel- of going to press, included ,.Auto- ette, "Colossus," by S. J. Byrne, and ma.ton," by A. E. van Vogt, ,,Forget-Me- short stories by van Vogt, Raymond F. Not," by William F. Temple, .,Homeward Jones. Forrest J. Ackennan, and others, Pilgrim," by ISis Neville, with other In the March issue, Editor Palmer pieces by E. E. Evans, Charles IU. frankly admitted that some of his Tanner, and Ackerman. authors gave their stories without fee Finally comes news that the Dublish- to help get the magazine started; and ers of Avon Fantasy Reader (oi which. he had further candid comments to incidentally, the twelfth issue should make on other mags. and their editors. have appeared in January, has Fleiterating his aim to make OW repre- but not promised turned up as yet) will shortly issue a sentative of the whole field, he regular pulp magazine to feature sci- to strive for "a truly adult approach," ence flction. Titled Out-of.This.World wrule knocking Amazing for denying its Adventures, according to Editor Woll- readers the ability to think. At the heim's preliminarv announcement, it same time, he offered a Henry llasse wiU first appear as a quarterly af, 2bc. tale as "an Astounding reject," another for 128 pages, but bi-monthly publica- as "a direct steal out of Thrillint Won- tion is intended. Adventure and dis- der," and Malcolrn Smith's cover &s "a covery on other worlds, and the impact Please turn tn yage 22 m NOW, ON IO_ Out in Moy: Science- NEW Since Fanta,sy Review began, just over three years ago, its readers have con- stanUy testifled to the success with which WORLDS it has fulfllied its original object-to inform and advise the devotee of science- fantasy who takes an intelligent interest Fiction Future in its past, present and future develop- of the ment. In addition to reflecting the in- creasing growih of the medium which ll - , I tf has taken place in America during that NO. t ltO period, it has also served to ettcourage the progress of science fiction in this feoturing country. In pariicular, the conception of the project which resulted in the re-birth The Dawn Breal

And in luly- tantasy The First Issue of features of this journal in addition to presenting science-fiction and articles sclENCE- designed to appeal both to the general reader and the inveterate fantasy fan. SCInNCE - FANTASY incorporating Science-Fantasy R'eview will b€ on sale at 116 at, all newsagents' and bookstalls FANTASY where there is a demand for it, in the same way as New Worlds, and will appear ineorlorating regularly every three monttrs. If your suhscription to S-FE, has not SGIENCE . FANTASY yet expired, you wiU receive automatically as many issues of SCIENCE-FANTASY REVIEW as the balance of your subscription allows at the increased price, after which you will be invited to renew your subscription Editor : Walter Gillings through Nova Publications. Those whose subscriptions expire with this i,ssue should ONE & SIXPENGE subscribe to SCIENCF-FANTASY without delay, at the rates which appear in the featuring announcement of Nova Publications on this page, or they should place a regular The Belt J. ItT. WALSII order with their newsagent. Ttlis, then, is the last issue of Science- Time's .{Irrow Fantasy Review to appear in this form. .{R,TIIUR, C. CLARKE If it were the end of a journal which has Black-out been as pleasurable to edit as if has, by JOIIN R.USSELL F'EARN all accounts, proved acceptable to its readers, ihat fact would be regrettable, The Cycle P, E. CLEA,TOR, equally to me as to our subscribers. But Aalvent of the Entities its incorporation in a magazine whose E. R. JAMES greater circulation will ensure its con- Monster CHRISTOPIIER YOUD tinuance, and wiII enable me all the better to implement the policy of development Articles by T'lromas Sheridan, I have always had in mind for this Geofirey Giles, etc. journal, is rather a matter for jubilation Fantasy Book l?eviews, Walter i:r which its supporters will share. Giliings' 'Fbntasia,' & many other Ttrere may, we suspect, be some who unique features. vrill have doubts about the fusion of S-FR'S more esoteric features with those SCIENCE-FANTASY will appear of a magazine mainly devoted to publish- quarterly as a Nova Publication, ing science fiction; especially those to present the best in British readers who have urged us to ignore the science flction and to continue the requests of other subscribers for fiction. development of Science-Fantaey Can such a magazine cater for both typ€s Review. Order your copy from of reader and sti[ give satisfaction? We your newsagent, or place a direct think it can-and that is the task to subscription with the publishers: which we shall set ourselves, without any 6i6 for four issues, post fre€, in qualms. The stories we shall publish wiu Gt. Britain; $1.50 for five issues, be of the highest standard (many of them post free, to Canada & U.S.A. vriU be those which would have appeared in Fantasy, had it continued), and we shall make a regular feature of articles and reviews which vrill be speciflcally NOVA attuned to the interests of our present nucleus of followers as well as to those rphich, we believe, are latent in the PUBLICATIONS ordinary reader of science-fantasy-who is generally only too ready to have them 25 Stoke Newington Road, awakened. N.'16 So--on to SCInNCE-FANTASY ! London, THE EDITOR. AMONG THE MAGMTNES-continued from poge Ig combination of Astounding's astronomi- oi "giving amaterr afrists in the s-f cal covers and Paul's Amazing covers." fleld a break," without any disastrous He even departed from editorial resuits that can be observed so far. tradition so far as to recommend his readers to stories appearing in other Another recent starter, A. Merritt's magazines, and anticipated keen com- Fantasy Magazine, looks likely to stay petition from Amazing on the strength the course-and to give thaL excellent of his knovrledge of what was going on artist, Finlay, a good deal more work to do. A reader's column promptly reared in its editorial sanctum. "Howafd (Feb.) Browne," ran a footnote to a fan letter. its ugly head in the second issue, "is making many, many changes. Aftei which featured a comparatively recent all, Palmel aimed primarily at a top Argosy novel, "The Smoking Land," by circulation, and quality be hanged. In George Chailis (otherwise Max Brand, OW, we . . . do want quality." To Flederick Fanst. etc). with two shorts clinch the fan interest, he ran a really of older vintage: Victor Rousseau's clever stunt: a story by Frank palton, "The Seal Maiden" and Merritt's "Mahaffey's Mystery," whose setling "Three Lines of Old French"-enougtr, 'v/as the recent World Science Fiction apparently, to justify the title of the Convention at Cincinnati. and whose new mag. The April number features characters were rvell-knowh s-f authors "The Ninth Life," by Jack Mann, a and fans-inchrding visiting British novel of ancient Egypt with a distinct editor Ted (John) Carnell, who appar- Haggardish cast, and a tale of voodoo ently addresses ,'old by Theodore Roscoe, "The Little DolI everybody as chap- piece pie." The title refers to the local lady- Died." Oh, and a by A. Merritt, fan, Bea Mahafiey, who Palmer ofcourse... promptly appointed to his staff and has It only remains for me to wish since promoted to be his Managing Edi- Scienoe-Fantasy long life and many tor. He is also implernenting his policy lhousands of contented reaCers.

AI3KIIAM HOUSD BOOKS for your Ilelight Forthcoming : AWAY & BEYOND . A. E. van Vost - 261- A HORNBOOK FOR WITCHES . Leah Bodine Drake 1416 BEYOND TIME & SPACE . August Derleth, editor 301. GATHER, DARKNESS I . Fritz Leiber, rfr. lgl- & volumes by M, P. Shiet, Clark Ashton Snlith, Robert Bloch, H. P. Lovecraft Seaburt Qninn, nfiaryery Lawrence, etc. Still Avoiloble : SOMETHING ABOUT GATS - H. P. Lovecraft . tg/6 THE THRONE OF SATURN . S. Fowter Wright . 19/6 l& many other titles Exclusive Bdtish R€presentative i G. KEN CHAPMAN 23 FARNLEY ROAD, SOUTH NORWOOD, LONDON, S.E.25 23 About Boohs By Herbert Hughes MR. PRATT'S ANALYSIS Mr. Flelcher Pratt. who is known ln form of an impending "catastrophe," his native U.S.A. as a naval historian in ordel to avert war on Earth. Of and biographer of Napoleon as well as course, it had been done already, and a newspaper wdter on military mat- twice only lately; in "The Flying ters, recently appeared in a new guise Saucer" (FR, Dec. '48-Jan. '49), now a book critic who, according to published in America, and in "Ttre Big -asthe New York Times Book Review, "is Eye" (see Book Reviews, this issue). making an intensive study of fantasy- Mr. Pratt introduced his subject in f,ction and its influence on PoPular now fa.miliar fashion, by harking back Iiterary patterns." He is, of course, no to the end of the war wllen "some- stranger to this subject. To a more thing nerv came over the literary hori- select audience. he tras been known for zon (in tJre shape of) a series of books twenty years as an author of science- whose jackets bore pictures of Adonis- fantasy whc has also collaborai€d with like youths clad-in airtight coveralls several others (Irvin Lester. I. M. surmounted by glass bubbles from Stephens, Laurence Manning, Sprague which stubby radio aerials projected. de Camp). He is also a distinguished They were usually accompanied by . . . member of the Hydra CIub*, the New a damsel wearing an ornamented bra, York organisation of professional sci- a pair of sholts and boots halfway up ence-fictionists to which such leading the calf. Both were commonly armed writers as Willy Ley, Theodore Stur- with pistols of strange design, and not geon and Lester del Rey belong. infrequently accompanied by monsters. In shorb, Mr. Pratt is in a very good They are the people of space, refugees position to command a both respectful from the pulps. . . " And the books, and respectable audience whenever he as he explained, were the productions has anything to say about s-f's current of the speciaiist fantasy publishers, offerings. Which he had, to the extent which older houses were surprised to of almost three full pages, in an article discover sold to a public whose devotion on "science Fiction and Fantasy-1949" to the fleld was unbounded, and which, in a recent issue of 16t Safu1flay Re' far from ending up as remainders, in- view of Literature, in which he exanr- creased in value the longer they took ined no less than twenty-f.ve titles to sell out. which have been added to the field in the last twelve months or more. In the ESCAPE FOR PSYCHIATRISTS same issue. Il,obert A. Heinlein also re- Now. with at least seven of the big viewed that "Baedeker of the Solar publishing concerns paying attention System," Bonestell & Ley's "The Con- to the medium, Mr. Pratt thinks the quest of Space" (S'FR, Winter '49-50), oft-repeated prediction concerning its from which the Bonestell view of Mars challenge bo the detective story as the from Deimos was adapted as a two- dominant form of escape literature colour cover. Further, the letter page "measurably nearer realisation." The carried references to s-f, following upon fact that the possibilities of variation Editor Norman Cousins' leading article in the whodunit have been exhausted, in a previous issue suggesting a plot plus the prevailing interest in atom- for a novel: the deliberate hoodwink- smashers and jet-planes and "the fasci- ing of the world by scientists, in the nation of new frontiers for a world where there are no more unknowns to twhere he was encountered bY a be explored," is sufficient to explain the New Yorker guest at its annual party, trend to his satisfaction; and in view last January, as "a small bearded man of the Ley-Bonestell volume, which in smoking a huge cigar (and) address- itself is indicatirre of the lalanen's ing himself in authoritative tones to a curiositv about such matters. he is not spellbound youngster in a black sweater surprised thal "no less than eight of . . . 'Who was that?' I asked the Youth. this year's crop of s-f novels are what 'Fletcher Pratt,' he said. 'He's wonder- is known in the trade as 'space operas' ful. Kind of the dean of science flc- built round the theme of int€r- tion. He lives with marmosets' . . " planetary-books travel." 24

Comparing thess works, he nnds thab reader's power of concentration or his all but two of them advance the theory ego, it has also placed in the frands of "that what lies beyond the heavens is the serious writer an unsurpassed war-against races formidably armed weapon for attacking in fictive form and so utterly alien to our own thought matters hitherto reserved for more pon- patterns that no compromise with derous treatment. It is impoltant, and them is possible. (But) this no doubt not alone because of wider readersilp; represents iess a judgment than a con- for fiction po,ssesses the capacity . . . vention; fi.ve of the eight books men- of demonstrating the impact of ideas tioned are rewrites and extensions of on the living individual. It is no acci- stories which have already appeared in dent that two of the novels rated the pulps, whose readers respond only among the most distinguished of the to shock treatment." More significant, year by general critical sfandards con- he thinks, is the fact that all but one folm very strictly to the definition of of the eight stories have interstellar' science fiction, and another to the re- rather than interplanetary settings. In quirements of pure fantasy." explaining the common pulp device of Ilere he referred to George Orwell's an "overdrive" or "spacewarp," which "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (S.FR, Autumn conveniently ignores what the mathe- '49). the framework of which he finds maticians have to say about the effects of a type long familiar to s-f readers; of velocity on mass, he pointed out and while it differs from the pulp that "the writers wtro use (it) are evi- stories in emotional intensity, charac- dently producing pure fantasy, escape ierisaiion and sheer good wliiing, he literature. It may also be signiflcant recognises in it the same devices to that psychiatrists are among the lead- achieve the suspension of disbelief. ing devotees of science flction, and al- Similarly, the concept and basic device most invariably they take theirs in the of George R. Stewart's "Eafth Abides" form of space opera." (Random House, New York: $3.00), Having mentioned other generally which presents the problems of the accepted conventions (e.g., telepathy, civilised lndividual in a world deci- tractor and pressor beams, contrater- mated by disease, are almost exactly lene matter) rvhich occur in these and reproduced in Eando Binder's "Lords two time-rravel taies also currentlv of Creation" (Prime Press. Phila- available, he went on: "Lilie the ovei- delphia: $3.00), which originally drive and the ability of the treroes . appeared in Argosy, as well as in two to invent on the spur of the moment stories by Isaac Asimov and Nelson whatcver technical device is necessary Bond appearing in culrent anthologies. for victory over the aiien monstrosities, Although the purposes of the four these conventional appurtenances stories are far apart, "in all four the patently lepresent wish-fulfllment remote future is a new stone age dreams. So does the whole story in and . . . the decay has come about the straight fantasy, without any scien- through war and epidemic." And there tific element, of L. Ron Hublnrd's is no question, says Mr. Pratt, but that 'Triton' (S-FR, Autumn '49), which is, Bond's "Pilgrimage" in "The Thirty- by the ',vay, about as bad a pure fairy First of February" (S-FR, Autumn '49) tale as the year has produced. But one is the best short story, and Stewart's of the most important featules of the "Earth Abides" probably the best book, whole . . . iiterature is that i.t has no of all last year's s-f crop. general convention in favour of wish- fuifilment or of escape either. If the POLITICAL POINTER fantB,sy element be sufficient to enter- Analysing further, ne noted that S. tain the reader, the authol is permitted Fowler Wright's "T'lle World Below" to employ any thematic material he de- (Shasta, Chicago: $3.50) tras the only sires for the discussion of any subjecb book of the year "rvhich el hibits the that falls upon his attention. Thus slightest faith in democracy as an even among the strict space operas operable svstem for the future. . . thele is often some fairly serious con- and the democracy is of a very peculiaf sideration of ideas underlying the pulp sort, laid in a future so remote that approach and the wild adventures . . man has evolved into several difierent "But if the use of science-fi.ction- . speeies, some of them extremely re. fantasy has enabled light writers occa- pulsive. The other authors do not flnd sionally to catch a heavy idea by the Mr. Orwell's horrible totalitarianism tail withoub damage either to the in the future, except among alien and 25 unpleasant ra es, but they have been Olaf Stapledon's "Wor.lds of Wonder,' unable to conceive of a form of demo- (Fantasy Pub[shing Co., Los Angeles: cratic government that will function $3.00), and Dr. David H. r(eller's-,,The for some two billion people on Earth, Homunculus" (Prime: $2.b0) anat ,,Life to say nothing of the populations of Everlasting" (FR, Jun.-Jul. '49). Of remoter planets. This may only mean Stapledon's stories he says that their that the writers of fantasy are not poli- "delicate mysticism is hard to extract tical thinkers, or that the old aristo- because (they) are so wordy and com- cratic tradition of fiction still retains plicated"; white Dr. Keiler's ,,will be a f,rm grasp on the collective imagina- eagerly read by aficionados because tion. But it may also mean that there the5' a1s period pieces and as such neg- is some political thinking to be done. lected by non-specialists, to whom the The writers in this form are very quick excellence of the scientiflc ideas will to seize any new idea going around; fail to compensate for the stitted dia- there are hardly enough in circulation logue and the lacune in plotting. to serve as starting points for stories "In fact," he summed up, ,.if any one as it is." thing emerges from this year,s group, As evidence this. instanced of he it . is that, the boys who began by tlu'ee fantasy novels of '49 which have wdting fantasy fiction are now writing the same supernatural theme: Nelson fiction. The scientiflc or fantastic ele- Bond's "Exiles of Time', (prime: $2.b0). ment is still present, but the problems Charles Williams' "Manv Dimensions" have become problems (Pellegrini, york: human caused New $5.00), and Don- bv the advance of physical science, ald Wandrei's "Tlre Web of Easter which is fundamentally the major Island" (FR, Dec. '48-Jan. '49). Etn- problem besetting the world to-day. phasising that Williams' novel is in a Much science-f,ction-fantasy writing is different category from Bond's pulp- Iight, and sometimes the ideas involved type adventure story-"the third of tJ:e will not bear a great deal of weight. reaily distinguished novels of the vear" But with ,,Web" the exception of the Staple- -and observing thet Wand.r'ei's don volume, there is not one book in is dedicated to its inspirator, Love- the group which fails to have narrative craft, he added: "Mr.. Wandrei might drive, people moving around, and have spared himself the trouble: not things happening to them. The special- only is it a far lletter story as story ist s-f writers learned that in the pulps; than anything Lovecraft ever produced, they have been forced to learn the but it goes straight as a string from other things because people who knew beginning to destination, without any them already, like Orwell, Stewart and of the long passages of undigested Charles Williams, have entered the description and piled adjectives in competition. Norv they are reaching which Lovecmft . . . iaduleed." out beyond the specialist public to To draw a comparison between the brilg tc an increasing number of gen- old school of s-f writing and the more era.l readers an appreciation of the recenl products, Mr. pratt sinsled orlL most lively form of flction to-day."

Wolter Gillings' FANIAS,A-Continued from poge 5 Edgar Rice Burroughs (FR, Dec. '48-Jan.'49) clied at Tarzana, agied ?4 Robert L. Famsworth, "CorEI."." 'world u.s. R'ocket society king-pin, running ior . . . citizen No. 1 carry II. Davis, writing in oouut, recalled t]hat ..Chartes Fort's name was introduced to me many years ago ill the pages of (astountling Stories) which was a constant companion. . . . Olaf Stapledorfs judgment on science flction, in letter to operation Fantast: "r flnd myself in a hole about, (it). i ,r.u". *r. fan of ,it, and read very litile of it. r recognise it as a legitimate means oilxpression," . think it has a future. But it is arso rather dJngerous, recause it-*ry *o easily be indulged in as mere escapism,' rssuing invitation io'llNor*"."orr,,, Eichth wortd s-F convention, chairman John de .,Bioaclry, purpose couriy explained: (its) is to demonstrate that s-f is an integrar part of our civilisation; that without it, our progress would be materialy retarded"-. , .-wailed norer siocn,i; fioomington News-r,etter: l'Every once in a while r make an extra efiort to du*out a yarn suitable for adult readership,_and just as I indutge in a fitiie sdfr_con?ratiiafion . . . np popj a mental pictrt:e of an army of goons wearing beanies, Buck riogers rajie'tearos arra blasters. Trren r go inio the"waJhroom and have a good cr1,,' 26 Booh Rerdervs The Mixture As Before

FRoM OFF THIS WORLD, edited by since the days of Gernsback's seed- Leo Margulies & Oscar J. Friend. sowing, but had kept and filed away the Merlin. New York. $2.95. best, if not all, of their contents to re- R,eviewed by Walter cillings read and re.read again. They didn't When I had ceased to ponder the want these fusty reprints; they were myst€ry of how the typographer had no downy initiates, these British grey- curved the letters on the title-page of beards of fantasy. The only stories they this volume, I began to examine the hadn't lead were those that had yet to contents. Haying smiled a smile of be written-unless it were the old recognition, as one does when one en- Argosy tales which Amazing hadn't re- counters old friends across the street, I printed, in spite of oft-repeated de- could not help recalling that when, two mands though the years. years before the war came to stunt its This was before the advent of Famo{rs already uncertain growth, I contrived Fantastic Mysteries and Fantastic to launch the first Bdtish magazine de, Novelg which brought those ancient, voted to this medium, it was not with- well-copyrighted classics back for a out misgivings that I began to intro- new generation of fans as well as for duce into Talos ol Wonder reprints of their elders; Iong before the Avon stories which had appeared much Fantasy Reader, which now scours the earlier in Amazing and Wonder Stories, whole field for a still youngex genera- I had hoped that, few as they were, our tion of readers-and, again, for those British writers vrculd suffice to regale old devotees who have grown more our readers with science fiction they tolerant of vintage tales whose flavour eould appreciate, rvhether or not they is ',volth reviving. It was before British t'ere accustomed to suctr unorthodox Reprint Editions of Astounding and lare. But although several new writers Unknown: before "The Best in Science did develop, I found it difficult to get Fiction," or any of the anthologies and enough good stories based on ideas collections. Even before Startling which could be easily assimilated by Stories and its "Hall of Fame" classics, the ordinary reader yet which might hele now assembled between hard cov- still be acceptable to the jaded fantasy ers jacketed by Finlay. fan. It was with somewhat mixed feelings, So I accepted only too readily the therefore, that I browsed through the assistance of such favourites as Dr. 430 pages of this initial volume from David H. I{eller, Edmond lfamilton. the Merlin Press, which purports to Munay Leinster, Jack WiUiamson and present "T'he Gems of Science Fiction" others, in my search for stories of as leprinted from the Gernsback mellower vintage than those appearing Wonder Stories (for the greater part. in the U.S. magazines of the time. anyway) bJ'trvo of its subsequent edi- Hence the reappearance ,,class- j.cs" of such tors. It was strange indeed to read in as "Stenographer's Hands', (in their Introduction that they had been No. 2), "The Comet Doom" (Autumn assembled for re-reprinting largely to '39), "The Mad Planet" (Sprir€ '39), benefit that "large proportion of new and several of the Wonder stories of readers (more recently) drawn to s-f Clark Ashton Smith and our own John (who have) found themselves caught in Beynon Harris, which were admirably a bewildering world of space-lingo, of suited to the larger audience we wet€ yet-to-be-discovered sciences, of words trying to attmct to s-f in these isles. no dictionary has included to date. ,,needed But by using such material (which, They, of course,', Jve are told, with the war distracting our own and (still) need indocrination-indocri- ',rriters, became an absolute necessity), nation in the most fascinating study of I brought down on my unsuspecting prophetic lealning ever made available head the wrath of tfre ptaeritnose to public and expert alike." In fact, we stalwart fans v/ho had not onlv read learn ttlat "it rvas witb this need for the U.S. magazines as religiousl':y as I reader indoctrination in mind that '27

Startling Stories, back in '39' inaugu- imaginative pioneerfurg as much as for rated in its flrst publication tJre policy literary merit," which few of them of reprinting in every issue one im' display when judged by present day p-ortairt sto+hndmark from the s-f standards in a medium which is "in tne Dast." full flower of its fiIst adult develop' - And this is in the land of science' ment." fiction, in Ackerman's lmagFnation, None will dispute the inclusion of where Junior is reared on supeman Clark Ashton Smith's "Singing Flame" and Flash Gordon; where, in the Year stories (first reprinted with general that Tales of Wonder was born, the approval, in Tale$ of Wonder), or the kids ptayed with rocket-ships propelled "tweel" tales of Stanley G. Wei'nbaum' Ov rrlnGr bands, belonged to "Buck except on the ground that they hav-e Rogers' Solar Scouts," and wore uni- been- too much reprinted already, for all torms to match, intelplanetary naviga- their undoubted merits. Some may ad- tion helmets, toy rocket-pistols and all mit the originality of concept displayed' . , . Can it be that there is a,ny neces- at the time, by Benson Herbert's '"Ihe sity for indoctrination (fearsome World Without," Arthur G. Stangland's woid!) on ttre other side of the Pond? "The Ancient Brain" and Louis D. We had thought that there' if any- Tucker's "The Cubic City." But apart where, science-fantasy reading was one from P. Schuyler Miller's "The Man of those things which just came natur- from Mars," Edmond Hamilton's "fire ally. American s-f editors, evidently, Man Who Evolved," and "The Eternal trave their problems too. Man" of D. D. Sha,rp-.three good men We can, of course, appreciate tJre de- who have worn well through the years sirability, if not the actual necessity, rest of the selection, judged apart for every s-f reader to understand the from-the sentimental value, seems more evolutionary background of this fleld likety to have qualifled for the HaIl of whose hisbory is as fascinating as any Fam-e on the strengttr of convenient of the latest products it has to ofier. length than anY intrinsic worth. Once more, the editors of this an- There are only three which I had not thology give it a brief outline, while read before, as far as I could remember' offering their volume as "a measuring and they are those which appeared stick ol s-f progress." A generation of originally in the early days of Thrilling fans which tras embraced Heinlein' Wonder. I found them neither thrilling van Vogt and Bradbury may, however' nor wonderful, and wished that their find it dfficult to appreciaLe why some fa^me had been shortlived. As for Mr. of its contents should have been I(uttner, thank goodness he has im- selected, either in the first place or for proved out of all recognition since the presentation here, as "outstanding for days of "When the Eafth Lived." The Soge of Providence SOMETHING ABOUT CATS ANd Outsicler and Others" (Arkham: '39), Other Pieces bY H. P. Lovecraft' had completed his resuscitation; yet collected by August Derleth. Arkham with "Marginalia," in '44, the indus- Sauk CitY, Wis. $3.00. trious August Derleth carried a step Ilouse, presentation Hlllman further the literary of all Reviewed by Arthur F. that Lovecraft had conceived. The fantasy fan who does not belong This melange of bits and pieces of to the coterie of Lovecraft worshippers his work, together wittr certain revi- mav be somewhat disconcerted to en- sions he had made of the writings of couhter still further books dedicated to others, seemed a tittle remote from the the Sage of Providence. Time and mainstream of Lovecraftiana'. But the again his ghost would seem to have reception of the volume proved the been laid to rest with due solemnity insatiable curiosity of his followers and finality, yet always hls spi-rit wings concerning anything attaching to the its way back into the orbit of current life's work of their idol, and em- production. Once it was thought that boldened his Boswell to cast around "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" (Arkham: for more evidence of tris labours. One '43), that magnificent companion result was "The Lurker at the Thres- volume to the still more admirable hold" (FR, Dec. '48Jan. '49), a rather initial collection of his stories, "The top-heavy structure which Mr. Derleth 28

himself erected on two slight founda. tion stones left behind by the Master; and now we have another collection of ii'agments which, its compiler asserts, "is primarily a volume for the collector who insists upon comprehensiveness." Despite the somewhat warnine note in this description, howeverl the volume ccntains much that is worth- while. Those who remember the Weird Tales of the late '20's and early Shasta Publishers '30's will not lightly dismiss any oppor- tunity of encountering once more the 5525 SOUTH BLACKSTONE stories of that period; and in "The cHrcaco, 37, TLLINOIS, U.S.A. Horror in the Burying Ground," by Hazel Heald, and "The Last Test" and Now Avoiloble "The Electric Executioner," by Adolphe de Castro, are found distinct evidence of Lovecraft's flair for revision. In THE MAN WHO these, as in "The Invisible Monster" and "Four O'Clock," by his former wife, Sonia II. Greene, are also weU-shaped SOLD THE MOON facets of the patfeln of his own super- by ROBERT HEINLEIN natural themes, making them all the A. more acceptable to his fans. :lhe first of the famous "Future The title essay, in which the Sage History" series, presented in one discourses upon the superiority oi cats volume. over dogs, is cast in derisive vein with Contains the title story (30,000 power, words of new flction). and: words of singular and will "Life-Line," probably prove the most enjoyabie item "Let There Be Light," in the whole collection. Among the "The Iloads Must Roll." appreciations, that of tr'j|itz Leiber, "Biowups Happen," Jr. on "A Literary Copernicus" is out- "Requiem." standing: as he says, Lovecraft shifted The whole centred round the the focus of dread from man and his not-too-distant future, and telling world t,o the stars and the unplumbed of the conquest of the Moon and depths of intergalactic space, and he outer space. elaborates on this theme most inter- Jacket by Hubert Rogers. general, Chronological chart on end- estingly. In though, the papers. poetry and articles are inferior to what Introduction by John w.. Camp- has been published alreedy under the bell, Jr. same heading. fn his efforts to Preface by Robert A. Heinlein. unearth the whole of Lovecraft, Mr. , 288pp.; 3-piece binding, gold- Derleth has delved to the uttermost s[amped. strata, and the minerals have run This wili be rated one of the pretty thin. And in one respect, at outstanding books of the year. (19i least, it might have been best to leave $3.00 6) certain matters buried. Still Obtoinable f refer to the piece on "Lovecraft as I Knew Him,"* by Mrs. Sonia Davis. Curious though many of the coterie SIDEWISE IN TIME mrist be concerning the circumsNances of his marriage, I am sure that most by MURRAY LEINSTER would not want to pry into the details; Six magniflcent stories by one of and in her story of their life together science fiction's favourite authors, tl-re former Mrs. Lovecraft has left $3.00 (r9l6) very little unrevealed. Her account of provided Sole British Representative: the way she for him and tried to "humanise" him, only to divorce him E. d. GARNELL, r? BURWASH RD., PLUMSTEAD ,r Which originally appeared in The LONDON, S.8.18 Providence Jou,rnal, Lovecraft's home- town paper. 29 when she iailed, casts a pitiless light on Still, even if this book is perhaps what should, I believe. have remained the least of the links in the chain of discreetly veiled. One can imagine the Lovecraft's works. all his admirers blow to tris own sensitivities if he were should have it on their shelves. Apart alive to read such an exposd; and in from the forthcoming "Selected spite of Mrs. Davis' efiorts to com- Lettels," ib represents what may well mand the sympathies of her audience, be the last of such collections to appear, one is left feeling much more slrnpathy however many reprints of his more for the man who is now so much less of ambitious pieces have yet to the legendary, mysterious figure she materialise in respo.nse to continued predicted he would become. demands. The Honourable BEM FIRST LENSMAN, by Edward E. from the start, and the tascinating pic- Smith, Ph.D. Fantasy Press, tures of the alien life-forms of strange Rea.ding, Pa. $3.00 planets which are a more recent Reviewed by D. R. Smith development of his n'ork. He was among the first exponents of space Ever since his first interplanetary opera to play with the idea that a Bug- epic, "The Skylark of Space," set the Eyed Monster might really be a decent pattern for such stories, the appearance sort of creature at heart. Now he has of a new work by Dr. Edward E. Smiih gone further, and suggests that the (FR, Apr.-May '48) has been considered BEM might have an inner personality a majol event in science flction. There and code of morals as monstrous to our are many writers who have surpassed, conceptions as its outward shape yet in actual quantity of words, this pains- still be a worthy citizen of the Galaxy. taking authol of ten novels and a trand- This, coupled with the fact that his ful of short stories which have present villains are mainly Earth politi- appeared over a period of twenty-two years; cians and financiers-and Americans. but few others can be said to too!-surely removes him well away have had such a great influence on from the ranks of the superflcial such a loyal band of admiring readers, writers. For these two decades his name has The pattern of the story is similar to been a household word in this field, as the later Lensmen tales, trowever: it is much wibh that minority which con- a detective thriller of the future. The demn his stories as shallow and super- plot is engagingly intricate, but fairly ficial as among the thousands who have developed; and although the good fallen completely to his spell. scientists contrive to out-invent the The appearance of "First Lensman" evil ones as usual, they are not allowed. is particularly notable because it is the to overdo it and the Lens does not nrst Smith novel to be published in degenerate into the magic wand it book form without having been pre- might easily have become. Its intro, sented eariier as a magazine serial. It duction and gradual development as a is actually the second story in the weapon is, naturally, one of the prin- "Lensrnen" series, rvhich started with cipal features of the story, and Dr. "Triplanetary" (FR, Aug.-Sept. '48) and Smith handles it with an adroitness continues with "Galactic Patrol," "Grey which leaves me satisfied that the Lensman," "Second Stage Lensman" Lens deserves to rank vety high in the and "Children of the Lens," the scantv list of really desirable inventions Astounding Science Fiotion serials of science flction. which are to see book presentation in The Lens being wleat it is, and doled due course. And it may well prove the oui by the Irisians so carefully, it is best of its bulch, I fancy: partly be- almost inevitable ttrat the good charac- cause it is the most recently written- ters tend to appear so morally perfect and Dr. Smith is always striving to that they become much of a muchness; improve his technique as a writer. and the wicked types cannot be given As usual, he gives us ample doses of more varied personalities lest they steal his two most exhilarating ingredients: the show. Dr. Smith has always been the battles in space, with the tremen- faced with this difflculty, and here he dous scientif,c weapons he has wielded solves it fairly satisfactorily by em- 30 phasis oD the minor facets of per_ tions. in peculiar plaees, displays a sonality and the use of suitable rion_ human irandiness with technicat termJ un-com_ characters. That he has not mon in any grade of fi.ction. had, to write iniiiaUy for magazine pub- The days lrcauon nas evidently when I used to read and re- allowed him a read the tales that appealed to me lrtile more freedom (there is one brief most strnng)y were, I-lhought, Passage which James long Hadlev Chase past. But when I had reached the end migh.t _consider quite acceptabier, and of this book this helps I straightway turned back to add a few deeper, if more to the flrst page and began sombre, splashes to read it of colour. The epi_ through again. And now that I have sode in a uranium mine, which is oriiy set my feelings one of a rich store _down about it all, I of intriguing situa- slrall probably star[ on it a third time. Doomsday in Moronio THE Blc EYE, by Max Ehrlich. have in mind something of more Doubleday, New llork. $2.b0. general appeal than the average s_f Reviewed by ,John Beynon serial-but one doubts whether- that can be attained by flouting the rules of The Big Eye is, of course, the 200_inch probability. telescope at palomar-up page Whatever the class of to fSo. material, unless a certain standard of Thereafter it is a runaway planet, logic is maintained which-in Lhe first it will inevitablv stages of its apfroach damage the rest of the story, howevei. towards Earth shows a turn of speed. good. that makes It becomes the more distressins light look Uke a loite;ing when an author who obviouslv hobo, but later seems is ii to loiter considerl ea-rnesL in some parts of his tale allows ably- itseif. It is the second object otners to run so wtrich, it appears, is referred wild as to ofiend to ininC logical possibility and so detach title of this science flction novel,'ln attempting rnler€st. which Mr. Ehrlich set him- For_ instance, nobody is greaily relf a very dilficulu task. troubled, There have been if, in some dimension- few successful s_f ygTing space opera. every creature on n?vgis. .In _-general, science nction, Alpheratz lvnether intellectual, Ms of exacily similar exciting or merely mind. But the picture of an America ropey, is most easily handled as an ad- implication, venLure story by a whole human or a thriller; it is usuallv race-wtrich-and, will accept as gospel, an action story where the conflict ii tretween protagonists instantly and without question, itu! the and the cir_ statement of few astronomers' cumstances. In the novel proper, a that how- the world will end on a particular day, ever, conflict is the outcome of human character. is more convenient for the author than It follows, therefore, ttrai in c_onvincing to the a s-I-novel there must reader. One crazy tre two conflicts doubter is mentioned, but that is a low runnrng_ simultaneously and interlock_ proportion ano even of scepticism for the world JnB, the most expert hands I. thought I lived in; and the presenta- have found thi.s difficult. fn-tnis case.-f suspect. tion of every kind of Arnericari-except half the readers will tick be_ astronomers and their rvives-as carse characters tiddle along with their the petty emotions unfailing exhibitor of panic and and love afiairs while hysteria upon the least excuse is not lfe en$ of the world draws near, and only the other haH unflattering but silly. will complain ttiat--a Mr'. Ehrlich's New york, in the last good human story keeps- being sidJ two years r-racKed Dy an event of the wo.rld's lease, is a which, they mav bewildering place, mn upon curious feel. no onc coujd tak; i;iioGl;,. any\{ay. economic lines. Money, under the threat, is not worth saving, so-guess Mr. Ehrlich has obviously been to some trouble what! Everyone draws out atf his to adjust his balances. deposits, cashes in on his insurance rre nas weighed the proportions of in_ terest, arranged and, the banks being able to stand this for the domestic drail imperturbably, sets out to spend cvents to be caused by the cosmic, and his lot. Business stops, office glven a numan motivation to link biocks whole. the stand empty; but appalenily business So one assumes that he did was a phoney, for newspapers still 3l appear, lights blaze, radio persists, so gloom, goes into a religious funk, and do theatres and movies, every woman appears to think this is a moral has a mink coat, crowds converge on triumph. A good basic story and vivid New York, nobody is producing but writing can be ruined by such non- everybody irs fed, and all this is presum- sense. I feel 5trongly that there must ably paid for and kept going by the be some individuals left (kresides money that it's no longer worth any- astronomers), even at the fount of body's while to hold on to. mas+production. If the setting is Whereas under the threat of atomic American, surely behaviour should bombing this New York is all panic and approximate to the American pattern flight, under that of planetary oblitera- rather than the Moronian. In the face tion it whoops it up; and after it has of calamity, either money and organi- bad its fun on useless money without sation collapse or they don't-they any inflationary unpleasantness, it is can't do both, and whichever they do overcome by some variant of boozer's must afiect the story. I4r. Long and Mr. Lovecroft THE HOUNDS OF TINDALOS, by writing them he was not yet twenty. Frank Belknap Long. Museum Mr. Long is fourteen years his senior, Press, London. 8/6. and the accumulated wealth of his Reviewed by Arthur F. Hillman expericnce as a writer has gone to enrich the potency his In this collection of bre$r. These of twenty-one fan- are not jus1, strs1lsss they are works of tastic tales which appeared originally art in their own tiny niche. from Alkham House four years ago, parallel With thc other side of his work I adi there is a remarkably similar not so content, though his imagination with that of Robert Bloch ("The has ,soared greater Opener pub- to even heights. of the Way"), vrhich was "Bridgehead" is an ingenious piece of lished about the same time. Long, science flction Iike Bloch, was member that well merited its a of the Love- first appearance in Astounding, and craft circle, that select group of Welrd there Tales are several Unknown episodes contributors whose intimacv- ex- that amuse with their pixie atmos- t€nded cven to the scenes and phere; bub in some cases. such as ,,A characters of many of their respective Stitch in Time" and ',Golden Child," stories. And, as in the case of Mr. the whackiness Bloch's seems overdone and ir- collection, a defi.nite schism in responsible. One wishes that he had style is evident in this assembly of tales devoted his talents to something rather which Mr. Long is supposed to have point. gathered himself. more to the One section, com- However, that Mr. Long was the sole prising his earlier work, exhibits the methodical arbiter of the contents of his volume is. slow, Lovecraftian style, I think. doubtful; and if he was, the with every word a corner-stone in the fact remains building that many of his admirers of an elaborate but sturdy might have made a better selection. structure; the other shows the curt. including stories that are still languish- smart finish of the current American patterned ing in dusty magazines-unless by now school, afier Hemingway. they have been rescued for a further Examining Mr. Long's work in detail, collection. For. example, ,'The Dark one realises that here is a writer with a Beasts," here present, came out of a dcfl, mature touch and a brilliant fan magazine, the old Marvel Tales, imagination. Of those stodes which where it should have remained, to be show the obvious influence of Love- replaced by another of Mr. Long's craft, the title-tale, "The Space-Eaters" Astounding stories. and "A Visitor from Egypt" are out- A word about the jacket, which is standing for plot-construction and unusual, revealing a flair for the effective description. These, and macabre seldom met with in British olhers that app€arcd in the early days book illustrators. It is, I am told, the of Welrd Tales, certainly deserve their work of Powell, who did most of the nelv lease of life in book form. They illustrations for Fantasy and all (under are better, in fact, than Mr. Blochl the name of Frederic) for the Lovecraftian stories, vrhich bear traces ephemeral British Strange Tales. His of his youthful naivete: at the time of skeletal wench is horribly fascinating, 32 A Nice Drink of Moonjuice WHAT MAD UNIVERSE, by Frederic that is frankly burlesque; yet one that, Brown. Dutton, New York. $2.50. if you will accept its basic premise, is Reviewed by Th.omas Sheridan more believable than the rest-and makes the rest just as believable. Many years ago I was completely You may, of course, aheady have taken in by "A Voyage to Purilia," bJ' savoured, in the version which ap- Elmer Rice*, which turned out to be a peared in Startling Stories (Sept. '48), fantasy depicting that impossible world the delights of the situation in wNch that existed according to the early I{eith Winton, editor of "Surprising silent films-fuU of demure heroines, Stories," finds himself on being whisked scoundlelly squires and dauntless into another dimension where some heroes with Right on their side. things are very much the same as in his What Mr. Rice did for the movie melo- proper universe but others are very drama Mr. Brown has done for science difierent. Where, for instance, there fiction-or', at least, for s-f in its most are still drugstores and Model T Fords, conventional form. With a flne appre- yet space-travel is taken as much for ciation of the principles he himself has granted as the seven-foot purple to observe in his writings for the pulp Lunarians who walk the streets, and a magazines, he has produced a novel '28 25-cent piece is a rare coin worth which every fan who can see the funny 2,000 of any coiiecLor's credits. Where side of its established extravagances- Wells' "Oubline of History" has a chap- and which one cannot?-will tel telling how the development of the thoroughly enjoy. Amid a constant spacewarp drive started with an acci- flood of tales which we are not always dental discovery involving the abrupt inclined to take as seriously as their disappearance of a sewing machine; autlrors-or editors-expect, here is one how the fu'st man landed on the Moon * Cosmopoiitan, New York: '30. in 1910, and the first Earth colony was

Spring: Titles You Witt lUa,nt MASTERS OF TIME DWELLERS IN THE By A. E. va.rr Vogt MIRAGE With "T'tre Changeling," also By A. Melritt, from Astounding 19/6 New book-length presentation of & classic 19/6 THE GOMETEERS By Jack Williarnson THE BRIDGE OF LIGHT Also includes "One Against The By A. Hyatt Verrill Legion"; the sequels to "Legion of A novel of x{ayan culture and Space" 19/6 super-science 19/6

The second yearly anthology from Fretlerick Fell THE BEST SCIENGE FIGTION STORIES: 1950 Contains 12 of the best stories of '49, by Kuttner, Bradbury, Jenkins, Simak, Sturgeon, Leinster, etc. Edited by Bleiier & Dikty. f6/6 OMNIBUS OF TIME WALDO By Ralph Milne Farrley By Robert A. Heinlein Fourteen stories and a discus- Includes "Magic, Inc.": two sion on Time.travel 2316 tales by a popular writer f6/6 E. J. GARNELL 17 BURWASH ROAD, PLUMSTEAD, LONDON, S.E.I8 33

founded on Mars in '39. Doppelberg, in which all BEMs are as Now, in 1954, in this mad universe, hideous as any car?ing cover ct'itic General Eisenhower commands the could desire, as plausible as it is enter- Venus Sector of Earth's space fleet in taining. And the corollary that all its battles with the Arcturians. who des- science fiction, however incredible. mav troyed Chicago tlr'enty years before, be actual fact in some other limbo is ; "Surpdsing Stories," as might be ex- sobering thought which comes as a pected, is a magazine of ordinary ad- fltting climax to this very diverting venture stories-and the ravishing piece of esoterica. I must say I am editor of "Perfect Love Stories" (alwavs somewhab nonplussed to find a big a',tired, as beflts a "space girl,,' in publisher, intent on developing science_ scanty shorts, bra and topbooLs) is fantasy, selecting for its initial sallv a affianced fo Dopetle, 23-year-old univer- book which secms to laugh it ouf of sal super-genius who puts Buck Rogers court, and which can hardly be appre- to shame. And who, in the end. turns ciated to the full by the uninitiated; out to be the Doppelganger of-- but for those of us rvho have drunk long But in case you haven't yet visited it. and deeply of moonjuice (,,It's funnv ,em let me say oniy that the explanation of sluff, all right. The more of vou'v-e the whole amazing set-up, as it even- drunk, the shorter a lime thev knock tually dawns on poor. bewildered. you out, but the longef a lime you're Editor Winton, is convincing enough to gon-e'.'). ib is wonh every cent of 10,000 render Mr. Brown's universe a ta, creorLS. Grand Spoce Opera THE STAR KlNcS, by Edmond friend but with whom the inteloDer Hamilton. Fell, New York. $2.b0. falls in love. and by a morganatic m'ar- Reviewed by D. R. Smith liage to a most affectionate ladv whom hg prefers For the to regard quite platrjnically. foulth book in their Science Ttre intricacies are increased Fiction Library, the publishers who by tde necessity of keeping secret thA ex- have seen flt to recognise the medium's change of minds, coming-of-age as a major literary in spite of the impo,r- tant part which Gordon-Zarth is due development have chosen a novel which to play in the approaching appeared originally in Amazing Stories inter. (Sept. '4?), planetary war. from the rattling type- The success the wdter of that Edmond of stoty lies in the old adept, fact that throughout all this the hero Hamilton. And in spite ol its conLain- remains ing rare example an entirely credible character: a of an untrissable a reasonably intelligent, reasonably hiss ("You traitor!" he hissed at daring Gordon), which young man, buffeted hither and is fairly indicative of yon by the peculiar natnre his fate, its general style, have to confess of I that doing the best he can and no more. I found it much more engrossing than favoured by remarkable-but its fellows in this series. not out- rageous-luck. Because he is so be- The situation which so engaged me lievable, the reader mav take a Eenuine concerns an adventurous young man of interest present in his struigles and flnd the centurv who exchanEes pleasure in following them to their con- mind.s wilh a student of two hundred clusion. The plot is neat and tidilv thousend years hence in a spirit of purely designed, advancing stcp by stefr scientiflc curiosity. The body tou'-ards the climax, smoothly and logi-- he temporarily inhabits turns out to cally. The subsidiary chafacters are beiong to the youngest son of the ruler adequate, particularly the villain, Shorr of the biggest single empire in a I(an, who in spite galaxy; of his name is much and to his dismay, he is swept iess of a stock character and more of a into a maze of military and political real person than one expects to find in intrigue quite unexpected by the space opera. princely student with whom he has Space opera it is, of course, pure and changed minds. His private life is com- simple, plicated and the wdting is litile more by a political marriage with than glib. But it is a seductive oiece the prilcess of a neighbouring empire of escapism: and I shatl be sorry if evel whom the previous occupant of his body science fiction ceases to produce such considered no more than a chaxmine faies, so long as they are of this calibre 34 The Misadventures of Corstoirs JOHN CARSTAIRS: SPACE DETEC- him what he needs to know without ' TIVE, by Frank Belknap Long. further cerebration on his part. Cheat- Fell, New York. $2.50. ing is what I call it; and I am surprised Reviewed by Donald Warwick that the long-suffering Inspector McGuire, who collaborates with him on His ever'-loving secretary, Vera Dorn, the omcial side, doesn't up and say so. is of the opinion that John Carstairs Undoubtedly, there are some wonder- frorn one aspect is "shy, sober, scholarly ful specimens of exotic flora to be and curator of the flnest botanical ex- found in these pages; some of them hibit in the Solar System"; froni unsuspecting aides of the "young another, lre "stands six feet three in his tornado," othels very active enemies, stockings, s built like a young tornado, The first story introduces us to a plant and likes to pretend he is a detective." capable of containing within itself such Study of his accomplish,::rents lcads me immense temperatures and pressures to a rather difierent alalysis. 1 can't that it can acfually make synthetic see that he ever appears in the least bit diamonds-and that's not all it can do. bashful, while the description of his There is not much scope for de|ecting physical stlucture is a piece of mean- here. Even McGuire knows where the ingless literary extravagance and a fair' sl,olen Diamond Plant is manifesting sample of the writing to be found in its formidable self, and sleuth Car- these stories. I am, however, in agree- stairs has only to give it a whiff of ment with Miss Dom as to her lrero's ether to overpower it. Even so, he pretences, which he appears to enjoy manages to get hirnself into consider- more than I do; for his detection con- able danger-quite,unnecessarily, as far sists chiefly in selecting the right type as I can see. At least, nobody could of extra-terrestrial super-plant to tell accuse him of excessive caution: the

Current Programme from the prirne press Box 2019, Middle (Hty Station, Philailelphia, 3, P&, U.S.A, THE INCOMPLETE ENCHANTER By L. Sprogue de Camp & Fletcher Pratt A second edition of this popular story from the pages of Unhnown Worlds has long been in demand. The Prime Press is proud to ofier it, . now, to readers and collectors who missed the original Holt edition in l9U4B. THE BLIND SPOT THE SPOT OF LIFE By Austin Holl & Homer Eon Flint We are happy to present, in two volumes, these famous and sought- after classics from tbe pages of Argosy ll{ag:azine. Price 19/6 each NOW AYAILABI,E: Long delayed, but well worth waiting for: GeorgeO.Smith,s NOMAD A story of interplanetarl' adventure and high intrigue between ,Hrlyffn

I1)r further information wrlte for Poetal Preview to: SoIe Britisir R.elxesentative: E. J. G A R N E L L, 17 BURWASH ROAD, PLUMSTEAD, LONDON, S.E.18 35 fect that most of the dangerous situa- incidents end little more excuse for a tions in which he flnds himself are considerable part of them. In all the rnerely the result of rlis own incom- tales, the preposterous plants play a petence is, indeed, one of the major key part. My favourite is the Mimas flarrs in these accounts of his mis- mould which, due to a tendency to adventures. gather in masses to feast on the "infra- There are actually six seParate radiant auras" left behind by departing stories in this assembly'!: flve short, humans, reconstructs soUd, detailed and one as long as the others Put images of persons who have left the together, the whole being presented as vicinity hours before. It is my pet be- a "novel." Possibly the long story is cause these highly respectable fungi slightly more satisfying than the rest, produce images that are fully clothed, mainly because the villian assumes tlire and I cannot think of any belter indi- appearance of a genuine character; but cation of the general level of intelli- there is little coherence to the various gence of these stolies. Nor can I think that this book qrill +Which appeared as a series as follows, make converts of the right sort to the in Thrilling Wonder: "P]ants Must gospel of science f,ction. Even in the Grow" (oct. '41); "Snapdragon" (Dec. (Apr. U.S.A., its social standing must be '41); "Ptants Must Slay" '42); pretty low; in England it has the added "satellite of Peril" (Aug. '42); "Wobb- Iies in the Moon" (June '43); and in disadvantage that the name Carstairs Startling Stories: "The IIoUow World" is not one to be taken seriously by (Summer'45). anybody who has read Beachcomber. Fun For Mr. Leinster THE LAST SPACE SHIP, by MurraY whose main object after escaping is to L€inster. FeIl, New York. $2.50. flnd somewhere to land so that a Reviewed by D, R. Smith proper marriage ceremony will stop the neighbours talking about the girl The background to this tale-or, man given, rather, these ttree tales-is noL un- he has taken with him; a familiar: it is that of a galactic-wide perhaps, rather too much to tight- gone the lipped, grim little speeches to make a civilisation which has off reaUy jolly most rails and is doing its best to imitate the companion, but a Neros The forces useful type in many ways. Particularly degeneracy of Rome. in his ability to twist two or three wires of law and order have discovered an pertorm invincible method of enforcing their together and so miracles does were not hc appear almost super. commands and, as if that If I seem to sound sarcastic, let me obnoxious enough to most citizens, have admit have fallen for the oft-quoted doctrine say thalj it hurts me to to power corrupts, absolute it-for Murray Leinster is a favourite ttlat "all writer of mine-but I iound this story pow'er corrupts absolutely." A law is perfection good its enforcement falling short of on several only a law when counts. T'he author, in his Foreword, is enabled by the acquiesence of the people ."vill bound by In this anticipates that many f.nd majority of those it, odd book, but insists that he case, all laws could be enforced bY a ii a very the majoriby has had fun with it, even if lhey decide minority whether or not that he is "more than a little bit approved; and so, suggesLs the author, cracked." His regular devotees will that worst law of all which holds that justification power--can do need no for his "batting the king-e1 those in may be con- no wrong was enforced 4d lib. ideas alound," but they Invincible method-to aIl, of course, cerned, as I $as, over the fact that hero, Rendell, who suc- nothing has been done to blend into saYe the Kim one continuous novel what were, as ceeds in breaking away from the separate last space- published originally, three "disciplinary circuits" in the tedious find the ship (interplanetary communication stories*. It is to in now being efiected by matter-trans- last one a recapitulation of the back- mitters), proceeds to make good his +In Thrilling Woniler Stories: "The Dis'' escape and, ultimately, to set the ciplinary Circuit" (Winter '46); "The wheels in motion to free his fellow Manless Worlds" (Feb. '4?); "The slaves. A praiseworthy hero is Kim, Boomerang Circuit" (June '4?). 36 ground material which had appeared in human characters. Kim Rendell 1are the previous two, however briefly sum- know only by the way he says what he marised. The efiect is of a magazine says; his bride Dona we sense to be serial which incolporptes in the latest pretty and to taik in muclr the sarne instalment what has gone before, for way. The other characters-such as the benefit of the casual reader-which, there are-appear vaguely as a bunch indeed, makes a very odd book. of oafs. It all makes for dullness- Mr. Leinster's style has always been much greater dullness than is found, distinguished for its curt emphasis on fol example, in a normal history book; bare statement and its lack of flowery fol most historians at least mention the descriptive. At its best it can be most more outsLanding characteristics of the refreshing, but if insufficiently sup- people of whom they write. plied with subject-matter it can easily If, of lhe series to which it belongs, become very duil. The inanimat€ ihis book is the least likely to provoke subject-matter is present here in scorn from a newcomer to science almost indigestible amounts; but we flction, I fancy it is also least likely to seenr tro rea-r'n little ol nothing about the arouse interest.

Magical Pushover SIXTH COLUMN, by Robelt, A. Hein- fiction enthusiast from realising ihat lein. Gnome Press, New York. $2.50. it is not so much scientific as super- Il,eviewed by John K. Aiken natural. In this he is not wholly suc- Given: youl country overrun, your cessful. T'he veneer of magnetic- arrny wiped out, your .government and gravitic spectra and so forth is a thin its seat destloyed, your countrymen en- one, and beneath it we fi.nd tractor slaved. Given also a super-power, and and pressor beams with which huge a well-hidden handful of technicians "tem.ples," shining with chromatic 'n'ho know it. Ploblem: to dispossess radiance, are built single-handed; a the enemy. Solution: use the power h€aling ray which kills disease germs tc found a new "religion." without affecting the essential sym- This is neither Mr. Heinleln's first biotic bacteria of the intestines (a nor last shot at the science-disguised- point Mr. Heinlein overlooks); a trans- as-religion idea, which is clear'ly one of mutation ray which will convert un- his favourites; it has pervaded or in- known poison gases into nitrogen and spired much of hls best work in unknown alloys into gold; and, least Astounding, from "Universe" (May'41) credible (not to say creditable) of all, and "Common Sense" (Oct. '41), where a simple little gadget which kills Pan- the religion is accepted as such, to Asians while leaving Americans un- "With Flaming Swords" (Sept. '42), scathed. where it is known by its exponents to Mr. Heinlein tries to infuse realism be a fake. "Sixth Column" is one of his by making an odd thing or two go most successful attempt5 in the second rrr'rong: here a traitor, there a mad- category, having at once made the re- man, somewhere else (a good long putation of "new" author Anson Mac- way ofi) a "congregation" actually Donald when it originally appeared in wiped out by the PanAsians. But the the issues of Jan.-Mar. '41. Since then result is at best a pseudo-realism: the it has been appreciably revised and conflict remains one between an tightened up, and is now a really first- irresistible force and a noLquite- class tale of the trundled percent wish- immovabie object. In short, a pushover. fulfilment type. Yet a pushover described with all of The trouble with a limitless power, Mr. Itreinlein's humour, ingenuity and from a literary point of view, is that attention to backgxound detail is a very there's nothing il cannob do-in fact, enjoyabie spectacle, in which the blood it's sheer magic. But to make their ulti- and squalor of a real war would be mate triumph over the PanAsians out of place. The best things about the plausible, ex-publicity ag€nt Ardmore story are the truman things: the C.O. of the half-dozen-strong psychological tricks used by Ardmore U.S.-now Army-and his stafi need such a to undermine the yellow men's morale power. Ttrey have it; and it is author and cause their own methods to back- Heinlein's task to prevent the science flre; the inter-relationships among the 37 tiny task force; the final touch of the work, top of its class chess probiem though it in- that breaks the Asian variably is, it leaves one with the tan_ prince. Judged among its competitors, talising feeling that it-is very,good, it could-and a even an outsianding, should-have been better stiil, if only a tale. Bnt like so much of this autho/s little better. Mr. Compbell on a Limb THE INCREDTBLE PLANET, by John of characterisation, emotion. W. press, nhiloso_ _Campbell, Jr. Fantasy' phy, ethics or aesthetics; nothing bub Reading, Pa. $3.00. action and science. Reviewed by Kempi McDonatd _ Mr. Carnpbell is, we fear, hoist with his own petard. is an almost Ir is due to ilis briUiani; It sufrcient d.escription editorship of Astounding over the past of this novel to say merely that i[ is a dozen years. that particular sequel to "The Mightiest this ;tyle Machine', or space epic is novr' as moribund as (FR, Feb.-Mar. '48). Any discoveries UNO and will soon, we suspect, be as and inventions in astronomic physics that Aarn -Jovian dead as the dodo. Like the eagle which Muffo, muscular found itself transfixed by in arrow scientist, overlooked in the earlier tale. winged by its own are taken care feathers, he himseif oI in this one. He and "nursed the pinion that impelled the his aides fit about space in super-ships steel." carving Or, to complete a metaphoric chunks out of dwarf stars and trio, Editor CampbeU has ali bu[ tangling in bitter stellar war. in the flnished sawing course off the limb on which of a desultorv search for the anthor Campbell has taken refuge. Home Planet which they have un_ accountably ,It's sad; for there is a nostalgia lost. Military and cosmic about the story, at least for a ,eader catacly_sms impend, super-weapons of twenty year's abound, physics stand.ing. But there,s -and is exhaustively no doubt that progress in the fi.etd has discussed, with never a Ieavening trac"e left it far behind.

Reatlers' Fa,nta,sy _ letters on any aspect of science_fantasy are O welcomed, Address: The dditor, SCfnUCn_neNfeSy yganstead Xtorrrn REVIEW, 115, park Road, fford, Esserx.

When is e Film Fantasy 3 _ Once again, my compliments on There are all kinds of criteria which Fantasy Review; it is a pleasure to read would have to be established preliminary so orderly and adult a compendium. Our to this work. For instance, where is th"e U.S. _outpur has_ sadly degenerated the line las[ tew years: of demarcation between fantasy and there is nothing present]y pure horror-melodrama? peter Lorre, in comparable here. MGM'S '35 fltm, .,Mad Love', (Freirch _ It_ occurs to me that in your search for version, fresh you "Les Mains de Orlac,,, with Con- -subjecl-matter niight do well to rad. Veidtr, is a fantasy film by virtue conslder tne cinema. True, there have of been articles _its theme. BUL is Lorre's FI,KO nlm, on lantasv and science fic- "The Stranger on the Third Floor,,' a tion nlms prinled on this sicle oI the Puddle past, whodunit or a fantasy? It has a dream in -the but none, to my know- sequence which is pure fantasy, ledge, either complete or' well-written. plot but the After_reading penguin ..Film." is,"realistic" enough. Lujosi in the the book, early Universal talkie, ..Murders in the and the oLher f,lm review tirles they put Rue Morgue"-not fa,n[asy: jusb out, I am convinced that you the tiile, cfraps tit

tralia. As you are probabiy awa-":e. \\'e "down under" feel isolated and lar a,vav IMPORTANT TO from the centres of landom in lirglarril SUBSCRIBERS and U.S.; and S-FR breaks dowD this isolation. keeping us upto-date on the If a crossed subscripl,ion blank latest activities and publications in the is enclosed, it means that Your field.-Ralph H. Harding, Maylands, W. subscription expires with this Australia. issue. As from the next issue. this jourrral will be incolporated in THE oUERY BOX SCIENCE-FANTASY, which will be al'ailable from Nova Publica- IMMORTAL PROFESSOR, tions or from your newsagent, If you wish to renew Your subscrip- Please give & Iist of all the Professor tion, you should {Io this through Jameson slories by NeiI R. Jones that Nova Publications, 25 Stoke New- have appeared in Amazing Stories.-Cyril ington Roatl, Lontlon, N.16, at the A. Harper, Birmingham. rates given in the announcement ["The Jameson Satellite," Jut. '31; on page 21, All oth€r subscrib€rs "Planet of the Double Sun," Feb. '32i will receive SCIENCE-FANTASY "The R,eturn of the Tripeds," ll'I:ay '32i from the new publishers and will "'Into the H)'drosphere," Oct.'33; be notifietl when their subsctip- "Time's Mausoleum," Dec. '33; "The tions are due for renewal. Sunless World," Dec. '34; "Zora" of. t]:'e Zoromes," Mar. '35; "Space War," Jul. '35; "Lab.vrinbh," Apr. '36; "Twin Worlds," Apr.'37; "On the Planet almost all the fanzines and prozines alike Fragment," Oct. '37; "The Music Mon- join in praising any fantasy publication, sters," Apr. '38. The following also no matter what the contents. Being quite appeared in Astonishing Stories: "The new to the field myself, I find your re. Cat-Men of Aemt," Aug. '40; "Cosmic views an invaluable guide in selecting the Derelict," Feb. '41; "Slaves of the Un- books I want to buy. And I especially en- known," Mar. '42; "Doomsday on joyed your articles on the history of pro- Ajiat," Oct. '42. The series was re- zines. Put me down as hoping that the surned recently in the revived Super histories of other magazines are pub- Science Stories, with: "The Metal lished, paxticularly lhose of the smaller Moon" (Sep. '49), "Parasite Planet" ones that lasled onl)' a few issues. (Nov. '49), and "World Without Dark- On the question of fiction in S-FR- ness" (Mar. '50). please don't include it. If fiction is wanted, there are any number of publica- CONAN'S EXPLOITS tions in the f,eld to supply the need. Your Please list ali the "Conan" stories b-v articles and book reviews have no peer. Iiobert E. Howard featured in Weiril Please don't change.-Roy E. Young, San Tales, in their aebual sequence as distinct Angelo, Texas, from their order of publication.-Thomas [The number, according to correspondent G. L. Cockcroft, Wellington, N.Z. Forrest J. Ackerman, will have reached fThe seouence is as follows: "The Tower 25 by the end of this year.-Ed.l ' of ths Elephant," Mar. '33*; "FLogues in the House," Jan. '34+; "Queen of PRtrSENTING THE EDITOB the Black Coast," May '341"; "Black "The Paimer lloax" is. I think. the Colossus." Jun. '33: "Shadows in the most interesting and informative article Moonlight," Apr. '34; "A Witch Shall you have yet published-which inspires be Born," Dec. '34i; "Shadows in Zam- me to ask a couple of questions: boula," Nov. '35* ' "The Devil in Iron," (1) How about the life stodes of edi- eug. '34; "The People of the Black tors as well as authors? e.9., John W. Circle," Sep.-Nov. '34; "The Slithering Campbell, Jr. Shaiw." Sep. '33; "The Pool of the (2) In view of the increasing trend to- Btack one." oct. '33: "Red Nails," Ju].- uards the production of films with a Oct. '36; "Je\I7els of G$Ialhur," IIat. '35; fantasy background, would it be possible "Beyond the Black River," MaY-Jun. for S-FR, to review such pictures when '35: "The Phoenix on the Sword," Dec. they appear?-cyril A. Harper, Brook- 32x' "The Scarlet Citadel," Jan. '33"; nelds, Birmingham. "The House of the Dragon." Dec.* '35- (2) Apr. '36. The stories marked \\'ere [(1) See this issue. It would, and we renrinted in "Skull-Face and Others" shall.-Ed.l (Arkham. '46): those marked f have been repl'inted by Avon Fa.ntasY AUSTR,ALIAISON Rearler. Others will be included in Your publication, while it must be very "conan the Conqueror," the flrst of five handy for British and American filns, is volumes of Conan stories to be pu- absolutely invaluable to us fans iD Ar:s- blished bJ' Gnome Press.-Ed.'l WE WANT TO BUY fantastic and $'eird books and magazines, Prompt casl-r SIIIALI ADYERTS paid for $hole collections or your surplus Special Rate to Co!,lectors:2d. per lrooks. List )'our items stating condilion worcl (5c. Canada and U.S.A.); minimum and SET YOUR OWN PRICE. Alter- l2 wortls. To Tratlers antl others: 3tl. per natively, send us your books and let us worrl (7c. in Canaila autl U.S.A.) All make a cash offer. If not acceptable, we sdvertisements in this section must be $rill return the books intact at otlr own prepaial, Box numbers 6il. (15c.) extra. expense.-De11's, 209/11 Kirkgate Market, Bradford, Yorks. WANTED: The Imagllndex, by Frank- lin Brad.r and A. Ross Kuntz, '41.-Box WANTED: Clark Ashton Smith's "Out 136, S-F lleview. of Space and Time" (Arkham House).- BACI( NUMBEIiS of Fantasy Review Box 126, Science-Fantasy Review. are available as follows: Nos. 1, 7, 8,9, 10 ITXCHANGE Bradburl"s "Dark Carni- and 11 at 7d. post free; Nos. 12. 13, 14 val" for de] Res's "Ar-rd Some Were and 15 at 1/1 post free. Science-Fantasy Human." Box 723, Science-Fantasy Review Nos. 16 and 17 may also be ob- Revierv. - tained at 1/1 post free. Secure 1'our WEIRD. FANTASTIC and Scientiflc missing numbers now, before copies are Fiction. Are you on out fl'ce monthly exhausted.-115 Wanstead Park R,oad, Mailing List for catalogues of books and Ilforcl, Essex. magazines?-S-F service (Dcpt. 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