November, 1934

Dedicated to

CLARK ASHTON SMITH THE FANTASY FAN THE FANS’ OWN MAGAZINE

Published Editor: Charles D. Hornig 10 cents a copy Monthly (Managing Editor: Wonder Stories) $1.00 per year

137 West Grand Street, Elizabeth, New Jersey

Vol. 2, No. 3 November, 1934 Whole No. 15

A SAD, SAD STORY fiction magazineshave never been huge successes with the general public, Once upon a time, a year ago last whose average intelligence is that of a summer, to be more specific, I had moron. The lovers of fantasy have a money to burn, but rather than burn higher type of intellect, and are there­ it, I decided to launch an attack upon fore very few in number. I doubt that the fantasy-loving public in the form there are 150,000 people in this coun­ of a fan magazine. You’ve guessed it try of 125,000,000 who can really ap­ — the result was none other than preciate the science and weird fiction THE FANTASY FAN. I placed that is published in contemporary mag­ enough capital in the venture to start azines. They are what you call ‘class’ it off. Needless to say, I was disap­ publications. And not one reader in pointed with the results, as far as cir­ five hundred of these fantasy magazines culation goes—it’s always’ that way. is the least bit interested in the “fan” Inexperience with the publishing game angle—but those of them that, are ate allows for pretty pictures of people just loyal to the last. Each of them is dying to send in their dollars to your worth fifty ordinary readers. They are new magazine, but the cold facts cer­ the only ones that are interested in the tainly throw ice-water on air-castles. fan magazines, so you can see why the Experience shows that a publisher must aforementioned fan magazines will fight for every subscription. It is filled never boast of circulations comparing with disrppointments and hard knocks. with Liberty or the Saturday Peening After all, magazines are luxuries, par­ Post or pay $500 for a cover illustra­ ticularly fiction magazines, and even tion. Therefore, the only way to keep more particularly fan magazines—and fan magazines is to secure every avail­ people can’t afford luxuries during able active fan, those rare specimens, times when they can just about secure and keep them together in one big fa­ money enough to live on. Fantastic mily. Of course, a few more spring 34 THE FANTASY FAN, November 1934 up every here and there fwhen other­ CLARK ASHTON SMITH wise normal people discover that there is such a thing as fantasy fiction and An Autobiograhette fan magazines. What I started out to say was that I am inclined to think that my life I had money to burn when I organized is a pretty good exemplification of the THE FANTASY FAN and didn’t theories paopounded by Lester Ander­ mind it running in the red for a year. son in his interesting and provocative And so it has. And so it continues. article on Superstition. Anyhow, I was I kept putting money in, and putting born on Friday the 13th, under Cap­ money in, never taking a cent out— ricornus and Saturn, and have been never regretting the loss (nor do I to­ flirting with most of the other orthodox day, nor consider it loss). I have en­ jinxes ever since. I do not whistle in joyed sacrificing hundreds of dollars the dark, I have never gone in for (and that’s not sarcasm) and devoting Dream Books or pyschoanalysis, a»d much of my time to gathering and as­ I make a habit of walking under lad­ sorting material for each issue. ders when it is more convenient to do But—and here’s the reason for all this than circumambulate the obstruc­ this quibbling—domestic circumstances tion. As to black cats—well, I have now prevent from taking any more owned one for many years—a most money from my own pocket to donate sinister-looking creature, with all the to the cahse, and the only way that aspects of an old-time wizard’s famil­ THE FANTASY FAN can continue iar. Perhaps all this may help to ex­ publication is to pay for itself. Of plain the kumiss in the cocoanut, and course, the circulation has gone up may account for my ability to peruse way past the mark where it half pays the most horrendous stuff without bat­ for the issue, certain months—due to ting an eyelash. Also (since there are advertising in Wonder Stories Science modern superstitions as well as ancient Fiction Swap Column under cover and ones) it may throw a light on my com­ the mention that Farnsworth Wright plete lack of faith in the Five year plan, gave THE FANTASY FAN is the EPIC, and all other cockeyed Utopian in the Eyrie in the September 1934 schemes. Moreover, it may help to issue of Weird Tales, not to speak of explain my open mind in regard to all the co-operation of the readers we al­ outre and inexplicable phenomena, and ready had—but that is not enough. the fact that I can take the theories of Now, my printer is a very nice fellow Einstein, as well as of modern science and prints THE FANTASY FAN in general, with a salutary pinch of for a very low price that cannot be du­ saline seasoning. ------—w — plicated anywhere, and it really does not cost so much to run TFF, when have would subscribe (if he has not compared to the more professional already done so) and secure at least magazines. I can guarantee you one one new subscriber, we could continue thing, though: if every reader we now (continued on next page) November, 1934, THE FANTASY FAN 35.

OUR READERS SAY fiction material, has been eliminated.” — Emil Petaja, Milltown, Mont.

“I was delighted with the First An­ In order to save space for more art­ niversary Issue. It surely was neatly icles, starting with this issue, letters done and had a dandy line-up. How­ will be abbreviated. ever, I missed the usual bit of fiction.” — F. Lee Baldwin, Asotin, Wash. “You and your associates have done a highly commendable job under ra­ “I enjoyed all the articles in the ther trying conditions and you may last THE FANTASY FAN, as well well be proud of your work.’’ as the fantasies by Barlow and Morse. — H. Koenig, New York, N.Y. The slick cover has a pleasing effect, indeed, though I liked the coloured “THE FANTASY FAN is show­ ones too.” ing itself, all white cover and every­ — Clark Asthon Smith thing. I find it more interesting to see Auburn, Calif. a publication grown than to find a brand-new mag on the market that perhaps may not last six months. A Sad, Sad Story — Gertrude Hemken, Chicago, Ill. (continued from previous page) “I wish to congratulate you for the start of a second year for THE FAN­ monthly publication indefinitely. TASY FAN and I hope it will con­ So, if you really like our little pub­ tinue for many, many more years. lication, will you do your best to help — Julius Hopkins, Washington, D.C. bring in the subscriptions? The next issue will be published in anywhere “Your issue of articles, the First from three weeks to two months, de­ Anniversary Number, is one of your pending entirely upon cash receipts. most interesting yet, I think a fine And here is an amazing fact — every selection of features for both weird dollar sent in actually brings the next and science fan.” issue days nearer publication. What — Forrest J. Ackerman, do you say? Wouldn’t you hate to see \ San Francisco, Calif. THE FANTASY FAN break off publication, and right in the middle “The Anniversary issue, with the of Lovecraft’s article, too? I know I many new items and the glossy cover, would. It’s become one of the fam­ certainly marks a big step forward, ily with me and if anything should and any lengthening of Lovecraft s happen to it, I believe I’d put a crepe treatise is always welcome. on the door. — Duaiie W. Rimel, Asotin, Wash.

“THE FANTASY FAN has been Your Sincere Friend, improving steadily, and the first (and only) fault, that of too much science THE EDITOR 36 THE FANTASY FAN, November 1934

WITHIN THE CIRCLE and a novelette; interplanetary, and Far East, respectively. by F. Lee Baldwin Forrest Ackerman can produce, at “The Red Brain” by Donald Wan- his pleasure, hour long programs, of drei is one of a long cosmic series weird and fantastic voices and se­ most of which is unpublished. quences. He has recently added to his set of sound-discs from Dr. Jekyll H. P. Lovecraft wrote 35 “Fungi and Mr. Hyde”, the complete set of from Yuggoth” in 1929 and 1930. records from the weird-scientific film The Fantasy Fan is going to print some drama, Frankenstein”. He also of those which WT didn’t take. possesses the thrilling story of Im-Ho- Tep—the Egyptian, dead 26 centuries, Farnsworth Wright has been a vis­ returned to life — featuring the weird itor in Seattle, Washington. voice of Boris Karloff; Murders in the Rue Morgue” and the grotesque During the month of August, Clark “Old Dark House” Ashton Smith fought a terrible wood and grass fire on his ranch...He wrote Two youthful Merritt fans burglar­ fiction—of a more realistic cast than ized the basement of a certain Carne­ some of his present work—as early as gie Library and made off with old 1910 and 1911; some of it appearing Science and Inventions containing “The in the defunct Black Cat. He drop­ Metal Emperor”. ped prose entirely until 1925 when he wrote ‘ The Abominations of Yondo” Robert E. Howard’s occupation is (rejected by WT and published in fiction-writing, though he helps his the Overland Monthly) and Sadas- father (a physician) attend to a small tor” (also rejected by WT but later farm on the outskirts of Cross Plains, accepted by them and published). Texas. He is 27 years old and has led a somewhat roving and adventur­ Weird Tales has on hand “The ous life. He is an amateur athlete and Hand of Wrath” by E. Hoffmann boxer; is very fond of fighting and be­ Price...He and Otis Adelbert Kline lieves barbarism to be preferable to have collaborated in a Mexican weird civilization. He is a profound historic novelette. It features I}art Leslie— student, and an authority on the folk­ Two Gun Bart — one of Kline’s lore and tradition of the Southwest. heros. You will recall that he was featured in “The Demon of Tlax- August W. Derleth is 24 — U. of pam” in WT a few years ago...Price Wis. graduate and lives in Souk City, has also collaborated with Frank Bel­ Wis. He is gaining fame in magazines knap Long, Jr., on a weird novelette of select quality with serious reminis­ which is on a visit” to Astounding ent regional fiction and poetry. He Stories. He is about to write a serial writes mystery books besides fantasy. November, 1934, THE FAN 1ASY IAN 37

ON FANTASY things themselves, but with concepts of things. One may write, like Villon, by Clark Ashton Smith of Muckle Meg and the Fair Helm- Maker; or, like Sterling, evoke Lilith We have been told that literature and the blue-eyed vampire: in either dealing with the imaginative and fan­ case, only figments of the poet’s mind tastic is out of favour among the In­ are presented. It is for the creator, tellectuals, whoever they are. Only not the critic, to choose that image or the Real, whatever that is or may be, symbol which suits him best. People is admissible for treatment; and writers who cannot endure anything with a must confine themselves to themes well tinge of trope or fantasy, should con­ within the range of staticians, lightning fine their reading to the census-returns. calculators, Freud and Kraft-Ebbing, There, if anywhere, they will find . the Hearst and McFadden publications, themselves on safe ground. NRA, and mail-order catalogues. Chi­ To touch on other considerations: meras are no longer the mode, the in­ Why this thirst for literalism, for no­ finite has been abolished; mystery is thing but direct anthropological data, obsolete, and sphinx and medusa are which would proscribe the infinitudes toys for children. The weird and the of imagination, would bar all that can unearthly are outlawed, and all mun= lift us, even in thought, above the in­ dane impossibilities (which, it may be, terests of the individual or the species? are the commonplaces of the Pleiads) Does it not imply a sort of cosmic pro­ have been banisned to some limbo of vincialism, an overweening racial ego­ literalistic derision. One may write of mania? horses and hippopotomi but not of hip­ Indeed, if all things fantastic or im­ pogriffs; of biographers, but not of possible are to be barred as literary sub­ ghouls; of slum-harlots or the hetairae ject-matter, where is one to draw the of Nob Hill but not of succubi. In line? Many thinkers who lived before short, all pipe-dreams, all fantasies not Freud, and some who live contempor­ authorized by Freudianism, by socio­ aneously with him, have maintained logy, and the five senses, are due for that the world itself is a fantasy; or, in the critical horse-lajigh, when, through De Casseres’ phrase, a superstition ■ ignorance, effrontery, or preference, of the senses.” Gaultier has pointed they find, a place in the subject-matter out that we live only by illusion, by a of some author unlucky enough to have process of seeing ourselves and all been born into the age of Jeffers, Hem­ things as they are not. The animals ingway, and Joyce. alone, being without imagination, have Let us examine these amazing dicta, no escape from reality. From paretic fathered, as they must be, by people to pyschoanalyst, from poet to rag­ whose literal-mindedness can be sur­ picker, we are all in flight from the passed only by that of their ‘ four­ real. Truth is what we desire it to be, footed betters.” Surely it is axiomatic and the facts of life are a masquerade that in thought or art we deal not with (continued on page 45) 38 THE FANTASY FAN, November 1934

SUPERNATURAL HORROR the living writer Maurice Level, whose IN LITERATURE very brief episodes have lent themsel­ ves so readily to theatrical adaptation by H. P. Lovecraft in the “thrillers” of the Grand 'Guig­ (copyright 1927 by W. Paul Cook) nol. As a matter of fact, the French genius is more naturally suited to this Part Fourteen dark realism than to the suggestion of The collaborators Erckmann-Chat- the unseen; since the latter process re­ rain enriched French literature with quires, for its best and most sysmpath- many spectral fancies like The Man etic development on a large scale, the Wolf,” in which a transmitted curse inherent mysticism of.the Northern works toward its end in a traditional mind. Gothic-castle setting. Their power of A very flourishing, though till re­ creating a shuddering midnight atmo­ cently quite hidden branch of weird sphere was tremendous despite a ten­ literature, is that of the Jews, kept a- dency toward natural explanations and live and nourished in obscurity by the scientific wonders; and few short tales sombre heritage of early Eastern ma­ contain greater horror than The In­ gic, apocalyptic literature, and cabbal­ visible Eye,” where a malignant old ism. The Semitic mind, like the Cel­ hag weaves nocturnal hypnotic spells tic and Teutonic, seems to possess which induce the successive occupants marked mystical inclinations; and the of a certain inn chamber to hang them­ wealth of underground horror-lore selves on a crossbeam. The Owl s surviving in ghettoes and synagogues Ear” and “The Waters of Death” must be much more considerable than are full of engulfing darkness and my­ is generally. imagined. Cabbalism it­ stery, the latter embodying the famil­ self, so prominent during the Middle iar overgrown-spider theme so fre­ Ages, is a system of philosophy ex­ quently employed by weird fictionists. plaining the universe as emanations of Villiers de 1’lsle Adam likewise fol­ the Deity, and involving the existence lowed the macabre.school; his “Tor­ of strange spiritual realms and beings ture by Hope,” the tale of a stake- apart from the visible world, of which condemned prisoner permitted to es­ dark glimpses may be obtained through cape in order to feel the pangs of re­ certain secret incantations. Its ritual is capture, being held by some to con­ bound up with mystical interpretations stitute the most harrowing short story of-the Old Testament, and attributes in literature. This type, however, is an esoteric significance to each letter less a part of the weird tradition than of the Hebrew alphabet — a circum­ a class peculiar to itself—the so-called stance which has imparted to Hebrew conte creul, in which the wrenching of letters a sort of spectral glamour and the emotions is accomplished through potency in the popular literature of dramatic tantalizations, frustrations, mrgic. Jewish folklore has preserved and gruesome physical horrors. Al­ much of the terror and mystery of the most wholly devoted to this form is past, and when more thoroughly stud- November, .1934, THE FANTASY FAN 39 ied is likely to exert considerrble in­ THE DEMONIAN FACE fluence on weird fiction. The best examples' of its literary use so far are by Clark Ashton Smith the tale of “The Golem” by Gustav Meyrink, and the drama “The Dyb- About 1918 I was in ill health and, buk” by the Jewish writer using the during a short visit to San Francisco, pseudonym “Ansky”. The former, was sitting one day in the Bohemian widely popularised through the cinema Club, to which I had been given a a few years ago, treats of a legendary guest’s card of admission. Happening artificial giant made and animated by a to look up, I saw a frightful demon- medieval rabbin of Prague according ian face with twisted rootlike eyebrows to a cryptic formula. The latter, trans­ and oblique fiery-slitted eyes, which lated and produced in American in seemed to emerge momentarily from 1925 describes with singula*,power-the air about nine feet above me and lean possession of a living body by the evil toward my seat. The thing disapear­ soul of a dead man. Both golemsand ed as it approached me, but left an dybbuks are fixed types, and serve as ineffaceable impression of malignity, frequent ingredients of later Jewish terror, and loathsomeness. If an hal- tradition. lueination, it was certainly seen amid (The next issue of THE FAN­ appropriate surroundings; if an actual TASY FAN will be dedicated to Ed­ entity, it was no doubt the kind that gar Allan Poe, in which will be pub­ would be likely to haunt a club in one lished an instalment of Mr. Lovecraft’s of our.modern Gomorrahs. article about four times as long as this one, all dealing with this father of the Back Numbers Of fantastic. Don’t miss part fifteen.) THE FANTASY FAN . are still available Subscribe to THE FANTASY FAN See the ad in the rear only a dollar a year of the magazine for Insure yourself of your copy issues available and prices only a limited number printed and the supply does not last long WEIRD TALES is the only magazine bn the market “Our Readers Say” today presenting is open to all — use it really literary weird fiction Your suggestions, criticisms, and masterpieces of the macabre opinions are always welcome and unearthly Boost it and helps its circulation The Best Authors of Weird Fiction by securing new readers contribute regularly to THE FANTASY FAN Tell your fantasy friends about it Tell Your Friends about TFF 40 THE FANTASY FAN, November, 1934

WEIRD WHISPERINGS science fiction and weird-mystery yarns for Astounding, Dime Mystery, and by Schwartz and Weisinger Terror-Tales, likewise writes quite re­ gularly for Super Detective...H. Hoff­ Pen Names mann Price sells consistently to the new mag, Spicy Detective Stories... Tales Ronal Kayser, who has been wri­ of the Uncanny, a new English maga­ ting for Weird Tales under the pen- zine, features weird yarns by such well name of Dale Clark, has now dropped known authors as Algernon Black­ his pseudonym and will hereafter use wood, H. G. Wells, John Buchan, his own name...Greye La Spina had Hugh Walpole, Michael Arlen, H. five stories in the first issue of that old R. Wakefield, and Somerset Maug­ fantasy magazine, The Thrill Book... han. Four of these tales appeared under var­ ious pseudonyms, but the cover design story was published un'der her own The Edmond Hamilton Lowdown name ... G. G. Pendarves, famous Here’s the story behind the discov­ weird author, is the pen-name of an er)' and making of Edmond Hamilton Englishzt/OTWtt ... Her real name is as related by Farnsworth Wright: Miss G. Gordon Treneryjshe is now “Hamilton’s first story, entitled Be­ selling stories to some of the English yond the Unseen Wall’ was rejected magazines under the name of Gordon by me ten years ago, but I liked its Trenery...And remember Hugh Da­ possibilities so well that I sent Hamil­ vidson, author of “The Vampire ton a three-page typewritten letter with Master,” -Snake Man,” and other the rejection, telling him how I thought WT thrillers? Well, Davidson is the the story might be fixed up; because pseudonym for none other than Ed­ it sagged in the middle and was rather mond Hamilton! unconvincingly set forth. I did not know Hamilton from Adam s off ox, Weird News but a year later he sent the story back Winford Publications new weird again, rewritten and so much changed magazine, out in about two months, that I hardly recognized it. I accept­ will sell for fifteen cents a copy, and ed it immediately, and I suggested is tentatively titled Mystery Novels “The Desert God” as an acceptable Monthly. It will feature a book-length title. Hamilton wrote back suggesting mystery novel each issue, but all the a new one, The Monster-God of shorter stories will be of a strictly weird Mamurth,” which is the title under nature. J. Silberkeit is the editor... which we printed it in Weird Tales. Miss C. L. Moore has returned to Hamilton has not had a rejected from ‘Northwest’ Smith as a character in a us since then. Up to the present, he new story titled “Julhi,” which will has had 43 stories printed in Weird probably appe.. i i tiie February WT Tales, and several more are in our ... Nat Sc .. , besides writing hands and will appear soon.” November, 1934, THE FANTASY FAN 41 The Primal City by Clark Ashton Smith

In these after-days, when all things are ardous. But I recall distinctly that we touched with insoluble doubt and derelic­ travelled for many days amid the bleak, tion, I am not sure of the purpose that had treeless uplands that rose rapidly likeateir- taken us into that little visited land. I re­ ed embankment toward the range of high call, however, that we had found explicit pyramidal summits guarding our destina­ mention, in a volume of which we pos­ tion. Our guide was a native of the coun­ sessed the one existing copy, of certain try, sodden and taciturn, with intelligence vast prehuman ruins lying amid the bare little above that of the llamas which car­ plateaus and stark pinnacles of the region. ried our supplies. He had never visited How we had acquired the volume I do the ruins, but we had been assured that he not know; but Sebastian Polder and I had knew the way, which was a secret re­ given our youth and much of our man membered by few of his fellow country­ hood to the quest of hidden knowledge; men. Rare and scant was the local leg- add this book was a compendium of all endry concerning the place and its builders; things that men have forgotten or ignored and, after many queries, we could add in their desire to repudiate the inexplicable. nothing to the knowledge gained from the We, being enamored of mystery, and immemorial volume. The city, it seemed, seeking ever for the clues that material was nameless; and the region about it was science has disregaided, pondered much untrodden by man. upon those pages written in an antique al Desire and curiosity raged within us like phabet. The location of the ruins was a calenture; and we gave no heed to the clearly stated, though in terms of an obso­ hazards and travails of exploration. Over lete geography; and I remember our ex­ us stood the eternal azure of vacant hea­ citement when we, had marked the posi­ vens, matching in their desolation the em­ tion on a terrestrial globe. From the very pty landscape. The route steepened; and first we were eager to behold the alien above us now was a wilderness|of cragged city, and certain of our ability to find it. and chasmed rohk, where nothing dwelt Perhaps we wished to verify a strange and but the sinister wide-winged condors. fearful.theory which we had formed re­ Often we lost sight of certain eminent garding the nature of the earth’s primal peaks chat had served us for landmarks. inhabitants; perhaps we sought to recover But it seemed that our guide knew the the buried records of, a lost science...or way, as if led by an instinct more subtle perhaps there was some other and darker than memory or intelligence; and at no objective... time did he hesitate. Al intervals we came I reeall nothing of the first stages of our to the broken fragments of a paved road journey, which must have been long and that had formerly traverted the whole of 42 THE FANTASY FAN, November 1934 this difficult region; broad, cyc.opean flags and saw before and above us, at the end of gneiss, channeled as if by the storms of of a long and quickly qpened perspective, cycles older than human history. And in the city that had been described as an un­ some of the deeper chasms we saw the named ruin in a volume antedating all eroded piers of great bridges that had span­ other known books. ned them in other time. These ruins re­ The place was built on an inner peak assured us; for in the primordial volume of the range, surrounded by snowless sum­ there was mention of a highway and of mits little sterner and loftier than itself. mighty bridges, leading to the fabulous city. On one side the peak fell in a thousand- Polder and I were exultant; and yet I foot precipice from the overhanging ram­ think that we both shivered with a curious parts; on another, it was terraced with terror when we tried to read certain in­ wild cliffs; but,the third side, facing toward scriptions that were still deeply engraved us, was a steep acclivity with broken-down on the worn stones. No living man, tho scarps and chimmeys that would offer small erudite in all the tongues of Earth, could difficulty to expert mountaineers. The have deciphered those characters; and per­ rock of the whole mountain was strangely haps it was their very alienage that fright­ ruinous and black; but the city walls, tho ened us. We had sought diligently during gapped and worn to a like dilapidation, laborious years for al) that transcends the were conspicious at a distance of leagues. dead level of mortality through age or re­ Polder and I beheld the bourn of our moteness or strangeness; we had longed world-wide search with thoughts and em­ ardently for the esoteric and bizarre; but otions which we did not voice. The In­ such longing was not incompatible with dian made no comment, pointing impass­ tear and repulsion. Better than those who ively toward the far summit with its had walked always in the common paths, crown of ruins, We hurried on, wishing we knew the perils that might attend our to complete our journey by daylight; and exorbitant and solitary reserches. plunging into an abysmal valley, we be­ Often we had debated, with variously gan at mid-afternoon the ashent of the fantastic conjectures, the enigma of the slope toward the city. mountain builded city. But, toward our We were impressed anew by the ab­ journey’s end, when the vestiges of that normal and manifold cleavages of the gra­ pristine people multiplied around us, we nite. It was like climbing amid the over­ fell into long periods of silence, sharing the thrown and fire-blasted blocks of a Titan taciturnity of our stolid guide. Thoughts citadel. Everywhere the slope was rent came to us that were overly strange for into huge, obliquely angled masses, often utterance; the chill of elder aeons entered partly vitrified, which made the ascent a our hearts from the ruins—and did not de­ more ardous problem than we had expec­ part. ted. Plainly, at some former time, the We toiled on between the desolate rocks Stone had been subjected to the action oi and the sterile heavens, breathing an air heat; and yet there were no volcanic era- that became thin and painful to the lungs, teas amid the nearby mountains. Puzzling as if with some admixture of cosmic ether. greariy, I recalled a passage in the oE At high noon we reached an .>pe ■ pass. vo.ume, hinting ambiguously at the dark November, 1934, THE FANTASY FAN 43 fate that had long ago destroyed the city’s their original contours and their seperate- inhabitants. But from this passage I could ness. They seemed to. swell and tower, still draw no definite conclusion: for the coming toward us on the blue air from ideation was too fantastic to be understood which, as yet, no lightest stirring of wind as anything more than a dubious figure of had reached us. Floating thus, they main­ speech. tained the rectitude of massive columns or We had left our three llamas at the of giants marching on a broad plain. slope’s bottom, merely taking with us pro­ I think we all felt an alarm that was visions for a night. Thus unhampered, we none the less urgent for its vagueness. made fair progress in spite of the ever-vary­ Somehow, from that instant, it seemed ing obstacles offered by the shattered that we were penned up by unknown po­ scarps. After a while we came to the wers and were cut off from all possibility hewn steps of a stairway mountidg to the of retreat. We had ventured into a place summit; but the steps had been wrought of hidden peril—and the peril was upon for the feet of colossi, and, in many places, us. In the movement of the strange clouds they were part of the heaved and tilted there was something alert, deliberate—and ruin; so they did not greatly facilitate our implacable. Polder spoke with a sort of climbing. horror in his voice, uttering the thought The sun was still high above the west­ which had already occurred to me. ern pass behind us; and for this reason, as “They are the sentinels who guard this we went on, I was much surprised by a region—and they have espied us!” sudden deepening of the char-hke black­ We heard a harsh cry from the Indian. ness on the rocks. Turning, I saw that Following his gaze, we saw thlt several of several greyish vapory masses, which the unnatural cloud-shapes had appeared might have been either cloud or smoke, on the summit toward which we were were drifting idly about the summits that climbing, above the megalithic ruins. Some overlooked the pass; and one of these masses arose half hidden by the walls, as if from rearing like a limbless figure, upright and behind a breastwork; others stood, as it colossal, had interposed itself between us were, on the topmost towers and battle­ and the sun. ments, bulking in portentous menace, like Sebastian and the guide had also noted the cumuli of a thunder-storm. this phenomenon. Clouds were almost un­ Then, with terrifying swiftness, many heard-of amid those mountains in summery more of the cloud-presences towered sim­ and the presence of smoke would have been ultaneously from the four quarters, emer­ equally hard to explain. Moreover, the ging from behind the gaunt peaks or as­ grey masses were wholly detached from suming sudden visibility in mid-air. With each other and showed a peculiar opacity equal and effortless speed, as if convoked and sharpness of outline. At second glance by an unheard command, they gathered in they did not really resemble any cloud converging lines upon the eyre-like ruins. forms we had ever seen; for about them We the climbers, and the whole slope a- there was a baffling suggestion of weight bout us and the valley below, were plun­ and solidity. Moving sluggishly into the ged in a twilight weird and awesome as heavens above the . pass, they preserved that of central eclipse.' 44 THE FANTASY FAN, Novemoer 1934

The an was stiN windless, but it weigh­ ensued; but the impression of insufferable ed upon us as if burdened with the wings darkness, of demonic clamor and trampling, of a thousand cacodemons. I remember and the pressure of thunderous burdenous that I was overwhelmingly conscious of onset, remains forever indelible. Also, our exposed position, for we had paused there were voices that called out with the on a wide landing of the mountain-hewn stridor of clarions in a war of gods, utter steps. We could easily have concealed ing ominous syllables that the ear of man ourselves amid the huge fragments on the could never seize. surrounding slope; but, for the nonce, we Before those vengeful Shapes; we could were incapable of the simplest movement. not stand for a moment. We hurled our­ In a close-ranged army, the Clouds mus­ selves with a mad precipitation down the tered above and around us. They rose in-’ shadowed steps of the giant stairs. Polder to the very zenith, swelling to insuperable and the guide were a little ahead of me, vastness, and darkening like Tartarean gods. to the left hand, and I saw them in that The sun bad disappeared, leaving no faint­ baleful twilight on the verge of a deep est beam to prove that it still hung unfall­ chasm, which, in our ascent, had compel­ en and undestroyed in the heavens. led us to much circumambulation. I saw I felt that I was crushed into the very them leap together—and yet I swear that stone by the eyeless regard of that awful they did not fall into the chasm: for one assemblage, judging and condemning. We of the Shapes was upon them whirling and had trespassed upon a region conquered stooping, even as they sprang. There was long ago by strange elemental entities; we a blasphemous, unthinkable fusion as of had approached their very citadel—and forms beheld in delirium; for an instant the now we must meet the doom our rashness two men were like vapors that swelled and had invited. Such thoughts, like a black swirled, towering high as the thing that lightning, flared in my brain. had caught them; and the thing itself was Now, for the first time, I became aware a misty Janus, with two beads and bodies of sound—if the word can be applied to a melting, no longer human, into its un­ sensation so anomalous. It was as if the earthly column... oppression that weighed upon me had grown audible; as if palpable thunders poured over After that, I remember nothing more, and past me. I felt, I heard them in ev­ except the sense of vertiginous falling. By ery nerve, and they roared through my some miracle I must have reached the edge brain like torrents from the opened flood­ of the chasm and flung myself into its gates of some tremendbus weir in a world depths without being overtaken as the ot­ of genii. hers had been. How 1 escaped the pur­ Downward upon us, with limbless at- suit of those cloudy Guardians is forever­ lantean stridings, there swept the cloudy more an enigma. Perhaps, for some in­ cohorts. Their swiftness was that of super­ scrutable reason of their own, they per­ natural things. The air was riven as if by mitted me to go. the tumult of a thousand tempests, was When I returned to awareness, stars rife with an unmeasured elemental malign­ were peering down upon me like chill in­ ity. I recall but partially the events that curious eyes between black and jagged lips' November, 1934, THE FANTASY FAN 45 of rock. The air had turned sharp with LOST EXCERPTS the eoldness of nightfall in a mountain land. My body ached with a hundred by Robert Nelson bruises and my right forearm was limp and useless when I tried to raised myself. A I. In Living Darkness dark mist of horror stifled my thoughts. Struggling to my feet with pain-racked ef­ In dreams agone I walked aimlessly fort, I called aloud, though I knew that and long in far and distant realms. none would answer me. Then, striking I have seen wretched anddepressed match after match, I searched the chasm women feed with their milk the fam­ and found myself, as I had expected, a- ished spirits that swelter and moulder lone. Nowhere was there any trace of amid the rank noisomeness of charnel my companions: they had vanished utter­ hells. By blue and rotting trees I have ly—as clouds vanish. seen colossal and cankered white worms Somehow, by night, with a broken arm, fawning to their young and devouring I must have climbed from the steep fissure, themselves. I must have made my way down the fright­ I have seen evil and demented ful mountainside and out of that nameless- dwarfs fling flaring torches into the ly haunted and guarded land. I remem­ faces of maids who were playing sad ber that the sky was clear, that the stars violins and dying with nameless sins were undimmed by any semblance of cloud; and melody. And I have stood on red and that somewhere in the valley I found rocks overlooking a black and ever­ one of our llamas, still laden with its stock surging sea wherein dread things stab­ of pro visions,,, bed and slew and shrieked in exalta­ tion to the molten dripping skies. Plainly I was not pursued by the Guard­ ians. Perhaps they were concerned only with the warding of that mysterious prim­ On Fantasy al city from human intrusion. Never shall (continued from’ page 38) I learn the secret of those ruinous walls in which we imagine that we have i- and crumbling keeps, nor the fate of my dentified the maskers. The highest companions. But still, through my nightly intellects have always delighted in poet­ dreams and diurnial visions, the dark ic fantasy and philosophic paradox, Shapes move with the tumult and thunder knowing well that the universe itself is of a thousand storms; and my soul is crush­ multiform fantasy and paradox, and ed into the earth with the burden of their that everything perceived or conceived imminence; and They pass over me with as actuality is merely one phase of that the speed and vastness of vengeful gods; which has or may have innumberable and I hear Their voices calling like clar­ aspects. In this phantom whirl of the ions in the sky, with ominous, world­ infinite, among these veils of Maya shaking syllables that the ear can never that are sevenfold behind sevenfold, seize. nothing is too absurd, too lovely, or The End dreadful to be impossible. 46 THE FANTASY FAN, Novenwer 1934

. MEDUSA

by Clark Ashton Smith

(Written at the age of 18)

As drear and barren as the glooms of’Death, It lies, a windless land of livid dawns, Nude to a desolate firmament, with hills That seem the fleshless earth’s outjutting ribs, And plains whose face is crossed and rivelled deep With gullies twisting like a serpent’s track. The leprous touch of Death is on its stones, Where, for his token visible, the Head Is throned upon a heap of monstrous rocks, Rough-mounded like some shattered pyramid In a thwartly cloven hill-ravine, that seems The unhealing scar of huge of Tellurian wars. Her lethal beauty crowned with twining snakes That animate her hair, the Gorgon reigns: Her eyes are clouds wherein Death’s lightnings lurk, Yet, even as men that seek the glance of Life, The gazers come, where, coiled and serpent-swift. Those levins wait. As round an altar-base Her victims lie, distorted, blackened forms Of posture horror smitten into stone— Time caught in meshes of eternity— Drawn back from dust and ruin of the years, And given to all the future of the world. The land is claimed of Death: the daylight comes Half-strangled in the changing webs of cloud That unseen spiders of bewildered winds Weave and unweave across the lurid sun In upper air. Below, no zephyr comes To break with life the circling spell of doom. Long vapour-serpents twist about the moon, And in the windy murkness of the sky, November, 1934, THE FANTASY FAN 47

The guttering stars are wild as candle-flames That near the socket.

Thus the land shall be, And Death shall wait, throned in Medusa’s eyes, Till, in the irremeable webs of night, The sun is snared, and the corroded moon A dust upon the gulfs, and all the stars Rotted and fallen like rivets from the sky, Letting the darkness down upon all things.

MALANOTH

(To Clark Ashton Smith)

by-R. O. P.

Where is the ancient hidden sphere Where Malanoth is king? What silhouetted towers rear And on the heavens cling?

Above the wall that shows no gate The migh/y columns loom; Mysterious wonder incarnate Wliere slumbers ancient doom.

Beyond the myriad whirling moons That circle through the skies— A place described in evil runes, The awesome kingdom lies.

And Malanoth, its striped face Obscure and pondering Thinks always in that silent place Of some old, secret thing. 48 THE FANTASY FAN, Novemoer 1934

A DEATH SIGNAL ADVERTISEMENTS Rates: one cent per word (A True Experience) Minimum Charge, 25 cents WANTED: November 1932; June, July, by Kenneth B. Pritchard October 1933; January, July, 1934 Fa'n- tasy Magazine (Science Fiction Digest); and September 1933 The Fantasy Fan. My grandfather was on his death­ Four dollars for all seven items in one lot. bed. A door to his room was.closed. Also the following at rate of four for a dol­ Other doors in the house were shut, lar: January, April, May, September, and at least one was locked or bolted. November, December, 1933, and April, August, 1934 issues Science Fiction Di­ Some of his family were down gest. Judson Chidlow, 509 West 26th stairs. They knew that the end was Street, Austin, Texas. near; but just when he would pass, Back Numbers of The Fantasy Fan-. they could not tell. September, 1933, out ofprint; Oct., Dec., *933 —Jan-> Feb., Mar., May, June, What happened next must have put Aug., Sept., Oct., 1934, 10 cents each. terror into the hearts of the inhabi­ Nov., 1933—Apr., July, 1934, 20 cents tants. each.

All of a sudden, all the doors in CLA.RK ASHTON SMITH presents THE DOUBLE SHADOW AND the house opened, whether they were OTHER FANTASIES—a booklet con­ bolted or otherwise! And then, even taining a half-dozen imaginative and at­ as they had opened, so they closed! mospheric tales—stories ol exotic beauty, And my grandfather was dead. horror, terror, strangeness, irony and satire. Price: 25 cents each (coin or It seemed as thongh his death was stamps). Also a small remainder of a signal for someone or something to EBONY AND CRYSTAL—a book of prose-poems published at $2.00, reduced open and close the doors. What was to gi.oo per copy. Everything sent its meaning? Did ■something come to postpaid. Clark Ashton Smith, Auburn, take his soul? California.

It is easy to see how Shakepeare’s A. MERRITT’S New Fantasyarn, “The Drone,” Donald Wandrei’s short Hamlet spoke strange truths; and that weirdthriller, “The Chuckler,” Francis men of science and learning have Flagg’s glamorous “Moon Voyager’s much to uncover, with the light of Speech,” “The Horde of Elo Hava,” of the torch of intelligence leading by L. A. Eshbach. All for 10 cents! the way into dark comes and shed­ SFDCOff, 87-36—162nd Street, Jam­ aica, N. Y. ding an illuminating gleam into the unknown. IMPORTANT! Many subscriptions to THE FANTASY FAN expire this fall. Yours is probably one of them. DON’T forget to send in your new subscription if you want THE FANTASY FAN to SUBSCRIBE TO continue publication. EVERY DOL­ THE FANTASY FAN LAR COUNTS!