SCISNI CS. FANI'['ASY IFW wrNTER. '49-50

ERIK FENNEL soys NOBODY WANTS UTOPIA!

TH0MAS SHERIDAN on The Palmer Hoax

WALTER GILIINGS ond some THINGS THAT IIIIIN'T COMB

GE0FFREY GI LES on Jack Williamson

FANTASY BOOK REVIEWS

ONE SHIIITNG In Oanada. & U.S.A.: 25 CENTS HAS science flction a political bias? Nobody fs it fascistic-too much concerned with power-seeking heroes and big conlorations seeking a monopoly on the Universe? The controversy which started when Fantasy Review reprinted an article from a llussian journal+ has Wants been given fresh impetus by tJre re- iters,tion in Astounaling: Science Fiction of the Soviet critics' condemnation of American s-f writers as "Iackeys of WaU Street." One of the new school of fantasy writers, whose work has Utopia ! appeared in Astounding, Planet Stories and BIU€ Book, now has something very deflnite to say on the question which is being pursued in "Fantasy fbrum." By ERIK FENI{EL

Before I turned to making a llving follows tha,t it rvould be neither good vith a typ€writer I was a member of taste nor flnancially expedient to two engineering unions. Now, accord- tramp too heavily upon the emotional ing to two of the gentlemen behind the bunions of the reading public-for it is Iron Curtain, I'm a lackey of Wall the reader rather ihan Wall Street that Street. Yet my flnancial position, Iike determines the course of science fic- that of many other science nction tion. Give the reader something too writers, enough prove Wall completely at variance with his basic is to that beliefs, conditionings and previous ex- Street can be woefully remiss v,rith its perience, bribes; and I have to sell what I wr.ite and both the writer a,nd the to eat regularly. nragazine wil.i meet with widespread Now, the British Government has rejection. created grave difficulties for the dis- Most Am€ricans are experimentaJists tribution of America,n magazines in the at heart. Our entire lristory since the British Isles, while the copies our Revolution has tended to keep us from of becorning slaves of tradition. Most of s-f pulps sold in Russian territory may (with be counted on one paw by a three-toed us the exception of a few mental sioth. Therefore, American wliters nonenties) realise that this is no and publishers are obliged to depend utopia. The faults of our democratic- almost entirely on American sales. individualistic-capitaiistic system are It many, and they glare. We will change only when v/e see good odds of -butatfaining something better. We haven't seen it yet. Communism? SCIEI{CE-FAIITASY Suppression and compulsion? HeU, nol Socialism on the British pattern? Many of us think you have lost more REVIEW in Iiberfy than you've gained in QUAR,TER,LY: ONE SIIILLTNG security. But if slavish conformity is the ultimate in desirability, let's all Eclitorial, Advertising and Pub- A-bomb ourselves into extinction and lishing Ofrce: 115 Wanstead Park planet Road, Ilford, Essex. turn the over to the ants and termites. They're already better con- Subscription rates: fn Great formists ttran we are. Britain and Dominions (exceDt Certa,inly, our science flction Canada) per year. 4i- Sii:gie copies "utopias" are retrogressive. Con-flict i:s 1/-, post free. In Canada and the U.S.A., S1.00 per year. Single the basis of any story, and in a true copies, 25c., post free. utopia where peace and plenty for all was universal and automatic there EDITOR,: WALTER, GILT,INGS would be no conflict, no story, no cheque for the writer, and no readers. VoI. 4, No. 17 WINTER '49-50 x "Science Fiction-Tlre Wcrld's Night- mare": Dec.'48 - Jan.'49. 3

So the utopias of s-f are in reality only planetary travel, the Earth base for the pseudG-utopias, sef up to be knocked spaceship is in the United States and down. Many writers start building on the U.S. is one of the leading powers a Premise of "This is the Yesx of the world-oflen the power as far as Some of the characters probably like gadgetry and engineering are con- things bhat way, and want to-." keep cerned. Nationalistic pride? I don't them so; but this does not necessarily thin-h so, although some of us have imply that the author considers his confidence in our future. Rather. an created social and governmental sys- atbempt to extrapolate into the future tem perfect-or even good. from the recent past, in the interests of Astounding Science Fiction once- plausibility. For America is the gadget and during the war!-ran a story based capital of the world, said gadgets on the premise that Hitler had won ranging from zippers to A-bombs. World War II and that the title had Whether this is good or evil is an- become generic, like l{ing. The viilain other matter: I personallv think we're was Hifler XXVII, or some suctr gadgeting oursefies into deep trouble- number. Does that make the author a for which heresy Mr. Gernsback would Fascist? The Artur Blord stories car- have sent me rejection slips if I had ried big-bnsiness capitalism to the ulti- been writing in his day. But our capi- mate, with Iegalistic shenannigans to tallstic, free+nterprise, restless, icono- make present-day corporation lawyers clastic system encourages the develop- green with envy. Is thirs pro-capitalist ment of gadgets. So some of us, extra- propaganda? Or satire, in the tradi- polating' feel ithat America wiU get tion of Swift's modest proposal that further and further ahead in gadgetry Baked Irish Baby be added to the menu we blow ourselves to hell. of the British upper classes? Sprague probably.-until de Camp once put humans under ttre In our chief competitors, the Russian thumbs of the Hoppers and gave them and British systems, the trend is a medieval system of knighthood and towards state management of every- serfdom. That makes him-according thing, with tress and less proflt for the to the "logic" of our critics- a per se invenLor and developer. Individual advocate of feudalism. initiative is not only uffewarded under Most science flction stories deal with these systems, but actually penalised. unusual individuals-unusually docile, But American readers would not under- unusually greedy or altruistic, or un- stand a story in which the hero had to usually intelligent or insane. This is go around for weeks on end, standing only natural. Who wants to read about in line at numerous government m€diocre personalilies living in a bureaus to get permission to buy moderately dull routine? (Even the materials and tools, get his workshop Communists, tho.se fanatical exponents hooked up with electric current, get of conformity, make quite a huzzlecoo hoid of enough coal to keep his hands about their Stakhanovite workers.) from freezing n'hi]e he worked, have The unusual individual is frequently- his ration book checked and counter- nearly always-out of step with his en- stamped, and do all the million-and- vironment. So what would he be doing one things he wouid have to do under in a perfect utopia? any Statist regime. T'he unusual individual in an imper- On the charge that most American fect environment is bound to react in s-f heros carry American passports and one way or another. Perhaps, driven are of Anglo-Saxon ancestry, the plea by idealism or some equivalent, he tries is guilty. And for this some of us are to tear the system apart, polish up the genuinely sorry; we feel we are missing pieces, and reassemble them in con- some wonderful opportunities. But we formity with his own ideas of how have neither been blibed by the Race things should be. But not €very Purity League nor intimidated by the characLer is driven by idealism. Per- Ku I{lux Klan. This situation arises haps he tries to get along inside the from a peculiar reader habit which system, evading the thought police in- texts on writing call "identitrcation." stead of attempting mass assassina- Many readers imagine themselves into tion, and attending to his own business. the hero's shoes as he slaughters nasty Does this mean that the character- EEvI's, battles with broadswords and/ and through him, the author-actually or planet-wrecker bombs, makes passes approves of thought police? at suitably pneumatic heroines and It is true that in most American thwarts vile vtllains. Some editors will stories of way-in-ihe-future and inter- not buy a story in wNch there is no 4

character suitable for identif,cation. have And many readers, it seems, In the next issue: difficulty identifying if the leading character is a ZuIu or an Eskimo or THOMAS SHERIDAN on has two heads-which shows up a cer- tain lack of mental flexibility among HUGO GERNSBACK, readers rather 'than race prejudice Pioneer of Scientifiction among writers. I once wrote a story- still one of my favourites-about a ARTHUR, F. IilLLIIAN on Chinese-Samoan-Filipino boy who had been raised in Hawaii. He liked to play A. MERRITT, with a ukelele while thinking, sleep in Master of Fantasy the sun, make corny puns, and genera.lly enjoy life both on Earth and as a spaceman. He ended up by manl- against all Statist for:rns of government ing, in Luna Farside Observatory, a that deal in threats and compulsions statuesque blonde from Norrvay. But and controls. I have a deep and bitter that story is still in my "lemon" fle: distrust for super-governments of all it never sold. types, and most of my v/ork naturaUy Personally, I am a Moderate Anar- tends in that direction. I iove to set up chist. I believe that pou'er cornrpts diclatorJ and then dream up unpleasanl and absolute power corupts abso- fates fol them, or create worlds of lutely; that the rninimum goveriment rampant sociaiistic bureaucracv and is the best government; that we have then plot them into chaos frorri their to decentralise and decontrol vet'y cwn inef,nciency and mass stupidity. I quickly, or els€; that bureaucratic rvill continue to slant my work along government is a cancerous grouth, those lines, wiJhout apology; and if malignant and deadly, which will any Communists or party-liners wish to spread and take over everything unless accuse me of turnlng out "difty capi- sharply checked. I am anti-Socialist, talist propaganda" they arc still at anti - Communist and anti - Fascist. liberly to do so

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Please write for further information a.nd interesting: free lists to- f,'ANTASY BOOTT CENTRE 25 STOKE NEWINGTON ROAD, LONDON, N.16 (Telephone: Cllssold 5541) THOMAS SHERIDAN tells the romantic life story of shy JAGK WILLIAMSON, who might have been a Gowboy but became instead a SpaGG-Time Ranger

Ask any science-fantasy reader of lcal and physical lore. Although he will long standing for the names of a dozen offer an explanation of some of his writ€rs who have done the most to more profound theories with an air of develop the fleld in the past tw€nty " you-probabl}Lknow - more - about - this- Year.S and he is almost certain to than-I-do," it doesn't take him lone to mention Jack Williamson. The only leave a mere la]rynan suspended solne- one who would be certain to overlook where in the cosmic void . . . If there him ls an ounce of conceit anywhere in is-Jack Williamson. For he has Jack Williamson's make-up, he conceals been as diligent a reader as he is still, it perfectly. after more than twenty years, an indus- Those who know him better-and he trious contributor io the s-f magazines; is no reciuse, if retiring-know well and next to his record for imaginative that he is not egotistical, though he concepts and intriguing plots, he has is both proud and sensitive about his gained a reputation for personal stories. "It's not that I shrink from modesty. At any get-together of publicity," he assured me. "On the writers and fans he is conspicuous for contrary, I still look through the letter his silent presence, contributing titfle columns with a pretty eager eye for more than a sentence, in a slow drawl, readers' comments on my work." And to the discussion-unless he is pre- he is not entirely averse to writing vailed upon to give a talk, when he about himself: he has told his own makes his points quiefly and per- story sevelal times in various placesf, suasivelyx. A woman journalist who and considered the merits of his proud- interviewed him for her Texa.s readers est, pieces in "Of Worlds Beyond: The recently was so taken with his unex- Science of Science Fiction Writing.,'f pected personality that she wrote: Most of his admirers are familiar _Extraordinarly quiet, shy and self- with the romantic tale of his early efiacing, Williamson looks hore like a days, forty years ago, in remote Southwestern cowboy with an in- the feriority complex canyons of New Mexico where, as a than a successful mere babe rearecl palm-thaiched author of wildly imagi.native tales . . in a More than six feet tall, he is big and hacienda, deadly scorpions, mountain muscular-looking, and dresses mu-ch as iions and renegade Apache Indians many of the cattlemen of the area do. were the first perilous obstacles in his usually wearing a denim jumper instead career. They have heard of his of a suit coat. His only concession Lo journeying, at the age of seven, across scholarliness is a pair of rinmed prairies glasses. the in a covered wagon to Hc speaks slowly, with deliberate lfncluding Ta.les of Wonder (Autumn choice of words drarving on an '39), which was not the flrst magazine astonishing store of mechanical, chem- to reprint his work in England. IIis "As at the recent World S-F Con- Air Y9onder stor5,, "The Second Shell', vention, when he spoke on the difierent (Nov. '29), was presented in the May appeal.s of the various types of fantasy- '31 issue of Chums. fiction. lReviewed f'R Dec. '4hlan. '48. 6 reach the ranching cormtry where he thriUing worlds of romance and adven- has lived most of tris life since. But ture on this and other planets. With not as the bronco-busting cattleman he his sister, he scraped up enough money might have become-perhaps because for a subscription; and after devouring a bronc busted him, inst€ad, when he such classics as Wells' "The Time was only flve years old. IIis Texan Machine," Stribling's "The creen parents, before they turned to ranching Splotches" and Merritt's "The Moon and farming, had both been school- Pool," he found himself dreaming up teachers, and had taught h.im to read his own stories while he watered his in their lonely homestead. It was horses or Ieaned on a hoe. natural, therefore, that the discovery For one with imagination so uncon- of some of his father's dusty college fined, the next step to authorship was books and an ancient encyclopedia inevibable. On an antique typewriter strould bring out the latent interest in with a faded purple ribbon, by the science and history which inspired in flickering light of a kerosene lamp, he young Jack the desire to become a battered out four pieces which boomer- scientist-until he encountered the anged. T'he next one didn't-but it first scienco flction magazine, Amazing wasn't untii "T'he Metal Man" Stories. appeared in the Dec. '28 issue, com- That momentous turzring-point in plete with gaudy cover illustration by his career fo.llowed his graduaLion, at Paul, that he knew he had made the 17, from a country high school, where grade as one of Gernsback's finds, who he timidly admired a pretty CirI was to prove fully deserving of encour- student named Blanche, who was good agement when he bloomed into author- at athletics, and who married some- stardom. By that time, his father had one else. It was 22 years before he met managed to send him to college, her again, unattached, and became her whenc€ he proceeded to the Universiby second husband-and an adopted of New Mexico, to major in chemistry grandfather. They live now in Portales, and psychology; and it wasn't long be- New Mexico's county town, where for fore he was selling enough of his six months in '47, following discharge science fi.ction to pay his own way. from the U.S. Army Air I'orce, he served At fi.rst, as a result of the tremendous as wire editor on the local daily. But impression "The Moon Pool" had made he didn't care mucfr for journalism; he on him, hls tales showed rather too got more fun out of his three years as much of the influence of Merritt: e.g. a weather forecaster in the A.A.F., most "Tlre Alien Intelligence" (Science Won- of which p€riod he spent in his home der, Jul.-Aug. '29) and "The Green State. For the rest, he got around the Girl" (Amazing, Mar.-Apr. '30). ,,The tropical islands of the South Pacifi.c, Prince of Space" (Amazing, Jan. 81) and found them as interestins as early revealed his penchant for bold meteorology. Though from his eiperi- treatment of the interplanetary theme, ence of the latter, he came to the con- vrhich eventually reached perfection in clusion, expressed in a subsequent "The Legion of Space" (Astoundin& article for Astounding Science Fiction Apr.-Sep. '34)*, and its sequels, ,,The (Feb.-Mar.'46), that "the modern Cometeers" (May-Aug. '36) and ,,One weather man . has a good deal in Against the Legion" (Apr.-Jun. '39). cornmon with the tribal witch doctor. But coloudul atmosphere (and & They both pretend to superior know- strange fascination with green things) ledge (and) engage in rites that of the sorb that MeFitt excelled in oer- mystify . . ." sisted in his work for several ye-ars, THE MERRITT INFLUENCE particularly in such longer stories as years "The Stone from the Green Star" fn those 22 which separated .,Ttte him from Blanche, Williamson was (Amazing, Oct.-Nov. '81) and busy pursuing that other love to which Lady of Light" (Ainazing, Sep. '82). So he is still devoted-science-fantasy. obvious was it that it attracted the notice of the Master himseU, who. Life in tris teens, on the Llano Esta- ,.The on cado, was a constant, heart-breaking reading the first parb of Alien struggle against sandstorms, hail and Intelligence," wrote to Williamson. im- frost, which ruined his family's crops, patienL to examine the rest of it. and the dreaded drought which took "I sr'as vastly pleased, and it led to toll of the cattle. When a friend lent _ *Published in book form by Fantasy him a copy of Amazing, then but a Press (reviewed few months old, FR Aug.-Sepi. '+Zl, it3 it opened an avenue of sequels (see above) will appear in a escape from such harsh realities into sfulgle voiume fmm tJle same source. 7 a qorrespondence b€tween us, Merritt on the same theme, "Darker Than You told me something of his working Think" (Dec. '40), vshich was furLher methods and gave me some goo'd ad- extended into the book of tlre same vice. He even agreed to undertake a titlet, Also due to appear from collaboration with me. I sent him Fantasy Fress are book versions of his something I had written-called, if I Astounding "mutant" story, "The remember correctly,'The Purple Legion of fime" (May-Jul. '38), in Mountain'-but it was off the beam which he got an entirely fresh slant on somehow and he never did anything time-travel with his theory of several with it; nor did he return it. I doubt possible futures, and "The Reign of if even Hannes Bok could finish it." Wizardry" (Unknown, Mar.-May'40), There was another writer, of very a tale of magic and mystery with a different sfyle, with whom he did col- mythological background; and a collec- laborate successfully in those days: tion of his shorter pieces under the the late Dr. Miles J. Breuer. Although title of "The Metal Man and Others." Merritt was to remain his idol, William- It was with the development of the son soon realised that his stories were Streeb & Smith Astounding that Wil- too imitative of his florid style, and he liamson firnly established himself as a began to try for mor€ simplicity and, at writer who could be relied upon, not ttre same time, more sigrrificance- only for novel treatment of familiar things that Breuer advised. Reading ideas, but for startlingly new concepts his stories in Amazing, and finding "Born of the Sun" (Mar. '34) them good, he had started to corres- -witnessmost of all, for plausible stories pond with the writing physician in with-and, interesting characters such as Lincoln, Nebraska, whose "The Gostak Giles Habibula of the "Legion of and the Doshes" (Amazing, Mar. '30) Space" trilogy. For in spite of his was one of the first psychological tales constant striving for originality, he in s-f. As a result they combined believes that plausibility-the introduc- in a short story, "The Girl from Mars," tion of logic-and the depiction of which was published in Wonder;s character are the first principles in s-f Science Fiction Series, and in the writing. "The more striking the memorable Amazing ouarterly novel, (basic) premise, the inore strict is the "A Birth of a New Republic" (Winter logical discipline required to present it '30). successfully (and) a scientiflc "He was the instructor. I the gadget is signi-flcant only to the extent student," WilUamson readilv conceded. that the reader can be shown its effect "I did most of the plotting and writing on human beings": such is the burden while he made suggestions for improve- of his contnibution to "Of Worlds ment-and they were excellent. He Beyond," in which he gives instances of had a sound knowledge of the funda- his own success in foltowing these mentals of fiction, and of wfrat eon- directions. Then, lapsing into his stituted good writing. I believe he was customary modesty, he concludes: actually capabie of much better writing "Many other writers in the field are than appeared in his published work. able to turn out more material, doubt- He rras mainly concerned with putting less with much less fuss about how they a meaning into everything he wrote. I do it. For my pal't, I've never been met him only once, when I visited hlm able to produce much more than 100,000 in '31, and lost contact with him later, words a year." much to my regret. It was only by Yet, of his eighty-odd tales in tlvo accident that I heard of his death.'; decades and more than a dozen maga- WIZAROS AND WEREWOLVES zines, there are few over whictr he has Within four years of his debut, the any cause to be dif0dent. Among his Williamson by-line was to be found in contributions to other pubucations, all three s-f mags. of the day, and in "After World's End" (Marvel Science Weird Tales, where he made his first Storaes, Feb. '39) proved as popular as hit with "Tbe Wand of Doom" (Oct. any of his most appreciat€d Astounding pieces, and he himself is especially '32\ and later distinguished himself ,,Star with the exotic "Golden Blood" (Apr.- proud of a little whimsy called Jun. '33), scheduled to appear in book Bright" which appeared in Argosy and form from Fantasy press. He also is currently reprinted in the anthology, contributed a siagle story to the Clay- "My Best Science f iction Story" (Mer- ton Strange Tales: "Wolves of Dark- lin Press). A short series of tales based ness" (Jan. '32), a tale of lycanttEopy on the concept of contratenene matter, on which he based his Unknown story iReviewed Fn Apl.-May '49. I for whlch he invented the pseudonym bantshed the doubt very forclbly with of Will Stewart, commencing with "Col- his stories of the Humanoids, "With (Astounding' and Folded Hands . . ." (Jul. '47) and ". . - lision Orbit" Jul. '42) (Mar.-May lately concluded with "Seet€e Shock" And Searching Mind" '48)' (Fbb.-Apr. '49), did not entirely com- now presented in book form bY Simon mend themselves to critics of the "new and Schuster (see Book Reviews, this author," except for their novelty of issue). ideasf; and "The Equaliser" (Mar. '47), ". . . And Searching Mind," in which which marked his return to the field he extrapolated on the lihine experl- after over three years' absence, left his ments in parapsychoiogy, was written Astounding fans wondering if he had in the little ranch-house, stacked with lost his touch in the interval But he s-f mags. and books, that has been Williamson's base of operations since *Yet, somewhat to Williamson's his old friend Edmond Hamilton (with abashment, Simon & Schuster will put whom he has roughed it on manY "Seetee Shock" between hard covers pleasure expeditions, but never colla- next Spring, and Gnome Press will fol- borated on paper) helped him build it. low it with "Seetee Ship," a novel as- He stilt keeps up with his reading, sembled from the three earlier stories. acclaiming new Of the serial, he says: "It wasn't so and Joins in brilllant successful, I imagine, because it was exponents of the medium, such as concluding a series too iong after the Bradbury; but he will confess to a flrst stories had appeared, and I was lingering fondness for his old favourites unable to include enough explanatory "Skylark" Smith, and the material without repeating myself too -Merritt,greatest of them all, II.G. Wells. "He much. The book version has given me remains, in my view, the pre-eminent the chance to fiIl in the technical and figure in the field," he will tell you, historical backgrounds more completely, quietly. "He pioneered with most of which has improved it considerably. many his Re-writing the short stories as a novel the ordinary themes, and of will also give me the opportunity to earlier stories are still unsurpassed in fllI in the picture of Seetee and its their convincing presentation and their possible part in the operation of tJxe tremendous feeling for the impact of unrverse even more fuUy.' science on humanity."

TheNew NEYV WORLDS tt6

T'lxe demand for the only original British magazine of science fction now greatly exceeds the supply. Make sure of your copy of every issue by placing a regulal order with your newsagent. In case of diffrculty, please communi- cate with the publishers. overseas readers should send for particulars of subscription rates. Nn 4 A limited number of copies of this first issue to appear under the Nova imprint is still available at ttre original price. If you have not secured this valuable collector's item, write to tfre publishers. solal out and will not be reprinted. In the event of your tN^ !v' vtr is almost being unable to obtain it from your newsagent, write inmediately to the publishers if you wish them to r€serve your copy. N^ A will be available shortly, presenting stories by John K. Aiken, ' rv' v A. Bertram chandler, George whiiley, F. G. Reyer and Don Doughty. Mako certain that your copy will be obtainable from your news- agent; otherwi,se, order direcb from the publishers, or you may be disappointed. }IOVA PUBLICATIONS [TD. 25 STOKE NEWTNGTON ROAD, LONDON, N.16 (Telephone: Cl,lssolil 5541) 9 wa,rter GirrinEs' FANTASIA New York Times and Chicag:o Tribune carried full-page ads for Ftederick Fell's Science Fiction Llbrary (see "About Books," last issue), said to be selling twlce as well as expected . . . Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch ran picture-feature by Book Editor Ernest Cady reviewing new fantasy novels, citingi Bleiler-Dikty's "The Best S-F Stories, '49" to show why "men-from-Mars stories stories have climbed the literaJy ladder" Ftirst of three s-f anthologies witfr central theme being compiled by Martin Greenberg for Gnome Press, "Men Against the Stars" will foretell tale of space-conquest from Moon trip to intergalactic flight August Derleth's next enthology from Pellegrini, "Beyond Time and Space," to be historical survey of fantasy fleld, reprinting Bishop Godwin's "T'he Man in the Moone" with other classic's . "The Science Fiction Galaxy," edited by Grofi Conklin, forthcoming (at 35c.) from Permabooks John W. Campbell's "Wade, Arcot and Morey" series from Amazing Quarterly ("The Black Sta.r Passes," etc.) to be revived by Fh,ntasy Press, whence comes his "The Incredible Planet" ($3.00), also presenting "The Interstellar Search," "The Inflnite Atom," aU hitherto unpublished sequels to "The Mightiest Machine" . . . Telling story of "Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc," in Tfriter's Digest, Dolph Sharp recorded that "he'll be 74 this year, and he isn't happy about it . . . 'I keep yawning all day long,' he says of his typical day . . . 'Every day I think I might start writing; again but thinking about it alone wears me out"' . . . Interplanetarian P. E. Cleator, now touring South Africa, described himself for BfS Journal as "agnostic, sceptic end paciflst . . . A one-time idealist whose disillusionment is now complete" . Arthur C. Clarke's prize essay, "The Chailenge of the Spaceship," got yet another airing in Facific Rockets; his Startling Stories novel, "Against the Fall of Night," to see book publication in extended version . . T'heodore Sturgeon attended ?th World S-F Convention with new wife, Mary Mair. . . Convention Finance Committee, with total income of $1,300, voted $300 for books and mags. to go to English and Australian fan clubs . . Portland (Oregon) S-F' Society's John De Courcy elected Chairman 8th World Convention ("Norwescon") Colnmittee . . . Lamont Buchanan resigned Associate Editorship of V9eird Tales . . "To the Stars," serial by L. Ron. Hubbard starting in Feb. Astouniling, will launch new series; A. E. van Vogt's "The Wizard of Linn," starting April issue, will complete "Gods" series Stories by van Vogt, Heinlein, Williamson, Bradbury, being considered for U.S. radio series featuring science-fantasy . . . John Keir Cross ("The Other Passenger"), visiting London Circle, confessed to examining similar material for radio adaptation this side . . . Meanwhile, BBC presented film star Eric Portman in R. C. Sherifi's "The Hopkins Manuscript" (in two parts); revived Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" (six parts); televised J. B. Priestley's "summer Day,s Dream," depicting IUe in England 25 years hence following atomic ws,r . . . For poe Centenary, televiewers saw "The Fall of the House of Usher," t$'o other Poe tales dramati,sed; Everyboely's featured "The Tragedy of Edgar Allan Poe,', by Kenneth Hopkins, revived "The Pit and Pendulum"; Bodley Head issued "The Centenary poe" (lbs.), edited by Montagu Slater, reprinting the master's best works British edition ,.The Moonlight Ttaveller," edited by Philip Van Doren Stern, companion volume to ,,The Midnight Reader" (reviewed FR, Dec. '48-Jan.'49), due from Bodley Head at 1216 . . . Isaac Asimov's new novel, "Pebble ln the Sky" ("Grow Old Along With Me,' re- tltled) due shortly from Doubleday, who will follow it with Robert A. Heinlein's "Waldo" (from Astounding) and "Magic, Inc." ("The Devil Makes the Law," from Unknown), in one volume . . . Heinlein's "Red Planet" (Scribner's, $2.b0) ts follow-up to "Space Cadet" (reviewed FR Feb.-Mar. '49) , . . Hal Clement's recent ASF serial. "Needle," also comiqg from Doubleday New series of Avon Fa^ntasy Novels wiil revive old-time magazine serial classics, commencing with Ray Cummings' "Princess of the Atom" . . . Jack Williamson's Startling stories, ,,Fortress of Utopia," "Gateway to Paradise," to appear as 15c. Checkerbooks . . , Gnome press will publish "The Castle of Iron," by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher pratt, rewritten from Unknown novel as sequel to de Camp's ditto, "Ttre Undesired princess," forthcoming from fbntasy Publishing Co. . . . "Exiles of Time," by Nelson Bond (prime, 99.00), is flrst of tetralogy based on Tolt€c legend, expanded from Blue Book and Ama.zlng stories . . . "Arthur Machen, Weaver of Fantasy,,, by William Flancis Gekle (Round Table, New York)' is new biography for collectors ' . . please turn to pa€B 3E 10 AMONG THE MAGAZINES THE PALMER }IOAX By GEOFFREY GILES

"Science flction is Pregnant erman. As Literary Editor, he origin- with wonderful possibilities for develop- ated the famous "Cosmos" serial and ment into a new and infinifelY bene- reported on current tr€nds in a feature ficial type of literature To titled "SpiUing the Atoms," signed achieve (its) purpose (it) must coniain with the well-known initials RAP. He actual scientiflc facts and ideas not aiso contributed a fi.ve-pa,rt serial, "The based on unfounded theory. Thus it is Vortex World," himself. up to the writers of this flction to in- As a writer of flction, however, he clude real science and sound did more in other fields than in fan- reasoning in their stories It is tasy, where he had made the grade in in the production of more accurate and Wonder Stori€s with "The Time-Ray of better science fiction that I am now Jandra" (Jun. '30). A member of the greatly interested Milwaukee I'ictioneers, to whom he in- Twenty years ago, when he wrote to troduced the late Stanley G. Wein- Science Wonder Stories telling "What I baum (whose Memorial Volume he Ilave Done to Spread Science Fiction," supervised all too soon afterwards), he and collected $100 in a G€rnsback pro- churned out material for detective, paganda contest for his pains, Ray- Western and adventure magazines.With un- mond A. Palmer, secretary of the Sci- der his own and other namesx. ence Correspondence Club, was a young such a wide experience for a eompara- Milwaukee, Wisconsin fan who had tively young man, such a record in the been converted in '26 by a copy of s-f fleld, and such enthusiasm as he al- Amazing Stories he had bought at a ways displayed whatever he tackled, he dlugstore news-stand. Littledidhesus- was jusf the man Editor B. G. Davis pecb, as he succumbed to its pure de- wanted to pep up Amazing. Or, as RAP Iights, that he was destined to become himself put it, looking back after two editor of that same magazine-or, y'ears of directing its altered course- rather, of a magazine wifh the same and that of Fantastic Adventures, title. Nor that he was to be assailed which he started in '39: by its once devoted readers for desert- "I succeeded in deluding him into ing the principles he had laid doqm and committing fhe magazine into my ten- degrading science flction with the un- der care You can imagine how founded theory and false reasoning of I felt. Here at iast I had it in my power the so-called Straver Mystery. to do to my old hobby what I had al- By '38, when the Ziff-Davis E'ublish- ways had the driving desire to do - ing Co. of Chicago acquired the decre- the power to destroy, to create, to re- pit pioneer of s-f magazines, with a make, at my own discretion."f He was view to re-vamping it in the same way "determined to make the worst maga,- that Wonder had been made over fu:to zine the best in the field": and Thrilling Wonder a couple of years be- in spite of s-f's recent invigoration by fore, the name of Ray Palmer had Astounding and Thrilling Wonder, come to mean something in s-f circles. which he had heartily welcomed, he Having stimulated correspondence be. I pseudonyms: hundreds fans authors, Self-confessed Rae tween of and Winters, A. trU. Steber, Alexander Blade, he trad launched the first of all fan Wallace Quitman, Morris J. Steele. It magazines, Gosmology, subsequently to has also been admitted that he has much join in the production of Science Fic. to do with the actual production of tion Digest (later Fantasy Magazine) Richard S. Shaver stories. vrith Mort Weisinger (who became t In an article, "Palmer Tears His Thrilling W0nder's assistant editor), Hair," published by William Lawrence Ju]ius Schwartz (leading s-f writer's Hamling in his amatew magazine, Star- agent of the '30's), and Forrest J. Ack- dust (Nov. '40). 11 found ample scope for his new powers. for.trying "to sell Amazing Stories. "Half-baked ideas, screwy science, and And I have! I have taken the wofst pedantic, unprofessionai writing. Not magazine in all s-f hisiory and brought one professional author's touch glit- it up to the peak of sales. I have tered from the dungheap of pleased my publishers immensely." So gadgets, theories and interplanetary he consoled himself ; rvhile, at the same travelogues. There wasn't a living, time that he discounted the reactions breathing character, emotion .(or) ad- of an estimated 200 fans, he reminded venture in the whole lot " them of his continued championship of EMOTION AND "HAGK WORDS" their cause, their likes and dislikes, get their organised activitiesl. "In €very It was a "tremendous task" to the instance, where it was sensible, I gave sort of stories he thought were needed (them) what they asked for. And no frorn authors 'ivho, in spite of their editorial office in country is as plentiful ideas, "didn't know what a the plot was." The conlents of his first open and extends as hearty a welcome (Jun. to the visiting fan as does Zifi-Davis." '38) refurbished issue, which he Such items as Weinbaum's novel, whipped up in a fortnight, were far "The New Adam" (Amazing, Feb.-Mar. from satisfying him: "Oniy (John Rus- ('A '43), new Edgar Rice Bunoughs tales. sel1) Fearn Summons from Mars') Willy Ley articles, and Paul's back- was any good." He readily agxeed wibh colrer conceptions of extra-terrestrial the fan who immediatelv decided: life, were not unacceptable to the fan- "Your revised Amazing Stoiies s!inks." reader, as Amazing and its even more Yet circulation climbed as for two years flamboyant sister-mag. progressed-or' he strove to teach a new roster of oid careered-through next few years. and new writers what he thought his the protesting But the fans did not ask fot'theshaver readers, if not the fans, Mystery, which in '45 came as the final wanted-stories full of human interest, problem insult to their long-sufiering intelli- in which ttre emotional was gence. Richard S. Shaver's Lemurian more important than the science; al- fantasies, which began monopolise cover to though, to start off with, the both magazines. were fair enough, as carried the slogan: "Every Story Scien- Zifi-Davis maLerial went; but ex- Stories, which to be tifically Accurate." too, pected to accept them as truth-or as were simply told with the "hack words" "racial memories" with a foundation of lre advocated, rather than the "pretty, actual fact-was too much. To them, it high-sounding phrasing" which some of (e.g., was the Shaver Hoax, Lemurian alpha- his most difficult authors Robert bets and other "proofs" notwithstand- Moore Williams) insisfed on putting ing: to a Fantasy Times commentator, into the MSS. he rejected. these were so much "idiotic flapdoodle But the fans were quite intractable. and mvstical balderdash." T'lee whole They squarvhed, loudly and resentfuily, unhealthy business was dismissed as a ln their mimeographed critiques, juvenile stunt to revive dwindling circulation againsb the blatantly appeal of by attracting the lunatic fringe to the the Zifi-Davis magazines; the repul- Palmer magazin€s; and if such was his si.zely hideous cover BEMS; the scrawly, aim, the decent thing would be to dis- sexy interior illustrations; the old- associate them from the legitimate s-f fashioned, overlong story-titles; the fleld. To put it more bluntly-which puerile humour and, not least of all, the Times headline did: "Scram. Mr, the ramblings of RAP in "The Observa- Palmer!" tory." Whatever he had accomplished as a fan, as an editor, spaceways"'Star THE NEW S.F ? Treader" regretted, Palmer was "4 But RAP had beoome us€d to fan- pathetic flop." Again, as he saw it him- dom's hard knocks. Not only did he ful- self in retrospect: "All through those fil critic Thomas S. Gardner's early pre- two years, the fans swung their axes diction that his new policy would prove at my head. Not only did my magazine such "an outstanding success . . stink, but I too I was a traitor that the Lemurian hoax will go on for to science fiction I dragged the years, possibly becoming a permanent 'literature' of s-f down into the dirty, fllthy fen of 'hack' pulp I printed * In '39, he tipped ofi Time Magazine ground good to the New York Convention, got blamed tripe. I s-f writers into when it described s-f fans as "mostlv the dirb." boys of 16 to 20 . the jitterbugs oi What riled him most was that aU the pulp magazines exceptionally the time they actually denounced him arbiculate." 12

esoterlc feature of Amazlng Storlec,'* "evldenc€" in support of Sha,ver's pre- but he had ttle audacity to suggest mise (tha.t the descendants of the tbat ttris was "the new s-f" which was Lemurians still live h their subter- going to revolutionise and vastly ex- ranean lairs) that he was practically tend the fleld. Such "flagrant disre. persuaded of the truth of it. yet he gard" of fandom's disapproval by ,'our wanted desperately to be friends with own litUe two-bit dicLator . . who fandom; he thought their anlmosity to- would turn s-f into a playthi:rg for wards him was blinding them to the every semi-sane crackpot who ever good stories he was using, apart from dreamt he was a Lemurian" could not those of Shaver and his imitators (vr'ho be permitted to go unchallenged. A knew a good thing when they saw it). meeting of the Queens (New York) The occurrence of such material. Science Fiction League solemnly passed (especially by Chester S. Geier and Rog a resolution expressing the opinion that Phillips) had been duly noted, how- ttre Shaver ever, by the more impartial critics. Nor dangered the sanity of their readers, did the fans fail to observe that, and bringing the menace to the notice apparently as rew&rd for his circula- of the Society for the Suppression of tion-raising tactics-whether calculated Vice. A fan conference in Philadelphia or fortuitous-R.AP had been Dro- discr.r-csed a proposal that a 1,000-signa- moted to editorship of the whole Zifi- ture petition be organised to get the Davis pulp magazine set-up, Hamling offending magazines banned by the taking his place as Managing Editor. Post Office; but this project did not And when, at the end of '4?, he made meet with approval, although speakers a, real gesture of friendship by in- were unanimous in denouncing the itiating a new department devot€d to Shaver Mythos as paranoic. their activities in Amazing, the fans There was even a suggestion that wisely decided to leb bygones be by- Editor Palmer had been taken ofi to a gones, even though they would still mental institution, which was sub- have no truck with Shaver. As an am- sequently revealed as a deliberate hoax bassador of his goodwill, RAp sent out perpetrated by RAP himself, with the Roger P. Graham, wlro was to conduct connivance of assistant editor William "The Club House" under his Rog phil- Lawrence Hamling, former editor of lips pen-nam€; his likeable personality Stardust and a successful recruit to endeared him to the fans on sight, and Amazing's staff of writers. According to ensured their ungrudging co-operation, Hamling, fandom had passed up a "We wish Mr. Graham good great chance to enlarge its circla by luck," Fantasy Tlmes Editor James V. Its uncompromising attitude: but it Taurasi patronised, "and hope that tJre only railed against the Shaver Hoax day is not too far ofi when Amazing with redoubled vigour, while palmer Stories can once again return to the reiterated ttne and again that, accord- s-f fold." ing to the Pennsylvanian steel worker A C1IALLENGE TO who claimed to remember 'FATE' Lemuria. the T'hai was two years stories he welded from his ancestral ago; since when memories were there have been indications thai the "based on true condi- Shaver Mystery, tions as yet beyond the ken of ordinarv having served its pur- men." pose and remained insoluble, was going to be abandoned. But its unwholesome Ttre only reasonably certain fact that aroma, emerged was that the business had in- and the writings of Shaver, lingered in both Amazing and Fan- deed been good for circulation. When ,.deros,' fan Gordon M. KuU, tastio; while the problem of the returning in bliss- received further impetus quar- ful igncrance from the wars, called on in other him ters, notably in the Magazine of the to find out what aU the fuss was Shaver about, RAP claimed that the sales of Mystery CIub, formed to con- Amazing had gone up by b0,000, almost tinue the "investigation', when it overnight, following the presentation look€d as though Amazing was abouL .'something to drop it. Extensive book publication of the lWystery as nerv in of the longer science nction" without any expecta- works of Shaver and tion of its devastating efiects. Bt that other Ziff-Davis writers exploiting the time, he had received such a m-ass "Elder World" theme has also been of embarked upont. The appearance of Fats, whose points of similarity with -r"Cal]lng All Crackpots! An Analysls the Palmer magazines were obvious irr of the Lemurian Hoax',: Fantasy Com- mentator, Spring '45. t See FR, Oct.-Nov.'48; Dec.'48Jan.,49. .13

world's most tmaglnatlve and 6tlmu- lati:rg stories." guggesting that the SUPER.TACKEY Mystery, however lnsoluble, was stlll Russia's Llteraturnaya Gawet4 good for much more cogitation. And which described American science for some more editorial teasing; for, fiction as an "arch-reactionary and as Editor Webster observed: "Mr. screamingly strameless mess," has Shaver, as some of you well know, puts since attacked the comlc-strip hero a certain verisimilitude into his Superman as "an agent of Wall (who) writing, and in all sincerity claims it is Street depraves young child- not entirely flcbion. We ren." Thls blow, like all others, don't take any has bounced ofi his muscle'bound standonthat..." superbody-but after ten years of What has all this to do with RAP? absolute invulnerability, he no'w Tttis time, Editor Palmer has hoaxed reveals hls weakness. His creators, fandom well and truly-and, agafur,. writer Whit Ell,sworth end ertist has been his own expos€r. On the eve Wayne Boring, have made him of the appearance of Other Worlds, he succumb to tJre wiles of his sweet- took 200 heart, Lois Lane, and get married. the fans assembled a,t the In due time, it is reported, she wlll Cincinnati World Science Action Con- present him with a Superbaby. vention by surprise by appearing amongst them, for the first time for many years, and letting them into his siable secrets. Mouths and spite of its difierent imprint and non- eyes opened fiction wide as he blandly announced tha,t he content, afiorded an opportunity was no longer Editor of the Zlfi-Davis to attract further notice to the flrst magazines, having resigned posi- of these works through its advertising his pages; tion because of disagreements over edi- though it was not rmtil the torial policy during the past two years. magazine had been runrdng well over proceeded year, during which concerned IIe to reveal that he and a it ih Robert N. Web,ster are, in fact, one and self with such matters es the I'lying person, Saucers, planets ghostly the same and that the Clark lost a^nd visi- Publishing Co, now belongs him. tations, that it took up the "challenge" to He went so far as to express hls own of Shaver in response to a reader's ]et- preference ter (in the Jul. '49 issue). for the type of s-f published "If Richard S. Shaver has anythlng, by Astounding, while promising that, we'Il print as from the third issue of his new the truth about it. If he give hasn't, we'll print that too . . . To us mag., he would readers of Oth€r it seems amazing no has Worlds the t''lpe of s-f he really be- that one seen lieves palmer flt to present the facts about a sub-. in. But editor-publisher Ject that hits our mail as often as this has not done with the Shaver Mystery. one does." Thw Editor Robert N. W'eb- The whole business, he insisted in his ster's cornment right next to an ad for talk to the fans, is so convincing that the Shaver Mystery Club. And, having he believes in it as much as Shaver be- lieves in every word he writes: he hlm- "put a writer on Mr. Shaver's trail." in ,,every- the November issue he promised to run self has "heard the voices," and an article on the theme: ,,Is the earth thing that happens to Shaver is bad." hollow . honeycombed with vast It must, therefore, be true. However. caverns inhabited by Iiving beings? Or as truth, the Shaver Mystery should is there another answer to the mystery Properly be presented by a magazine like Fate; as for his other stories, they creatcd by Richard S. Shaver, one of qrill tbe most unusual pulp writers in Ame- be us€d in Other Worlds as long rica today? Puzzle with us over THE a.s they're science flction. So, having SHAVER, MYSTERY.'' made them a present of OW's first cover painting (depicting Simultaneously, a luscious Other Worlds: Sct. snake-woman from the Shaver novel- onco Stories, newly launched by the publishers Fate (Clark ette), which got auctioned ofi for $82. of Publishing RAP made his excuses and departed, to Co., Chicago), featured in its initial the accompaniment of (Nov. '49) issue Fall every indication "The of Lemuria." from his audience that he wasn,L. in by Shaver, and ofiered for the future their estimation, his "Ifingdom of the Gods." a .,tre- such a flop after all. mendous new tale from the ttrought NO MORE PARANOIA records of the dead race who once in- What'of Amazing and Fantastlc? habited the lost caverns of the Earth." T'heir new editor, Howard Browne. was i:raugurating a "new series of the not slow to lssue a statement concern- 14 -name, ine future policy. Both magazines, he by "is s-f at its best." Of saia, wilt a[temit to give "fandom and Aitounding he frankly admitted: "We ottrer readers" fhe kind of s-f and fan- like its editor John W. Campbell, and tasv thev have been ]'equesting "for so we think he's tops when it comes to mairy y"ats," buL neither will b€come pur,tine up-to-thc-minute science in the "a rrieridoscientiflc journal." The same it orieJ. . . anc he's always careful to stoiv elements which RAP held so im- be 100 per cent accurate in his science porthnt wiII remain Paramount, but data." Of "R.ay Palmer's Amazing": the scientific inkresb wiII not be neg- "There's a, mag. rile cut oul eye-teeth lected. At the same time, the "comic- on. It's given us countless hours of (story) will be weeded pleasule and quite a few surprises." noot tvPe of to out as iuictMurray Leinster, A. E. van Society-Gillings since its reorganiisation. Vogt, Ar:thul C. Clarke and John D. Mr. has been a Member of lvlacDonald (reviewed FR Summer'49), the Sociely since '36. rs the source-book for the first Wonder BR.E, which you may see on the book- stalls alongside the second issue of the British Startling Stories, which re- OPERATION FANIAST prints lteith Hammond's "Valley of the takes this opportunity to inform Flame," FYank Belknap Long's vou that there will be a FANTASY "Shadow Over Venus" and Jack Wil- ber,nNnen for 1950, published b liamson's "T\re]ve Hours to Live" from Gnome Press; more details when March U.S. Both are available. the '46 original. The NATIONAL FANTASY tr.AN -oriced aL 9d. And that's not all . . . FEDERATI0N (USA) is trying Last month, a British Edition of to ensure continued suPPlY Weird Tales, consisting of a complete of prozines for British members; a reprint of the origina,l November issue, furiher announcement wiII be made appeared on the bookstalls at 1/- un- shortly. Membership is now ?/6 der the imprlnt of the Jenson Book for British fans, from whom we Co.; and in October a British reprinL are authorised to collect subscrip- of the Jan. '49 issue of Super Scienc€ tions. The SFI is working on a Stories (the flrst of the new sedes), similar scheme, and we shall be appeared without date or number. pleased to pass on information to Manly Wade was also anyone on receipt of stamPed Weliman's story addressed envelope. missing, but otheravise it was the same Our LIBRAR.Y grows steadily in as the original. Whether regular pub- membership and contenLs. A new lication of these two mags. is intended catalogue will be produced very remains to be seen, but it all serves to soon: full details from M. Tealby, indicate the strape of things to come- 8 Burfleld Avenue, Loughborough, or is it just a flash in the pan? Leics. OPERATION FANTAST No. 3, ,'NEW WORLDS" SUCCESS now out, contains a 2,000-word fan- Nova Fublications report tha,t New tasy by Sandy Lawrence, a couple of shorter s-f stories, and all the Worlds No. 5 is almost sold out, and usual feaLures. Subscription: 3/- that a sixth issue is due in January. for six issues. The success of this fan-financed maga- We too are doing our best to keep zine has fully justifled the confidence up supplies of new MAGAZINDS. of those who combined in the efiort to Let us know your needs, and \\'e re-establish it as the only genuine will try to flII them. representative of British science flction, cAPf. I(. F. SLATER, rvhose readers have applauded the im- 13 Gp., R,,P,C., mense strides it is making. B.A.O.R.. 23. No. 6 wiil feature John K. Aiken's 16 About Boohs By Herbert Hughes TREASURE TROYE The fuss the American book trade is its varying descriptlve terms; and he making over fantasy-fi.ction is enough proposes "science-fantasy" as "the one how they can po's- most inclusive term" for a literature to malie one wonder pains siblv have overlooked it aU these years which still suffers from growing how lonq it will be before British in this respect. He aiso appealed to the nublishers-aird and booksellers latch on to specialist book dealer to maintain the ili potentialities. That so many U.S' prices of out-of-print classics, which he earnest had found to be "fair in the matur." -tooubiishers are now turning in ttre medium is iargely due to the For the benefit of the uninitiated, lecognition it has been afiorded by t119 Martin Gleenberg and David A. Kyle, bookihops-which in turn is the result co-partners of Gnome Press, in an of const-ant efiorts by the Associated arbicle on "The Growth of Modern Fantasv Publishers, consolidating the Science Fictiorl" traced the beginnings interesis of nlne specialist houses, to of the medium back to Hugo Gernsback brinE their productions to the notice of and pointed out that the Atomic Age pubiic' and to make had oniy stimulated the desire for such a laiger reading growttr them worthY of their attention. stories. They atbributed the The success of thei-r campaign to in- of the specialist publishers who fol- troduce fantasy-flction into every book- lowed the example of Arkham House to shop (or, if it was there aheady,-to the demand for back numb€r magazines bririe it out of hiding) has been aided among the thousands of s-f fans who and.-abetted by the weekly magazine of returned from the war to flnd them the second-hand book tnde, AntF more expensive than bound voiumes. ouarian Bookman, whiclr for the second So, after "The Skylark of Space," of tlme in nfteen months has published a which 1,500 copies were firsi printed, Specixl Science'Fantr.sy Issue. This de- has come the increasing stream of re- voted practicaliY the whole of its print editions which to-day may run articles and features, as well as its dis- to anything between 3,000 and 10,000 played adveriisement paCes' !9 th9 copies. iietii, and presented a checklist of But every reader who has b€en current and forthcoming productions attracted to s-f through one of these of all the flrms interested in the "new" titles has become a seeker after medium, totalling over 150 tities. older treasules which had lain neg- The issue was dedicated to the lecbed on the shelves of second-hand Seventh World S-F Convention and its bookshops. IIence the inflated prices Cincinnati organisers, to whose labours which certain titles now command, an editorial paid tribute as typical of such as first editions of Merritt, which the fan efforts which have helped to fetch from ten to seventeen doliars, develop the fleld thus far. At the same George Allan England ("Darkness and time i[ emphasised bhat, in spite of the Dawn," published thirty years ago, competition of bigger publishers, the brings $15.00), Iiay Cummings and specialist houses must still be the main- others. You probably grew out of Bur- siav of the medium; that "authors, pub- loughs long ago, but if you'd kept that lisliers, dealers and collectors must re- first edition of "Tarzan of the Apes" tain that personal contact which has (McCIurg, Chicago: 1914) you mighf held this fleld together from the flrst get at least $65.00 for it now . . . beginlings, and which must not now be VALUABLE VAN VOGT saCriflced in the face of approaching As proof that age alone is not the pcpularity." In other words, it still determining factor of these fancy depends on us, I\(essrs. Doubleday' plices, the article mentions that Cum- Simon & Schuster, Frederick FeII, etc., mings' "The Girl in the Golden Atom,'" nothwithstanding. published in '23 and now selling aL HIGH.PRICE CLASSIGS $10.00, is easier to come by and less Among the difficulties which Editor valuable than the same author's. Sol M. Malkin sees in the furthet "Brigands of the Moon" (McOlurg: '31). development of the field by antiquarian And, apart from the now alrnost. booksellers is the confusion caused by fabulous Arkham volumes by Lovecraft. t7

and Clark Ashton Smith, among the Argosy long since, but it has never been titles of the specialist houses are some available in book fo.rm until now. The which are no more than flve years old same author's "The Swordsman of yet are norv worth two or three times Mars" is among other titles Grandon tbeir published price-..€,nd a-good deal plans to publish, which include Ralph more. The above-mentioned "Sky- IvIiIne Farley's "The Golden City" and 1ark" ('45) and Taine's "The Time Meritt's "Dwe[ers in the Mirage." Stream" ('46), products of the Bufialo Meanwhile, the Borden Oompany of Book Co., bring ten to fifteen dollars a Los Angeles has revived "The Ship of copy these days, and van Vogt's "The fshtar" in its original form, as Merritt lveapon Makers" (Hadleyl '46) is worth wrote it a quarter-century ago, and no less than $35.00 already! illustrated by Virgit Finlay. Also avail- After that, it's not surprising to read, able in the Avon pockct-bock series in an article on "Scouting and Selling is "The Fox Woman and Cther Stories," Science Fiction" bv Ja^mes A. Wiliiams featuring three of Mertitt's four 'of Prime Press, that whereas a year sunr'iving literary fragments, "The Fox ago, in his capacity as a book scout, he Woman," "When OId Gods Wake" and could flnd no more than a dozen s-f "The White Road." "The Black Wheel." titles in most bookshops, to-day "all which has been omitted from the collec- but a very, very few dealers are con- tion as too long, and "The Fox Woman', .scious of the fact that books of this have been completed elsewhere by category are something a bit special, Hannes Bok*, and "When Old Gods and . . . they no longer keep them in Wake" recently appeared in the Avon their general stock but have a separate Fantasy Reader; but "The White Road" alcove or shelf for them . . . T'lre buying sees its flrst publication in this new and selling of s-f is quietly and rapidly collection. becoming a deflnite part of a book- other additions fo the Avon series aeller's income." are Philip Wylie's "The cladiator," O. Surveying the remarkable expansion S. Lewis's "Out of the Silent planei," of the f,eld during the past year or and RoberL Bloch's novel (reviewed FR more, T. E. Dikty, of Shasta Publishers, Dec. '47Jan. '48), now re-titled ,,The mentioned the several write-ups it has Scarf of Passion." Just arrived from received in various magazines, the Prime Press is a new novel by Dr. David recent incursions of well-known book II. I{eller, "The Homunculus," which publishers, magazine developments (in- deaJs with a modern Paracelsus in chrding New Uf orlds); and inte-r- a style between sentiment and satire. national repercussions in the form of Nelson Bond's "Exlles of Time," the translated editions and an exhibition flrst of a series of novels based on an- of imaginative fiction held in Copen- cient legend, derived from litile-known hagen last May. "The Scandinavian magazine stories, comes from the same world, in pa.rticular, is rapidly becom- source. ing interested in this type of litera- Fantasy Publishing Co.'s latest ofier- ture." And: "The motion picture indus- ings are "The Kingslayer," a tale of the try seems to be not too far behind in year 3974 told against an intergalactic recognising this new popular trend in setting," and "Worlds of Wonder," in- story mat€rial Hence, wideawake gorporating three short novels by Olaf booksellers carr5ring science flction will Stapledon which most British readers do well to watch movie headlines for will have devoured already but may tie-ins with their fantastic books." like to have in one volume: ,,Th'e ,,Old MORE MERRITTS Fiames," "Death Into Life," and Man in New Worid," (The jacket tells To the list of Associated Fh.ntasv ug incidentatly, that Stapledon's next Publishers the name of the Grandon will be "A Man Divided,,' the tale of a Company, of Providence, Rhode Island. scrizophrenic.) Due shorily from Los has lately been added. Their first Angeles is "The Rat ll,ace,'; a political production is the third and last of the fantasy by Jay Franklin culled from late Otis Adeibert llline's noted series Gollier's, to be followed by Ralilh Mitnc of Venus novels, of which ,,Ihe planet, Farley's "Omnibus of Time," presenting 'of Peril" and "Ttre Prince of peril,', a selection of time-travel tales and coh- published by Mcclurg some twenty cluding with a discussion of the para- years ago, have been vainly sought by doxes they offer. collectors during the past decade or .,Ttre more. Like its predecessors, por! *See Book R€views, Fantasy Reuioru of Peril" was published as a serial in Aug.-Sept. '48. L8

IOOKING BACKWARD THINGS THAT DIDN'T COME By WALTER GILLINGS

A comparative few of us, even in "Only Yesterday," in which it looked untroubted times, gain any satisfaction back at the strange brainwaves of a from looking into the future, unless it century since or more. It reproduced is to see what the stars are presumed old prints of inventlons, some of which these daYs, when the miraculously-worked, while to foretell. In -almost just or DrosDect before all of us is frightening' the rcst were screwy ideas itreri is aII the more temptation to look aitempted prophecies of s-f writers; pasti and the general the game, of course, was to guess which ristfullv at the queer wave of nostalgia has produced a glut r';ere which. Among the contrap- of novels, ilms and radio plays set in tlons wtrich actually did make out were more peaceful or boisterous yeal"s. two mactrines, one for swimming and Ponulai music now looks back to revive, the other for flying, propelled by pedal- either in original or bebopped style, ling for dear Life. Less successful was the tunes to which I danced in mY the Chapman RoIIer Boat, a huge old'Lime bargelike affair with great roller- courting days-and I am no (perhaps) iwo-st€pper. Even science fiction, super- paddles turned by locomo- streamlined though it may be in aspect' tives mnning on endless ra.ils inside is not immune to the trend: in the them, Iike tame mice in a spinning spate of books coming from the U.S. to- cage. As one might expect, the Giant d-av are many whictr had their origin Armoured Car and Electric Snow inlthe magazines I used to read in bed Cutter of our old friend the Fra'nk cnce home, footsore, from a Saturday Reade Library* also trlrn€d up among nighthop... the also-rans. But looking backward in the field of More recently, two lookers-back at science flction is always a profitable as the development of mechanical inven- well as amusing pastime, €specially tion produced a profusely illustrated vhen you begin to examine the Pro volume wtrich provided the London phetic ideas of those pioneers wtro con- Evening Standard with a s€ries of flned their dreams to things which similariy quaint conceiits to run in its they thought might reasonably mater- early editions mid-week, and furnished ialise to form part and parcel of our me with a furlher opportunity for lives in the not-too-distant future. Or pleasant and profitable contemplation which, though they did not take them of things past-and, as a result, expec- so seriously, have actually come to pass. tation of even stranger things to come. Aside from such obvious examples as Ttrrning the pages of this bookt, with television, space-rockets and atom its almost incredible pictures of bombs, there are around us innumer- "mastelpieces of lruman ingenuity," one able devices which may be traced back is reminded very forcibly of the truism, to the imaginings of latter-day science so often quoted in defence of fantastic flction, frorn which they have developed literature, that truth is stranger than into commonplace fact by a process of flction. Because those of us who amuse necessitous invention or fortuitous dis- ourselves witJr scientific fantasies have covery. On the other hand-and nob long since realised there are no limits alone in f,ction-there are many more to the inventive mind, we smile con- id s which have come to naught, in- descendingly when suctr things as ventions which came to grief, and *See "First of the Ibntastics": Farltasy things that just didn't jell. Review. Oct.-Nov. '48. F-or two years before it folded up, as i Patent Appted For-A Century of it did to my chagrin recenilly, that Fanta,stic Inventions, by FYed Copper- interesting magazine Science lllus- smith & J. J. Lynx. Co-ordination Press trated had run a quiz feature entitled t& Publicity, London. 10/6. t9 atomic pos'el plants and space stations creep from the musiy pages of our science fi.ction magazines into today's headlines, to shock our more sceptical friends and leave them gasping, "Well, I never! What will they be up to next?" Even the atom bomb failed to surprise us, once we had recovered from the initial shock. For us there are no sur- prises-except when the maf,erialisation of the drea,rn exceeds our most fantasLic expectations, as it so often does these days. Thlough science fiction, we live mostly in a world of things to come, of gadgets yet to be invented, of vast scientiflc projects which only lack the mercenary motive to be accomplished. For as Mr. L'.nx points out: "the world (to-day is) so competitive and com- mercialised that even the best idea is doomed to failure unless, in addition to inspiration, three vital ttrings are avail- able-Money, Money, Money." But he is not concerned w-ith inven- tions which have succeeded. His book ofiers ample evidence that for every inrrentor's dream that materialises there are dozens which do not, or which soon This Heath Robinson contraption, the fade into obscurity when the gimmick "Ballonboat," designed by Henry Badg- }.as been tried and found wanting. ley in l8?5, was the first attempt at the T'here are some ideas $rhich take so seapla.ne. It floa,ted aU right, but flying long to come to fruition that, by the was too much for it. From "Science time they are ready to be tested, they lllustrated." - are no longer necessary: the floating islands of "A Modern Atlantis" (Amaz- was to run on telegraph wires, and the ing Stories Quarterly, Spring '28) and railway trains which were to climb over the fllm "F.P.l" are a case in point. eaclr other instead of colliding head-on. There are others which find favour onlv Concern for the life and limb of our when they become a vital necessity. Wb grandfathers was the inspiration of recall the plan for Giant Windmills to many inventions in fhat gentle age, be- Generat€ Power, which is making news fore the advent of such questionable just now, being aired in Mr. Gerns- boons as the atom bomb. Mr. Lynx has ba.ck's Soisnce and Invention just as devoted two interesting chapters lo the long ago. As for Herr Noordung's space development of the bicycle and the rail- terminal, it is only a matter of time... way train which clearlJ show these Mr. Llrrx and his collaborator have charitable motives, also evident in the delved back over a century to the days life-saving suitcase (in case of fire) and when inventors worked in the Front cabin trunk (in case of shipwreck), the Room and were openly hailed as the ?5-dollar outflt for shipwreck victims, benefactors of a world newly conscious and Bessemer's floating luxury saloon of the benefi.ts of mechanisation and whictr was to obviate sickness but only gadgetry. There was ample scope for made the vessel roll the more. Of Cap- them, then; and although some of the tain Coles' Turret Ship, which was de- things they produced now seem quite signed as unsinkable and drowned her absurd, at the time they were seriously whole company on her maiden voyage, advanced as genuine contributions to the less said the better. Far more efiec- the comfort and progress of humanity. tive, if revolutionary, was the circular Such, for example, as the pocketbowler- man-o'-war of Admiral Popofi, who hat umbrella, the dog-driven sewing went one better by presenting the Czar machine, the air-conditioned "swoon- with a pleasure l:aunch with its own ing" chair, the dinner-table railway and beach permanently attached. the mechanical waiter (precursor of the There is another amusing ehapter on cafeteria), the electric bicycle which marvellous musical instruments of such 20 mechanrical effciency as to rival the be housed ilr the base. The architect modern juke-box, some of which come was not dismayed at the builder's esti- very near to justifying the plophecies mate of eight million dollars, convinced indulged in this department by the that his World's Eighth Wonder would early Utopian writers. Not the least attract at Ieast 100,000 paying visitors. ingenious parts of them were their Seeing that it rqas proposed to establish names: the Daimoniom, the Baskanium, it on the remote island of San Salva- the Panomonico (a sort, of one-man dore, which had only a few thousand band with 300 instruments), and the inhabitants, the capitalists were not, Lustre Chantant or Singing Lamp, however, inclined to regard it as a which surely was the progenitor of the money-spinner. Colour Organ predicted in Amazing Two years later, in '94, an exhibition Stories som€ years trefore it was actual- in Antwerp gave the cue for an even ly demonsFated. There was even a more visionary sctreme, to implement machine which, in 1846, produced which half a million Belgian francs poetry at the rate of 1,440 verses a day were invested in a company with the (including Sundays), but to this day high-falutin' title of Castles in ttte Air nobody knows if it was genuine or not. Ltd. The proposer', M. Toblanski, aimed ff not, it would seem to rank among the to construct a Iarge building comprising "Fantastic Hoaxes" along with Von a theatre and a restaurant, surrounded Kempelen's checkers player. by gardens, all of which was to be The flctional inventions of Fbank hoisted into the air by a colossal balloon Reade, who seems to be having quite containing 150,000 cubic feeb of gas, to a revival of late (Mr. E. S. Turner, in hang suspended above the exhibition his "Boys WiU Be Boys," tells us there grounds. Accommodation for two hun- were actually two Frank Reades- dred people, to be carried up by lifts, father and son-and also about their was to be provided in the aerial resort, rival, Jack Wright), have so many which in the unhappy event of a gale counterparts in real life that Mr. Lynx would be brought down to earth by cannot resist adding a chapter on nineteen steam wheels. them. Mr. Edison, as he reminds us, Although the grandeur of the idea was never short of ideas, though appeaied strong to the Committee, tho some of them didn't quite come off. Government refused to sanction it. and There must have been something of the castle in the air remained just that. professional jealousy in his comment So di.d various other up-in-the-sky on Reade's constant success with the schemas of the time, which w'ill have contraptions which emerged from Lu bo rrrait for the gravity-nullifying de- Senarens' fertile imagination-"Non- vrces confldently anticipated by later sense, the man's nuk!" drea"mers of Cities in the Air. But, But of this otherwise factual book. meanwhile, other inventors were work- whose seventy-odd illustrations speak ing hopefully on plans to cross the Alps more efiectively than the text, the part by canal-boat and the Arctic by balloorl which comes closest to fantasy-fiction is Not to mention, of course, perpetual the chapter on "Castles in the Air." motion. Ttrere was actually a British Here we are told of a project which ex-P.O.W. who devised a thread- ctould not only have dwarfed the Eifiel spinning machine powered by mice im- Tower but most of the architectural prisoned in drums and fed on bread and maryels of Atlantis or the monuments cheese. They had a midday break, erected to Tho Man Who Saved the worked a six-day week, and produced Earth. To mark the four-hundredth 4,500 miles of thread each in a year- anniversary of Columbus' discoverv of at the end of which their gentle task- the land where science fiction wa! to master found that his animal labour flourish, a Spanish architect planned was just ten shillings cheaper than a monument to consisi of a concrete human. Undaunted, he planned to turn base 85 yards high on which an enor- an old church into a mouse mill and mous globe four times that in diameter advertised for 15,000 mice in order to would be mounted, topped by a giant make a better thing out of it. But ho statue. died before he could get that far, re- Inside the globe were to be restaur- leasing the mice from Lheir bondage. anis, hotels and a fairground, served by Not even Mr. Fqsdick, with his Feline an electric tramway running from pole Light & Power Co., nor Mr. Hicks in his to pole on a fi.ve-mile track. Museums. heyday of "Inventions with a Kick," Iecture halls and e planetarium were to could do better than this. 2l Boolr Reviews By Bonestet, to the Plonets THE CONQUEST OF SPACE. Paint- which has made him so peculiarly lngs by Chesley Bonestell; texi by fitted for this work. Willy Ley. Viking, New York. $8.9b. Willy Ley, in a forevrard, describes R.eviewed by John K. Aiken him aptly as a po€tical mathematician with a paint brush. By profession he Just occasionally, for the briefest particularly is in fact, an architeck' renderer- trstant in some well-told one of tho,se wizards who produces from tale of space-travel, one has a vision plans possible a simulacrum of the buildins to of the ultimate realitv of its come. Ilis inberest in astronomy dites imaginings. Suddenly, our einotions from his tenth year, r.ap- and fancies when he read take flre from an intellec- lace's nebular hypcthesis; and his tual spark-and for a second we are teacher of architecture at Columbia struggling to orient ourselves in a University metlpne-ammonia was Frank Dempstey Sher- tornado on Jupiter, man, himself a blend of poet and or gazing at the glory of Saturn from maLhematician. Titan's Could any upbringing frozen plain. Or, we are stir- be more appropriate to the task of ring with a heavy boot the dry, red bringing the Solar System to life? sand of Mars, spsngled here and there Mr. Ley is so well-known with-flakes of mica; ploughing as an experb or camp- at once in the rcmotest periods of ward through three feet of Lunar rock- ("The dust, Ealth's history Days of Crea- and looking forward eagerly to tion"), in the origin and development beans for supper. And then one is back of life ("The in an armctrai" ,the Lungflsh and the Uni- by the fire, interest corn"*), and in that most modern of the story still real enough but the development moment of human mechanical in- of insight gone. genuity, the controlled and directed Weinbaum could, from the very first, ("Rockets prcduce rockef and Space Ttavel,'), these rare flashes of f'eeling, that perhaps he needs less personai 'trhich are very nearly at the root of oui in\lroduction; but before leaving delight in science the flction. So also can authors of the b,ook, f wculd emphasise Williamson and Heinlein; and Wells. and-yes, the ex[raordinary diversity of th; fiolds I think so-Verne. Fro.m the of.interest they represent. The prob. work of others, such as Stapledon and ability of the van althcugh existence of this Uoot< in -Vogt, . it is completely the year 1950 is. mathematic?lty speak- satisfying intcllecLually and imegina- ing, tively. -elan zero. In 198b, perhaps; not-now. this capricious tr'xl, of And yet here we have it. No other two oital is absent, at least for me: I don't men could produced know why. But never have it. in anv fletion It is not unfair to Mr. Ley to say tha,t have I found this flnal catalys{ in such power the core of the book is in tire paintings, and concentraLion as in thjs since this is the obvious joint product of Messrs. lntention. Bonestell and Nonetheless, what he has written as a Ley's rare combination of talents. setiing It must, for the Bonestell jewets is full I think, be the fusion of of-in'cerest; he can be dep-ended on for authenticated fact, sober accuracy and careful full technical and tristorical documen- attention to detail, with iome_ tation. And it is sad to learn, from t_hing on quite another piane, the touch of the this most infc.rmed source, that we are true artist, tha,t has achieved not yet at a measurable distance from this. Both the eollaborators have, in the stage of development their difierent ways, when we can these commend- think seriously of manned rockets, even able qualities. No-one who has seen to the Moon. Bonestell's covers for Astounding dur_ No chemical ing the past few years, -astro_ fuel as yet known gives or his exhaust velocities great enough to re- nomical paintilSs in other U.S. maga_ du3e tne zines (many mass-rat:o to ma:rageable pro_ of wtrich are collected in portiols: a factor of thrs book), will deny him two or ttuee is stitt artistly of a ne_eded. Atcmic fuels. hardty yet con_ high order. Fewer of his admireis will sidered, witl undoubtedly-if be aware, however, iontroii_ of the background able-give the necessary power, but 22 will carry with them grave difficulties the dark limb (a remarkable feat, by of shielding both on Earth and aboard; the way) have proved this. But the the latter meaning, of course, more clouds themselves have not yet been mass to carry. Yet, by a booster or shown to contain either water or oxy- multi-stage system, both problems may gen, although there is plenty of carbon be solved. The establishment of a di,oxide. What, then, do they consist "space station" in an orbit lound Earth of? Mr. Ley does not mention the is, too, by no means outside immediate recent suggestion tha,t they may con- possibilities. This would serve both as tain, or even largely consist of, formal- a laboratory and a refuelling point for dehyde or its polymeride paraform, a longer-range attempts; once in posi- possibility that would preclude the exis- tion, it could be enlarged at will. And tenec of life as we know it but might the other interim possibility, of "mes- open the way for the formation of in- senger" rockets to the Moon which crea singly complex organic com- might be used to observe landing condi- pounis from which life might ulti- tions and so forth, is also very leai. mately spring. Having reached the Moon, Mr. Ley As for the other planets, it is passes to its history and geography, pleasant to know that Mars still keeps and thence to those of the rest of the its canais, and probably its vegetation. Solar System. In spite of the simplif,ed It was a surprise to me to learn that approach necessary to keep his text the axis of rotafion of Ul'anus is almost within bounds, thls is a most stimulat- in the plane of the ecliptic, so that he ing survey, the key of its appeal lying bowls alcng like a hoop; or that two in the multitude of facts-many of ,to packs of jackal-Iike asteroids dance them new me-which it presents. alrtendance in Jupiter's orbit, some For example, those fascinating un- befole and some behind the Great One solved problems about the Moon (expert mathematicians that they seem Why is the floor of the crater of Plato to be, they have solved the three body black in the sunlight, and why does it problem for theif special case). Or that actually darken as the light gro,rvs more Titan. one of Saturn's moons, is unique intense. Why is the crater of Wargen- among satellites in possessing an atmo- tin fuU to the very top? What are the sphere. albeit consisting of that dis- bright rays, neither raised nor de- appointing gas methane-b,ut cannot pressed, which are such a feature of one conceive of a methane-breather, Ty'cho and other craters? What has with a metabolism based on reduction? caused the well-authenticated change S.till, I must not give away too much of several details in of the Moon's topo- the ore from this rich fact-mine . . . graphy since observations were first made? As Mr. Ley says, rve'll have to And so to the Bonestell paintings. But hei'e words wait till ',ve get there to know the truly fail me. Advertis- answer. ing technique has destroyed the value And when we come to the planets, of superlatives, or I would use them. the questions increase in number and Among the dozen or so pictrlres in interest. Some things we do know, colour, so flnely reproduced, mos6 are even about Mercury, that most dificult breathiakingly beautiful, one or two of planets to observe: its sunward almost awe-inspiring. I think I would surface temperature, for example, is pick the Saturn studies which origin- 770 degrees Fahrenheit, a fact which ally appeared in Life as supreme, if (if they knew irt) numerous authors only because Saturn is such an attrac- have not let deter them from siting tive subject; but all, with perhaps one human action in this inhospitable spot. exception, ale wonbh going far to see. Nor does Venus seem to be that para- The exception, the study of a space- dise $/hich van Vogt, among others, has rocket at "zero hour minus fi.ve," fails made of it in his nuII-A tales. or that to convince me: I cannot believe that aqueous glob€ most typicauy imagined the site at such short notice of blast-off by Lawrence O'Donnell in "Fury." would be so liberally encumbered with What lies beiow those oersistent impedimenta, including human beings clouds, onJy once seriously disturbed and gasrylinders. since observations began, is still any- For the rest, the detail, checked a^s it. body's guess. Lras been by Dr. R.. S. Richardson, is E!'en the period of rotation is still above criticism. And it is int€resting problematicai, though it is at least now to compar€ these paintings with those known that the planet does rotate; ob- of similar subjects (a Ma1'Lian land- seryations of thermal radiation from scape, I Temember, and some vlews of 23

Saturn) in a compendious p@ultr also. because of minute attention to de- asbronorny which appeared back in the ta"il and care in reproduction, much the twenties under the not very felicitous aspect of photographs. Altogether,; title of "Splendour of the Heavens" in fact, the book gives an overwhelming (Hutchinson, London). Ahhougtr not impression of having been projected the equal of Bonestell's, these were flrst- back-how long?-in time. Or has Mr. class efforts and strikingly similar in Bonestell's mind bcen vol'agitrU 'tr tnu general debail-which is not an accusa- future il Ia Dunne, and are these tion of plagiarism but an hdication of asionishing paintings sornething even the care taken by bhe two artists to get more than the most intelligent and their facts right. arbistic attempts I have ever seen to The forby-odd uncoloured plates have portray $:hat no man yet knows? The l4ysticism of Blackwood

TALES OF THE UNCANNY AND a large number of novels and shor.b SUPERNATURAL, by Algernon stories, mostly on supelnatural themes; Blackwood. Peter Nevill, Iondon. some of the best-known are "The Lis- 12/ 6. tener and Other Stories" ('07). "John ('08), Reviewed by Arthur F. Hillman Silence, Fhvsician Extlaordinary" "The Centaur" ('11), "Incredible Ad- Publishers' blurbs are seldom if ever ventures'' ('14). "Tne Extra Day" ('15), modest, and it is tilting a lance at a and "The Plomise of Air" ('18). In pretty powerful windmill to say of an "John Silence" he created a masterly author that he is "recognised as the sketch of an occult investigator who grea,test genre writer'Yet. in ttris at the snrpassed tris then onl5r ri.;al, Sheridan present time." applied to Alger- LeFanu's somewlrai clumsilSr drawn Dr. non Blackwood and the supernatural Hesselius, and even to.day, against the story, it is not easily denied. More fonnidable opposition of Dion Fortune's than one generation of readers has "Dr. Taverner" and Seabury Quinn's acknotrledged the eerie appeal of his "Jules de Grandin," retains his popu- tales; and this representativ€ coliec- larity to such an extent that most of tion which has gained the recornmen- 6he horror anthologies of note include dation of the Booh Society, at a time at Ieast one of his exploits. when he is enjoying a reputaticn as an Tlerough the knowledge and wealth exponent of the macabre in the most of experiences he has acquired on both up-to-date medium of the entertainer's sides of the ocean, Blackwood has ari, will undoubtedly add emphasis to arrived at a kind of mysticism which the claims of his followers. makes him unique among writers of The octogenarian Mr. Blackwood's weird tales, in this respect at least. To own story, if not uncanny, is quite sur- quo're his own summary of this philo- prising. Ilaving been to Cambridge, sophy: "My intense interest in the so- in his twentieth year he emigrated to called'psychic' region tras been upper. Canada, where tre went to work on the most . M]' real interest lies in the Canadian Methodist Magazine. After question of a possible extension of a variety of experiences, from dairy human faculty and the suggestion that farming to gold prospecting, he b€ca,me the man-in-the-street possesses strange a reporter on the New York Sun and, povr'ers wtrich never manifest nor- later, the New York Times. Subse- mally." I{e has been parbicularly suc- quently he was priVate secretary to an r€ssful ai conveying the mystery and American millionaire, artist's model terror of a strange world transcending for Charies Dana Gibson, an actor in a ours but constantly pressing in upon stock company, and even a scent manu- it, as in those two of tris stories most faoturer. These varied professions, frequently reprinted. "The Willows"* addecl to the many years he afterwards and "The Wendigo,', the flrst telling of spent in Europe, provided the raw a desolate Danubian island where material for his writing. nameless presences are felt by a pair But he was 36 before he settled down of idle voyagers; the second confront- to a literary career with publica- the * Which Lovecraft listed (in '25') cation of his first book, "The Empty among the t€n best weird tales ever House" (1906), which vras foilowed by written. 24

tng the reader wlth horrible evldences of a vast forest deemon about whom North Woo'ds lumbermen whisper at night. Mingled with this is another strain of Blackwood's mysticism: the feeling of a communion or kinship with a Nature that is not only indifierent but often inimical to mankind. Llke Arthur lvlachent, he has recalled the pan of legendary awe, with all his grotesque Shasta Publishers allies; but whereas Machen was often unable to control the powers he created 5525 SOUTE BLACKSTONE and groped blindly for the climactic ending, Blackwood crlrcAco, 37, Ir.r.rNOIS, frequenUy builds up U.S.A. by careful detail the complete sensa- tions and perceptlons leadfurg from Now Availoble reality to the supernormal. Cest over many of his stories, and particularly over his highly sensitive c,haraoters, is a dreamllke atmosphere, sr DEwlsE which has all the intensity and ir- rational reality of a dream. Ttris ten- dency, so evident ln his earlier books (e.9., ,'The IN TIME "Jimbo" and Centaur"). ha^s pervaded much of his later writing. It and Other Scientifio provoked H. P. Iovecraff,, ln hts gss4y Adventures on "Supernatural Horror in LiteratureJ, to exalt him for tris understanding of by MURRAY LETNSTER "how fully some sensitive mlnds dwell A beautlful couection of ttris forever on the borderland of dream. favourite fantasy writer's best and how relatively slight is the distinc- works, inciuding ,,proxima Cen- tion betwlyt those images formed from ta-uri," a tele of interplanetary actual,objects and thcse excited by ttre adventure; "The Power,,'ln which play of the imagination." a medieval sorceFer ts vlsited by I With a mind so attuned to the dell- creature out of space; and .,The cate nuances Ilcurth of Natur€ and the Dimensional Demonstrator," spiritual, lt is not surprisi:rg tha,t Black the most hilarious sclence flcdoir wood should produced story you've ever read, (19/6) have stories $9.00 which have been accepted as classics in the genre of the weird tale. But at- though his genius is indisputable, his l:Ueyls most ardent followers, if they be honest, will admit that he has faiiings. THE It may be due to hls journalism. but he MAl{ WHO na-s.no poetic witchery with words; he achieves his effects with passages ttrat SOLD T}IE MOON are sometimes bald and oft-times too elaborate, and if he has the advantage by ROBERT A. HEINLEIN over Machen in the construction of hts stories, his T'lxe flrst of ttre "I'uture History" style lacks the colour of the series_as presented ln volume forir, Welsh writer. Machen patnted his including flve famous llelnleld delicate canvases in gold and russet- stories and the brand-new tlfle prown, and no whltes, greys or blacks, story telling of lfarriman, the man rrow?ver well applied, can produce the with a dream. $8,00 (19/6) same resultt. , f See "I'he Incomplete Machen": trE Sole Brltish Rcpresentative: Dec. '48-JarL '49. I Lovecraft also found in Blackwood's E. J. GARNELL, work the defects of .'ethical dtclactism. 17 BUR,WASII RD., PLUMSTEAI) occasionel insipid whimsicality, the flat- ness-of benig:nant g LONDON, supernaturattsm, and S.E.18 too lree use of the trede Jargon of mod- ern 'occultlsm'." 25 None tJle less, some @nnolsseurs will they have app€ared only once beforet. readlly concede the claims of Algernon Though not of the same quality as Blackwood to the title of master of the 'The Willows" or "The Wendigo," these uncanny, and will flnd here twenty-two most recent works are yet good of his most powerful tales. Besides examples of their author's particular such famlliar rtitles as "Running Wolf," style of writing ln this fleld; and each "T'he Occupant of the Il,oom," and "T'he of the other selections will help the Man Whom the Trees Loved," whlch reader to assess for himseU the worth may be remembered from previous col- of his considerable contribution to its lections, there are two new novelettes, development since the da.ys of the peer- "The Doll" and "Ttre Tlod"; at least, less Pm. they will be new to those who have not * In "The Doll & One Other', (Ark- read the American volume in which ham House, '46). The Beneyolent Robot

THE l{UtvlANOlDS, by Jack \Mtlliam- In "Ttre lfumanoids" (my personar son. Simon & Schuster, New York. preference is for the original tiile of $2.00. the story which appeared not long Reviewed by Kemp ilcDonald since in Astounding-and I'm sorry, too, that the preliminary "With Fotded Jack Williamson is one of the very Hands..."couldn't h"ave been in- few of the old band of authors of the ciuded), the menace is of a distincUv early '30s-and there was, say what you glamour novel type. A horde of robots, spreading will, a about their work-who out from a central planetary brain, has been able to make the adaptation threatens to smother more mankind, not with to the thoughtful and soundly- viruses o.r radioactives but with a cloy- based style pioneeied by Editor Cam!- ing, stultifying benevolence-"to guard bell; and he has managed to do this men from harm." Their designer's without losing any of tris very fu1- efforts to prevent war have been alto. divi.dual brand of magic, a matter of gether too successful; men flnd the delicacy in atmosphere and sensitive tools taken choice from their hands. the of words by which to contri.ve a tobacco from their pipes, the very real sense of other-worldliness. of knobs from their doors, as being too futures remote and distances vast be yond dangerous. Their houses and gardens conception. are redesigned, grandiosely but taste- Like most writers, he has his net l-es,sly. If they app€ar unhappy about theme. I think the situatlon that m:st this, they are given euphoride,'a drug clearly exemplifles this is that of a for- which produces the elementary happi- lorn little band of weaponless humans, ness of infancy. ?hose who, in more the last hope of their race. battling drastic objection, dare to attempt against the mechanised might of a gal- attack on the vast rhodomagneticbrain axy. They are wounded, in agony, ex- on Wing IV are subjected to brai:r- hausted, desperete. They are marooned surgery or worse. on an unutterably remote, inexorably Against all this irs arrayed a pathetic lnlmical planet. T'he only reason why little group. Physicist Clay Forester, they are allowed to remain alive is that deserted by his wife, his research per- the odds against them are so stupen- force abandoned; philosopher Mark dous that the tiny effort of destroying White, hounded from planet to plsnet; them is not worth while. Thelr chance waif Jane Carter, wan, pinched wonder- of success is, mathematically, zero. yet, child; and a down-and-out trio-news- time and again, they bring it ofi, and man, gambler, minor revue turn. Each. in a way which makes one gasp far however, has some supernormal capa- more with admiration than with in- city; and desperately they try to de- credulity. This is a literary feat which velop their psychophysical powers as a I am content to see Mr. Williamson oer- last resort against the physicallv in- form as many times as he wislhes: vincible humanoids. Ill, frozen, starved, a,mong past examples of it, I remem- hiding in exitless caves (they have ber the "Legion of Space" trilogy and mastered teleportation) they work "After World's End" with particular against time; for, on Wing IV, the great afiection. platinomagnetic grid which wiU give 2fr the rottots psychophysical control tS eflt. Both problems trave been handled nearing completion. with a good deal ol care, and a notable ' What part, meanv;hile, is Frank Iron- iightening-up, in comparison wifh the smiih piaying: the too-bland mathe- magazine version, is evident. This matician, mysberiously exempt frcm the seems to me indicative of the author's humanoid.s' care, who plays chess with eenuine and conscientious interest in an invisible opponent? He smiles his his work for its own sake. "sunburnt smi.le" a iitiie ioo often for The science and philosoPhy are in me: but Mr. Williamson gives his end- themselves very stimulating. Mr. Wil- ing qulte a new twist, and solves' as liamson has all of van Vogt's imagi- nearlv as makes no matter, two difficult nativeness in devising new sciences Iiterary problems peculiar to science and realistic terminologies, and per- and mystery flction. First, that of pre haps an even surer touch with his char- senting a clearly benevolent influence acters. I happen to disagree with his in such a way that one wiU unreason- philoscphical implication that there ably but heariily dislike it; and second, are absolute moral standards, which that cf defining the limits of an appar- might conceivably be best set for entlv alrnost limitless power (tlut of humanity by a mechanical brain. But psychophyslcs) in such a way as fo I have no quarrel with his artistry: mite tne things it respectively can and this is an absolutely flt'st-rate piece of cannot do seem plausible and ccnsist- science flction. The Best of 1948 THE BEST SCIENCE FICT!ON able from this collection of the best STORIES: 1949, edited bY Everett F. pieces '"vhich appeared in the maga- Bleiler & T. E. Dikty. FYederick FeLI' zines during '48, and now labelled the New York. $2.95. besb of '49. The editors have, in fact, job of K. Aiken done a brilliantly self-efiacing Reviewed by .lohn broadminded, intelligent selection Often the mo.st interesting thi{tgs which is also artistically satisfying; and about an anthology are the deductions I at least have no quarrel with their thal can bo made from it about the title's clairn, nc list of glaring omis- character and predilections of its com- sions. piler. The edilor of a magazine revesls Deeply prejudiced myself, I might hi.mself and his opinion of his public have excluded at least one of two over- weli enougfr by the material he selects; competent, over-cynical I{uttner-Padg- the anthologist is even franker in giv- ett efforts-"Ex Machina" and "Happy ing a\Fay his prejudices and blind spot^s Ending"-but granting that whacki- by what he leaves ouf. One has read ness (particularly applied to robotic ?,nthologies so stamped with the com- betraviour), time-travel paradoxes and uiler's pet'sonalitl' tllat the sLories alcohol are three extremely well-devel- ieemed mcre frulyhis than the original oped facets of modern science-f,ction, euthors': it is arguable that he shottlC bbtier examples containing them couid so indulge his personal preference. not have been found. BY way ot con- . For Lhese reasons, one looks forward trast, Ray Bradbury-deservedly-has to a, collection entitled "The Best . . " also b€en called upon for two stories. with mixed feelings. '1VIy Favourite With his simplicity of language, which . . . " may be all very well; but a Per- never bee,omes naivet6, and his sin- fect seleCtion, possible no doubt in cerity and originality of thought, he theory, is not so easy to make, even provides the most extreme antithesis over a limited time-section. If actrieved' imaginable to l(uttner's complexiby and perfecbion may not seem so to the use of every professional trick. humanly imperfect criiic; while if the Bradbury's humanistj.c-aesthetic out- selector has not managed-or not look is certain to have an enorrnous wished-to conceal his prejudices' ib effect on the development of science- will be difficult for him to convince flction, and one which could not come the reader that they are more justi- at a better tim€: it is a pity that more flable than his own. of his work does not appear in the only M€ssrs. BIeiIer and Dikty need have U.S. magazine to be regularly reprinted no qualms, however. No dark Psycho- in England. As for his stories, "MaIs logical secrets about tlr€m are discover- is Heaven" and "And the Moon be StiU 2i

This striking concep- tion of a spaceport is aalapted from the dust- cover of 'The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1949.' The work of Fra.nk McCarthy, it is one of the best pictoria'l jackets which has Yet appeared on any volu,rne in this field.

as Bright," both are Martian night- Piece," Fredric Brown's "Knock," Mur- mares, each, in its utterly distinctive ray Leinster's, "The Strange Case of way, quite literally shocking. John Kingman," and Isaac Asimov's Wilmar H. Shiras' "In l{iding" is al- "No Connection"-a pleasantly thought- ready celebrated enough to need no ful piece about pleasantly thoughtful more than a mention; this and Poul bears---romplete a dozen tales whiclr Anderson's "Genius" have the same maintain a remarkalie level of excel- theme, but are respectiv€ly micro- and lence coupLed with varietY. macro-cosmic in treatment. There is an Melvin Korsha,k contributes, by waY unrNually elegant brevity in "Thang," cf introduction, a judicious sketch of by Martin Gardner; while the techni- the histoiy of science-f,ction; and the cal school is adequately represented by editors' preface contains a tantalis- Erik Fennel wiih "Doughnut Jockey," ingly brief discussion of the philosophy though the realism of his background is of scientific fantasy. If, as promised, a little dimmed by hts misconception this book is to inaugurate an annual of pneumonia as an epidemic and virus- series of such anthologies, we hope the eaused disease. J. J. Coupling's "Period rest will prove as good as the flrst. The Entertaining Zogat SEYEI{ OUT OF TIME' bY Arthur Leo writing his profession; and of his flve Zagat. Fantasy Press, Fieading, Pa' hundred published pieces, only about $3.00. fir'e per cent were science flction. Since Reviewed by D. R. SFlith he wrote principally for the "action magazines," his fantasies tended to be Publication of this Argosy serial of and ten years ago (Mar. 11-Apr. 15 '39), in of the type v/hich are read to-day form.at which forgotten tomorrow; but he will long be the handsome book for his early collaborations the Fb,ntasy Press is noted, comes only remembered for a with fellow lawyet Nat Schachner, with a few months after the death of joint reputation, in the writer who was well-known for his pro- whom he built a Iiflcacv in the American pulp fiction days of Gernsback's Wonder' for stories be which were characterised by the hectic f.eld, in which he was so adept as to plots than by accepted as a model tutor*. Although nature of their rather lawyer, he made story- any regard for scientiflc probability. trained as a The first of these collaborations, "Tfre Tower of EviI" (Wonder Quarterly, * At the end of the war, he spenL much Summer '30), was one of the flrst of bf his time in military hospitals coaching Zagat's stories of any t''pe: unlike most Dotential writers, and later organised Lhe -Writers' Work Shop for Veterans. Ivlore fantasy writers, he did not turn to recently, he tought short story writing authorship until he was well in his at New York University. thirties. In the next year or two, the 28 pair produced in quick sucsesslon a a fantasy now and then as long as lt string of pieces, cnlminatin€f in "Exiles wasn't too heady. of the Moon" (Wonder, Sep.-Nov. '31), Apart from a few odd appearances in which were fairly popular with the gen- Wonder, Weird Tales, Scienco Fictlon eral readership of Wonder and the Clay- and super scl€nco, he confined himself ton Astounding, but rather less so with to Argosy dudng'38-43; but a return to the fans, who were then even more Astounding in '46 with "Slaves of the sensitive to scientific background than Lamp" (Aug.-Sep.), a sociological fan- they are now. In '31 the collaboration tasy which topped the Analytical Labo. ended, and each writer went his sep- ratory, showed that he could stillplease arate but similar way; though Schach- the more demanding readers of that ner's output in this fleld during the magazine as he had done flfteen year.s next three years was greatly in excess earlier, in spite of the enormous change of the other's. which had taken place in the interval. While the enlivenment of Astounding Of all his output, however, "Seven under Editor Tremaine gave increasing Out of Time" is perhaps the most en- scope fo1 Schachner's thought-variants, joyable to the majority of readers. It Zagat occupied himself in other fi.elds, belongs to the plot-category in which until the rise of Thrilling Wonder irx the present-day world must be saved '36 presented him with a more favour- from the menace of invasion by our able market for his robust t]'pe of descendants of the remote future: a fantasy, of which he took immediate useful device for bringing human be. advantage: "The Land Where Time ings of our age and type into conflict Stood Still" (Aug. '36), "The Lanson with the strange and terrible world of Screen" (Apr.'3?), "The Cavern of the the far future. }Jere Z^gat did not Shining Pool" (Oct. '37), etc. Thence strive for originality. His three-million- he proceeded to Argosy, in which, year descendants of humanity are big- with his first serial, "Drink We Deep' brained, emotionless monstrosities; the (Jul. 31-S€p. 4 '37), he endeared him- world they have brutally wrested from self to readers who, while preferring a its amoeba-like owners has a landscape mixed brew of action stories, enjoyed featwing an immense sphinx-shape

Three New Antholog:ies BEST SCIENCE FlCTl0N STORIES z 1949 First of tho yearly collections by FelI, containing 12 outstanding storlcs of 1948 by Bradbury, Asimov, Padgett Leinster, Shiras, I(uttner, etc. Outstaniling. 19/6iI.

FROM OFF THIS WORLD Ftrst of the Merlin anthologies, editeit by Margulies and Friend, contalnlpg 18 Ilalt of Fa,mo Classics fron tJre pages of lhrillins TYontler Stortes. Recommenal€d for new readers. 19/6iL

MY BEST SCIENCE FICTIOII STORY Second Merlin antholog'y, contalning 24 stories chosen by prominent author3 a^s their best work. Campbell, Ilelnlein, Hubbar$ Willia,rnson, van Vogi, Bloch, Bradbury etc. 2116d-

E. .I. CARNELL 17 BURWASH ROAD, PLUMSTEAD, LONDON, S.E.18 29 that reminds one instanily of William her.o and his lady triumph in the end; Hope Hodgson's ',The Night Larxd," and wrue tne great brains go tbe Seven include, down in de- in addition to the feat }efore the hordes of purple amoe_ presentday hero-narrator and his be- bre they had maltreatea-i"ittiL loved, tne Uar- such notables of the past as est_of hints that their sphinxJike god Ftancois Villon, the ruman-poet of had somethi:rg fl{teenth-century to do witfr it. ftiJfi;t Fyance, the brophet seem to indicabe that there is litile in Elijah, and other historical ctraracters the story to make it worth-whilu, u"ii traving an intrinsic interest. if one reads for semi-educationaf'fur_ The usual play is made with cases of poses people that would be the correct infer- who have mysteriously vanished ence. But the less seriously intentioned. snatched into another is -being era will nnd in it, as I did, a pieasant even_ the "obvious" explanation-and the lng s enterfainment. Sotirical Super mon THE KID FROII lrfARS, by Oscar J. of TYi-Dimensional pictures Friend. york. vie for his Fell, New $2.b0. s€rvices. His vessel draws the attention, Ileviewed by Arthur F. Hillman not o.nly of the U.S. authorities, but oi "Er---€xcuse me. I,m a Martian-', a siniaqter subversive group. It iequirei "Huh?" only Llamkin's production of a nis just uxcut, laboratory-made diamonds to sei"i _. "I've come from Mars. Could you direct me-?,' tne pot a'boiling; and the result is one "-To the nearest psychopathic oI me most amusing science flction ward? Certeinly, brother. If you'tl just stories _of the lighter kind ever made followme..-" avarlable lor genel'al reading. those who followed th-e fortunes ,It's an odds-on chance ttrat any man of-To Thrilling tVonder and who announced himself '38-42, Stariiing as a visitor Stories during wtren, as SciencE from the Red Planet would meet with Fiction Editoi for incredulity. Any man, repeat; Stindard M;t";il;r; I for his o.wrn work was frequentty'to be everybocly knows that only a green-eyed in them, monster with writhing loqnd Mr. lriend's ait*iiatre tentacles and a na_rr lor salirical humour of this sort ray-g:un could possibly emerge from a will not- space-vessel. come as a surprise. ttor, ld So when Llamkin, mes- those who may- have read the-;;g;: senger from Mars, settles his craft zrne version down in September '40 Startti;s, in the midst of a crowd of LonE wul tnts particular story, presented fsland polo players, tre flnds his lack oI now as tentacles, his flrst full_length nbvel. Al- or mandibles, or any other of though it is hardly an ,'important,,book Ene accoutrements non_terrestrial of whjch the publishers have ap- creatures, a deflnite handicap. prred*a ,ta.C The -rn aalvance to the volumes thdv visitor is not assisted by-mentors his ex- ar-e adding to their new planation that his Martian Library-it Science Fictio., reared him from merits, none the less, a Gt- birth in a special Eer description: qn enjoyable book. Iaboratory that simulated Eartlr- con_ 'r'ne author's ditions. For the ancient characterisations are all Martian race extr_emely gocd; from tJre blasd column_ desperately needs aid from Earth. Hav- rs.[.Louis shayne, to ing lost their sense humour whose care the of over vrsrtor is first committed, to the generations, they flnd that without its haughty film star sav-lng_ grace people nUine nlibtt,'human *iri,i. their are dying, be.auty causes even the very anct Llamkin has bcen sent to summon alien to succumb. a conclave of Earth's But it is iri ttre nei_ scientists to see if son of Llamkin. the Kid from Mars liinr_ they can solve the problem. self, that Mr. Fyiend The moment the ambassador . has scored his - from greatest triumph. Wjth his quiet air of Mars sets foot on Earth, he is caught authority coupled juttimJ gF in a with his tn_ train of riotous events. His- too_ nocence, this latest human appearance convinces ,.Odd irl a long line ot all con_ supermen and Johns', strikes one cerned that his mission is a d6wn_to_ as earth commercial 3t {r9t the weakest of nis spJcGi stunt; his spaceship buttris faitings and amusing stirjs ioJri Is considered merely- a^n improvea made him, stratosphere for me, a more cledi6le and craft. With an eye to sen_ ilKeaole characler than most s-atigna] publicity, however, ihe presi_ of his pellets superior breed I have encountered. fn dent of Rainbow and the-head fact, a nice kid. 30 With a Pinch of Snuff THE TERRIBLE AWAKENING, bY Mr. Lynch's tale of the '20's is, I be- Hugh Desmond. Wright & Brown, lleve, the onJy obher case where the in- London. ?/6. terplanetary theme has been presented Reviewed by Thomas Sheridan against an historical backgxound. But Not since I stumbled on that excru- whereas he was discreet enough to keep ciating ttuiller, "The Devil Man from tris three-centuries-old Lunar colony at Mars,"x in which our trero comes to a distance, while investigating its ori- Earth in an ordinary airplane with the gins in ancient documents on Earth, wind behind him, have I encountered Mr. Desmond lands us in the midst of quite such an incongruous specimen of his space-pioneering refugees from British science-fantasy (dare I call it Napoleon's France who have estab-. that?) as this. Who the author is I lished "Petit Paris" on another planet he does not dis- know not, except that he has "Blood -which one, exactly, Cries for Vengeance," "T'he Secret close, any more than he reveals the Voice," etc. to his name; but he is manner of their transmigration except obviously more at home with historical in the mosb general (and ambiguous) than astronomical matters, and wtren terns. They came in "a great ship of he seeks to combine them the result is the air which . . . would ride the far from being as satisfactory as, for heavens triumphantly," powered by instance, Bohun L5mch's "Menace from electricity, of all things. And, tBving the Moon," in which the two elements subdued the sub-humans native to the are mixed so cleverly and plausibly that mysterious planet, they have managed I shall always hold this fascinating tale to survive, still dressed in the fashion in high esteem. of their ancestors, in spit€ of its being several pieces by a colusion * By James Corbett (Jenkins, IJondon, broken into '35). witha comet-"Fortunately, a small

Now availoble from the prime press Box 2019, Midrllo Oity Station, Phtlailelphia' 3, Pa., U.S.A. EXILES OF TIME By Nelson Bond A novel of the ancient world based on the Ragnarok legend: the flrst of a tetralogy. THE HOMUNCULUS By Dr. David H. Keller A new novel by an author who has been a firm fa.vourite with fantasy lovers for two decades. Both at the new Prime Press price of 16/6 Still in Print LORDS OF CREATION By Eando Binder 19/6 A sreat Time story of the 50th dcSlH;Il* Earth has returned to a Solc Britis,Irr B,epresentatlve: l. d. GA R NE LL, 17 BURWASH ROAD, PLUMSTEAD, LONDON, S.E.18 31

one," M. de Barsac explains, taking an- vise him to read them, in order to see other pinch of snuff. how science-fantasy intended for the To theil unaccountably Earth-like miluons, replete with all the familiar remnant of a world, also in an electri- embtional elements. mav still be cally-propeIed 'plane, come the daring handled cogently from the viewpointof adventurers from Earth itself. which its scientific basis without shirking all has been rrenaced by the aftermath of the issues wtrich must arise from sucfr the same eatastrophe in the shape of a situation as he poses. I also advise another piece of planet surrounded by him, before he attempts anything of the approaching comeb. This situation, the sort again, to refer to any popular with the building of the space-ship (Mr. science textbook to clarify his ideas Desmond never calls it that: it is upon such matters as (a) the extent of always a "'plane"), the mob's attack the stratosphere as distinct from outer on it, and the getaway of Professor space, and (b) the difference between Biddulph's picked party, is trighly remi- a dinosaur and a mammoth, which was niscent too. If he has not read "Men- very considerabie. Fina.lJy, I would urge ace from the Moon," I feel that Mr. him to keep his French revolutions on Desmond can hardly have overlooked Earth. Balmer & Wylie's "Wren Worids Col- lide" and "After Worlds Collide," or t Following serlalisation in condensed at least must have been struck bv the form by tl]e old Passing Show (Dec. '34- flrst of these famous fantasies con-cern- Mar. '35), both stories were published ing the voyage to Bronson Betat. sepqrately in this country by Stanley If I am wrong, I would strongly ad- Paul. Roman Holiday

BLEEDING FROM THE ROMAN, by a vacation there. I{e is considerablv less Eric Flomilly. Chapman & Hall, Lon- learned and ambitious than Martin don. 9/6. Padway, lacking that gentleman's Reviewed by Everett F. Bleiler great€r aims. It is true that Craddock's shoteuns In this latest version of Mark Twain's and petrol save Boadicea for a s-hort "Yankee at the Court of I{ing Arthur," time; but somehow or other, during Jim Craddock drops back into Queen the last part of the story, he realises Boadicea's Britain. As equipmenb he that 'uhe idyllic days are over, th.at has an automobile (American, but hirstory ca,nnot be changed (his meta- called Canadian for propaganda pur- physics ane unrevealed), and that poses), a fuu tank and a spare tin of Boadicea must go yet petrol, down. he does shotguns with an inexhaustible not worrT gr€atly about it, and so supply of ammunition, and the ability Boadicea falls, committing suicide to talk better classical Latin than the melodramatically in an ending unwar- Roman olicials. Once arrived, like rantedly accelerated. Cra,ddock is any Graustarkian hero, he has no clifn- killed: then an epilogue tells us that culty in crashing high society, but he has merely had an auto accident, hob - nobs with Boadicea and her and that-presumably-the entire novel daughters and is even accepted as a was so much god delirium. by some of the lower classes. We are left with an average adven- The initial situation posed, unfortu- ture story with an average adventure nately, Mr. Romilly's ingenuity flags. hero and an average adventure plot; He seems to want Craddock to b,e an light and frivolous in tone, excepl for eye-witness of the Boadicean nasco, the ill_-fitting tragic ending. It is fairly yet also to keep his story on a personal smootlr reading, but for a heavy sag in level rather than let it b€come a mere the middle, but is much too long; ten war commentary. The result is a to twenty thousand words could have series of intrigues with Boadicea, her been deleted to very happy efiect. T'lLe daughter, a friend's wife, the Romans; action-crises are handled without much an unexciting chariot-automobile race, inspiration; a good deal more could and much idle chit-chat until the war have b€en made of the chariot race, the can get under way. Craddock proves attack on the temple, and the death of most inefiectual in this, probably be- Boadicea. But one may derive a couple cause he has no purpose in Boadicean of hours of moderately ple.asant ent-er- Britain but seems merely to be taking tainment from tJ-is book. 32 More from Mr. Heord THE LOST CAVERN and Other Tales novel idea, but the story is told too im- of the Fantastic by Gerald [:[eard. personally for my liking. "The Cup," a Cassell, London. 916. religio-mystical tale, brings Charles Reviewed by Alan Devereux Williams instantly to mind, but some- Here is another book of four long- how misses the bus. Far more satisfy- shorl stories by an author whose work, ing is "The Chapel of Ease," reminis- if it is not exactly compelling to the cent this time of Machen, but with a reader who demands tightly-knitted genuine macabre atmosphere and a plots and snappy endings, js at least in- mounting tension which hold the in- teresting to those who can appreciate terest; Lhough this, too, tends to fall a leisurely style and a well-considered flat at the end. treatment of a fantastic theme. T\vo of On tJre wirole, Mr. Heard may be said the stories are science-fantasy, and two to have improved on tris earlier efforts along religious lines. The title-tate is in "T'he Great Fog and Other Weird undoubtedly one of the best subter- Tales"*; though one wonders if he ranean fantasies evel'read: would not be more successful if he I have the plumped either genuine description of a 'fforld of caverns in- for the short habited by intelligent giant bats is story form or the fuU-length novel, as graphic and convincing. in "Doppeigangers"i, rather than half- "The Thaw Plan" irs in two park, the confine, half-spread himself in these flrst telliag of a scheme to melt the difficult medium lengths. His style, polar ice by atomic power and raise though still formative, is strong, and level he does not try fo oveido the explana- the of the oceans; the second deal- persists ing with the consequences, with ma{r- tions. If he in this vein, he kind reduced to two communities at may well carve a niche for himself. opposite poles, separated by impene- ,YReviewed FR Feb.-Mar. '48. trable jungle. This is a promisingly tDo., FR Jun.-JuL '4?.

G. KEN CHAPMAN tokes pleosure in announcing onother brilliont science fiction anthology edited by AUGUST DERTETH

BEYOND TIME AND SPACE Fo'rthcoming Spring l950-PubJished by pellegini and Cudahy Contents include a complete reprinting of Bishop Godwin's MAN IN TIIE MOONE, together with Lev/is.WORLD, Hotberg's TREE MEN OF POTU, Edward Bellamy's BLIND MAN'S Williram Hope Hodgson's NOISE IN THE NIGHT, Murray Leinster's R.UNAWAY SKYSCRAFER, Nictzin Dyalhis' WHEN THE GREEN STAR WANED, Dr. Keller,s REVOLT OF TIIE PEDESTRIANS, Ctark Ashton Smith,s VOYAGE TO SFANOMOE, Lewis Padgett's WTIEN TEIE BOUGH BREAKS, Rob€rt A. Heiniein's fiId LONG WATCH, and more than twenty other Ufles by Bradbury, Sturgeon, Stapledon, Heard, etc. Price (subject to conflrmation), g2/6 post free. Orders are now being booked' and only a rimited number of copies will be available for Britisi collectors. G. KEN CHAPMAN 23 FARNLEY ROAD, SOUTH NORWOOD, LONDON, S.E.25 33

Reaalers' letters on any aspect of science-fantasy are tr'a,ntasy o welcomed. Address: The Editor, SCIENCI-FANTASY Xtorum REVIEW, 115, Tgansteatl Park Roatl, Ilforil, Essex. Why Gernsback Gave UP Thank you very much for the cgPies of ianders in their own language, a, number Fantasy lieview iontaining "The SLory of of which did not appea.r in the original: wcndei" Nhich you so kindly sent me' in particular, Noggle's speech on p. 50 These are very interesting, and the story contains no fewer than seven, two of itsef is exceiienf with the facts exactly which are new. as they were. If Mr. de Camp would iike chapter and The-oues[ion has often come uP why verse fol: the rest-with my apologies for being so tiresome in what I am convinced I stoppe-d -Fantasypublishing science flcl,ion. The articie in Review aJso broaches is a good cause-he shal] have them. Usually such flne details are unimportant, this questiol. The ansrvcr . is fairly simple: My only interest was ln scret/r'' and il wou-ld be niggling in a critic to point This is one of the un- flction, and in the Iatter years of -my them out. Dublication of lVontler Stories we nad lucky occasions when they aren't and iL i:ndless trouble to get stories wibh a real isn't.-John K. Aiken, Sale, Cheshire. science content. They seemed to have desenerated into fairy taJes and adven- NEItrSPEAI(? ture stories in which therc was the mer- In "Fantasia" (S-FB Autumn '49) you esb smabtering of science. report Mr. Robern Heinlein as advising To my way of thinking there vrere, and a group of fellow $'riters to "get hold of still are, too few authors who can come a primer of Basic Engiish and nnd ouL up frequently with good sciertre stories. how well you ca"n express yourself in 850 ti othei rvords, my problem was the great words." In case any of your readers who dearth of plots where honest-to-goodness' have not studied Basic Engllsh have been nlausible science was used as the basis; misled by this advice into thinking that ind this discouraged me, because I felt this mutilat€d version of the language that I would not like-vrith our set-up of is of use to the fantasy author, or thai other scientifls publications-to become it consists of 850 words, I would point known as a fantasy, adventure or fairy out that neither of these impressions is tale publisher. correct. So6ner or later, I believe, this situation Even Dr. I. A. Richards, one of the may right itseif, and there may be at leading Basic propagandists, admits that sonle tirne a crop of authors who think a book in Basic would "not (be) very of science flrst and adventure seeond.- brighb reading" (vide "Basic English and I{ugo Gernsback, President, Radcraft Its Uses"); while an article in the maga'- Publications Inc., New York, U.S.A. zine of the British Association said of Basic version of R,. L. Stevenson's -lAlthoush some magazines have assisted the the luither deEeneration of the medium "I(eawe's Bottle" (as far as I ha.ve been which Mr. Gernsback flrst developed as able to discover, the only fantasy to a specia"Iised forn of popular reading, suffer the dubious benefits of translation - improved into Basic): "Here you shall find errors, we feel the situation was juggleries, some years ago by the €ncouragement wasta,ge of words, distortions, of the type of story featured bY turgid periphrases, sheer balderdash." I Astounding Science Fiction' in u'hich for one should hate to see any of Mr. the scientiflc element has been of Heinlein's own work debased in this way. primary interest.-Ed.,l As for the oft-repeated claim that Basic consists of 850 words-a claim made, to CRITIC'S R,ETORT use Dr. I?ichards' own words, by "some In reply to Mr. Sprague de Camp's sug- ill-informed persons"-the analysis made gestion (S-FR, Autrunn '49) that I should by West, Swenson and others in "A Criti- check the magazine version of "The cal Examination of Basic English" Wheeis of If" against the book, may I (Toronto University Press) shows the say that it is not my habit, either as a correct flgure to be more nearly 4,000! reviewer or a, chemist, to make statements fn fact, to the fantasy fan, the main without regard for experimental facts' interest in Basic English is the possibility Both versions of the story were b€fore me of its being a forerunner of the jargon when I wrote the review, and I flnd on "Newspeak" forecast by Orwell in "1984." going through the new one again that Talking of which, I think Mr. de Camp there are even more erors than I'd may be mistaken in presuming that its thought. A quick check-up shows uF social set-up is based on the Soviet Union. wards of thirty mistakes by the vin- Sur€ly, it is equally applicable to the 34 managerial trends which are manifesting "Ttre Story of Wonder''-a. worthy end themselves in Britain and the U.SA. a.s to a worthy series, "Your book reviews well as in the U.S.S.R.?-S. R. Dalton' are wonderful" is getfing to be a catch- Leeds. phrase, buE they are; especially T'lromas lwhat Mr. Heinlein actually advised' Sheridan's on "Four-Sided Triangle." - according to reporb, was that writers Seems to me the story of how-I-dunnit should make their vocabulaxies as smau makes better reading than the book. as possible. He was quoted (bY the T'here's an idea for a novel there . . .hmm. Gunner Temple may have shot well, bul Colorado Springs Free Press) as saying: pretty good "I have a vocabulary of over 100,000 Sheridan's shooting is too. when I Ackerman's review of "1984" is also ex- words, but I forget most of it usual am writing. Get hold of the Primer celtent; the letters are up to the of Basic English and flnd out how well high standard, and surely no-one will you can express yourself in 850 words." ever stump the Datas who runs The Query F^l Box.-Willialn F. TemPIe, wembley' Middlesex. MOON-FII,M PAZZLE You may like to know that everyone willy Ley's interesting article brings to who sels a. copv of S-FR, from me or else' mind a, much greater puzzle that no-one wher6, among ihose I have conracted in seenrs to have noticed. UFA made the the U.S., thinks iN far and away the besJ flIm "The Girl i-II the Moon" (from the fanzlne of them all-probably because it Thea von Ha.rbou book) aboub '32, and keeps ofi flction and sticks entirely to I saw it several times in New York in artibles and reviews, for which it is emi- the thirties, though it seems to be losL nently suited. Keep up the good work! forever now. In this film, while the Moon Ashfleld, Thornton Heath' rocket is en route to Luna, the crew -NoimanSur"rey. discover a stowaway-a boy of eleven No flction in FantasY Review! That hidden in a tool chest! The boy takes would ruin this splendid magazine, whiclr out of his pocket a copy of a magazine is just abouf perfect as if is.-J. Wasso' and explains that he only wants to emu- Jr'., Bangor, Pa. U.S.A. late his favourite magazine characters. You're still putting out the best maga- The cover of the magazine is shown, and zine in the fleld.-Henry Kuttner, Laguna it is something tike "Nick Carter of the California, U.S.A. Moon" (Nick Carter was definitely fhe Beach, name) ! It is a magazine much Iike Ley AII) penny dreadful with COI,LECTONJS describes, a sort of The Autumn number of Science-Fantasy a picture cover. But the thing about -it some ques- -rhat was assumed to be Relrew to hand, and I have is the audience ask: Derfecllv familiai with this magazine; for tions to just on in the (1) Coutd you take Mr' Hunt's master- ihe crew laugh and, later cover for a few issues? The Dicture rvhen on the Moon' make cracks oiece ofi the characters from the ieaction of the Brotherhood might induce ind allusions to vou to keep it ofi! stories in that maga'zine series. (2) Why have flve issues about Wonder I've never been able to flnd out a,lry- T'he latter thing about this magazine' nor met, any- and only iwo for Astounding? -who heard of it.-Donald A. is by far the best mag. And there was one ever one for Weird Tales; it ain't right! York, ..ti onlv Woliheim, New U.S.A' (-:l) Would it be possible to give a list BR,EAST-SWEI,LER or index of all the issues of each maga- spread it over srx or Science-Fa,ntasy Rcview-definitely' a-n zine? You could No correspond- eisht issues: it would not take up too imDrovement in fhe title. collectors like myself ind improvement in the contents-simply m-uch space. and impossible to im- would find it useful. Ueiausir. I betieve, it's Howevet, no matter what do' I'll Drove upon them. It makes one's patriotic You Journal stil] be a subscriber.-Geo. L. Charters' breasL swell to realise that the N. Ireland. of rhe British Interplanetary Society and Bangor, Co. Down, (1) issues, and observed S-FR, are easily the most distinguj,shed t we did, for three (2) of their class in the rsorld. Placing my no Darticula.r reaction. Because sour crrlicism on the shelf for the Wonaer had, on the whole, a more in- momeni, I really do congra[ulate you- teresting history, from the viewpoint oJ would science flction's earlier development' Re Uie articie abouf Shiel: it give seem thab, now he is dead, Shiel is to and because we could afiord to it be consecrated tike Lovecrafb. He deserves more space. T'he story of Weircl Tales it more than HPL, bul not bY any great was the merest outline, on the occasion stretch. There's plenty of better prose of its 25th anniversary; iLs fuU story around, and by livlng writers' ". . . pgr- would need much more comprehenslve haps the greaiest writer of English, the treatrnent-for which, again, we had world has ever known." In the Morse not the space at that time. (3) Several code, f suppose Shakespeare is an also' Americari fan-publishers have a"lready nan? performed this service. Tlxe lat€st 35 "Index of Magazine Science Fiction," edited by Williarr Evans and published by llobert Petersen, 1308 S. Vine Street, lmportant to Subscribers Denver, Colorado, has 144 (mimeo. If a subscription blank graphed) pages is enclosed, covering the contents you should renew your subscription of 26 magazines published between '26 and '48, giving titles, authors and imrnediately. illustrators of stories and afticles in each issue, with indications of the length and type of each story, and in- [Nat Schnachner disappeared from formation on pseudonlans. Though it Astounding Science Fiction at the end i,s full of typographical errors, awk- of '41, when he had evidenilv turned wardly sectioned and poorly bound, it to rwiling novels, one of which (,,The represents a herculean feat of compila- Wanderer," based on the life of Dante) tion and classiflcation which has not has been published in England. During been attempted on such a scale since the period '35-'37, when he was amon! "The Imagi-Index" was issued (by the mosi productive of Astoundingi Ftanklin Brady and A. Ross Kuntz) in eontributors, several of his stories ap- '41. This listed the contents of all the pearcd under the pseudonym of Chan s.f magazines (American and Engiish) Corbett; previously, at least one of his published between '26 and '38. A tales was by-Iined Walrer Glamis. There Volume Index compiled and orginated were only two stories of Kerry DaIe, by John Nitka, flrst issued as a special lawyer to Kenton Space Entei"prises: supplement to Fantasy Fiction Field, "Old Fireball" (Jun. '41). and rJuris- was reissued in '48 by the National diction" (Aug.'41).-Ed.l fbntasy Fan Federation, which is aiso publishing periodical Indexes to various SCIENTIF'TCTION fantasy publications and to the com- Issues of Fa.ntasy R.evlew whlch reach plete works of various leading authors, me are greeted with a great enthusiasm as compiled by Darreil C. Richardson. and reslect. I believe quit€ sincerely that For further details write NFFI' Sec.- your publication is the best in the entire Treas., K. Martin Carlson, 1028 Third fan fleld; it appears to me far better than Avenue S., Moorhead, Minnesota. anything similar in this countrv. WiU u.s.A.-Ed.l you te]] me how many issues there were of its pledecessors. Scientifiction. The British THE BOX I'antasy Review? I have of this QUERY earller plbliqation but a singte copy:'Bond, Vol. YANISHED AUTHOR, 2, No. 7 (March, '38).-Nelsorl Is author Nathan Schachner still ative? Roanoke, Va.. U.S.A. Is he writing-or has he ever written- [The trrst issue of Scientifiction was under arl alias?-Roger N. Dard, Perth, dated Jan. '37; No. 2, aprii '37; B, Jun, W. Australia. '37; 4, Aug. '37; 5, Oct. '37; 6, Jan. '38. You have prior you the last issue, lo its Can tell me if Nat Schachner has incorporation with To-moirow. T h e publish€d any other stories of inter- Magazine of the Future, of which there planetary la\r-twisting apart from "Otd were three subsequent (printed) issues: 'Wiseman,Firebail" and "Jurisdiction"?-John A. Vol. 2, No. I (Spr. '38); No. 2 (Sum. Sidcup, Kent. '38); No. 3 (Autumn '38).-Edl

Wolter Gillings' FANIAS/A-Continued from page g Giving The Magazine of Fantasy (see "Among the Magazines,,' last issue) its blessing, Timo ran piece on pulp s-f with its "lithe heroes, boiomy heroines, bug-eyed monsters and space-suited viilains from Mars" New bi-monthly trom eoputar Pubiications devoted to captain zero, llraster of Midnight, made invisible by a[omic explosion, whose flrst adventure in the "city of Deadly sleep', told by c. T. Fieming- Roberts . . with New worlds No. 6 due shorily, Nova pubtications shareholdeis gathered to hear chairman John Beynon Harris riport on first year's p.ogr"ss, ,,Lord ofier himseu for re-election . . . Toron o star weekly ran of atunii",; by John Russell Fearn, whose "The rntelligence Gigantic,, will see u.s. pocket-book publication ... Satevepost featured two s-f tales in one issue: ,,Nightmari at Dawn,;,iy nonert .spencer carr, and "Doomsday preferred," by will F. Jenkins . . . n*tisrr e"souv reprinted R'ay Bradbury's "Homecoming," "uncle Einar,' , Articld Rnirru experiments parapsychology oo in in stra.nd Magazine (by John Langdon-Davies) and News-chronicle, which also recorded opening of ,,new rockets-to-tlhe-Moon rrhose season,, Py _PIS, "thriving organisation of imiginative zealotsi' ;;i ;;th;. corumn in fimo. . . NEw \troRLDS Nos. 1,2 & 3; now out of print. Limited stock; while they last, SMAI.L ADYERTS 3/6 (50c.) each,-E. J. Carnell, 1? Bur- Special Rate to Collectors: 2al. per wash Road, Plumstead, London, 5.8.18. word (5c. Canaita and U,S.A.); minimum 12 words. To Traders and others: 3tl. per A. HILLIuAN, 13 Queen's Croft, New- word (?c. in Canaila and U.S.A.) All port, Mon., is willing to give a good pric€ advertisements in tftis section must be ior Amazing Jttl.'42, Astound.ing Jan.'42, prepaid. Box numbers 6d, (15c.) extra. Weird Tales Apl. '32. "GOODBYE T(FMORROW": A drama WEIRD. FANTASTIC and Scientific of space-flight, by E. Flank Parker, wiU Fiction. Are you on our free monthly be presented by Teddington fheatre Club Mailing List for catalogues of books and at Ronayne Hall, Ha.mpton Wick, on magazihes?-S-F Service (Dept. IR), 68 March 1, 2 and 3. Tickets Gl- & 4/- victoria Street, Liverpool, 1, England. reserved. 2/- unreserved) from Mrs. O. FOR, SALE: Most issues of Astountling Hyland, 8 Bridgman Road, Teddington, and Unknown (U.S. editions); also other Middlesex, or E. Frank Park€r, 21 Oak- s-f magazines. Please write for list.-N. lands Avenue, Esher, Surey. Lindsay, 311 Babbacombe Road, Torquay, BR,ITISII INTERPLANETARY Devon. SOCIETY Lecture Session 1940-50. Jan. JOIN Britain's only Society for science 7: "The Circum-Lunar Rocket," by I(. W.' fiction readers THE SCIDNCE- Gatiand and A. E. Dixon. Feb. 4tJr: A FANTASY SOCIETY.- Details from F. discussion on the theme, "The Effects of R. Fears, 6 Felme Park Mansions, Ferme Interplanetary Flight." Both meetings Park Road, Crouch End, N.8. wiil be held at Caxton IIaIl, London, commencing at p.m. Non- WE WANT TO BUY fantastic and S.W.l, 6 weird books and magazines. Prompt cash memb€rs welcome; admission free. paid for whole collections or your surplus WANTED: Clayton AstoundingE and books. List your items stating condition ASF '40-46 inclusive; Gernsback Wonders. and SET YOUR OWN PRICE Alter- Must be in good condition.-Box No. 134, nativeiy, send us your books and let us S-F Eeview. make a cash offer. If not acceptable, we WANTED: ASF (U.S.A.) '39-47; Won- wiil return the books intact at our own ders, Amazings, etc., all issues to'4?.-Box expense.-Dell's, 209/11 Kirkgate Market, 135. S-F Refi€w. Bradford, Yorks. Astounding: JANUARY 1950 SCIDITCE FICTIOIT 9d. (BR,ITISH EDITION) 9d. ON SALE SATURDAY, ITth DECEMBER Also (published on the same date) THRILLIITG WOITI}DB STONIDS Price 9d. OBTAINABLE FROM YOUR NEWSAGENT u in difficulty, please communicate with: ATLAS IJ:T:#;13:'ffi"J:H: ffffi#,";::

SCIENCE-FANTASY REVIEW, 115 Wanstead Park noad, Ilford, Essex. Published by Waiter cillings. Printed by RlpfeJ Printing Society Ltd., Ripley. Derbys. This version of the rnagazine was assembled by Farrago & Farrago using a copy from the collection of the late Harry Turner, who created the cover artwork for the early issues of Fantasy Review.

All copyrights acknowledged, all articles and artwork remain the intellectual property of their creators.