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Spaceways, v. 4, issue 6, whole no. 29, 1942

Page 16

16     SPACEWAYS
NOTES OF AN INDEXER

Wonder Stories (Ws) under Gernsback. Third: Thrilling Wonder Stories (TWS). Thus, if an author had yarns published in the magazine in two of the above eras, it is easy to tell at a glance which of them came just about when. It is fortunate that Astounding can be split up in the same manner, Clayton and Street & Smith. Amazing divides into Gernsback and Ziff-Davis.
The form of your index is a matter of personal choice. I keep mine in a loose-leaf notebook, but it could be fitted into a card index just as well. There are undoubtedly more complex indexes in fandom, but this article may be of some help to those of you who are contemplating the making of one.
It is rather interesting to note that of the eight hundred fifty authors I've indexed, some four hundred fifty of them have but one story apiece to their credit. The other four hundred account for some three thousand, four hundred stories, or an average of nine and one-forth stories apiece. Eando Binder accounts for ninety-five, including those under the Gordon Giles pen-name. John W. Campbell, Jr. (Don Stuart) has forty, Stanton Coblentz has forty-eight, Ray Cummings has seventy-two, Raymond Gallum has sixty-eight, Edmond Hamilton has seventy-six (not counting some sixty-five others published in Weird Tales alone, however), David Keller has fifty-nine, Nat Schachner has sixty-nine--to mention a few of the old-timers. Of these, Eando Binder seems just about as prolific as any of them. His first story was published about ten years ago, I believe.
Of the newer authors, Nelson Bond already has above fifty stories, and his first was in 1937, I think. Robert Heinlein has twenty-five to his credit-- including, again, those under the Anson MacDonald and Lyle Monroe pen-names. Another rather interesting point is the fact that some of the authors stick very closely to one house. Don Wilcox, for example, has thirty-three stories, all published in either Amazing or Fantastic Adventures. A. E. van Vogt, on the other hand, has about a dozen stories published--all in Street & Smith magazines.
To cut this short: I seem to remember that Harry Warner told me that in his rating system, he was weighing the rating of the story against the length of the story: a novel would be rated against its length in some way. I'm afraid that is one weakness in my own rating system I can't overcome. But again, I'd hate to undertake the job of re-rating more than four thousand stories. I'll take mine as it is, thank you!

A NEW BOOK BY STAPLEDON
(continued from page 14)

tually little radio controls are surgically placed in the brain of every living being and their slightest thoughts are available for reading by the ever watchful police. Humanity drags on a terrible ghastly living death, for thousands of years decaying steadily. The decline of the small ruling class through its own intellectual sterility and the utter impossibility of any original or creative thought on the part of the masses finally bring about crises and slow collapse. For tens of thousands of years the decay goes on until science is lost, contact between lands is lost, and humanity goes on down the road of ruin to dull animal tribes which finally disappear entirely under the attacks of rats.
In the other version, the Tibetans beat off the attacks of the two empires, undermine them and after a long series of wars defeat them and set up governments of the light all over the world. Then they commence the problem of destroying poverty, ignorance, and disease. Problems confront them but they are solved by patience and wisdom. Crises occur but eventually a Utopian world is achieved, a world of villages held together by super communications and planes; a world of atomic conversion. Gradually the world creates a class of "forwards", persons given to deep philosophy and search into the nature of things. This search results in the facing of a crisis when insight is gained into the forces
(concluded on page 19)

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16 SPACEWAYS NOTES OF AN INDEXER Wonder Stories (Ws) under Gernsback. Third: Thrilling Wonder Stories (TWS). Thus, if an author had yarns published in the magazine in two of the above eras, it is easy to tell at a glance which of them came just about when. It is fortunate that Astounding can be split up in the same manner, Clayton and Street & Smith. Amazing divides into Gernsback and Ziff-Davis. The form of your index is a matter of personal choice. I keep mine in a loose-leaf notebook, but it could be fitted into a card index just as well. There are undoubtedly more complex indexes in fandom, but this article may be of some help to those of you who are contemplating the making of one. It is rather interesting to note that of the eight hundred fifty authors I've indexed, some four hundred fifty of them have but one story apiece to their credit. The other four hundred account for some three thousand, four hundred stories, or an average of nine and one-forth stories apiece. Eando Binder accounts for ninety-five, including those under the Gordon Giles pen-name. John W. Campbell, Jr. (Don Stuart) has forty, Stanton Coblentz has forty-eight, Ray Cummings has seventy-two, Raymond Gallum has sixty-eight, Edmond Hamilton has seventy-six (not counting some sixty-five others published in Weird Tales alone, however), David Keller has fifty-nine, Nat Schachner has sixty-nine--to mention a few of the old-timers. Of these, Eando Binder seems just about as prolific as any of them. His first story was published about ten years ago, I believe. Of the newer authors, Nelson Bond already has above fifty stories, and his first was in 1937, I think. Robert Heinlein has twenty-five to his credit-- including, again, those under the Anson MacDonald and Lyle Monroe pen-names. Another rather interesting point is the fact that some of the authors stick very closely to one house. Don Wilcox, for example, has thirty-three stories, all published in either Amazing or Fantastic Adventures. A. E. van Vogt, on the other hand, has about a dozen stories published--all in Street & Smith magazines. To cut this short: I seem to remember that Harry Warner told me that in his rating system, he was weighing the rating of the story against the length of the story: a novel would be rated against its length in some way. I'm afraid that is one weakness in my own rating system I can't overcome. But again, I'd hate to undertake the job of re-rating more than four thousand stories. I'll take mine as it is, thank you! A NEW BOOK BY STAPLEDON (continued from page 14) tually little radio controls are surgically placed in the brain of every living being and their slightest thoughts are available for reading by the ever watchful police. Humanity drags on a terrible ghastly living death, for thousands of years decaying steadily. The decline of the small ruling class through its own intellectual sterility and the utter impossibility of any original or creative thought on the part of the masses finally bring about crises and slow collapse. For tens of thousands of years the decay goes on until science is lost, contact between lands is lost, and humanity goes on down the road of ruin to dull animal tribes which finally disappear entirely under the attacks of rats. In the other version, the Tibetans beat off the attacks of the two empires, undermine them and after a long series of wars defeat them and set up governments of the light all over the world. Then they commence the problem of destroying poverty, ignorance, and disease. Problems confront them but they are solved by patience and wisdom. Crises occur but eventually a Utopian world is achieved, a world of villages held together by super communications and planes; a world of atomic conversion. Gradually the world creates a class of "forwards", persons given to deep philosophy and search into the nature of things. This search results in the facing of a crisis when insight is gained into the forces (concluded on page 19)