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Spaceways, v. 3 issue 3, whole no. 19, March 1941
Page 8
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8 SPACEWAYS 10 CONFIDENTIAL NOTES ON EDITORS by BOB TUCKER (Prologue: The Anniversary Issue of this magazine certainly featured some outstanding items of humor, even if editor Warner did fail to identify them as such and accordingly list them as "humor" on the contents page. Or perhaps it was that he too was fooled, so cleverly written were these particular articles. I am referring to the articles written by Editor Campbell of Astounding-Unknown and Editor Weisinger of Startling, TWS, and that pick kneed percival of space, Private Past. How I guffawed and chuckled at their naive wit as they recounted mighty dramas that allegedly took place behind the scenes as a magazine went into the making! How I grinned and leered as their innocent-sounding words stretched across the page to create the illusion of hustle and bustle and work, work, work! But in all fairness to gullible readers who might otherwise accept the words for what they appear to portray, and not realize that these two bankers' -hours play -boys are pulling legs other than those attached to their secretaries, I plan to reveal here, probably exclusively to any periodical in the world, just what actually takes place in the offices of an editor during any given work day. The two mentioned above make excellent subjects, knowing them intimately as I do, and enjoying above all other people their full confidence.- The Author.) Campbell's remarks as to the care and caution exercised over submitted manuscripts is humorous to the extreme. Oh, Mr. Campbell, how your tongue must have been pushing against your cheek when you set down those jolly words! Come, come now, old chap. . .perhaps "outer-circle" readers may be naive enough to believe that, but not we intelligent fans! Because I hold such a sacred, confidential trust with Campbell, I am in a position both to observe and to experience conditions that are carefully hidden away from the public and fan eye. Let me tell you of a certain Monday- About mid-morning I found myself near the Street & Smith house so decided at once to drop up to Unk's offices to get the latest fiction requirements. Pushing open the outer door I found no one in sight except Prunella Twitchet, Campbell's nimble-minded but somewhat childish secretary of 22 years. Upon ascertaining who I was, she at once dropped the pretense of being furiously busy, and motioned with a laconic thumb toward a closed door. I passed through this door and locked it behind me as Miss Twitchet resumed her pastime of sailing paper airplanes. On the inside, under a dim light, squatted Campbell, Ezekiah of Love Book and Grubach of Shadow shooting craps. Trimble of Wild West Weekly was out of the game, broke. As to money, either they were all broke or they didn't believe in using it with one another. They were playing with paper-clipped manuscripts. "H'lo, Tucker," Campbell said as I walked in. "Wanna get in the game? What'cha got under your arm?" " 'The Ant from Hell'," I snaps back, sizing the situation at a glance. "A red-hot serial of torrid passion among the clicking mandibles, in three parts." "Hmmm" opines Campbell, knitting his brows without losing a purl. "Well, it's worth about six bucks in blue chips. Put it in." "Hey, just a minute here, not so fast!" yells Ezekiah from Love. "I just put up 'Tropics in the Moonlight', a scorching epic of passion in the China Seas, in four parts, and you allowed me only $4.60 in blue chips!" "This is different," explains Campbell. "If I win I'll have to sneak your serial in without advance notice, because it ain't science-fiction. It's like that 'Typewriter in the Sky' I won from Pirate & Sea Stories last week- it just don't fit. Whereas Tucker's yarn does." And so the game progressed. My fortuna waxed and waned. I first won a Kummer "Jewels of the Moon", Grubach covered with his newest Shadow novel, and we both lost to Trimble from Wild West Weekly. However, in the process Trimble "The Girl Desires a Ring" in an effort to get back his Rancho story because it already advertised as coming in his next issue, but loses both to Ezekiah
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8 SPACEWAYS 10 CONFIDENTIAL NOTES ON EDITORS by BOB TUCKER (Prologue: The Anniversary Issue of this magazine certainly featured some outstanding items of humor, even if editor Warner did fail to identify them as such and accordingly list them as "humor" on the contents page. Or perhaps it was that he too was fooled, so cleverly written were these particular articles. I am referring to the articles written by Editor Campbell of Astounding-Unknown and Editor Weisinger of Startling, TWS, and that pick kneed percival of space, Private Past. How I guffawed and chuckled at their naive wit as they recounted mighty dramas that allegedly took place behind the scenes as a magazine went into the making! How I grinned and leered as their innocent-sounding words stretched across the page to create the illusion of hustle and bustle and work, work, work! But in all fairness to gullible readers who might otherwise accept the words for what they appear to portray, and not realize that these two bankers' -hours play -boys are pulling legs other than those attached to their secretaries, I plan to reveal here, probably exclusively to any periodical in the world, just what actually takes place in the offices of an editor during any given work day. The two mentioned above make excellent subjects, knowing them intimately as I do, and enjoying above all other people their full confidence.- The Author.) Campbell's remarks as to the care and caution exercised over submitted manuscripts is humorous to the extreme. Oh, Mr. Campbell, how your tongue must have been pushing against your cheek when you set down those jolly words! Come, come now, old chap. . .perhaps "outer-circle" readers may be naive enough to believe that, but not we intelligent fans! Because I hold such a sacred, confidential trust with Campbell, I am in a position both to observe and to experience conditions that are carefully hidden away from the public and fan eye. Let me tell you of a certain Monday- About mid-morning I found myself near the Street & Smith house so decided at once to drop up to Unk's offices to get the latest fiction requirements. Pushing open the outer door I found no one in sight except Prunella Twitchet, Campbell's nimble-minded but somewhat childish secretary of 22 years. Upon ascertaining who I was, she at once dropped the pretense of being furiously busy, and motioned with a laconic thumb toward a closed door. I passed through this door and locked it behind me as Miss Twitchet resumed her pastime of sailing paper airplanes. On the inside, under a dim light, squatted Campbell, Ezekiah of Love Book and Grubach of Shadow shooting craps. Trimble of Wild West Weekly was out of the game, broke. As to money, either they were all broke or they didn't believe in using it with one another. They were playing with paper-clipped manuscripts. "H'lo, Tucker," Campbell said as I walked in. "Wanna get in the game? What'cha got under your arm?" " 'The Ant from Hell'," I snaps back, sizing the situation at a glance. "A red-hot serial of torrid passion among the clicking mandibles, in three parts." "Hmmm" opines Campbell, knitting his brows without losing a purl. "Well, it's worth about six bucks in blue chips. Put it in." "Hey, just a minute here, not so fast!" yells Ezekiah from Love. "I just put up 'Tropics in the Moonlight', a scorching epic of passion in the China Seas, in four parts, and you allowed me only $4.60 in blue chips!" "This is different," explains Campbell. "If I win I'll have to sneak your serial in without advance notice, because it ain't science-fiction. It's like that 'Typewriter in the Sky' I won from Pirate & Sea Stories last week- it just don't fit. Whereas Tucker's yarn does." And so the game progressed. My fortuna waxed and waned. I first won a Kummer "Jewels of the Moon", Grubach covered with his newest Shadow novel, and we both lost to Trimble from Wild West Weekly. However, in the process Trimble "The Girl Desires a Ring" in an effort to get back his Rancho story because it already advertised as coming in his next issue, but loses both to Ezekiah
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