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Spaceways, v. 3 issue 3, whole no. 19, March 1941
Page 9
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SPACEWAYS 9 CONFIDENTIAL NOTES ON EDITORS without getting his yarn back. Disgusted, he quits and stalks out to his own office, the copy of "Tropics in the Moonlight" under his arm, already thinking up excuses to push it off on his Wild West Weekly readers. Campbell either is exceedingly lucky or owns the dice. Pretty soon the game broke up and the other editors filed out, leaving him in possession of all their western and love stories; but he had lost my "Ant from Hell" to Ezekiah's Love Book. All I came away with was a short filler from Wild West Weekly on the design of .22 rifles. I remember complaining to Campbell about this, and I believe he explained that it had been written by a big name in the western field, hence was worth as much as a short story from either of his magazines. In Campbell's office (and his office is a fair example of others), other various hazards befall manuscripts. Jack Woodford claims that some editors use 'scripts for coasters, or those things commonly known as beer-pads. Many a poor author has received back from Astounding or Unknown his 'script burned full of cigaret holes, or saturated with spilled gin. By the way, Campbell chooses a poor gin; of late I always refuse it when he offers it to me. My friend also has a small radio in hisoffice (to help while away the hours) and as he is a rabid baseball fan, often have we kept score on the back of some page of manuscript. During the recent World Series we used up some twenty-odd pages keeping tabs and notes on the games, all on the reverse sides of "The Man Who Died Fifteen Times", a novelette of passion on the upper levels. However, let me say here that I do not approve of this, and only wish I hadn't let him start the habit, for I now found that he casually uses the backside of any 'script handy to figure out his household budget for the week,work on soap contests, puzzles, limericks, and how to beat the next installment on his car. Then too, Prunella the secretary keeps a few embarrassing habits. She simply loves to fold up paper airplanes and sail them about the room. Needless to say,s he uses pages from submitted yarns in the game. Once, the three of us spent a whole anxious, feverish week hunting for nineteen pages from the second installment of "Gray Lensman", that she had sailed away and lost. Sad to say, we never found them. They must have flown out the window. One must admire Campbell's secretary, though, for her pluck. When the desperate situation became known, and it was realized the nineteen pages were gone forever,s he sat down and whipped out nineteen substitute pages in a half-hour's time, and to this day the story's author doesn't know the difference! So much for the loving care taken of manuscripts. Next to the mention of receiving carloads of allegedly hopeless scripts. Oh, but my friend Campbell lied marvelously there; of course he had to, for it is imply impossible for a man in his position to admit the truth! On Fridays, around the Street & Smith house, a secret gathering takes place, usually in that same back room that serves the crap-shooters on Mondays. Friday has the unofficial designation of "old maid day". To that room will filter many figures-- Snadaker from Thrill Book, Jones from Fiery Confessions, and Campbell with his so-called hopeless manuscripts from midwestern old maids. Miss Twitchet is barred from this gathering, as it is strictly stag. In that back room we read every word of those submitted nightmares and personal experiences of old maids, and to hell with our eyes and the bad lighting! If it is necessary, those editors reject a hundred scripts without even bothering to glance at the opening page, in order to gain time for this Friday session. Why? For what reason can these old-maid submissions be so valuable? Ahhh! Speaking for myself, during the short time I have been dropping in on these stag story hours, I have learned three hundred and ninety-two new dirty stories. ...."Slan"s and "Gray Lensmen" can go play marbles while we ooze through these Friday fugitives from Snappy Stories! Anent Mort Weisinger, and his amateur contest. Ah, for shame, friend Mort, how you hoodwink the fans! Come on, 'fess up! Tell the readers how you hoodwink the fans! Come on, 'fess up! Tell the read-
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SPACEWAYS 9 CONFIDENTIAL NOTES ON EDITORS without getting his yarn back. Disgusted, he quits and stalks out to his own office, the copy of "Tropics in the Moonlight" under his arm, already thinking up excuses to push it off on his Wild West Weekly readers. Campbell either is exceedingly lucky or owns the dice. Pretty soon the game broke up and the other editors filed out, leaving him in possession of all their western and love stories; but he had lost my "Ant from Hell" to Ezekiah's Love Book. All I came away with was a short filler from Wild West Weekly on the design of .22 rifles. I remember complaining to Campbell about this, and I believe he explained that it had been written by a big name in the western field, hence was worth as much as a short story from either of his magazines. In Campbell's office (and his office is a fair example of others), other various hazards befall manuscripts. Jack Woodford claims that some editors use 'scripts for coasters, or those things commonly known as beer-pads. Many a poor author has received back from Astounding or Unknown his 'script burned full of cigaret holes, or saturated with spilled gin. By the way, Campbell chooses a poor gin; of late I always refuse it when he offers it to me. My friend also has a small radio in hisoffice (to help while away the hours) and as he is a rabid baseball fan, often have we kept score on the back of some page of manuscript. During the recent World Series we used up some twenty-odd pages keeping tabs and notes on the games, all on the reverse sides of "The Man Who Died Fifteen Times", a novelette of passion on the upper levels. However, let me say here that I do not approve of this, and only wish I hadn't let him start the habit, for I now found that he casually uses the backside of any 'script handy to figure out his household budget for the week,work on soap contests, puzzles, limericks, and how to beat the next installment on his car. Then too, Prunella the secretary keeps a few embarrassing habits. She simply loves to fold up paper airplanes and sail them about the room. Needless to say,s he uses pages from submitted yarns in the game. Once, the three of us spent a whole anxious, feverish week hunting for nineteen pages from the second installment of "Gray Lensman", that she had sailed away and lost. Sad to say, we never found them. They must have flown out the window. One must admire Campbell's secretary, though, for her pluck. When the desperate situation became known, and it was realized the nineteen pages were gone forever,s he sat down and whipped out nineteen substitute pages in a half-hour's time, and to this day the story's author doesn't know the difference! So much for the loving care taken of manuscripts. Next to the mention of receiving carloads of allegedly hopeless scripts. Oh, but my friend Campbell lied marvelously there; of course he had to, for it is imply impossible for a man in his position to admit the truth! On Fridays, around the Street & Smith house, a secret gathering takes place, usually in that same back room that serves the crap-shooters on Mondays. Friday has the unofficial designation of "old maid day". To that room will filter many figures-- Snadaker from Thrill Book, Jones from Fiery Confessions, and Campbell with his so-called hopeless manuscripts from midwestern old maids. Miss Twitchet is barred from this gathering, as it is strictly stag. In that back room we read every word of those submitted nightmares and personal experiences of old maids, and to hell with our eyes and the bad lighting! If it is necessary, those editors reject a hundred scripts without even bothering to glance at the opening page, in order to gain time for this Friday session. Why? For what reason can these old-maid submissions be so valuable? Ahhh! Speaking for myself, during the short time I have been dropping in on these stag story hours, I have learned three hundred and ninety-two new dirty stories. ...."Slan"s and "Gray Lensmen" can go play marbles while we ooze through these Friday fugitives from Snappy Stories! Anent Mort Weisinger, and his amateur contest. Ah, for shame, friend Mort, how you hoodwink the fans! Come on, 'fess up! Tell the readers how you hoodwink the fans! Come on, 'fess up! Tell the read-
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