DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Dream Quest, v. 1, issue 1, July 1947

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Dream Quest, v. 1, issue 1, July 1947

Page 48

DREAM QUEST  48
Another thing. Five hundred copies of the Weinbaum memorial volume, Dawn of Flame, are known to have been printed. Yet only about 250 of them were ever bound and sold. The mystery is -- what happened to the other quarter of a thousand copies of this fabulous tome? Yours truly and several hundred other collectors would very much like to know.

Or take the case of the chap who sent me a dime for a copy of my late fan publication, Vampire. His letter was written in a large, exaggerated scrawl, and the return address was somewhere in Texas. I'd suspect he was a cowhand or maybe an Injun. A couple weeks thereafter I dispatched him a copy of Vamp -- but finally, much later, the magazine came back stamped "NO SUCH PERSON AT THIS ADDRESS." Now, the obvious, scientific conclusion is that the subscriber must have moved in the interval between his subscribing to the fanzine and my mailing him the copy. And yet (and I say this with a shudder) it is equally logical that some nameless alien entity came down and snatched him right off the face of this earth, obliterated every trace of his existence -- SIMPLY BECAUSE HE HAD THE FOOLHARDY NERVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO SUCH AN ACCURSED PUBLICATION AS VAMPIRE!

And where are the top fans of yesteryear? Where is Wilson Shepard? Where is Allan Glasser? Where, oh where, is Olon F. Wiggins? Gone. Gone without a trace. Vanished -- as if they fell into a space warp, or got swallowed up by some nameless entity traveling lazily through time. I could reel off the names of half a dozen correspondents who've disappeared in like fashion. One day they lived and laughed and loved, and ate and breathed and slept -- and -- well, never mind. But the next...they vanished without a trace, and my letters were never acknowledged nor answered.

You doubt? You scoff? You snarlingly deny this truth? And how about the case of Hall and Flint, who authored that classic of another decade, THE BLIND SPOT! When one fantasy publisher attempted to obtain permission to print the Spot in book form, he was not only unable to find a single clue to trace them, but it was just as if every living relative and heir had likewise disappeared, leaving no clues behind.

Maybe, of course, the files and records were incomplete. Maybe the research involved was inadequate. 

Or maybe some Plutonian grulzak, or beetle-bodied deity dwelling on the sunward side of Vulcan, was becoming a little uneasy because these mere mortals dared to prove too far into the domain of the unknown ---

Jeez, maybe I oughta send this to AMAZING STORIES. 

Of course, those fans I mentioned may still be lurking in some obscure corner of this terrestrial sphere. And yours truly will look like a damnfool if, two weeks from now, Wiggins, Shepard, and Glasser return to fan activity.

((Continued on page 50))

Saving...

DREAM QUEST 48 Another thing. Five hundred copies of the Weinbaum memorial volume, Dawn of Flame, are known to have been printed. Yet only about 250 of them were ever bound and sold. The mystery is -- what happened to the other quarter of a thousand copies of this fabulous tome? Yours truly and several hundred other collectors would very much like to know. Or take the case of the chap who sent me a dime for a copy of my late fan publication, Vampire. His letter was written in a large, exaggerated scrawl, and the return address was somewhere in Texas. I'd suspect he was a cowhand or maybe an Injun. A couple weeks thereafter I dispatched him a copy of Vamp -- but finally, much later, the magazine came back stamped "NO SUCH PERSON AT THIS ADDRESS." Now, the obvious, scientific conclusion is that the subscriber must have moved in the interval between his subscribing to the fanzine and my mailing him the copy. And yet (and I say this with a shudder) it is equally logical that some nameless alien entity came down and snatched him right off the face of this earth, obliterated every trace of his existence -- SIMPLY BECAUSE HE HAD THE FOOLHARDY NERVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO SUCH AN ACCURSED PUBLICATION AS VAMPIRE! And where are the top fans of yesteryear? Where is Wilson Shepard? Where is Allan Glasser? Where, oh where, is Olon F. Wiggins? Gone. Gone without a trace. Vanished -- as if they fell into a space warp, or got swallowed up by some nameless entity traveling lazily through time. I could reel off the names of half a dozen correspondents who've disappeared in like fashion. One day they lived and laughed and loved, and ate and breathed and slept -- and -- well, never mind. But the next...they vanished without a trace, and my letters were never acknowledged nor answered. You doubt? You scoff? You snarlingly deny this truth? And how about the case of Hall and Flint, who authored that classic of another decade, THE BLIND SPOT! When one fantasy publisher attempted to obtain permission to print the Spot in book form, he was not only unable to find a single clue to trace them, but it was just as if every living relative and heir had likewise disappeared, leaving no clues behind. Maybe, of course, the files and records were incomplete. Maybe the research involved was inadequate. Or maybe some Plutonian grulzak, or beetle-bodied deity dwelling on the sunward side of Vulcan, was becoming a little uneasy because these mere mortals dared to prove too far into the domain of the unknown --- Jeez, maybe I oughta send this to AMAZING STORIES. Of course, those fans I mentioned may still be lurking in some obscure corner of this terrestrial sphere. And yours truly will look like a damnfool if, two weeks from now, Wiggins, Shepard, and Glasser return to fan activity. ((Continued on page 50))