DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Spaceways, v. 3, issue 6, whole no. 22, August 1941

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Spaceways, v. 3, issue 6, whole no. 22, August 1941

4
A COLLECTOR SPEAKS [handwritten 6]
by 
LARRY B. FARSACI

One of the most fascinating aspects of scientific fiction to me has been the collecting mania that has been so allied with it and given it such an unholy glamour. Once cannot escape this the moment he becomes deeply, vitally interested in the new type of fiction he has discovered, and it's particularly so when one has, from his childhood up, found it a source of interest and mental pleasure as I have. And this is true even though he knows the danger that lies before him--that of being so absorbed that living from day to day becomes only a secondary matter. 
The earliest story I recall reading was "The Swordsman of Sarvon", by Charles Cloukey. I remember at the time watching a basket-ball game at Lewis Street Center just across the street, but so intrigued had I been by Cloukey's yarn that my mind was a good many million miles away. It was at this time that I first read such stories as Leslie F. Stone's "The Man Who Fought a Fly" and Walter Kateley's "World of a Hundred Men". I remember these as wonderfully mysterious and even more so when the authors delightfully and realistically explained them! I can't forget the thrill I got a few days later to find in a local bargain store the issue of Wonder Stories with Smith's "The City of Signing Flame". To me this was truly "A Stellar Publication", as it was labeled. Yet in this period, strange to say, I did not keep any of the magazines of stories.
It was later, perhaps in the rediscovery of these favorites, that I gradually acquired the policy of keeping them. I must have been inspired to recall them as one remembers melodies of years gone by that were enjoyed, then quite forgotten until hears again. But beyond that, the chief reason was, undoubtedly, the development of a bibliographical trend of thinking. I would, for example, be impressed by a story like "Solarite", by John W. Campbell, Jr., and almost immediately begin to wonder what other stories Campbell had written before that or after. And subsequently, I would discover, through a more systematic and specialized search of the various bookstores, his other such as "The Black Star Passes", "Islands of Space", "Invaders from the Infinite", and "When the Atoms Failed". Now multiply this by a score of other authors whose work I liked and you see more clearly what I mean. 
There would be the "thought-variant" stories and authors who consistently wrote stories of this type in which all that was important was a new idea of the universe or of cosmic implications, with just enough build of characters that you might sense the marvel with them. In this category fall such stories as Edmond Hamilton's "The Man Who Evolved", "The Accursed Galaxy", and "The Cosmic Pantagraph", Clare Winger Harris' "A Runaway World", and "The Fifth Dimension", Harl Vincent's "Before the Asteroids" and "The Morons", Donald Wandrei's "Farewell to Earth" and "Colossus", R. F. Starzl's "Out of the Sub-Universe", Francis Flagg's "The Machine Man of Ardathia", John Russell Fearn's "The Man Who Stopped the Dust", and many, many others. 
There would be those stories which one instinctively knew were meant to be lived in. These were by the more literary authors and of the human-interest type with a good scientific fiction theme carried throughout. One can still point out as good examples of this type, Lawrence Manning's "Asteroid" and "Man Who Awoke" stories, Stanton A. Coblentz's "The Blue Barbarians", "The Sunken World", and "In Caverns Below", David H. Keller's "Life Everlasting" and many of his short stories as well. "The Swordsman of Sarvon" was also one of these. 
There would be the "Don A. Stuart" stories, the atmospheric stories by such authors as Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, C. L. Moore, and Frank Owen, and the blend of this type with the "idea" stories as represented by Jack Williamson with such stories as "Xandulu", "The Stone from the Green Star", and "The Moon Era", P. Schuyler Miller and L. A. Eshbach, with stories like "The Titan" and "Valley of the Titans". Specific classification of these is impossible since each was individual in its own blend of science, fantasy, and often pseudo-science; some outstandingly so, like "The Blind Spot".

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4 A COLLECTOR SPEAKS [handwritten 6] by LARRY B. FARSACI One of the most fascinating aspects of scientific fiction to me has been the collecting mania that has been so allied with it and given it such an unholy glamour. Once cannot escape this the moment he becomes deeply, vitally interested in the new type of fiction he has discovered, and it's particularly so when one has, from his childhood up, found it a source of interest and mental pleasure as I have. And this is true even though he knows the danger that lies before him--that of being so absorbed that living from day to day becomes only a secondary matter. The earliest story I recall reading was "The Swordsman of Sarvon", by Charles Cloukey. I remember at the time watching a basket-ball game at Lewis Street Center just across the street, but so intrigued had I been by Cloukey's yarn that my mind was a good many million miles away. It was at this time that I first read such stories as Leslie F. Stone's "The Man Who Fought a Fly" and Walter Kateley's "World of a Hundred Men". I remember these as wonderfully mysterious and even more so when the authors delightfully and realistically explained them! I can't forget the thrill I got a few days later to find in a local bargain store the issue of Wonder Stories with Smith's "The City of Signing Flame". To me this was truly "A Stellar Publication", as it was labeled. Yet in this period, strange to say, I did not keep any of the magazines of stories. It was later, perhaps in the rediscovery of these favorites, that I gradually acquired the policy of keeping them. I must have been inspired to recall them as one remembers melodies of years gone by that were enjoyed, then quite forgotten until hears again. But beyond that, the chief reason was, undoubtedly, the development of a bibliographical trend of thinking. I would, for example, be impressed by a story like "Solarite", by John W. Campbell, Jr., and almost immediately begin to wonder what other stories Campbell had written before that or after. And subsequently, I would discover, through a more systematic and specialized search of the various bookstores, his other such as "The Black Star Passes", "Islands of Space", "Invaders from the Infinite", and "When the Atoms Failed". Now multiply this by a score of other authors whose work I liked and you see more clearly what I mean. There would be the "thought-variant" stories and authors who consistently wrote stories of this type in which all that was important was a new idea of the universe or of cosmic implications, with just enough build of characters that you might sense the marvel with them. In this category fall such stories as Edmond Hamilton's "The Man Who Evolved", "The Accursed Galaxy", and "The Cosmic Pantagraph", Clare Winger Harris' "A Runaway World", and "The Fifth Dimension", Harl Vincent's "Before the Asteroids" and "The Morons", Donald Wandrei's "Farewell to Earth" and "Colossus", R. F. Starzl's "Out of the Sub-Universe", Francis Flagg's "The Machine Man of Ardathia", John Russell Fearn's "The Man Who Stopped the Dust", and many, many others. There would be those stories which one instinctively knew were meant to be lived in. These were by the more literary authors and of the human-interest type with a good scientific fiction theme carried throughout. One can still point out as good examples of this type, Lawrence Manning's "Asteroid" and "Man Who Awoke" stories, Stanton A. Coblentz's "The Blue Barbarians", "The Sunken World", and "In Caverns Below", David H. Keller's "Life Everlasting" and many of his short stories as well. "The Swordsman of Sarvon" was also one of these. There would be the "Don A. Stuart" stories, the atmospheric stories by such authors as Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, C. L. Moore, and Frank Owen, and the blend of this type with the "idea" stories as represented by Jack Williamson with such stories as "Xandulu", "The Stone from the Green Star", and "The Moon Era", P. Schuyler Miller and L. A. Eshbach, with stories like "The Titan" and "Valley of the Titans". Specific classification of these is impossible since each was individual in its own blend of science, fantasy, and often pseudo-science; some outstandingly so, like "The Blind Spot".