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Spaceways, v. 4, issue 1, whole no. 24, December 1941
19
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SPACEWAYS 19 BEACON LIGHT ation: that's how it is. I'm sorry and you're sorry, but the pseudo-scientific magazine has already replaced scientific fiction: Astounding, as mentioned above, is the last outpost. We should be tolerant, we suppose, under the circumstances. But we can't; since it's all that the real scientific fiction fan has, outside of books, and the old issues, we're jealous of the remainder of the genuine article. Astounding since July seems to have picked up a little. That's nice; but it's still slipped so far as 1941 is concerned. If any of you haven't heard about "Someone in the Dark", then this is the place to plug it. "Someone in the Dark" is a volume containing sixteen weird tales by August W. Derleth, culled mostly from Weird Tales magazine; they're all good, and some of them are among his best. The book is put out by Arkham House, who also published "The Outsider and Others" in 1939. But, better still, they plan to start a sort of fantasy book club, issuing four books a year. That is, if the followers of stf. and fantasy give them enough support that they can clear expenses. Derleth himself is backing the deal. "Someone in the Dark" is a beautiful job of printing and binding; it looks as good as if not better than many books issued by larger publishing houses. It's well worth your two bucks. Incidentally, that brings another thing to our mind. Can anyone tell us why, on the whole, anthologies of ghost stories are so utterly lousy? Take the volume included in the "World's 100 Best Short Stories" series, for example. This has such masterpieces of weird fiction as "The Man without a Country", "Legend of Sleepy Hollow", etc. Or E. F. Benson's collection of ghost stories. The Derleth volume is the first we've seen to break the rule that anthologies of weird fiction are filled with crap, drivel, and the most amazing examples of editorial incompetance. [[Writing after paragraph]] They Return By Boening[[?]] H R Wakefield but not an anthology[[end writing]] Does anyone know anything about a Munsey fantastic serial (we think it was some Munsey pub) entitled "Within the Earth-Atom"? We came across parts three and four while browsing in a second-hand store some time back, but cannot recall the date of the thing, though it was prior to 1920. Author was Clyde V. Johnson. Anyway, from what we could see, it was a rather interesting item, and we'd like to see it in FFM some time if it can be tracked down. Illustrations were quite competant. It had lovely chapter titles, like "Search for the Seventh Minion", "Not in a Thousand Years" , and "The Sun Shall Die Tomorrow". Our receiving the Poll Cat a week or so back made us think of something we'd had on our mind for some time. Polls in fandom should be taken regularly. Twice a year the question of (a) favorite prozine; (b) favorite fanzine; (c) top fan; (d) top pro artist; and (e) ten favorite tales of the year should be listed; one poll to end June 30th and the other December 31st. And we'd be interested in seeing a poll on the top prozine not considering Astounding or Unknown whose 1st and 2nd places are still pretty much of a foregone conclusion. Things move pretty rapidly in stf.; some top fans are regular but places often change in the space of six months; often a high ranking fanzine ceases publication, while a heretofore low-ranker takes a sudden rise. The only way to keep abreast of fankind's opinions is to take the polls not less than semi-annually. And once a year, a poll of the fans' ten favorites of all time should be taken: the ten top stf. tales and the ten top fantasies. This would give valuable information as to how people as a whole differentiate between the fields. We'd like to make a prediction or so about the NFFF, based upon observation and not upon wishful thinking or what we would advocate. The NFFF, is going to flop mainly because there isn't any real coordination of effort. A few officers are enthusiastic and are working hard. But most of the members hear nothing (or very little) about what is going on. If it fails, it'll probably be some time before the failure is realized. We'd give it one chance for success: if an official organ can be put out without fail no less frequently than every other month and the suggestion about members' using the NFFF mailing in an FAPA-ish way is followed, then it may keep on going. Otherwise, it's licked. Recently we note that two fanzines have gone snooty, as it were: Sun Spots
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SPACEWAYS 19 BEACON LIGHT ation: that's how it is. I'm sorry and you're sorry, but the pseudo-scientific magazine has already replaced scientific fiction: Astounding, as mentioned above, is the last outpost. We should be tolerant, we suppose, under the circumstances. But we can't; since it's all that the real scientific fiction fan has, outside of books, and the old issues, we're jealous of the remainder of the genuine article. Astounding since July seems to have picked up a little. That's nice; but it's still slipped so far as 1941 is concerned. If any of you haven't heard about "Someone in the Dark", then this is the place to plug it. "Someone in the Dark" is a volume containing sixteen weird tales by August W. Derleth, culled mostly from Weird Tales magazine; they're all good, and some of them are among his best. The book is put out by Arkham House, who also published "The Outsider and Others" in 1939. But, better still, they plan to start a sort of fantasy book club, issuing four books a year. That is, if the followers of stf. and fantasy give them enough support that they can clear expenses. Derleth himself is backing the deal. "Someone in the Dark" is a beautiful job of printing and binding; it looks as good as if not better than many books issued by larger publishing houses. It's well worth your two bucks. Incidentally, that brings another thing to our mind. Can anyone tell us why, on the whole, anthologies of ghost stories are so utterly lousy? Take the volume included in the "World's 100 Best Short Stories" series, for example. This has such masterpieces of weird fiction as "The Man without a Country", "Legend of Sleepy Hollow", etc. Or E. F. Benson's collection of ghost stories. The Derleth volume is the first we've seen to break the rule that anthologies of weird fiction are filled with crap, drivel, and the most amazing examples of editorial incompetance. [[Writing after paragraph]] They Return By Boening[[?]] H R Wakefield but not an anthology[[end writing]] Does anyone know anything about a Munsey fantastic serial (we think it was some Munsey pub) entitled "Within the Earth-Atom"? We came across parts three and four while browsing in a second-hand store some time back, but cannot recall the date of the thing, though it was prior to 1920. Author was Clyde V. Johnson. Anyway, from what we could see, it was a rather interesting item, and we'd like to see it in FFM some time if it can be tracked down. Illustrations were quite competant. It had lovely chapter titles, like "Search for the Seventh Minion", "Not in a Thousand Years" , and "The Sun Shall Die Tomorrow". Our receiving the Poll Cat a week or so back made us think of something we'd had on our mind for some time. Polls in fandom should be taken regularly. Twice a year the question of (a) favorite prozine; (b) favorite fanzine; (c) top fan; (d) top pro artist; and (e) ten favorite tales of the year should be listed; one poll to end June 30th and the other December 31st. And we'd be interested in seeing a poll on the top prozine not considering Astounding or Unknown whose 1st and 2nd places are still pretty much of a foregone conclusion. Things move pretty rapidly in stf.; some top fans are regular but places often change in the space of six months; often a high ranking fanzine ceases publication, while a heretofore low-ranker takes a sudden rise. The only way to keep abreast of fankind's opinions is to take the polls not less than semi-annually. And once a year, a poll of the fans' ten favorites of all time should be taken: the ten top stf. tales and the ten top fantasies. This would give valuable information as to how people as a whole differentiate between the fields. We'd like to make a prediction or so about the NFFF, based upon observation and not upon wishful thinking or what we would advocate. The NFFF, is going to flop mainly because there isn't any real coordination of effort. A few officers are enthusiastic and are working hard. But most of the members hear nothing (or very little) about what is going on. If it fails, it'll probably be some time before the failure is realized. We'd give it one chance for success: if an official organ can be put out without fail no less frequently than every other month and the suggestion about members' using the NFFF mailing in an FAPA-ish way is followed, then it may keep on going. Otherwise, it's licked. Recently we note that two fanzines have gone snooty, as it were: Sun Spots
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