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Reader and Collector, v. 3, issue 6, January 1946
Page 2
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2. IN DEFENSE OF J. O. BAILEY and "PILGRIMS THROUGH SPACE AND TIME" Some weeks ago I was surprised to find in "The Fanews" a review of "Pilgrims Through Space and Time" by Sam Moskowitz. Surprised, because the book has not yet been published. There is no doubt that Mr. Ben Abramson, publisher of the book and one of our best-known book dealers, knows his business. However, the idea of permitting a more or less unfavorable review to appear before the book was actually printed seems to be an odd way of gaining publicity for the book. Inasmuch as I was in on the ground floor in Prof. Bailey's project (I was of some slight assistance in compiling the bibliography in the early days, spending many hours in the children's section of the N.Y. Public Library looking up items in the boys' magazines) I'd like to answer some of the questions raised in the Moskowitz review. As a matter of fact, ther eis some justice and sense in the review by Mr. Moskowitz. It is unfortunate, perhaps, the first half of Prof. Bailey's book is just a classification and summary of plots. Plot after plot is apt to prove dull. But, without throwing this material into an appendix how else could it have been handled? The stories had to be presented before they could be discussed,because most people wouldn't recognize the stories and certainly wouldn't make sense to put half the book into an appendix. It is true, of course, as Mr. Moskowitz says, Prof. Bailey's first plan was to pubish a bibliography of scientific fiction. He started making such a bibliography when he was working on the subject for a PH.D. dissertation. Keep in mind that he was then making a living (or trying to) as an instructor at the University of North Carolina. Finally, after collecting about 5,000 titles, and spending what little money he had been able to save from a school teacher's salary he had to give it up as a job too difficult for his limited resources. It should be noted that the libraries available to Prof. Bailey (University of North Carolina and Duke University) had very few pieces of scientific fiction and no magazines. When I learned that work had been stopped on the bibliography (not the book) I asked Prof. Bailey if he would entrust his card file to my care; inasmuch as I would like to place it at the disposal of Mr. Langley Searles, who was engaged in compiling a similar but more comprehensive bibliography. Prof. Bailey very promptly sent me his card index. It is now in my possession and Mr. Searles has made use of it numerous times during the past year or more. In so far as the SFL bibliography is concerned, I doubt very much that Prof. Bailey ever knew this group had given up their effort on his account. Most of Mr. Moskowitz's criticisms are considerably biased by the fact that he is a "fan" writing for "fans," from the point of view of "fandom." I want to emphasize that Prof. Bailey did not write Pilgrims Through Space and Time for fandom. It was, as I remember, originally a PH.D. dissertation concerned with scientific fiction up to 1914 - a date chosen because it closed an era that could be studied objectively. In presenting the dissertation, Prof. Bailey had to defend to a group of learned gentlemen the idea that
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2. IN DEFENSE OF J. O. BAILEY and "PILGRIMS THROUGH SPACE AND TIME" Some weeks ago I was surprised to find in "The Fanews" a review of "Pilgrims Through Space and Time" by Sam Moskowitz. Surprised, because the book has not yet been published. There is no doubt that Mr. Ben Abramson, publisher of the book and one of our best-known book dealers, knows his business. However, the idea of permitting a more or less unfavorable review to appear before the book was actually printed seems to be an odd way of gaining publicity for the book. Inasmuch as I was in on the ground floor in Prof. Bailey's project (I was of some slight assistance in compiling the bibliography in the early days, spending many hours in the children's section of the N.Y. Public Library looking up items in the boys' magazines) I'd like to answer some of the questions raised in the Moskowitz review. As a matter of fact, ther eis some justice and sense in the review by Mr. Moskowitz. It is unfortunate, perhaps, the first half of Prof. Bailey's book is just a classification and summary of plots. Plot after plot is apt to prove dull. But, without throwing this material into an appendix how else could it have been handled? The stories had to be presented before they could be discussed,because most people wouldn't recognize the stories and certainly wouldn't make sense to put half the book into an appendix. It is true, of course, as Mr. Moskowitz says, Prof. Bailey's first plan was to pubish a bibliography of scientific fiction. He started making such a bibliography when he was working on the subject for a PH.D. dissertation. Keep in mind that he was then making a living (or trying to) as an instructor at the University of North Carolina. Finally, after collecting about 5,000 titles, and spending what little money he had been able to save from a school teacher's salary he had to give it up as a job too difficult for his limited resources. It should be noted that the libraries available to Prof. Bailey (University of North Carolina and Duke University) had very few pieces of scientific fiction and no magazines. When I learned that work had been stopped on the bibliography (not the book) I asked Prof. Bailey if he would entrust his card file to my care; inasmuch as I would like to place it at the disposal of Mr. Langley Searles, who was engaged in compiling a similar but more comprehensive bibliography. Prof. Bailey very promptly sent me his card index. It is now in my possession and Mr. Searles has made use of it numerous times during the past year or more. In so far as the SFL bibliography is concerned, I doubt very much that Prof. Bailey ever knew this group had given up their effort on his account. Most of Mr. Moskowitz's criticisms are considerably biased by the fact that he is a "fan" writing for "fans," from the point of view of "fandom." I want to emphasize that Prof. Bailey did not write Pilgrims Through Space and Time for fandom. It was, as I remember, originally a PH.D. dissertation concerned with scientific fiction up to 1914 - a date chosen because it closed an era that could be studied objectively. In presenting the dissertation, Prof. Bailey had to defend to a group of learned gentlemen the idea that
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