DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Horizons, v. 6, issue 1, whole no. 20, September 1944

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Horizons, v. 6, issue 1, whole no. 20, September 1944

Page 7

Pfc. Paul H. Spencer: "I've spent the past two week ends at Slan Shank...... "
Slan Snack's physical appearance is worthy of comment. Beautiful originals are omnipresent, the richest cache being Walt's. Each room has a name over the door -- more than one door entitling it to more than one name. Walt dwells in Chanticleering; Jack in Artesian Well; a closet is Stuff, another Abbatoir (which I mistook for what turned out to be the Control Room); the dining room is Royal Gorge; a bedroom has the twin titles of Playground and Rosebud Room; the kitchen is Nitrosyncretic Lab; Evans' room is Temple of the Ol' Foo; the living room is the Zoo the front door opens on 'Civilization', and one door is disturbingly labelled We Never Found Out. (The attic, come to think of it, is Shottle Bop.) " Robinson, who professes a vast knowledge of the publishing business and did in fact give me some interesting data, declares that sales of ASF rose with the adoption of the large size, and he expects it to return to it after the war. Foo Foo grant that he be right!"
_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"
 
              The "Bibliography"

       That was an unfortunate term for the sort of thing J. Michael, and a few others including my humble self, have been planning, and a sample of which was to be found in the last Browsings and will be found on the reverse of this sheet of paper. The stencil is being preserved, and the additional hundred copies will be mimeographed on heavy white stock so soon as a distributor and such details are decided upon.
       However, a few words of comment here might not be amiss. I have not used precisely the same form at the top as Michael did in Browsings: price of any but recent books is practically impossible to discover, and if the individual wants to include the information, he can stick it among the "Further information" part. The "Appeared in magazine form" is necessary, I think, seeing as how so many books are originally printed in some periodical, and since FFM is now reprinting. Plenty of space is left for "editions"; such information is seldom available to the person making the review, and will have to be filled in gradually as it comes to light; similarly, there ought to be space for filling in any extra publishers who put out later or earlier editions than the one presently at hand. And the "Ch" at the bottom right is merely for convenience, in the event that we ever get a couple of hundred of these together; a sort of thumbnail index, don't y'know.
          Now, I'm rather disappointed that there has been so little interest in the idea on this side of the Atlantic. There does seem to be a feeling that it's a lot of unnecessary work. But let me point out that fanzines constantly publish reviews, many of them running about one page in length; it's only a moment's extra labor to fix them up in this manner, and if the editor and publisher didn't care to make up the extra copies, he could at least mail the stencil to someone else willing to do the job. With fanzines now appearing so prolifically--200 this year, Tucker estimates--in the subscription field, we ought to be able to get at least a hundred pages annually from that source; in the FAPA, with such people as Liebscher, Koenig, and Searles ardent book hounds, possibilities are even greater.
         One more thing I'd like to point out: the fact that a book has already been reviewed in this manner won't prohibit someone else from decing the same thing in his own style with his own opinions. The ideal "bibliography" of this sort would be constantly changing in content; when a better review of a particular volume appeared, the inferior could be discarded, or completests could retain both.
           So, now we need two things: a really satisfactory name for the project, and someone to be editor-distributor, preferably on this side of the Atlantic where pepaer and such materials are more plentiful. Over and above that, we need a lot of reviews; let's have a half-dozen, at the very least, in the coming mailing. 
           Incidentally, wheter the rest of youse cooperate or not, you'll see one of these in every issue of Horizons for the next few years.

Saving...

Pfc. Paul H. Spencer: "I've spent the past two week ends at Slan Shank...... " Slan Snack's physical appearance is worthy of comment. Beautiful originals are omnipresent, the richest cache being Walt's. Each room has a name over the door -- more than one door entitling it to more than one name. Walt dwells in Chanticleering; Jack in Artesian Well; a closet is Stuff, another Abbatoir (which I mistook for what turned out to be the Control Room); the dining room is Royal Gorge; a bedroom has the twin titles of Playground and Rosebud Room; the kitchen is Nitrosyncretic Lab; Evans' room is Temple of the Ol' Foo; the living room is the Zoo the front door opens on 'Civilization', and one door is disturbingly labelled We Never Found Out. (The attic, come to think of it, is Shottle Bop.) " Robinson, who professes a vast knowledge of the publishing business and did in fact give me some interesting data, declares that sales of ASF rose with the adoption of the large size, and he expects it to return to it after the war. Foo Foo grant that he be right!" _"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_"_" The "Bibliography" That was an unfortunate term for the sort of thing J. Michael, and a few others including my humble self, have been planning, and a sample of which was to be found in the last Browsings and will be found on the reverse of this sheet of paper. The stencil is being preserved, and the additional hundred copies will be mimeographed on heavy white stock so soon as a distributor and such details are decided upon. However, a few words of comment here might not be amiss. I have not used precisely the same form at the top as Michael did in Browsings: price of any but recent books is practically impossible to discover, and if the individual wants to include the information, he can stick it among the "Further information" part. The "Appeared in magazine form" is necessary, I think, seeing as how so many books are originally printed in some periodical, and since FFM is now reprinting. Plenty of space is left for "editions"; such information is seldom available to the person making the review, and will have to be filled in gradually as it comes to light; similarly, there ought to be space for filling in any extra publishers who put out later or earlier editions than the one presently at hand. And the "Ch" at the bottom right is merely for convenience, in the event that we ever get a couple of hundred of these together; a sort of thumbnail index, don't y'know. Now, I'm rather disappointed that there has been so little interest in the idea on this side of the Atlantic. There does seem to be a feeling that it's a lot of unnecessary work. But let me point out that fanzines constantly publish reviews, many of them running about one page in length; it's only a moment's extra labor to fix them up in this manner, and if the editor and publisher didn't care to make up the extra copies, he could at least mail the stencil to someone else willing to do the job. With fanzines now appearing so prolifically--200 this year, Tucker estimates--in the subscription field, we ought to be able to get at least a hundred pages annually from that source; in the FAPA, with such people as Liebscher, Koenig, and Searles ardent book hounds, possibilities are even greater. One more thing I'd like to point out: the fact that a book has already been reviewed in this manner won't prohibit someone else from decing the same thing in his own style with his own opinions. The ideal "bibliography" of this sort would be constantly changing in content; when a better review of a particular volume appeared, the inferior could be discarded, or completests could retain both. So, now we need two things: a really satisfactory name for the project, and someone to be editor-distributor, preferably on this side of the Atlantic where pepaer and such materials are more plentiful. Over and above that, we need a lot of reviews; let's have a half-dozen, at the very least, in the coming mailing. Incidentally, wheter the rest of youse cooperate or not, you'll see one of these in every issue of Horizons for the next few years.