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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 9, Winter 1945-1946
Page 222
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222 FANTASY COMMENTATOR more of Ruppert's time, he was forced to discontinue printing it at the reduced rate he had been charging. And with genuine regret Hornig discontinued The Fantasy Fan with its February, 1935 number, after eighteen consecutive monthly issues. It is indeed fortunate that many readers took out their remaining subscription money in back numbers; that is why so many leading fans today possess complete sets of The Fantasy Fan. In vivid contrast is The Time Traveller, of which few fans own single copies---let alone intact files. VI William H. Crawford and His Contemporaries Those who own copies of Fantasy Magazine, The Time Traveller, The Fantasy Fan, Cosmos, the final Cosmology and the Arra Publishers' pamphlets can gain some idea of the great contribution made to fandom by Conrad H. Ruppert. Had it not been for him its embroyic days would have been a sorry story indeed. His well-printed copy lured professionals who would scarcely have lingered long otherwise into taking active part in these journalistic endeavors. There is no question but what many professional authors took great delight in their fan activities, and entered into them with the same enthusiasm that did the neophyte fans. It is also not to be questioned that Ruppert's inability to continue the below-cost printing of fan magazines was a major factor in the deterioration and eventual eclipse of the old-time fandom centering about Fantasy Magazine, and a shifting toward the foreground of secondary publications which had theretofore been of little importance. This change was rendered an even more gradual one than the reader has been led to expect by the presence of another publisher who operated in the field at almost the same time as Ruppert, and whose productions were of almost equal importance. This publisher was William H. Crawford. Crawford's position in an impoverished field was unique in that he had a certain amount of ready capital. This he intended to invest in a science-fiction magazine designed to feature a more literary grade of prose than that being currently offered by corresponding newsstand publications. In late 1933 prominent fans received a neatly printed circular announcing the magazine---titled Unusual Stories---and reproducing its first page, which embodied the beginning of "The Titan" by P. Schuyler Miller. Material by H. P. Lovecraft, Ralph Milne Farley, Dr. Miles J. Breuer, Robert E. Howard, Stanton A. Coblentz and Dr. David H. Keller was also scheduled for this and future issues. The magazine was labelled a monthly, the subscription price being twenty cents per copy or one-fifty by the year. It has been said that science-fiction as an art is undergoing a period of slow and painful evolution, from which it will eventually emerge as the literature of tomorrow. Though this is undoubtedly true it has been our conviction that science-fiction should have a place in the literature of today. It does not occupy that position now, we believe, because of the restrictions placed upon it by short-sighted editors and publishers. They use only tales which follow certain stereotyped forms. They avoid the "off-trail" story because it violates one or another of their editorial taboos, with the result that science-fiction has been sinking into the mire of the commonplace. So ran the context of the announcement circular. Dissatisfaction with the current newsstand fare was, of course, nothing new---but this was the first instance of any action crystallizing out of such dissatisfaction. It is worthy of note also that Unusual Fiction was not, as the above quotation might lead one to believe, to feature science-fiction only: Crawford planned to include tales of fan-
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222 FANTASY COMMENTATOR more of Ruppert's time, he was forced to discontinue printing it at the reduced rate he had been charging. And with genuine regret Hornig discontinued The Fantasy Fan with its February, 1935 number, after eighteen consecutive monthly issues. It is indeed fortunate that many readers took out their remaining subscription money in back numbers; that is why so many leading fans today possess complete sets of The Fantasy Fan. In vivid contrast is The Time Traveller, of which few fans own single copies---let alone intact files. VI William H. Crawford and His Contemporaries Those who own copies of Fantasy Magazine, The Time Traveller, The Fantasy Fan, Cosmos, the final Cosmology and the Arra Publishers' pamphlets can gain some idea of the great contribution made to fandom by Conrad H. Ruppert. Had it not been for him its embroyic days would have been a sorry story indeed. His well-printed copy lured professionals who would scarcely have lingered long otherwise into taking active part in these journalistic endeavors. There is no question but what many professional authors took great delight in their fan activities, and entered into them with the same enthusiasm that did the neophyte fans. It is also not to be questioned that Ruppert's inability to continue the below-cost printing of fan magazines was a major factor in the deterioration and eventual eclipse of the old-time fandom centering about Fantasy Magazine, and a shifting toward the foreground of secondary publications which had theretofore been of little importance. This change was rendered an even more gradual one than the reader has been led to expect by the presence of another publisher who operated in the field at almost the same time as Ruppert, and whose productions were of almost equal importance. This publisher was William H. Crawford. Crawford's position in an impoverished field was unique in that he had a certain amount of ready capital. This he intended to invest in a science-fiction magazine designed to feature a more literary grade of prose than that being currently offered by corresponding newsstand publications. In late 1933 prominent fans received a neatly printed circular announcing the magazine---titled Unusual Stories---and reproducing its first page, which embodied the beginning of "The Titan" by P. Schuyler Miller. Material by H. P. Lovecraft, Ralph Milne Farley, Dr. Miles J. Breuer, Robert E. Howard, Stanton A. Coblentz and Dr. David H. Keller was also scheduled for this and future issues. The magazine was labelled a monthly, the subscription price being twenty cents per copy or one-fifty by the year. It has been said that science-fiction as an art is undergoing a period of slow and painful evolution, from which it will eventually emerge as the literature of tomorrow. Though this is undoubtedly true it has been our conviction that science-fiction should have a place in the literature of today. It does not occupy that position now, we believe, because of the restrictions placed upon it by short-sighted editors and publishers. They use only tales which follow certain stereotyped forms. They avoid the "off-trail" story because it violates one or another of their editorial taboos, with the result that science-fiction has been sinking into the mire of the commonplace. So ran the context of the announcement circular. Dissatisfaction with the current newsstand fare was, of course, nothing new---but this was the first instance of any action crystallizing out of such dissatisfaction. It is worthy of note also that Unusual Fiction was not, as the above quotation might lead one to believe, to feature science-fiction only: Crawford planned to include tales of fan-
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